A few of the locals called out to Antonio Conte as he trudged up the ramp towards the Chelsea team bus post-match, head bowed to avoid eye contact and hands sunk deep in his pockets, but most had sensed it was no time to bid a fond farewell. The Italian had that thunderous look about him, the kind that sets in when his team have been beaten. Except this had been a humiliation, and an occasion which had left him publicly questioning the most basic qualities expected of his players: hunger, desire and commitment to compete.
The second-half surrender at the Stadio Olimpico on Tuesday betrayed a team who had lost hope, their conviction eroded by a mixture of defensive chaos and attacking profligacy which had left them playing catch-up to Roma. The reaction, Conte was quick to point out, was unacceptable. Although some may cling to the belief the emphatic loss can prompt a similar reaction to the infamous thrashing endured at Arsenal less than two months into last season, the particular quirks of Chelsea’s campaign feel very different this time round.
Where has it all gone wrong?
Conte would point to the summer. He has regularly used the word “emergency” to describe his team’s season, before listing the injuries which have disrupted progress, but his real gripe remains recruitment. The toils are the manager being proved right. This squad are not deep enough, or resilient enough, to compete on four fronts with the same intensity as last season. They lack cover of the calibre the coaching staff hoped in both wing-back positions, up front and even, perhaps, at centre-half. The club will do their best to address those concerns in January but, in Conte’s mind, he does not have the scope to chop and change like for like as much as he had anticipated. Even at Juventus he was criticised in some quarters for a reluctance to rotate his squad effectively and for an over-reliance on a core group. Here, once again, key members of his team are simply being flogged. César Azpilicueta has played every minute of the Premier League title defence and all but 15 in the Champions League. Marcos Alonso has featured in every league game. The 3-0 defeat at the Stadio Olimpico was Cesc Fàbregas’s 16th match of campaign. “The likes of Cesc and Tiémoué Bakayoko are having to play a lot of games and that impacts on their legs,” Thibaut Courtois said. “It’s harder for them to keep up the pressure, especially when we find ourselves up against three midfielders.” Energy levels have clearly dipped.
Has the manager adapted his approach enough?
The team appear exhausted, the zest long since drained from their game, to give the impression that, when up against it in Rome, they were bereft of hunger or fight. They can get by on occasion, recovering to overcome Watford or shutting out a rather disjointed Bournemouth last Saturday, but the better teams – or even fresher opponents, as Crystal Palace proved last month – sense they can exploit the weariness. There have been murmurings of discontent from within the group over the intensity of training sessions but dissent of such kind invariably flares up when teams are labouring, whether the sources are disgruntled at non-selection or upset to have been hauled off prematurely. This squad were worked much harder at Cobham last season. Conte has admitted he has had to reduce the number of training sessions because of a more cluttered schedule which has denied him long weeks in which to prepare his group physically and tactically, but he was never likely to reduce the intensity of the drills. That is simply the way he works and was an approach crucial to last season’s startling success.
How damaging have injuries been?
With weariness come the strains, pulls and tweaks that can wreck a season. Chelsea escaped major injuries last term to the extent that, before the penultimate league fixture and with the title claimed, they had started only 16 different outfield players. They are only 10 games into the defence and that number stands at 17, with the ranks of walking wounded bloated. David Luiz is wearing heavy strapping on his right leg. Bakayoko, having arrived in rehabilitation from knee surgery, is carrying a groin complaint. Victor Moses is still hamstrung, Danny Drinkwater has only just returned from a calf problem and Álvaro Morata, his impact affected by that thigh injury sustained against Manchester City, has been dulled. He limped away from the Stadio Olimpico after a second-half buffeting, and Eden Hazard, whose own return to full fitness after ankle surgery was a protracted process, had his achilles raked. These are the usual knocks and bruises, of course, but they must smart all the more after such a chastening defeat. And then, of course, there is N’Golo Kanté.
How do you cope without the reigning footballer of the year?
The Frenchman’s absence disrupts everything. The team have conceded 11 goals in the six matches he has missed, a run which included a clean sheet at the Vitality Stadium, with Conte compelled to rejig an entire system when denied Kanté’s energy and knack of sensing danger. He does not really trust anyone else at present – whether Bakayoko or Drinkwater – to sit alongside Fàbregas and free up the Spaniard to conduct the team’s forward momentum. The playmaker does not have the pace to play in a central two without Kanté, meaning the whole balance of the team is skewed. That was evident in Rome, where Conte had so hoped Kanté would return. Without him the manager was extra cautious but Chelsea were still overrun in midfield and confused at the back. “N’Golo brings a lot of balance to the team but you can’t push him if he doesn’t feel ready,” said Courtois. This team cannot contemplate Sunday’s match at home to Manchester United without him.
But why all the switching at the back?
The decision to pick Gary Cahill on the right of a three and the right-footed Antonio Rüdiger on the left felt slightly odd, rendering the rearguard even more awkward. Conte had hoped his squad had enough cover at centre-half, with Cahill, Rüdiger, David Luiz, Andreas Christensen and Azpilicueta to fill the three positions. Yet much hinged on his wing-backs staying fit. With Moses injured, Azpilicueta has reverted to a utility role and looks disorientated, as well as jaded. Ideally, the head coach would settle upon his strongest trio and stick with them, but the fixture schedule does not allow him that luxury. And without Kanté operating as a busy shield, whatever combination of centre-backs Conte has picked have been rendered vulnerable. All defensive discipline drained away in Rome as Edin Dzeko almost comically demonstrated late on by drawing the three centre-halves on him before shifting the ball across to an unmarked Diego Perotti. Panic had set in.
Is Nemanja Matic’s sale haunting them?
Diego Costa’s grumpy departure drew the focus but this is also a Chelsea team without Nemanja Matic. The Serb had operated alongside Kanté regularly last season with that combination, while occasionally lacking the invention to unpick opponents, such an effective partnership in shielding the backline. Fàbregas tended to play more against teams who did not expect to dominate the ball, there to carve a way through the stodge. Once Matic reiterated his desire to leave over the summer, Chelsea had to secure a viable alternative but, while Bakayoko and Drinkwater settle in, it is clear he is missed. The fact he will return to Stamford Bridge as a United player this weekend, and with José Mourinho’s smile evidence that he pulled off a coup in securing him, is horribly untimely.
So is the writing on the wall for another Premier League-winning manager?
The last time Chelsea were thrashed so emphatically in Europe was a similarly chaotic humbling at Juventus that cost Roberto Di Matteo his job within months of lifting the European Cup in 2012. The hierarchy do not take well to seeing their team humiliated. Yet, while the board have not been entirely impressed with Conte’s perceived whingeing over squad depth, there had always been an acceptance this season’s return to Champions League football would temper expectations. An element of realism prevailed and there is a level of sympathy, albeit patience at Chelsea is always finite. Whether Conte sees out his contract to 2019 will always be open to question. It has been ever since talk of an extension petered out over the summer, the manager merely signing improved terms on the length of deal to which he had committed in the summer of 2016.
For now, with his family settled in London and the players still behind the man who steered them to the title in May, the focus is on recovery. “Manchester City are nine points ahead of us, United four, Tottenham just one, and we have to remain close to them,” Courtois said. “So Manchester United is a must-win game. We will give our lives for it on Sunday.”
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