It’s never a quiet season with this club. It just isn’t. Chelsea started the season off the back of a monumental second Champions League victory.
While victory in the biggest club game of the calendar helped tide over what was an underwhelming crawl across the line to Top 4, it was the marquee signing of Romelu Lukaku that had fans and pundits alike considering a title challenge.
Yet here we are with a third-place finish, loss on penalties in both domestic cup finals, and a failure to get club-record signing Lukaku up and running, and we’re considering it a relatively good season.
So how did we get here?
In Thomas Tuchel’s first full season in charge of Chelsea, third place was the league expectation while a push for a title challenge was entertained in some sections of the media. The club’s summer recruitment was based largely around the club-record signing of striker Romelu Lukaku; the Belgian was seen as the missing part of the puzzle to help Chelsea to glory.
The season started very encouragingly. Chelsea were playing some terrific football in their 3-4-3 setup, and wingbacks Reece James and Ben Chilwell were on fire. Chelsea briefly led the Premier League table and the pinnacle of the quality in their performances was a 4-0 victory against Juventus in the Champions League group stage with both wing-backs being key.
However, that game proved the turning point in their season. Ben Chilwell picked up a season-ending ligament injury and without an adequate replacement for the left wing-back role, with all of Alonso’s quality but also his limitations, it derailed Chelsea’s season heavily.
The wing-backs being crucial to their style of play; the injury to Chilwell and then a 6-week layoff for Reece James in January combined with grueling fixture congestion – Chelsea played a colossal 60+ games this season – led to them scraping results in games where motivation was hard to come by.
The boss has a message for you! 💙 pic.twitter.com/fzGkDPnfCc
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) May 23, 2022
Romelu Lukaku gave an ill-advised and oddly timed interview mid-season about his struggles at the club and love for Inter Milan. Add the pretty huge wrinkle of club owner Roman Abramovic being sanctioned, club assets being frozen, and the club facing uncertainty about its ownership, and even its future while being unable to take action to renew contracts or sign players, Thomas Tuchel did a good job to make a comfortable third-place finish.
Chelsea ended the season at third best for xG at 67.2, third-best for xGA at 36.0, and resultantly, third-best for xG difference per game at +0.82. A well-deserved third-place finish for the club heading into new ownership and a crucial summer window.