Azpilicueta looking for Chelsea to ‘dig in’ and turn things around in the new year

César Azpilicueta made his 450th appearance for Chelsea last night. He’s only the seventh player in our history to reach that mark. Unfortunately, it was not an occasion to celebrate, as we dropped our tenth and eleventh points on the season from winning positions to fall eight points behind the league leaders now.

In fact, it’s probably time to adjust our expectations, and make sure that we at least remain comfortably in the top-four, especially with a grueling January coming up, featuring games against Liverpool, Manchester City, and Spurs as well — not to mention the League Cup semifinal, the start of our FA Cup campaign, and the upcoming Club World Cup as well.

The forces and fates seem to be conspiring against us. But only if we let them.

“It’s really disappointing. Of course, we had chances to kill the game. They also had the chances. We left them alive and of course in the last minute to concede a goal and drop two points is very frustrating. We are not happy at all. [...] The Premier League is the toughest league in the world, and every opponent is very difficult, but when you don’t get the three points it’s very disappointing.

“We want to win games and hopefully we can give our fans a good start to the new year in front of the fans here against Liverpool. It is a tough moment, but we need to stick together and dig in. It is not an easy situation but this is how we have to overcome these difficult moments.”

-César Azpilicueta; source: Chelsea FC

The frustration was palpable after last night’s final whistle. We have to ensure that it doesn’t turn into palpable discord. We will need leaders like Dave to step up and ensure that.