Football
Mark Worrall, Chelsea blogger 7y

It's one game! Chelsea not in crisis and don't need to make knee-jerk transfers

Chelsea's shocking start to the defence of the Premier League title they won at a canter last season is certain to have led to some consternation in the Stamford Bridge boardroom, but accusatory fingers had been pointed in that direction long before Saturday's 3-2 defeat to Burnley.

For much of the summer manager Antonio Conte has been working himself up into varying degrees of frustration over Chelsea's laggard activity in the transfer market. The investment of £130 million plus in Antonio Rudiger, Tiemoue Bakayoko and Alvaro Morata didn't stop Conte voicing concerns over the size of his squad and the need to avoid a "Mourinho season."

Up until now his pleas for additional reinforcements appear to have been largely ignored.

Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich wasn't at the Bridge to witness first-hand the embarrassing implosion against Burnley, but there's no doubt he will have been tuning in -- he always does. Abramovich may appear to have a hands-off role when it comes to the running of the club, but when the milk turns sour the billionaire Russian makes his presence felt soon enough.

Last season, following successive league defeats to Liverpool and Arsenal, Abramovich paid a visit to Chelsea's training facility at Cobham and had a "chat" with Conte. Back then it was more a case of fine-tuning on the Italian's part that was required to remedy the Blues ills; Conte famously went 3-4-3, and the rest was history. Chelsea embarked on a 13-game winning streak, surged to the top of the table and remained there.

Whether or not Abramovich will pay Conte a visit at Cobham this week remains to be seen. Incredibly, bookmakers wasted no time in significantly shortening the Italian's odds to get the sack as "Chelsea-in-crisis" chatter engulfed social media sites.

It's ridiculous. There is no crisis at Stamford Bridge.

Had Gary Cahill momentarily not forgotten his responsibilities as Blues skipper when needlessly lunging at Steven Defour to land a 14th minute red card, Chelsea's defence would not have been AWOL long enough for Burnley to race into what turned out to be an unassailable 3-0 lead.

It was the fallout from Cahill's dismissal, and the unprofessionalism of the annoyingly ill-disciplined Cesc Fabregas, also sent off by referee Craig Pawson, that cost Chelsea the game. Not any perceived failing in the transfer market.

The fact that Chelsea battled back in the second half with goals from substitute Alvaro Morata and David Luiz is testament enough to the fact that Conte does have the wherewithal to fix problems. After the game he jokingly referred to the scenario as having to work on a new formation with "nine players."

The consequences of Cahill's sending off saw 21-year old centre-back Andreas Christensen thrust into action and the highly-rated youngster acquitted himself extremely well both defensively and in attack. Had Morata not naively tapped his goal-bound shot in from an offside position, Christensen might have been the hero of the day. The Denmark international also floated a sublime ball onto Morata's head late on from where it found Luiz who scored Chelsea's second goal.

The automatic three-match suspension of Cahill will almost certainly mean that Conte will give Christensen a further chance to prove his capabilities in Chelsea's next game against bitter rivals Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday. A heroic performance against Harry Kane and co. will strengthen the case for his services being retained.

But the possibility exists that the Chelsea board will persuade themselves that only transfer action is needed and that could mean upping the ante in the hitherto somewhat unconvincing pursuit of Southampton's wantaway defender Virgil van Dijk.

The defensive dilemma that Conte faces is a short-term problem -- i.e. the duration of Cahill's three-match ban -- while the acquisition of Van Dijk, whose transfer fee is likely to spiral above the rumoured £50m as Southampton seek to profit from any desperation on Chelsea's behalf, could give the Blues boss a long-term headache.

With the spotlight firmly on Chelsea, and Conte in particular, developments over the next week could have a significant bearing on how the season maps out. A blessing in disguise for the Italian is that expectations ahead of the Tottenham clash are just about as low as they possibly could be.

Chelsea have a habit of reversing ill-fortune in their favour, particularly against Spurs. It won't be easy, but Wembley is a place for heroes and in Morata and Christensen, Conte may have a couple of new ones on his teamsheet.

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