Chelsea are becoming increasingly hard to write about, with this difficulty in summarising their performances mirrored by Mauricio Pochettino’s constructive criticism for both Cole Palmer and Armando Broja.
First and foremost, this state of perplexity is not new to this weekend, nor to this season, but as you walk away from Stamford Bridge and past the silver-laden posters of recent triumphs, still it is difficult to believe what has happened to this club since that night in Porto three years ago.
It is not wholly bad but wildly inconsistent, and means we now have a rival to “the thing about Arsenal is…” phrase so beautifully coined by The IT Crowd 16 years ago: the thing about Chelsea is, you never know which side are going to turn up.
Paul Merson calls it a “bag of Revels” – because you don’t know what you’re going to get – and it applies to Manchester United, too, so is probably worth a casual mention when office talk turns to football this week (do let us know the results).
Anyway, this may sound excessive after a 4-0 win, but perhaps not if you saw more of Chelsea than just the scoreline. For 58 minutes on Saturday they were woeful against Preston, and even after, the flurry that took them into the FA Cup fourth round merely flattered to deceive.
Not like Pochettino was fooled, though, the Chelsea boss at least acknowledging the issues head-on when littering praise with areas for improvement.
When asked about Palmer, who has now clocked 15 goal contributions since joining Chelsea but saw an all-too casual attempt in the first half against Preston go narrowly wide, Pochettino’s response was decidedly mixed having been pictured deep in conversation with the 21-year-old on the pitch after full-time.
“I have been very impressed. He arrived on the last day of the transfer window and to be performing after six months is incredible,” said Pochettino, before adding: “Today I was a little bit disappointed with him because he didn’t score the big chance he had.
“But he’s still young and he needs to improve in different areas, not only on the pitch, off it as well. He needs to understand many things also.”
Palmer was not alone, with Broja also subject to this hybrid critique after ending his three-month wait for a goal when heading Chelsea in front.
“It was really important for him,” Pochettino said. “I need to be honest, he needs to use this type of game to score and to feel the net and to improve. Improve not only in his fitness but his body language also. He needs to step up and to go forward and to move. He needs to smile more and be more positive.
“The potential is amazing. We’re talking about one of the young strikers in England and in Europe with most potential. But the problem now is he needs to push himself, and we’re going to try to help him to realise that never it is enough.
“I said to him smile. Always we joke about how he needs to smile, to laugh, to put inside himself more good energy and be more happy, a happy boy.”
Smile and improve. Improve, improve, improve. That was theme of the post-match press conference, and that is very much the job for Pochettino back at Cobham, where he must draw on the positives before Chelsea’s trip to Middlesbrough on Tuesday.
However, already this feels like déjà vu, a follow-up to the false dawn that was the November win at Tottenham and draw with Manchester City.
This victory over Preston may have followed two wins in the Premier League, and by the end of January they could have booked a spot at Wembley in the Carabao Cup, but this Chelsea side does not instil any level of confidence to the point where you expect this momentum to last.
Instead, you cannot help but see the bumps in the road ahead. Liverpool away on 31 January is the next proper test, with Manchester City away to follow in February, meaning once again we will truly discover where the Pochettino project is at.
Going by Saturday’s abject display against a team 14th in the Championship, more home truths are just around the corner.
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