Chelsea 2022/23 season review: When everything went wrong at Stamford Bridge

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The 2022/23 season is over, and although Chelsea fans might be keen to move on as soon as possible, there remains the small matter of a season review to wrap things up with a battered and bruised bow

A historically poor campaign which yielded record lows for points, goals scored and morale, the debut season under the Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital ownership will be remembered for all the wrong reasons, and there is now some serious work to be done to ensure such a horrific campaign is not repeated next year.

Strap in, because here’s a look back at the 2022/23 season for Chelsea.



On May 30, 2022, the Boehly-Clearlake group completed their purchase of Chelsea, vowing to throw huge sums of money into the squad and turn the Blues into trophy-hungry monsters.

There was cautious optimism for their project. Fans expected a bit of a bumpy transition but the general consensus was that a spot in the top four was a realistic goal, particularly as the money kept flying in on new players.

Led by Thomas Tuchel originally, Chelsea fans believed they were in for a fun season of change. Oh, how wrong they were.


Date

Player

Signed from

Fee

July 13, 2022

Raheem Sterling

Manchester City

£47.5m

July 16, 2022

Kalidou Koulibaly

Napoli

£33m

August 2, 2022

Gabriel Slonina

Chicago Fire

£12m

August 4, 2022

Carney Chukwuemeka

Aston Villa

£20m

August 5, 2022

Marc Cucurella

Brighton

£62m

August 19, 2022

Cesare Casadei

Inter

£16m

August 31, 2022

Wesley Fofana

Leicester

£75m

September 1, 2022

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang

Barcelona

£12m

September 1, 2022

Denis Zakaria

Juventus

Loan

January 5, 2023

Benoit Badiashile

Monaco

£35m

January 7, 2023

David Datro Fofana

Molde

£10.6m

January 7, 2023

Andrey Santos

Vasco da Gama

£13m

January 11, 2023

Joao Felix

Atletico Madrid

Loan

January 15, 2023

Mykhailo Mudryk

Shakhtar Donetsk

£88.5m

January 20, 2023

Noni Madueke

PSV Eindhoven

£29m

January 29, 2023

Malo Gusto

Lyon

£30.75m

January 31, 2023

Enzo Fernandez

Benfica

£106.8m

February 10, 2023

Jimmy-Jay Morgan

Southampton

£6m


Date

Player

Sold to

Fee

July 1, 2022

Antonio Rudiger

Real Madrid

Free

July 1, 2022

Andreas Christensen

Barcelona

Free

July 1, 2022

Danny Drinkwater

Unattached

Released

July 1, 2022

Romelu Lukaku

Inter

Loan

August 2, 2022

Gabriel Slonina

Chicago Fire

Loan

August 5, 2022

Levi Colwill

Brighton

Loan

August 8, 2022

Timo Werner

RB Leipzig

£25.3m

August 10, 2022

Malang Sarr

Monaco

Loan

August 23, 2022

Emerson

West Ham

£15m

August 29, 2022

Ross Barkley

Nice

Free

August 30, 2022

Callum Hudson-Odoi

Bayer Leverkusen

Loan

September 1, 2022

Marcos Alonso

Barcelona

Free

September 1, 2022

Billy Gilmour

Brighton

£9m

September 2, 2022

Michy Batshuayi

Fenerbahce

Free

January 29, 2023

Malo Gusto

Lyon

Loan

January 30, 2023

Cesare Casadei

Reading

Loan

January 31, 2023

Jorginho

Arsenal

£12m

March 2, 2023

Andrey Santos

Vasco da Gama

Loan


Thiago Silva

Thiago SilvaThiago Silva

Thiago Silva can hold his head up high / Craig Mercer/MB Media/GettyImages

Rarely has there ever been so little competition for a club’s player of the season award.

For the majority of the season, veteran centre-back Thiago Silva continued to do his best to drag Chelsea out of their slump, putting in a series of excellent, composed performances at the heart of an under-fire defence.

While the 38-year-old’s form may have dipped towards the end of the campaign, there was never any serious competition to take this gong away from him.

Honourable mentions: Enzo Fernandez, Raheem Sterling


Conor Gallagher vs Crystal Palace

In a season in which there weren’t many goals to celebrate, Conor Gallagher’s glorious strike against Crystal Palace to kick off October is undoubtedly one worth remembering.

With a deft touch to nutmeg his defender, Gallagher unleashed a ferocious effort from well outside the box which rocketed into the back of the Palace net to seal an important 2-1 victory – kicking off perhaps the last true period of optimism across the season.

Add in the fact that this was against his old loan side, and you’ve got all the makings of a ridiculous goal.

Honourable mentions: Kalidou Koulibaly vs Tottenham, Raheem Sterling vs Leicester, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang vs Crystal Palace, Mason Mount vs Aston Villa, Kai Havertz vs Red Bull Salzburg


Chelsea 3-0 AC Milan

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Kepa ArrizabalagaPierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Kepa Arrizabalaga

Rare smiles for Chelsea after a comfortable win / Robin Jones/GettyImages

Chelsea played 50 games this season and won just 16 of those, so the list of top performances is a short one.

The Blues fell well short in the Premier League but did put in a series of sensational performances in Europe, with October’s 3-0 victory over AC Milan at Stamford Bridge standing out from the crowd.

The Rossoneri went on to reach the Champions League final but it was Chelsea who looked deserving of that spot in this meeting, where goals from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Wesley Fofana and Reece James saw Graham Potter’s side secure an emphatic victory.

Honourable mentions: AC Milan 0-2 Chelsea, Chelsea 2-0 Borussia Dortmund


Enzo Fernandez

Enzo FernandezEnzo Fernandez

Enzo Fernandez looks a like star in the making / James Williamson – AMA/GettyImages

16 new faces came through the door at Stamford Bridge this season and it’s a real possibility that most of them head straight back out, such was the disappointment felt by fans towards their new signings.

Among the rare positives was the most expensive of the bunch, Enzo Fernandez. Paying just shy of £107m to lure him away from Benfica in January, Chelsea never regretted their spend as the 22-year-old quickly proved himself to be not just one of the team’s best players, but also the most passionate leaders. A true star for years to come.

Fernandez made 22 appearances in his first half-season, and despite playing in a system which did not always get the best out of him, never let fans down.

Honourable mentions: Benoit Badiashile, Noni Madueke


Lewis Hall

Lewis HallLewis Hall

Lewis Hall has broken through at Chelsea / Catherine Ivill/GettyImages

18-year-old Lewis Hall may have played in just nine Premier League games this season but is undeniably a deserving winner of this prize.

Hall, a midfielder by trade, spent a large part of the season on the fringes but wasted little time in making an impact when he did get his opportunities, quickly outperforming his senior, more expensive teammates and proving he is ready to play Premier League football.

Whether his future lies in midfield or in the left-back role in which he impressed remains to be seen, but Hall can look back on his individual campaign with great pride.

Honourable mentions: None


The 2022/23 season

Look, no part of this season went well. No competitions can be remembered fondly. None of the four managers will be proud of their performances. Nearly every player regressed significantly. It was just awful.

While there was obviously a huge change behind the scenes this summer, nobody expected this to happen to Chelsea. Nearly every decision, from the first to the last, was the wrong one, and now the Blues have been left licking their wounds.

You can pick out the players who left the most to be desired (and there’s a whole lot of them), but nobody is blameless from this mess.

Honourable mentions: Kalidou Koulibaly, Marc Cucurella, Mykhailo Mudryk, Graham Potter


Most appearances


Top scorers


Most assists



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