In the summer, it was predicted this could be one of the most exciting Premier League title races for a long time.
Chelsea, along with Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United were all tipped to embark on a four-way battle right up until May.
From a Blues perspective, the early signs have been good. They’ve suffered defeat in just one of their opening nine league matches and currently sit atop of the Premier League table, one point above Liverpool and a further two above Manchester City.
Like Chelsea, Liverpool and City have also started the season well, legitimising pre-season predictions that they’d be two of the toughest sides to overcome this season. Yet for Manchester United, it’s an all too different story.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's men have lost three of their last four Premier League matches, the most embarrassing of which came last Sunday when they were hammered 5-0 by North West rivals Liverpool.
And as a consequence, the Norwegian’=;s position at the club looks under serious threat.
In truth, Solskjaer's role has been under scrutiny for some time, and there are growing parallels between the situation Chelsea found themselves in last season, and the one Manchester United are in now.
The Champions of Europe hired club legend Frank Lampard in the summer of 2019, despite his relative inexperience as a coach - he’d only managed Derby County for 12 months in the campaign prior.
In a similar fashion to Solskjaer at Old Trafford, fears centred around a lack of experience were eased after a strong initial run of results. In fact, Lampard's first full campaign in charge saw Chelsea secure both a top-four finish and reach the FA Cup final.
It was hoped that campaign would act as a springboard for Chelsea to mount a title challenge last season, especially after the club invested heavily in the market that summer.
Again this represents somewhat of an eerie likeness to United’s summer just gone where they spent over £120million with the ambition of challenging again for the Premier League title.
That following season started well for Lampard, better than what it has for United so far this year under Solskjaer, though it wasn’t long before things began to turn sour.
They topped the Premier League and their Champions League group by early December, however underlying numbers raised red flags and an inevitable capitulation followed soon after.
Chelsea went on a run of just two wins from eight league matches and dropped as low as ninth in the table, putting the club’s hierarchy in the uncomfortable situation that United find themselves in now with Solskjaer.
They clearly knew given the quality throughout the squad that the club was massively underachieving, yet Lampard was a popular figure and a legend at Stamford Bridge.
Ultimately though, emotion was shelved and Lampard was dismissed at the end of January 2021, replaced by Thomas Tuchel shortly after.
Put bluntly, Tuchel’s experience and ability dwarfed that of Lampard, and his impact on the squad was almost instantaneous.
Chelsea climbed the table, eventually finishing fourth, and since he arrived at the club, only Manchester City accumulated more Premier League points.
Additionally and most famously, the team also went on to lift the Champions League, defeating Pep Guardiola's men in June.
And the chart below captures just how much more Tuchel was able to improve what was the same group of players who’d struggled under Lampard just several months earlier.
Across the same number of matches in charge, there was a huge increase in Chelsea’s output in terms of both goals scored and quality of chances created (xG).
It was a similar story at the other end of the pitch too, with reductions to both the number of goals the Blues conceded, and the quality of chances they allowed on their goal (xGA).
Whilst United might not enjoy immediate success to the level that Chelsea did under Tuchel, it’s likely at very least a new elite level manager would bring about a noticeable improvement across the team in many different departments.
Chelsea and Tuchel showed that last season, yet, it’s fair to say that anyone with a connection to the Blues won’t be too despondent if their Manchester rivals choose to ignore this fact and instead stick with their current manager, as at present they offer little in the way of a threat to their league chasing aspirations.
