Chelsea start their 34th game of the season level on points with Bournemouth. Given the run of fixtures left to go it's not unfeasible that they finish below the Cherries.
Say that at the start of the season and most would have said Chelsea would need to relegated or finish bottom to achieve such an unwanted feat. Heading into the game on the south coast on Saturday, this is the very nature of where the club is at.
Luckily for Frank Lampard and his players, the chances of the Blues being relegated not only remains firmly in their hands but it is also near-on impossible. It doesn't really make things any better to stomach.
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They continue to set records for mediocrity and plain poorness. Gary O'Neil's side probably aren't far off deserving a tag of favourites for this match which is remarkable but fiurther evidence of the true scale of things.
Chelsea are a mess and there's very little that this season can do to change that feeling, regardless. They will be hoping to bounce back from a run of six straight losses, though, and this is how they can do it.
Rebuild if they want to rebuild
Given Lampard's quotes effectively outing some of his players - albeit unnamed - it only makes sense to continue to make changes but they have to go beyond the starting XI. £20m youth starlet Carney Chukwuemeka has been exiled since Christmas and he surely deserves a chance here, at least.
Harvey Vale can put himself in the same camp, as can Benoit Badiashile and Noni Madueke. The latter managed to score his first goal for the club at the Emirates Stadium and is in line for another game.
It isn't enough. Hakim Ziyech still gets a space in the squad despite his future lying elsewhere. The same goes for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and a host of other players. If the club want to hit reset then do it properly and reset.
Go back to the five
Chelsea matched up to Arsenal in a 4-3-3 but were easily played around. Their 4-4-2 out of possession lacked intensity, quality or organisation and, frankly, it doesn't help when two members of the backline are 33 and 38.
In the back five at least there is extra protection, even if it does leave the attack even more isolated and disjointed. It would also open up the chance of using a more dynamic wingback in Ruben Loftus-Cheek. He has been ignored by Lampard since his return but has been a more than useful option for both Thomas Tuchel and Graham Potter over the past 18 months.
Badiashile and him should consider themselves unlucky not to get a game here.
Let Mudryk loose
Chelsea's attack is so stale that introducing a little anarchy can't go astray. Madueke offers something different off the right and Mudryk is the hopeful future star of this setup. The pair need to be given a chance to build a partership off the wings.
Mudryk specifically appears to be a rogue player, a loose cannon and have a maverick sort of style. It's the unpredictability that Chelsea don't have anywhere else right now. The only thing that feels certain before a game is a lack of goals for and a comedic way to concede.
Mudryk would at least fill the opposition with some new questions and a bit of danger.
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