Chelsea were hoping for progress but it is hard to see where the improvements are right now

Let’s play a game of ‘spot the difference’.

In Frank Lampard’s final away fixture as interim head coach of Chelsea last season, on May 25, the beleaguered group of players he inherited the month before, following Graham Potter’s sacking, slumped to a 4-1 away loss against Manchester United. The statistics for that night did not make good reading, as you can see here:

It was always going to be a tough task. United had a lot to play for, knowing victory would secure Champions League football this season via a top-four finish. Meanwhile, Lampard was overseeing a squad of players who could not wait for the season to end and, in some cases, would then negotiate permanent transfers away from the club. Chelsea were in a lowly 12th place, which is also where they finished when the final round of Premier League matches were played three days later. So the motivation to perform, rightly or wrongly, was not exactly sky-high.

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Chelsea returned to Old Trafford on Wednesday night supposedly in a much better situation and with a lot more to inspire them.

To begin with, a win would have taken them up to ninth, to within two points of their hosts and a lot closer to the European qualification places, having played 15 of the 38 games. There were also summer signings in the side in Cole Palmer, Nicolas Jackson and Axel Disasi and, more importantly, a permanent head coach to inspire them in Mauricio Pochettino.

United’s preparation had been undermined by talk of discontent in the dressing room and their manager Erik ten Hag being under pressure for his position. And yet the home side won 2-1 and as this second table demonstrates, Chelsea did not perform any better last night than six and a half months ago. You could argue it was even worse:

As you can see, United came out on top in four of the five categories. Worryingly, they also had 10 more shots and nine more corners during the 90 minutes than in their previous meeting, when they won more handsomely. Remember, this was a team supposedly lacking in confidence and unity.

Chelsea were so bad, they made United look good for perhaps the first time this season.

When his team lost 4-1 away against Newcastle 11 days earlier, Pochettino was animated afterwards and made it clear to his players how angry he was. Alarmingly, his body language was different after last night’s defeat. He looked flat, crestfallen, bewildered.

Scott McTominay does it again! 👏

Alejandro Garnacho provides a brilliant cross and the Man Utd midfielder nods it home to double his tally#PLonPrime #MUNCHE

— Amazon Prime Video Sport (@primevideosport) December 6, 2023

Asked by The Athletic if there was a difference in his emotion compared to Newcastle, he replied: “Now is not the same, because I think we miss players (through injury and suspension), we play nearly with the same players against Brighton, with one less (due to Conor Gallagher getting sent off in the first half of that match and so being suspended here) for 60 minutes. There was one day more rest for Manchester United to prepare. See the bench: many young players try to help us. That is not an excuse but we need to talk about the reality, and that is the reality.

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“I am not disappointed, because they gave everything but maybe we didn’t match their energy — they were a little bit more aggressive than us. We were competitive, as we created chances, maybe enough to draw the game, but when the result is 2-1 and you get nothing, you get more critics and try to find different reasons why we did not win. I think we need to be calm, keep going, trying to help the players, and now we need to lift all of the players because we need to be ready on Sunday (a trip to Everton).”

Pochettino had a point. Chelsea did have 10 players unavailable, and the Brighton game would have taken a lot out of those who featured in it, playing a man short for an hour (including added time). Just when you think their number of absentees is coming down, it has crept back up into double figures again.

But a sizeable contingent in the away end chose to boo the players as they went over to acknowledge them after the final whistle. They are clearly not happy with what they are seeing from Pochettino’s new-look Chelsea, and are running out of patience.

Their team have five fewer points than at the same 15-game stage last season under Potter and predecessor Thomas Tuchel (19, down from 24). What progress is being made?

It felt like Pochettino had bought himself some much-needed good favour with back-to-back decent results against Tottenham and Manchester City last month. However, these displays in Newcastle and Manchester have undone all that positive work.

The problem for Pochettino is he is struggling to make the most of being only the second Chelsea coach since the 1996-97 season not to have European football to worry about.

He has benefitted from having a lot of full weeks since pre-season to work with the squad, despite all the personnel changes due to lack of fitness, and has had time to build an understanding and a cohesive unit. The last Chelsea coach to have such an advantage was Antonio Conte, and he capitalised by leading the club to the Premier League title in that 2016-17 campaign.

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Pochettino can rightly argue Conte had much better players to work with. Thibaut Courtois, Eden Hazard, N’Golo Kante and Diego Costa, to name just four, would comfortably walk into this team if at the same stage of their careers as they were seven years ago. People might also prefer to look at the hierarchy and question what Chelsea’s new owners have ended up purchasing for a transfer spend of more than £1billion ($1.26bn).

But when you have head coaches such as Unai Emery and Ange Postecoglou making instant impacts elsewhere in the Premier League at Aston Villa and Tottenham respectively despite smaller resources, you will start to come under negative scrutiny regardless of the circumstances.

To make Pochettino’s task harder, December’s fixture list is by far the busiest he has experienced this season (eight matches in all). He has just three days to prepare for a difficult game at Everton.

Lose that too and the pressure on him, the players and the club will continue to grow.

(Top photo: Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)