LONDON, May 4 (Reuters) – It is not the record that Chelsea’s owners dreamt of when they bought the club four years ago – Monday’s 3-1 home defeat by Nottingham Forest means the Londoners have now lost six league games in a row for the first time since 1993.
It could have been worse – until Joao Pedro’s spectacular overhead strike in the 93rd minute, they were on course to suffer six consecutive league defeats without scoring in any of those matches for the first time in their 121-year history.
With the former European champions plummeting down the league table, the sole comfort for their fans is likely to be that there are only three more league games until the end of the season and the club cannot be relegated.
Chelsea’s run has been so bad that even relegated Burnley and Wolverhampton Wanderers have been in less terrible form since mid-March.
Toothless in attack, overrun in midfield and fragile in defence, Chelsea – under interim coach Calum McFarlane – were always second best to Forest.
Vítor Pereira made eight changes to the Forest side that beat Aston Villa 1-0 in a Europa League semi-final four days earlier and had an eye on the second leg on Thursday.
Luck was not with the hosts – winger Jesse Derry was taken to hospital as a precaution after suffering a head injury on his league debut, goalkeeper Robert Sanchez was also taken off after a clash of heads and Cole Palmer had a penalty saved at 0-2.
But when Taiwo Awoniyi tapped in for his second goal of the game and Forest’s third in the 52nd minute, angry chants broke out around Stamford Bridge aimed at the U.S.-led consortium that owns Chelsea.
It has spent more than 1 billion pounds ($1.35 billion) on players since the takeover four years ago and there were hopes that the investment might finally be paying off when Chelsea won the Club World Cup last summer a few weeks after victory in Europe’s number-three competition, the Conference League.
But that optimism has been shattered by a spectacular collapse in form that began with a 5-2 defeat in the first leg of a Champions League round of 16 game against Paris St Germain on March 11 and even cost coach Liam Rosenior his job, just three months after he replaced Enzo Maresca.
Although Chelsea have advanced to the FA Cup final on May 16, when they will face Manchester City, they could well end the league season in the bottom half of the table.
They are only five points above Leeds United who occupy 14th place – which was the club’s lowest ever end-of-season position in the 1993-94 season – and they next face an away trip to Liverpool.
The risk of no European competition at all raises questions about the finances of the club which last month reported the biggest annual pre-tax loss in English soccer – 262.4 million pounds.
Chelsea’s owners said they would “undertake a process of self-reflection” to make the right appointment of a new coach when they fired Rosenior last month, in an apparent nod to the frustrations of fans at the hierarchy’s strategy including an unrelenting focus on young, relatively inexperienced players.
Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher said there seemed to be no bond any more between Chelsea’s fans, players and club officials.
“In some ways, it’s a good thing because it tells you that football isn’t just all about spending money, buying players and this revolving door,” he told Sky Sports.
“It’s about creating togetherness and there’s nothing there. They look like a broken football club right now.”
($1 = 0.7394 pounds)
(Writing by William Schomberg, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
