Raheem Sterling has been good in the last two games, particularly against West Ham on Sunday. If he can continue with this form then we will be enjoying the best of Sterling again. But just as I’m not going to over react to poor performances at this stage, I’m also not going to over react to good performances.
We all saw how inconsistent and frustrating Sterling can be, so we now need to see consistency from him and more end product. I’m very pleased that he played well against West Ham and I really hope he continues that and succeeds as a Chelsea player, but I’m not getting carried away.
I wanted to start this article with that example, because I wanted to show that it does work both ways. We are just two games into a new season and I have been seeing over reactions all over the shop!
I know this is nothing new but I’ve seen some harsh takes after our defeat against West Ham and believe it or not I’ve even seen ‘Poch out’ claims, which I shouldn’t even be wasting my time writing about to be honest as it’s just kids on X.
I also think some people are walking out on Mykhailo Mudryk too soon. Yes many are losing some patience with him and that’s fair enough, we do need to see more and it is becoming frustrating. But I don’t think we should be throwing in the towel on him just yet. I still think there’s a player in there but I just see him fighting with himself mentally and he just needs to settle his mind and play football.
What we really need to be doing despite the loss on Sunday is to be looking at the improvements we have made and have seen already.
This chart, again from Kier Doyle on X, shows the improvements clearly already from last season.
But that’s without even mentioning that our squad has been completely gutted and drastically changed, as well as having a new manager come in. It’s not just being patient whilst a new manager implements his style of play, it’s also being patient whilst a whole host of new players come together, gel, and get used to playing in the same team. Surely nobody, not even Twitter kids were expecting miracles from day one!?
I was disappointed with the defeat against West Ham and we do need to get results on the board, but I don’t expect it to be plain sailing and I expect many more bumps in the road.
As long as the improvements keep coming and we start seeing that identity of fast, intense, and fluid football that we did see in pre-season, then I’ll be content in the fact that I know the results WILL follow that. The two will go hand in hand.
I’m not going to start judging any of our players at this stage of the season either way. Axel Disasi has looked to be a bit of a liability on more than one occasion, but there’s no way I am judging him on a few games and will give him every chance to settle in.
Photo by Matthew Ashton – AMA/Getty Images
Robert Sanchez I’m also not sure about but again, I’m not making any big calls or claims on him just yet.
I’ve seen stuff about Ben Chilwell (who I thought was pretty poor vs West Ham) and Thiago Silva as well. I get what people are saying about Silva but I also think some of the comments have bordered on being disrespectful for a player who has saved us on many occasions when the chips were completely down and out. He’s been world class his entire career. I wouldn’t be starting him either in our best Xl playing in a back four, but I also don’t think he’s as bad as some are saying.
I’m not even mentioning Moises Caicedo’s freak debut (oh, I just did) because some of the ridiculous things I’ve seen on that are just not worth wasting oxygen on!
On to Friday and we have a great chance to step back up again and get our first win of the season. I’m confident that over time we will get this right and even though I still think we need an attacker or two to come in as that is my remaining area of concern, I do think we will see improvements and results coming in now regardless, especially when our new and hugely improved midfield settles and starts dominating games.
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