By the time the final whistle blew at Stamford Bridge on Sunday, there weren't enough Chelsea supporters on the pitch to hear the apparent collective boos and insults from players and manager Mauricio Pochettino. However, at half-time, the dissatisfaction with Pochettino and his staff was palpable. Wolves beat Chelsea 4-2, their first away win over Chelsea since 1979 and their first league double since 1974 75. That means Chelsea have conceded a total of eight goals in the Premier League in the last five days, including a heavy 4-1 defeat at Anfield. Gary O'Neill's Wolves have now overtaken Chelsea and moved west London's side to 11th.
However, no Premier League club spent more money than Chelsea on signings last summer. Chelsea spent $4 on new signings67.8 billion euros, including 1€1.6 billion deal. When looking at the transfer market's 'Transfer Spend & League Standings', which compares the clubs' rankings in terms of money spent with their actual league standings, Chelsea are the most struggling teams in the league.
Their payouts are 10 places lower than the number one. "I don't think we're good enough, that's the reality," Pochettino lamented after the team lost their 10th league game of the season.
The stats from Pochettino's time at Chelsea so far.
During his time at Tottenham, Pochettino was known as one of the best managers to develop young talent. Under the leadership of the Argentine, the likes of Harry Kane and Derry Ali have made great progress. At Chelsea, Pochettino has the same problem with talent, albeit a slightly larger and unbalanced one. With the exception of Cole Palmer, it's hard to find a Chelsea player who has been consistent this season. Before we dive into the statistics, it's important to point out that not all of Chelsea's woes can be blamed on Mauricio Pochettino. They lack the vision and knowledge to recruit them, and despite spending more than €1 billion over the course of two years, the Blues are still lacking talent in key areas such as centre-backs and strikers. Despite this, Chelsea have scored the same number of points this season as they did last season when Graham Potter was in charge. Graham Potter was sacked after six games.
In his 23 Premier League games as Chelsea manager, Pochettino averaged just 135。If it continues like this, Chelsea will have around 51 points by the end of the season. The same points last season would have put them in 11th place. In the 21st century, only Porter (127 points per game) and Frank Lampard (045 points per game) was even worse in the Premier League when he was in charge of Chelsea. At Tottenham Hotspur, Pochettino averaged 1. points per game in Premier League matches89。He also led the team to three top-three finishes in the Premier League, as well as the club's first Champions League final. So why hasn't Pochettino's performances at Chelsea so far worked?
At Tottenham, as mentioned earlier, Pochettino has excelled in developing young talent, developing a smaller squad and making the most of limited resources. The Argentine spent 4. during his time as manager of Tottenham Hotspur8.9 billion euros. His most expensive signing was Don Quixo Ndombele from Lyon,** at 62 million euros. In just one summer at Chelsea, he oversaw 4A €67.8 billion new signing means his spending on just one summer at Chelsea is almost as much as his five-year spending at Tottenham Hotspur. Of course, it's not necessarily Pochettino who made those decisions and spent the money – the extent of his involvement in the club's recruitment is not clear. But he still benefits from having these big-ticket signings.
He now faces the exact opposite of what he is in the north of the capital in West London. His task is no longer to bring out the best from a limited budget and a smaller squad, but to please everyone from a large squad with many egotistical and well-paid players. Maybe that's not Pochettino's forte.
There is no doubt that the criticism of Mauricio Pochettino, the players and the Chelsea club hierarchy needs to be shared. However, for a club that has spent such a huge amount of money over the past two seasons (the most in the world in the last two seasons), it is not good enough to be ranked outside the top half of the league. Under Todd Boehly's tenure, Chelsea have had five managers in charge in the last two years. Thomas Tuchel, Graham Potter, Bruno Salto, Frank Lampard and now Mauricio Pochettino have all led Chelsea in the Premier League for the past two seasons. This culture of sacking managers will never lead to the much-needed rebuild for Chelsea to succeed again at the top of the league, but everyone at the club, including Mauricio Pochettino, will have to be seriously questioned at the moment.