The parallel is cruel, but of course the English media did not hesitate. By losing largely on Tuesday evening at Brighton (3-0), Chelsea stretched their sad series to five defeats in a row without scoring a single goal in the Premier League, which according to British football historians constitutes a great first since… 1912, the year the Titanic sank. Exactly what the Blues are doing under the management of Liam Rosenior, whose appointment in January is turning into an industrial disaster.
After this new setback, the London club is now 7th (48 points) and sees the fifth qualifying place for the next Champions League, currently occupied by Liverpool (55 points), inexorably slipping away. He could even slip to 11th place at the end of this 34th day if his pursuers (Brentford, Bournemouth, Everton and Sunderland) were to win.
Under pressure at kick-off, and deprived of numerous ammunition due to injury (Palmer, Estevao, Pedro in attack, James in defense), Rosenior used an unusual system with five defenders which proved completely ineffective. Like almost everything the Briton has tried since his arrival – criticized on both sides of the Channel – from Strasbourg.
While Enzo Maresca was fired after losing five matches out of 19 in the league (but won the Club World Cup the previous summer and left Chelsea in the top 8 of the first phase of the Champions League), Rosenior is now down to six defeats in 13 matches, in addition to a brutal elimination in C1 by PSG (8-2 over the two matches). We call it a flop.
Losses that make you dizzy
More generally, the entire strategy of the Blues leaders is seriously called into question with these results. Club president and owner Todd Boehly arrived in 2022 with a very specific strategy, which is showing its limits. According to a survey of The Athleticthe BlueCo consortium has totaled 793 million operating losses over the last three years, or the staggering sum of 724,000 euros per day.
Another figure that makes you dizzy, the club spent 2.15 billion euros over this period on new recruitments, more than half of which was on players aged 24 and under. For what results? Since 2022, Chelsea have certainly won the Europa Conference League (2025) and the Club World Cup, but have never finished in the top 3 of the championship, have not played a Cup final or reached the last four of the C1. Which, one imagines, was more the idea.
Wanting to make a profit on young players with high potential can be defended, but we must not already buy them at an indecent price, and that they are put in the conditions to shine.
Faced with this situation, the most experienced players are starting to express their dissatisfaction. We think of Marc Cucurella, who publicly lit his leaders at the end of March. He certainly won’t be the last to do so if the club keeps digging.
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