Mauricio Pochettino will almost certainly be keen not to make excuses for another disappointing Chelsea performance, this time at Bournemouth, however, with a full XI out injured at present, he could be forgiven for at least acknowledging that he can’t get any sort of stability at present for precisely that reason.
The Blues again looked out of ideas and lethargic for the most part at the Vitality Stadium, and any initial optimism that the west Londoners could do some damage in the Premier League this season has surely evaporated.
Perhaps supporters shouldn’t be too hasty in their assessments, however.
According to talkSPORT, the Stamford Bridge outfit currently have a full XI out of action that’s worth a conservative £370m combined.
Marcus Bettinelli, Trevoh Chalobah, Benoit Badiashile, Wesley Fofana, Reece James, Romeo Lavia, Moises Caicedo, Carney Chukwuemeka, Christopher Nkunku, Armando Broja and Noni Madueke are all sidelined.
Whilst a few of those named might not get straight into the starting XI, it’s a fair bet that more than half of them would do.
Having both Romeo Lavia and Moises Caicedo in situ and working in tandem in the midfield would likely shore things up and allow the team to create more in an attacking sense.
Indeed, the sooner Chelsea can get a settled XI the better, because the longer their current malaise goes on the worse it could get for Pochettino thanks to Todd Boehly’s trigger finger.