As I said yesterday, I am absolutely taking a 1-1 with Arsenal, an apparent title challenger this season, and absolutely taking third place in the league after eleven games played, compared to where we were this time last season and the distance that was between Chelsea and Arsenal.
As I also said yesterday, I saw nothing at all and have seen nothing at all from Arsenal this season to suggest they are any better than Chelsea right now. The progress is there to see and is clear.
But we do still have the same main three issues, and these are actually pretty big issues, that have still not been addressed in our squad build and the alleged four window plan we kept hearing about. For me, this needs to be addressed and should have been addressed much sooner. These are the only reasons that I am still very cautious about getting too excited about Chelsea right now.
Those issues are, the spine:
But, but, but, Robert Sanchez is going to one day be a world class goalkeeper. No, no he isn’t, please stop with that. Sanchez once again conceded a goal that should never be going in against Arsenal last night, and he does this far too often.
Chelsea need to invest in a TOP and proven goalkeeper, I’m afraid every passing game just proves that even more.
Chelsea need to also invest in a DOMINANT leader at the back. A player who can organise a back line and command the areas around him. An all round centre back is needed, a proven and established one. We need to stamp out the lapses of concentration and poor positioning at the back, and an organiser on the pitch can help this. But also, a lot of this is on Enzo Maresca to coach in training and improve all of the above.
Imagine Pedro Neto crossing in to a dominant striker? And no, before anyone says, I am not under rating Nicolas Jackson or disrespecting him, he just isn’t that profile, that’s not his fault. You can’t make him something he is not. He’s been great, and the attributes he has are great. But once again, he’s Nicolas Anelka rather than Didier Drogba, and that is still a compliment. We need a more physical striker up there bullying defenders and who is a threat in the air and can hold the ball up.
On that note, did anyone watch Liam Delap at the weekend? That guy has some Diego Costa in him. What I’ve seen so far, I like. But you all know who I think we should sign up top.
People always want me to provide names when I say or write stuff like this, but that isn’t down to me. We have a big recruitment team of experts to do this and find the right profiles, it’s not down to me to find them. They’re the ones who have the data and scouting networks all around the world and thousands of players on data sheets. Go get the ones we need!