Chelsea have had an absolutely awful 2023, with some of the statistics really hammering home just how bad the Blues have been, both under Mauricio Pochettino this season and under both Graham Potter and Frank Lampard at the end of last term.
It’s surreal to think Chelsea won the Champions League as recently as 2021, with Thomas Tuchel no longer manager and much of that squad now gone, while the new ownership have brought in a completely different strategy from what was seen during the Roman Abramovich era.
While Abramovich chopped and changed managers a lot and tended to focus on signing big names over a more long-term approach around young players, there can be no denying that that slightly more short-term focus worked well in terms of delivering silverware and success.
The same clearly cannot be said of Chelsea in their current form, with BBC Sport showing that no team has fewer points than them in the calendar year 2023…
Chelsea have picked up just 39 points all year, the same as teams like Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest, and less than struggling sides like Everton and Bournemouth.
In the long run, Chelsea will feel they’re working towards catching up with the likes of Arsenal and Manchester City at the other end, but it remains to be seen how patient the club’s fans will be.
At the moment, there’s little to suggest this approach is working, and it won’t be easy for Mauricio Pochettino or his players to try focusing on the long run when there’s also going to be so much expectation in the short term.