‘We still believe in our style and our team’

Chelsea home woes continued this week, with yet another baffling result at Stamford Bridge, where we’ve only managed to win 5 of 12 Premier League matches this season. We remain on track to finish with more points away (currently 22) than at home (currently 18), for just the fourth time in club history. The previous three times (2004-05, 2008-09, 2015-16) had seen either a league title or a mid-season sacking, but neither are likely to happen this season.

What is likely to happen is for frustrations to keep increasing if these inconsistent results keep happening. With Lampard’s honeymoon well and truly over as we move past the predicted six-month mark, the discontent is growing. It’s easy to champion long-term thinking in the summer. The fickle mob of the arena want answers and entertainment, and most importantly, wins.

Unfortunately, there is no easy fix, at least not if we are to stick with the plans set in motion this summer. Fortunately, the players seem to believe still, as Andreas Christensen asserted in the wake of Tuesday’s 2-2 draw.

“For us it is very disappointing, we want to make this a tough place to come and play but the facts right now are we are dropping too many points at home, like today when for some reason we could not hold on to a win in the last minutes.”

“We still believe in our style and our team. We have to look at ourselves and how we fix this, keep working hard in training and hopefully things change for us.”

Christensen, like most, is blaming the little details for the big disappointment, including the team’s lack of aggression in a crucial moment after working oh so hard to regain the lead.

“The first 30 minutes I thought we were on top. We were aggressive, we tried to control the game with a lot of energy and that worked [but] as soon as we got the first goal and Arsenal went down to 10 men, we had a hard time adjusting to that even though we should be able to manage”

“We wanted to come out [in the second half] with a lot of energy again and try to control it and really go for the second goal. We worked hard for the second goal which is why we are very disappointed that basic errors allowed them into the game.

“We worked incredibly hard to get the second goal after Arsenal had scored and we finally got it and for some reason we were not aggressive enough outside of own box at that moment [when they equalised again].”

-Andreas Christensen; Source: Chelsea FC

It’s a draw that feels like a loss, even though we actually increased our advantage over most of our top four rivals (pending Wolves’ result against Liverpool later today).

A lack of (panic) signings this winter might not be the best course of action to correct these mistakes for this season. But it might be the best course of the next season, and the season after that, and the season after that. Lampard and the kids have gotten us this far; maybe we, like them, just need to keep a bit of faith and belief.