Toothless but lucky Chelsea the infamous winner of run-in despite form

Chelsea ended a run of six straight defeats following the success over Bournemouth in the Vitality Stadium last time out, thanks to late goals from Benoit Badiashile and Joao Felix after Matias Vina had canceled out Conor Gallagher’s nine minute opener.

The 3-1 success represents the club’s first win since the return of club legend, Frank Lampard as the interim boss as well as their first in almost two months.

That win prevented what would have been a record equalling seven straight defeats across all competitions for the club but late on, two of their winter signings deliver a much needed win to calm rising nerves at the club.

The result also confirmed Chelsea’s top-flight status for next season but albeit that was almost never in doubt, it could have been a different story in other seasons.

Just 42 points after 34 games in a competitive season should be enough for safety but Chelsea were lucky that teams in the bottom half have been as poor as can be, hence many of their points won against these teams directly affects the standings in the lower end. 

Even so for the teams in the drop zone, many of whom might have not survived the Championship with the kind of season they are having, contributed to waiving the disaster that could have struck the West Londoners.

Ten of Chelsea’s eleven wins in the Premier League this season have come against teams below them, (teams in the bottom half) while Bournemouth, Leicester City and Crystal Palace are the only three teams the club have done the double over. 

With Newcastle United and the two Manchester clubs still to come in their remaining four games, those potentially represent zero point based on what has been seen from the Chelsea this season. 

Leicester City and West Ham United are in no man’s land having find themselves deep down on the log and these are some of the factors that played into Chelsea’s favour, putting them in a position of safety at this stage of the campaign. 

This season is only the first time Chelsea have done the double over Leicester City since 2016-17, when they won the league with an astonishing 93 points under Antonio Conte. Another highlight how low the Foxes have been this term.

Six of Chelsea’s eleven League wins have also been by a goal difference, and those have come once against Leicester, Everton and West Ham United, while two more have come against Crystal Palace.

All these are direct rivals in the bottom half of the table, and a sway in those results could have had detrimental effect on Chelsea’s survival status this campaign. 

However, the heavens have showered their favour on the Todd Boehly owned side, putting them in a position to dream for a better haven next season, due to the wealth of potential in the squad.

By projection, Chelsea are set to finish their lowest in the Premier League since 1993-94, when they ended in 14th under Glenn Hoddle.

If they can not weather the storm that awaits in their remaining fixtures, they would also finish the season with their lowest point tally in a 38 game season since 1990-91, when they had 49.

Chelsea were so unstable during the season that they started with Thomas Tuchel, to Graham Potter, then Bruno Slator took charge of a game before the return of Frank Lampard as the interim boss.

None of those decisions have brought glad tidings and though it might seem a bit weird, but it won’t be too absurd if Chelsea celebrate survival internally – nothing for the club but it’s something for their season.

It’s an error a lot of teams would not have escaped but it all played into Chelsea’s favour. Even after failing to win in any of their first five in the final ten league games, recording just one point in the process, they only dropped from tenth to twelfth on the log.

Now back in eleventh, it is most likely that they dropped even further on the standing before the end of the season but they won’t mind given their run of fixtures and with nothing at stake.

Survival, which was never too farfetched was the goal and achieving that has been aided by the underwhelming performances of other strugglers, leaving them to now look forward to next season in the top-flight.

It has been a below par season for The Blues but it could have been worse. Yes, it could have.

Author : Kehinde Hassan Afolabi