Champions of Europe, champions of the world. But that did not stop one former Chelsea player from sticking the boot in.
Craig Burley certainly was not sharing in the euphoria after Saturday’s 2-1 win over Palmeiras in the Club World Cup Final.
He tweeted: “Whilst Chelsea were winning that plastic cup and it was lapped up like a World Cup win. Manchester City were racking up a sixteen point gap on them, in a competition that really matters. Let that sink in.”
It felt unnecessarily mean-spirited in the circumstances.
It is perfectly reasonable to celebrate a trophy that completes a full set of honours in the history of the club, while also accepting there is still significant ground to be made up elsewhere.
Chelsea are no more the best team in the world than they were the best team in Europe after winning the Champions League. But should that make victory any less sweet?
That it has took them 10 years to be within a chance of winning the one trophy that eluded Roman Abramovich emphasises just how rarely the opportunity to be crowned world champions arises. It is a competition that is harder to qualify for than to win.
That they treated it seriously and celebrated accordingly is nothing to sneer at.
But nor does it change the fact that breaking City’s Premier League dominance must be their priority going forward.
Now Abramovich, who changed the face of English and European football when buying the club in 2003, is almost working in reverse.
For so long the Champions League was his ultimate goal, with domestic success not enough to satisfy his appetite.
Celebrating with Thomas Tuchel in Abu Dhabi, just as he had in Porto last May, he will know Chelsea remain some way adrift of Pep Guardiola’s champions, who only have Liverpool in sight when looking through their rear-view mirror.
That is not good enough. Not at this stage of the season – and those wishing to further criticise Tuchel’s team might suggest the importance the German placed on the Club World Cup was linked to the fact that his title challenge has already run its course.
That would be unfair – and would also ignore a record in cup competitions that proves Tuchel treats every trophy with the utmost respect.
Yet Frank Lampard was sacked for his failure to close the gap on City and Liverpool – and his successor is expected to go even further.
Chelsea’s league position is the only mark against on Tuchel’s report card in just over a year in the job.
He is already proving himself a serial winner – and that is no bad thing.
Chelsea play Liverpool in the final of the Carabao Cup at the end of the month, meaning a potential fourth trophy in nine months.
He has managed to turn the squad he inherited into winners, with little in the way of additions – even if Romelu Lukaku cost a club record £97.5million.
That is another way to please those above him, who do not like to think money has been wasted on expensive recruits.
There is also sympathy towards him over the injuries and Covid cases that undoubtedly impacted Chelsea’s title challenge – even if it is doubtful they could have kept pace with a rampant City.
Tuchel has largely moulded what he was given, breathed new life into players who looked beyond rescue and delivered trophies.
He will be backed by Abramovich in the summer, with the Russian convinced he can mount a genuine title challenge
It is just a question of how much he will be allowed to build and create a team in his own image in the manner of Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp.
City and Liverpool are the embodiment of their managers. The same cannot be said of Chelsea, which makes Tuchel’s success all the more remarkable.
The fact that this latest triumph means they become one of just five European clubs to win every major trophy, also proves long-term success is not dependent on the type of control enjoyed by Guardiola and Klopp.
That those two managers have dominated English football since Chelsea were last Premier League champions in 2017 might suggest otherwise in the context of the title race.
But the Abramovich model keeps on delivering.
Kai Havertz scored the winning goals in both the Champions League and now the Club World Cup, despite both Lampard and Tuchel failing to get anything like a consistent tune out of him.
Lukaku scored in back-to-back games in Abu Dhabi – but has been a headache for the majority of his time back at Stamford Bridge and there remain serious doubts about his suitability to the football Tuchel wants to play.
Do either of those players feature in their manager’s ideal team?
What is his ideal team – and will he ever have the chance to truly build it, even if given longer at the club than many of his predecessors?
These are the eternal questions at Chelsea.
In the meantime, the trophies just keep on rolling in.
