Preseason doesn’t matter—except for when it does. Friendlies are always an unreliable guide to the season ahead because nobody ever quite knows how committed players are or what stage they are at in their fitness work. But Thomas Tuchel’s concern after Chelsea’s 4–0 defeat to Arsenal in Orlando on the penultimate weekend in July was real enough.
“I look at the last season and parts of the game where we struggled, parts of the season where we struggled, and then we got sanctioned and players left us and some players are trying to leave us, and this is where it is,” he said. “So we had an urgent appeal for quality players, a huge amount of quality players. We got two quality players, but we are not competitive like this.”
Small problems have merged to create bigger ones. Chelsea, oddly, left itself vulnerable by allowing the contracts of center backs Antonio Rüdiger and Andreas Christensen to run down—and was then unable to offer them new deals when sanctions on owner Roman Abramovich were imposed in March. Rüdiger has since joined Real Madrid, while Christensen has technically joined Barcelona, although he is yet to be registered. César Azpilicueta, meanwhile, is effectively waiting to see whether Barcelona can afford him despite having a season-long contract extension with Chelsea kick in last spring, while Marcos Alonso is in a similar boat.
