Chelsea have “gone the other way” after potential title challenge says BBC pundit | OneFootball

Steven Warnock is covering Chelsea’s game against Everton for BBC 5 Live this afternoon, and he had some interesting thoughts on the season for the Blues as a whole, and where Enzo Maresca’s team stand now as they approach the end of the campaign.

“We all thought that Chelsea were in a title race [earlier in the season] because the way that they were playing was exciting, the players were in good form and Enzo Maresca had found a system that suited them,” Warnock said.

“The downside of it was that it is a young, inexperienced team so there was always going to be an element of naivety about them, and we have seen that at times.

“The league table at the time told us that they were in the title race. They were a work in progress and we thought they could only get better, but they have gone the other way.”

Chelsea surprise everyone with how good they are – and then how bad they are

Chelsea group photo. (Photo by Piotr Hawalej/Getty Images)

We would dispute that we all thought Chelsea were in a title race – most people didn’t, even when they were within a game of Liverpool at the top of the table around Christmas.

But we did think they had gone up a level and made proper progress, and we didn’t see them regressing nearly as much as they have since then. It’s quite incredible to see how far they’ve fallen in a short period.

The fact they’re now outsiders to make the top 5, having been riding so high in December, tells you everything. They can still make this season into one of progress – but they will need to win today, and probably win every other game to stop the whole thing being a bit of a disappointment.