Why Chelsea need Arturo Vidal to solve their midfield woes

Saturday’s game with West Brom told us one thing beyond Andre Marriner’s haplessness it was that Chelsea fans should now begin to worry. Having been defeated at home the previous week by a middling Newcastle side, and having already been beaten this term by Basel and Everton, this season’s Chelsea side are showing a trait which is the complete antithesis of a Jose Mourinho team: a soft centre.

Throughout the side’s spine there is trouble. At the front, none of their strikers can be truly relied upon while at the back John Terry is looking older with every passing week, David Luiz is untrusted and Gary Cahill is Gary Cahill. Worst of all though, the centre of the club’s midfield is a mess: Frank Lampard’s influence is waning drastically in accordance with his stamina, Michael Essien appears a lost cause and John Obi Mikel lacks mobility, drive, personality, and pretty much everything else you’d want from a top-level defence-shielder. Ramires is left to do the running of three men but can’t pass well at the best of times, let alone when he’s shattered and overworked. For some reason, Mourinho refuses to station David Luiz in midfield, despite last season’s experiment in doing so proving a qualified success.

All in all, it would be little surprise to see the club wade into the transfer market in January and target a midfielder of proper pedigree. There are few better at the moment than Juventus’s Arturo Vidal, a player who Chelsea fans will remember from his part in last season’s 3-0 loss in Turin – he scored Juve’s second that night.

If Chelsea midfield currently lacks drive and character (and it does), then Vidal would be the perfect player to imbue it with both. Renowned for his tenacity and vigour in the engine room, the Chilean is possibly the finest midfield all-rounder in Europe. Capable of scoring goals, dispossessing opponents and leading by example, Vidal would add to every aspect of Chelsea’s play.

If the 10 league goals Vidal managed last season (a tally he looks set to beat this term) were to leave any doubt about his contribution going forward then his chance-creation rate of just over two per game should underline his value.

Without possession, his worth is even more obvious. Vidal made 109 successful tackles last season; Frank Lampard and John Obi Mikel managed 67 between them. Ramires, recorded a more impressive 85, but he took four more outings than Vidal to do so. Had Vidal been clad in Blue at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, for instance, Chris Brunt may have had a slightly less stress-free time strolling towards the Chelsea penalty area and measuring up his second-half shot on goal. Likewise, Stephane Sessegnon might not have found himself in such copious space on the edge of the box seconds before dispatching his goal.

Equally prized is the energy that the 26-year-old brings to his side. Always foraging around in the centre circle, throwing himself into tackles and carrying the ball keenly towards his attack, Vidal adds momentum and urgency to a midfield containing the technical excellence of Andrea Pirlo and Paul Pogba. Were he to be transplanted into a Chelsea midfield – perhaps sitting beside Lampard (or David Luiz) as part of a deep-lying duo – he could go some way to replicating the aggression and determination that Mourinho so loves to see from his engine room, best exemplified by the in-his-prime Essien during the Portuguese’s first stint in England.

The practicalities of recruitment may prove rather more difficult – although never underestimate the persuasive power of an endless stack of dubiously acquired Roubles – but the west London club must surely know that their midfield is in dire need of reinforcement, and targeting the continent’s biggest names is something that Roman Abramovich has proved himself not averse to in the past. It’s certainly a move that makes perfect sense from Chelsea’s perspective, but if Vidal does indeed prove immovable from Turin, then their search for a midfielder of charisma, bite and pedigree should not end there. Right now they are desperately short of all three.