Chelsea’s dramatic season went further downhill on Thursday. The club has made hundreds of millions worth of players in the past two transfer windows, but they have already lost 22 times this season. The last time that happened, Chelsea were relegated from the top to the second tier.
The last time Chelsea lost so many times it was relegated
After the big defeat against Manchester United, Chelsea is in twelfth place in the league with one round to go. That would be the lowest final ranking since 1993/94, when Chelsea finished fourteenth. Since the turn of the century, the London club have only finished outside the top six once.
In all competitions the counter in terms of defeats is already at 22. The last time Chelsea lost so many games was in 1978/79, when the club finished 22nd and was relegated from the top tier. Chelsea played more games that season.
Afterwards, Chelsea coach Frank Lampard tried to put his finger on the sore spot. He came to the painful conclusion that the work on the training field is not enough. “Any team that wins in the Premier League needs this as a base,” he told Sky Sports. “Without that, the whole tactic doesn’t matter. We need to look for reasons why we are where we are today. And there are a lot of them.”
Lampard took over from Graham Potter at the beginning of April. Still, he thinks his development as a coach is stalling a bit at Chelsea. “It’s been a bad year for the club. If you ask me what I’ve learned in this short period of time, not so much in terms of coaching. Four or five defenders, two or three in midfield. Things like that aren’t important if the basics aren’t there. But I am certainly not the victim here, I like working for this club.”
Lampard’s praise for Man United
Frank Lampard spoke about Erik ten Hag’s success. He said, “I don’t want to take anything away from what Erik did. There must be basic principles. I remember when Ten Hag first came along and people were talking about discipline, fines and setting the standard. Those are the things the club has made progress on.”
Ten Hag not only secured Champions League football with Manchester United. He also won the League Cup earlier this season and qualified for the FA Cup final. On Saturday 3 June, Ten Hag will have the opportunity to win second prize against neighbor Manchester City.
