Chelsea’s Ultimate Contradictory Campaign

While there was a potential Premier League title challenge to come, European and domestic silverware to aim for and the excitement of a Fifa World Club Cup to embrace, surely 2021-22 was going to be a little more calm and controlled than the hectic 12 months that preceded it.

It didn’t quite work out that way.

Indeed, 2021-22 will go down as the ultimate contradictory campaign for Chelsea. History written in small print. Slipping backwards while making progress. A chaotic lurch to stability. Nothing much made any sense at all – a quietly successful campaign that no one seemed to notice.

A salute to silverware

With all the noise around Stamford Bridge in 2022, it has gone almost unnoticed that Tuchel’s men finished the campaign with two pieces of silverware and two sets of runners-up medals. True, the Fifa Club World Cup and Uefa Super Cup may not have been the double that Blues supporters dreamed of, but nor are they achievements to be dismissed.

The Club World Cup success in particular should be cherished. The trophy seems less highly regarded in England as it is around the rest of the world – perhaps due to the relative infancy of the competition, perhaps because of the dominance of the European game over the rest of the world or maybe simply due to a lack of familiarity with opponents from further afield. But the football world beyond England and certainly Europe does respect the competition greatly and millions of eyes were on the Blues in Abu Dhabi.

With 18 editions of the Club World Cup having run since the turn of the millennium, the competition is now a well-established and increasingly prestigious tournament. As it grows in stature over the decades, future generations of Chelsea supporters will be able to look back at the history of the Club World Cup and celebrate the fact that their team was among the vanguard of winners after Kai Havertz secured a 2-1 victory with an injury-time penalty against Brazilian side Palmeiras.

Chelsea’s name is now etched on the trophy alongside the behemoths of the sport – Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern, Corinthians, Milan, Inter Milan, Manchester United, Sao Paulo, Liverpool and Internacional are the only other clubs to be crowned reigning champions of the world. Opposition supporters might not like to admit it, but Chelsea have joined a truly elite club.

Back in Europe, Chelsea lifted the Uefa Super Cup in Belfast after beating Villarreal on penalties. With that victory Chelsea became only the second English club to claim the trophy more than once in the competition’s 50-year history. The British media might not give these competitions the coverage they deserve but every international success further cements Chelsea’s elite club status, establishes our place in history and helps grow our worldwide appeal.

Early promise stunted

That August victory over Villarreal helped Chelsea explode out of the blocks in the Premier League; a domestic start supercharged by Super Cup success. The Blues’ first five league games saw them thrash Arsenal and Tottenham while also claiming a point at Anfield despite facing Liverpool with ten men for the second half.

A disappointing defeat to Manchester City followed but the Blues weren’t knocked off their stride by a one-off sub-par performance – and one undermined by the early loss to injury of Reece James. Tuchel’s men recovered to embark on an eight-match unbeaten run in the Premier League, winning six of those games to sit atop the summit. Things were going swimmingly in Europe, too, with Chelsea confirming their progress from Champions League Group E with a match to spare after dismantling Juventus 4-0.

However, as the campaign moved into December a succession of injuries started to affect Chelsea’s form. Ben Chilwell – arguably one of Chelsea’s best performers to that point – had to be helped off against Juve and it was later announced that the wingback had a ruptured cruciate ligament that would rule him out for the season. N’Golo Kante limped off in the same game with a knee problem that would hamper him throughout the hectic festive period. Kante joined Mateo Kovacic in the treatment room, with the influential Croat failing to make the starting line-up in 12 matches leading up to Christmas.

By the time Kovacic returned to a threadbare bench away at Wolves on December 19, Tuchel was without seven key players due to injury or Covid. The Chelsea manager was able to name only six of the nine permitted substitutes – with two of them being goalkeepers – and his strikeforce was decimated due to the absences of Romelu Lukaku, Timo Werner and Havertz. Jorginho and Ruben Loftus-Cheek were missing from midfield, forcing Kante and Kovacic back into action early following extended injury absences. Unsurprisingly, both lacked sharpness as Chelsea put in a lethargic display that returned a 0-0 draw at Molineux.

