Two reasons why Chelsea continue to be disappointing this season

Manchester United thrashed Chelsea 4-1 in their Premier League clash at Old Trafford on Thursday, meaning, the Blues have now lost in 16 of their 37 league matches this season, including three of their last five. This has left them 12th in the league with one game to go and they are staring at their worst league finish since 1996.

Prior to that, Chelsea lost 0-1 to Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday. As the Manchester City supporters celebrated their title triumph that was ensured after Arsenal’s loss to Nottingham Forest on Saturday, Frank Lampard’s side cut a sorry figure once again.

Pep Guardiola had rested nine of the 11 players who started in their 4-0 thrashing of Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League semifinal last week. Still, the champions managed to get the better of an almost full-strength Chelsea, which will not make their owner Todd Boehly happy.

Here are two reasons why the Blues continue to be disappointing:

#1. This Chelsea team is lacking fire in the belly:

Pochettino is scheduled to be in charge of the Blues next season, but the job that lies in front of him should be an unenviable one. Lampard’s side has repeatedly proved to lack any fire in their belly and looked an increasingly jaded side as the season progressed.

Against a rotated Manchester City side, Chelsea still allowed themselves to be completely dominated for the initial 20-25 minutes. They could count themselves lucky not to have been down by multiple goals in that period.

They committed the same mistake that Real Madrid did against the Cityzens in the UEFA Champions League semifinal. They defended deep and suffered City’s aggressive press to lose possession inside their own half repeatedly.

Things changed for the better once Chelsea started having more men inside the opposition half. The Blues came close to scoring on a couple of occasions. However, that should have been their approach from the very beginning, given Manchester City had fielded a depleted side. Then, on Friday, Manchester United dominated them completely and scored four past them, thus proving the Blues' ineptness.

#2. Most of the individuals are underperforming:

Lampard has now lost 16 of his last 19 games as a manager, which is a terrible record by any standard. His side will finish inside the bottom half, which is catastrophic, given the amount of spending they have done.

The problems with different individuals are there for everyone to see. Kai Havertz looks too insipid and laid-back to play as a centre-forward; Raheem Sterling keeps getting faulty touches on the ball; Conor Gallagher is not yet sure about his role in the side and Cesar Azpilicueta is clearly past his prime. Havertz's return of nine goals from 46 matches is well below expectations. On the brighter side, Lewis Hall's recent performances should have made the supporters happy.

To make matters worse, Enzo Fernandez has done nothing yet to justify his huge price tag and the likes of Ruben Loftus-Cheek still remain fringe players only. Joao Felix scored against United, but has been a disappointment largely. With a 38-year-old Thiago Silva struggling to roll back the years and Kalidou Koulibaly and N’Golo Kante suffering injuries, Chelsea’s problems are manifold at the moment and will take some repairing.