Chelsea squad is a shambles but Conte must tear up team sheet and start again

If Antonio Conte didn’t understand before, he certainly understands now the size of the task he faces with a broken Chelsea squad.

Chelsea. Where do you start with Chelsea? Where does it end? That’s what Antonio Conte will be asking after the Blues were embarrassed by Arsenal 3-0 at the Emirates Stadium. And the worst part is that 3-0 doesn’t even begin to reflect the gap in quality between the two teams.

Arsenal were fantastic. Chelsea were absolutely woeful. It was 3-0 at half time but it could have finished five or six in the end. So, what exactly is wrong with Chelsea? A heck of a lot by the looks of it. The list is longer than Roman Abramovich’s favorite yacht.

It’s a list, however, that Conte has to deal with. Somehow. Chelsea spent around £120 million in the summer. Yet the squad is a complete shambles. Totally unbalanced. Who even assembled this squad anyway?

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Conte surely knows how to amass a group of players to play in his style? He must know what pieces he is missing to play his way? Regardless, the Italian has to find a way to deal with the problems ahead of him.

Just tear up the script. Tear it up and write a new one. That’s the best way. The team, as it is right now, does not work. The players, playing the roles they currently are, do not work. The whole thing needs to be reset to zero. Radical changes.

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Playing this way, Conte is only heading where most managers end up who coach under Abramovich: the sack. The Italian is going to take the flack no matter what, he may as well just take a chainsaw to the whole thing now and try to find a new formation and starting XI from scratch.

The Blues do have some good individual players, but nothing quite fits together. It’s like a second-hand jigsaw puzzle with all the wrong pieces in the box. N’Golo Kante and Nemanja Matic shouldn’t be playing in the same midfield.

Cesc Fabregas and Oscar can’t play in the same midfield. Even a mix and match pairing of those names doesn’t quite work either. At right back, Branislav Ivanovic looks like he’s running in quick sand these days.

Cesar Azpilicueta thinks the game only takes part in Chelsea’s half of the pitch. Eden Hazard wont even enter Chelsea’s half of the pitch. Meanwhile, Gary Cahill thinks he’s David Luiz now. David Luiz thinks he’s Bobby Moore. Nobody knows what’s going on.

The Chelsea squad was built with no formation in mind. No style of play in mind. Nothing. Just names on a piece of paper. And that’s exactly what you’re left with now because there’s nothing happening on the pitch. No chemistry. Nothing.

Conte tried a switch to three at the back against the Gunners. He can’t even find two good centre-backs at the minute, where is he going to find three? Plus the club don’t have a right wing back. Azpilicueta is too limited offensively to do the job.

Juan Cuadrado would have been ideal for that position. Shame he’s on loan at Juventus again then, isn’t it? No worries, though, he’ll be back in three years. He’s on that three year loan deal – it’s all the fashion these days.

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What a mess. Abramovich needs to buy a bonus transfer window ASAP and revamp the whole thing. Failing that, he’ll have to wait until next season now. As for this season…. where does it all end?

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