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