Chelsea handed another crushing reminder of how far they are off the elite

AFC BournemouthArsenalAston VillaBrentfordBrighton & Hove AlbionBurnleyChelseaCrystal PalaceEvertonFulhamLeeds UnitedLiverpoolManchester CityManchester UnitedNewcastle UnitedNottingham ForestSunderlandTottenham HotspurWest Ham UnitedWolverhampton WanderersScores & ScheduleStandingsFantasyThe Athletic FC NewsletterPodcastsPL Returns Nico O'Reilly heads Manchester City in front at Stamford Bridge on Sunday Ryan Pierse/Getty Images Share full articleMarc Cucurella may have had a point. The fallout from Enzo Fernandez’s verbal indiscretions in the March international break has understandably dominated the conversation around Chelsea, but Cucurella’s candid words on the BlueCo project were the ones that came to mind watching Manchester City breeze to their latest comfortable victory at Stamford Bridge. “You are fighting and training every day only to realise, at the very end, that when games matter, we are still a bit away from the top level,” Cucurella said in an exclusive interview with The Athletic last month, reflecting on Chelsea’s 8-2 aggregate defeat against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League round of 16. “I understand this is part of the club’s policy, and that they want to take this direction — signing young players and looking to the future. But, for all of us who are still here and want to win big things, moments like this make you feel discouraged.” After a tepid first half, which yielded more fouls (13) than shot attempts (10) between the two teams, City clicked through the gears to score three goals without reply in 17 second-half minutes, delivering further discouragement to any Chelsea players who are starting to doubt this project. It is doubtful that Fernandez could have meaningfully affected the outcome, given the size of the gulf between the two sides and the fact that the Argentine is not known to be an asset out of possession, which is the default state of any match against a Pep Guardiola team. The bitter irony is that Chelsea have consciously tried to mould themselves on City in many crucial ways under BlueCo’s ownership, spending millions on City academy graduates and hiring successive head coaches wedded to juego de posicion in Guardiola’s former assistant Enzo Maresca and now Liam Rosenior. Yet this build has been critically undermined by a disregard for three critical ingredients in City’s success. The first is the singular talent of Guardiola himself, an historic genius whose impact cannot be replicated simply by appointing those who have worked for him or been influenced by his principles of play. Maresca at least displayed the ability to craft his own winning game plans in matches that mattered. Rosenior may get there in time — time that he may or may not get at Chelsea. The second is that for all his focus on technical dominance, Guardiola fully understands the vital importance of physicality to winning in England. City are a bigger, stronger team than Chelsea in almost every position, and those advantages manifested clearly in Nico O’Reilly swatting Andrey Santos aside to nod in their first goal and Jeremy Doku bustling Moises Caicedo off the ball to run through and smash in their third. The third is a philosophical distinction. City lined up at Stamford Bridge with two January signings, Antoine Semenyo and Marc Guehi, whom Chelsea ruled out trying to sign on salary grounds. Their wage bill is markedly lower than City’s — more than €100million lower, according to UEFA’s most recent European Club Finance and Investment Landscape report — but just as important is that more of City’s football investment is directed at building the best possible football team right now. BlueCo may point to a recent CIES football observatory report that identified Chelsea as having the most valuable squad in world football (€1.73billion), ahead of City (€1.61billion) and Real Madrid (€1.54billion). It has certainly put them in a strong position to trade footballers, which they do on an unrivalled scale. But these are not measures of success that any Chelsea supporter would recognise, particularly as they watch their team consistently fail to beat and often fail to compete against the very best. City are now 13 games unbeaten against Chelsea since the 2021 Champions League final in Porto. Arsenal have not lost in their last 11 meetings with their London rivals. PSG demonstrated over two dispiriting games that last summer’s FIFA Club World Cup final was a glorious aberration. Chelsea can be better than this — with Reece James, with Levi Colwill, with Fernandez, with a proper pre-season, with some coaching stability. But the staggering amount of money poured into this club by BlueCo over the last three years drowns out all attempts at mitigation and erases all excuses. At best, the context offers hope of a better tomorrow that is by no means guaranteed, and for which many supporters — and perhaps some key players — are not prepared to wait. Another fan protest against BlueCo, led by NotAProjectCFC in partnership with Strasbourg ultra groups, is set to take place before Chelsea take on Manchester United at Stamford Bridge next weekend. This latest embarrassment may swell its numbers, and another defeat against Manchester opposition would begin to imperil a top-half finish, never mind Champions League qualification. It all feels a long way from last summer, when the newly-crowned Club World Cup champions were fielding questions about a potential Premier League title challenge. At the time, senior figures at Stamford Bridge stressed the need to stay humble, but the misguided optimism in the strength and depth of this Chelsea squad indicates that mantra may not have been fully internalised. “One of the secrets we had as a club and organisation is that after success we were humble enough or calm enough to say, ‘OK, what do you have to do to continue being up there?’” Guardiola said in his post-match press conference on Sunday. “That is the most difficult thing: winning once or twice is OK, but during nine years being there all the time (except last season) defines us a little bit.” That is the level Chelsea are striving to reach. As the fourth season of this BlueCo project unravels, they appear as far away as ever. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Liam is a Staff Writer for The Athletic, covering Chelsea. He previously worked for Goal covering the Premier League before becoming the Chelsea correspondent for ESPN in 2015, witnessing the unravelling of Jose Mourinho, the rise and fall of Antonio Conte, the brilliance of Eden Hazard and the madness of Diego Costa. He has also contributed to The Independent and ITV Sport. Follow Liam on Twitter @liam_twomey