The Wolverhampton stalemate formed part of a pattern of injury- and illness-affected results over the festive period. Having been top of the league at the start of December, the Blues dropped nine points in a month to leave them eight behind a Manchester City side who would go on to drop only 11 more points all season. Chelsea’s title chase had been derailed in the space of a month by a wretched run of misfortune.

New year, same old rivals

Chelsea kicked off 2022 with a visit from fellow title-chasers Liverpool. The Blues enjoyed the better of the opening exchanges but the Stamford Bridge faithful were stunned to find their team 2-0 down within 26 minutes. However, Chelsea fought back in impressive style with Kovacic scoring one of the goals of the season to help Tuchel’s men restore parity before half-time. The Blues continued to press in the second half but could not find the winner, with the 2-2 final score ultimately proving more useful to City than either Chelsea or Liverpool.

While Tuchel’s men would never give up the chase, the ten-point lead that City now had in the league was starting to look insurmountable. But the Blues were still going in both domestic cup competitions and, with the knockout stages of the Champions League soon to return and a trip to the Club World Cup to look forward to, Chelsea still had plenty to fight for.

First up was an EFL Cup semi-final against Tottenham and Blues fans were able to delight in an emphatic victory – the relatively modest 3-0 scoreline over two legs failing to reflect the dominance that Chelsea supporters enjoyed over their fierce rivals. Tuchel’s men also made serene progress in the FA Cup and Champions League before flying to Abu Dhabi to win their first ever Fifa Club World Cup trophy, defeating Saudi Arabian side Al-Hilal in the semi-finals and Palmeiras in the final.

A hectic schedule saw the Blues return for Premier League and Champions League assignments before their EFL Cup final clash with Liverpool; a match in which Tuchel outmanoeuvred Klopp to repeatedly cut open a previously watertight Reds defence. Unfortunately, Chelsea found themselves cursed in front of goal. Three goals were ruled out by VAR, the post was struck and a succession of golden opportunities passed up or repelled by Liverpool goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher. A penalty shootout to break Chelsea hearts followed, with an epic contest ending in a cruel 11-10 defeat.

But if that was cruel, what was to follow was truly shocking…

End of an era

Of course, the biggest event of Chelsea’s season – of Chelsea’s last two decades – happened not on the pitch but off it. In early March and in light of events unfolding in Ukraine, Roman Abramovich announced his intention to bring to an end his ownership of the club – an era of nearly 20 years that had returned 20 major titles.

The news sent shockwaves through the club and had vultures circling Stamford Bridge waiting for catastrophe to unfold. But the players responded superbly, going on a six-match winning run that tightened their grip on third place and took them into the Champions League quarter-finals.

But there the Blues met a Real Madrid side seemingly destined for another European Cup final appearance. A disastrous first 46 minutes in west London proved the Blues’ undoing as Real raced into a 3-1 lead thanks to a Karim Benzema hat-trick aided by an unusually disjointed defensive display from Chelsea. Mason Mount led a spirited fight-back in the second leg but while Tuchel’s men took the tie to extra-time with a fantastic performance at the Bernabeu, Benzema again struck, making it 5-4 on aggregate to end Tuchel’s hopes of defending his European crown.

More heartbreak was to come in the FA Cup final and again it was Liverpool who would deny Chelsea at Wembley. And again it was penalties after a 0-0 draw – this time a slower-paced encounter as two tired teams slugged it out to the end.

New owners, same vision

The season closed with Chelsea secure in the Champions League places and with new owner Todd Boehly moving into the boardroom amid promises of lavish spending on transfers. And even in this most tumultuous of campaigns Chelsea had recorded their highest points tally since 2016-17 while also making history on the continental and world stages.

There is much rebuilding to do after the summer departures of multiple Chelsea mainstays but, despite the off-field distractions, it is clear that the team is heading in the right direction under Tuchel. With the anticipated summer spending expected to propel the Blues back towards the summit of the English game, Chelsea have emerged from the storm to find themselves fully intact and with the future looking bright. The 2022-23 campaign promises to be another exciting one for Blues supporters – and this time all the drama should be confined to matters on the pitch…