Ex-Chelsea manager Avram Grant believes that his old club suffer with a lack of identity when compared to their Premier League rivals.
The Blues are currently top of the Premier League table with 55 points from 22 games, and boast an eight-point lead over nearest rivals Arsenal.
With Antonio Conte seemingly building a strong squad with a clear identity, Grant doesn’t believe that they have the same aura or culture as their rivals such as Arsenal and Manchester City just yet.
His reasoning behind that is the fact that the club have had 11 different managers since he was sacked in 2007, and so that constant turnover will not have helped.
Nevertheless, the timing of his comments seem a little strange as they certainly are building an identity under their current boss.
“I think the problem is that Chelsea don’t have an identity of how they play,” Grant told ESPN FC at Ghana’s team base at the African Nations Cup. “Arsenal have, Pep Guardiola has; they don’t. They want to buy players and win titles but they cannot have an identity because they change coach every year or two.”
Nevertheless, the Ghana boss did have praise for Conte too, as he has been impressed with the way in which the Italian tactician has adapted to what he has at Stamford Bridge and gotten the best out of the players at his disposal.
“They are doing great and I can only respect Conte. He’s not stubborn like others, and said ‘OK, it’s not going well, let’s change it’. I know the players were not happy at the beginning but this is what leadership is about. He’s doing a really good job and Chelsea are playing very well.”
The key for Chelsea now is to have that consistency and sense of being settled, and based on results over the past three or four months under Conte, they have the right man in place to ensure that they are competing for silverware and reaching their objectives.