An absolutely complete football team doesn’t exist. An absolutely complete football team can’t exist, because the culture and teams around that team are constantly changing the parameters of what “complete” might mean.
At times it might involve two world class strikers, at times it might involve one, and so on. It depends what everyone else is up to.
But a relatively complete football team can exist. Like Chelsea right now. Against a backdrop of Premier League competitors that are fading or rebuilding, imbalanced or patched-up, Jose Mourinho’s carefully constructed side has a really strong sense of the complete about it. Against opponents that keep revealing new holes every weekend, Mourinho has a squad that looks entirely solid.
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In goal, there’s maybe the second best goalkeeper in the world, after Manuel Neuer. His name is Thibaut Courtois. Petr Cech—another goalkeeper in the top ten—is his backup. That’s ridiculous. And it goes on. In defence, John Terry, Gary Cahill, Branislav Ivanovic and Cesar Azpilicueta make more collective appearances than any other back four in the league and it shows—they’re also the best unit in the league. They know how to work together, so they work brilliantly together.
In midfield, there are the twin revelations of Nemanja Matic and Cesc Fabregas. Matic compliments the defence behind him brilliantly, sauntering around, pulling apart opposition attacks before they can get close enough to expose Terry and Cahill’s lack of pace. Then Fabregas compliments Matic equally brilliantly, picking the ball up off him and dictating how games run from there on in.
On the left, Eden Hazard runs past opposition defenders like a teenage shoplifter might run past a middle-aged security guard—with ease, and a hint of doing it just for kicks. This season, again, he’s a more decisive player than last time around and is an individual who can be relied upon to make “stuff” happen when the collective can’t muster its own attacks to break defences down. At number ten, Oscar brings an odd, slightly-difficult-to describe-combination of both finesse and hard running, and his example has helped lead the team’s moves towards pressing opponents harder and higher up the pitch when they have the ball. On the right, Willian is an amalgamation of the other two.
And finally, up front, Diego Costa is the top scorer in the Premier League, with ten goals in 11 games. We’re talking about a striker more aggressive than any of the centre backs he’s playing against; a player who finishes the neat footballing moves those guys behind him put together by hitting the ball as though he’s trying to get revenge on it for some perceived slight earlier in the game. No one’s ever seen him hit a ball anything less than as hard as he can. And it works.
All of Chelsea works, in fact, including the guys behind the guys: the back-up players. On the bench, Mourinho can choose from: Cech (as described), Felipe Luis (the best full-back in the Champions League last season), Kurt Zouma (John Terry’s already able replacement), Andre Schurrle (World Cup winner), Jon Obi Mikel (the midfielder Mourinho always uses to close out games), Mohamed Salah (one of the quickest players in the league), Ramires (Mourinho’s option for defensive doubling-up out wide), Loic Remy (a second-choice striker with 14 Premier League goals last season) and Didier Drogba (a third choice striker who is both club legend and already has three goals this season).
Quite simply, you can’t do a run-through like this for any other team that’s trying to compete with Chelsea.
Manchester City has a back four with, straightforwardly, a weakness on its left side. Arsenal lacks a defensive midfielder and defensive cover. Manchester United lacks centre backs, a forward in any kind of goalscoring form and a midfield that has had time to work out how to play together. Liverpool’s attack can no longer cover for its defence and its midfield can no longer cover for Steven Gerrard’s legs.
If you look, everyone around Chelsea—or, more adequately, those attempting to be around Chelsea—has the kind of obvious deficiencies that turn up when you’re either in collective decline or when you’ve previously addressed a collective decline but are still attempting to come to terms with the changes that are required. Chelsea is the only team that has both a squad of players playing at their peak and a squad that is fully balanced and backed up in all areas.
And so it is time for the bit where I make an analogy.
The (nominal) Premier League title race has become like a battle between who has the best homemade shelf, whereby Chelsea already has a neat, completed shelf, and everyone else has a plank of wood they just found somewhere, and Liverpool has no wood, just some screws and the courage of its convictions. Of course Chelsea will win this battle—it’s relatively complete, while no one else is anywhere near.
Ethan-Dean Richards is a London-based writer. Follow him on Twitter