Chelsea officially announced the signing of Wesley Fofana from Leicester on Wednesday, taking their summer spending spree to in excess of £240million. Yet despite that, it’s still been a far from ideal start to the new season for Thomas Tuchel’s men.
Their 2-1 defeat to Southampton on Tuesday night meant they’ve won just two of their five league encounters so far, leaving the Blues rooted in mid-table.
Things started well enough at St Mary’s stadium on Tuesday night, with Raheem Sterling handing Tuchel’s men the lead after 23 minutes. However, Romeo Lavia equalised for the hosts just five minutes later before Adam Armstrong netted the decisive strike on the stroke of half-time.
Following the game, a frustrated Tuchel labelled his team “not tough enough” and criticised the defensive performance of his players. “Obviously, we are not tough enough in these matches at the moment away. It was the same story in Leeds. In Leeds, we thought the problem was that we did not score in the first 25 minutes, and then they pushed us off balance in two minutes with two goals and we could not find answers.
“But in Leeds I thought we had answers in just the first 15 minutes of the second half, today we scored, so everything was okay, but one set-piece again, one sloppy piece of defending again and we are off balance, we did not react to it. We were lucky not to concede a third goal in the second half and we were not tough enough to react or to push it over the line.”
Tuchel was then asked whether he felt Chelsea's initial struggles this season and on Tuesday night could be in part due to lacking a focal point in the attack, but he discredited this notion and maintained that it’s his side’s frailties without the ball that’s causing problems.
His comments highlighted why bringing in Fofana was such a priority for Chelsea, and the German’s concerns at the defensive displays from his team so far do seem warranted.
Although it’s still very early days into this new season, they’ve faced an average of 11.2 shots per 90 so far, with 5.2 of those having been on target. Only five Premier League sides have faced more in that time. While additionally, only Bournemouth have conceded more goals than Chelsea’s four from set-pieces.
Tuchel perhaps predicted these defensive struggles early in the summer, which is why the club have been on the hunt to boost their centre-back ranks, especially after losing Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen early in the window.
Fofana, along with Kalidou Koulibaly who arrived from Napoli in July, can certainly make them stronger in this department and there’s every chance we quickly start to see notable improvements in the Blues’ underlying numbers within the next few weeks.
