Were Chelsea REALLY in crisis?

As Chelsea Wing-Back Marcos Alonso’s low drive squirmed under goalkeeper Lloris, Antonio Conte jumped up with delight and relief written all over his face. He is not one to hide his emotions on the sidelines. His Chelsea team have been criticized — rather unfairly — for their sluggish start to the season, their somewhat relative reluctance to spend the cash (despite breaking their transfer record to bring in Alvaro Morata, spending £33.3m on defender Antonio Rudiger, £39.7m on midfielder Tiemoue Bakayoko, and Wily Caballero joining from Man City for free), and their recent disciplinary issues.

The two Manchester clubs had spent heavily in the transfer market to improve their teams, and there was this sense of skepticism around Stamford Bridge. Many players were loaned out (again), the small issue of Diego Costa still refuses to be resolved,Serbian Nemanja Matic was sold to a rival against the manager’s wishes, and Loic Remy is still a Chelsea player. Despite the off-field issues in the CLUB, there still remained a sense of fearlessness about the TEAM, their ability to create something out of absolutely nothing. They showed that on Sunday.
Truth be told, Chelsea were at times outplayed at Wembley, with The Blues having only 9 shots to Tottenham’s 18, possession stats at 33% to 67%, but they rallied to leave Wembley with all three points thanks to a moment of brilliance from Spaniard Marcos Alonso and Hugo Lloris’ error.
Conte had spent most of the transfer window lamenting their lack of pace in the market. His team had the advantage of not playing in Europe last season, but with the team now in the Champions League there is a sudden need of depth in the squad. If his complaints weren’t clear enough before the start of the season, the opening day defeat to Burnley surely sent the message to the right quarters.
His team was very depleted coming to the match against Spurs: Team Captain Cahill and Midfielder Fabregas were suspended, Eden Hazard wont be back until September and Pedro just returning to the team (he came on as a substitute for Willian in the 78th minute, wearing a mask) and Bakayoko yet to play his first game for The Blues. Chelsea had only 18 senior players, 3 goalkeepers included. Andreas Christensen and Rudiger started in the heart of the defence, with David Luiz playing as the holding midfielder ahead of N’golo Kante and Bakayoko. Morata came in for Batshuayi to start his first game for the West London outfit.
Chelsea put aside all the fears and got the lead in the 24th minute when Alonso curled home a wonderful freekick. It took until the 82nd minute before Tottenham could equalise, and it came from the unlikeliest of sources. Substitute Batshuayi inadvertently headed into his own net from a freekick, his meaningful contribution to the game. And just as it seemed as if the points would be shared, Alonso popped up and slotted a low shot under the arms of Lloris into the net. The goalkeeper should have probably saved the shot but Chelsea, and Conte won’t care. His side have been criticised just a game into the season with many doubting their ability to defend their title. Some pointed to 2015/16 season when the team started the season terribly and just managed to finished 10th when manager Jose Mourinho was sacked and cleanup specialist Guus Hiddink appointed to steady the ship.

Conte is a manager who performs better when his back is against the wall. He did it at Siena, he did it with a Juventus side that finished seventh the previous season and turned them to champions, he did it with the Italian national side that was lacking any notable star player, leading them to the quarter finals of EURO 2016, defeating Spain and Belgium along the way.
The League has barely settled. Heck, Huddersfield are second in the League table. It is just too early to write Chelsea — or any other team — off. They were the “unsettled” team on Sunday, yet they left with all three points. They had only two shots on target, yet scored with both. They were missing their three top scorers and still scored two goals, albeit from a defender. Against Burnley, they were three goals down with 10 men, yet still managed to score two goals with 9 men. This is not damning Chelsea with faint praise, but rather, it is to displel such myopic notions that they are in crisis. What crisis?
