When Raheem Sterling got the ball in Sunday's 1-0 defeat to Arsenal he often had to look up just to check that he really was as alone as it seemed.
As the 27-year-old received the ball to his feet - on the few times that this actually happened - it was the time for Chelsea to attack. They'd somehow managed to get past an Arsenal press and moved into a vaguely promising position. The issue was that either for a lack of confidence, energy or understanding, the rest of the team seemed to leave him to it. Go on Raheem, your turn again.
Sterling's off the ball work was highlighted last week against Brighton, albeit a tactical choice from Graham Potter to play him at wing-back, but it doesn't really add anything to have him defending much anyway. Here is a man with over 100 league goals from the wing, up against Gabriel Martinelli. It should be the other way round, he might think.
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Such was the struggle for Chelsea to even get Sterling the ball, when he did there was no support and the only option was to drive and try to do something. For him to have made progress going forward would have taken an Eden Hazard 2018 solo goal-type effort. There really was nothing ahead of him.
It's hard to imagine that ever being the case at Manchester City, even at Liverpool there was Daniel Sturridge and Luis Suarez to join him. At Stamford Bridge, Kai Havertz and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang were so far adrift they may as well have been wearing different coloured shirts.
This isn't to say that Sterling was faultless, far from it, the Blues spent £45m on him to become their star. He would be allowed to embrace Hazard levels of freedom in a bid to be himself, not just the next sky blue shirt scoring 20 goals in a season.
His form has been poor though, and Micah Richards isn't seeing how he fits in at Stamford Bridge currently. Speaking to the BBC, he said: "I still rate Raheem very highly but he looks a little lost. It's like he is a bit frustrated in terms of Chelsea's set-up and, tactically, does not know what they want him to do."
Admittedly this hasn't been helped by a managerial change. Thomas Tuchel played him as a false nine and inside No.10 more than a left winger before Potter has moved him around just as much. On the fleeting occasions he does find himself on the touchline as a winger, he might be tempted to stop and savour it, then William Saliba flies through him and sets off an Arsenal attack of his own.
"After a manager signs you and says you are their top guy, like Tuchel did with Sterling, it must be frustrating when a new manager comes in and wants to use you differently," adds Richards.
"Every player just wants to have some stability. I think he is in good hands with Potter - let's make that clear - but it is down to him to get the best out of Sterling now."
Having been purchased with the expectation of immediate results, neither Sterling nor Blues fans will want to wait for things to work out perfectly before performances improve, and Richards has explained why things aren't working out like they did at the Etihad.
"The reason he was so effective at City was because he was part of a system that worked," Richards explained. "He knew the system, and he fitted it because the runs he made were exactly what the team needed.
"City also played the same way, dominating the ball with 70-80% possession, every week, but now he is in a team who are in transition after changing managers, and seem to change formation all the time. The whole team are still figuring out how they play under Potter, so Sterling is not the only one who has to work that out.
"Using him in different positions hasn't helped. Ideally, I want to see him high and wide up the pitch, preferably on the left so he can go either way - inside or out - when he runs into the box. But whatever you call his role, you want him on the ball near goal, not in his own half having to run 60 or 70 yards to get a shooting opportunity.
"For City, he would always pick the ball up inside the opposition half. When he made his runs into the area, he knew the ball was coming because of the players they had in their team to provide for him. That's not the case playing for Chelsea - he has to create things himself."
A question that will now be lingering is where he fits in for England at the Qatar World Cup. Sterling has 19 goals in 79 matches for his country, including three in seven at Euro 2020, but is entering the tournament in poor form.
Richards doesn't think this will matter too much, though. "You want your players to be in form, of course, but I think Gareth will stick with him this time too, and I can understand why after what he has done for him in the past," he added.
"All season he has not been playing great but at least he is playing a lot, which is what he wanted when he left City. I would start him against Iran too, as part of a front three with Bukayo Saka and Harry Kane. He deserves that faith, after what he has done for England in the past.
"Let's see how he does in the first game, and assess it after that. If he does nothing, then it might be time to rotate. But we have seen before how Raheem has responded after basically being written off for England, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him remind everyone just how good he is."
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