English football correspondent
It was July 1 2014. The World Cup was in the round of 16, meaning one season had not officially finished.
Chelsea's planning for the next was at an advanced stage. They had already signed Cesc Fabregas. Then they announced they had agreed to activate the buyout clause in Diego Costa's Atletico Madrid contract.
History can have a nostalgic appeal, but lessons can be learned, too. Last year, Chelsea’s two pivotal signings were completed a month before their campaign started. Cornerstones of the side were recruited. There was concrete evidence of clear-headed planning.
Fast forward a year and Chelsea have found themselves doing what Manchester United did 12 months ago and Arsenal in 2011: reacting to early-season setbacks by buying.
They have spent £42 million (Dh242m) in a week and may have to pay out almost as much again if they are to bring in John Stones from Everton.
Whereas Costa and Fabregas started last season in auspicious fashion, with the forward’s debut goal and the midfielder’s maiden assists coming in the opening half of the first game at Burnley, now the pivotal summer addition may be parachuted into the team for the third game.
Pedro has pedigree: 22 trophies for Barcelona and 99 goals, the last the winner in the Uefa Super Cup. He should remedy a shortfall in a side that has seemed over-reliant on Costa and Eden Hazard for goals.
Perhaps his arrival will jolt Oscar and Willian, who may now be competing for one place, into more productive spells.
His arrival can safely be called a coup, and not least because he was a target for Manchester United and has ended up at Stamford Bridge.
Yet it is the fact that Pedro has joined in the second half of August that makes him appear more of an afterthought: less Plan A or the perfect player, more the best Chelsea could do right now.
Then there is Baba Rahman, who seemed set for the status of a second-choice left-back, the new Filipe Luis. Yet that was before Chelsea’s troubled start to the season.
It was telling that, after Branislav Ivanovic had endured a second successive harrowing outing, Jose Mourinho mentioned at Manchester City that Rahman’s arrival could allow Cesar Azpilicueta to switch to right-back. Another newcomer might go straight into the starting 11.
Yet whether panic buying, a default response to a slow start or a belated injection of quality, it is worth remembering the search for answers should have started within.
Three games, including the Community Shield, should not blind us to how dominant Chelsea were last season.
Six of their players – Ivanovic, John Terry, Gary Cahill, Nemanja Matic, Hazard and Diego Costa – were named in the PFA Team of the Year. Three more, in Thibaut Courtois, Azpilicueta and Cesc Fabregas, had plausible claims to a place, too.
Any team with nine individuals who could be considered the best in his position in the league should not rely too much on arrivals.
Not one of those nine has displayed anything like his optimum form so far. Specialists at starting well have now reduced their campaign to a 36-game season by only taking one point from a possible six.
The scope for improvement lies largely with underperforming luminaries, a category that includes Mourinho. A watertight defence has developed holes, between and either side of Terry and Cahill.
Their protective guard has been breached with regularity. Fabregas’s defensive deficiencies have been increasingly apparent while Matic no longer looks the all-action enforcer.
That may not matter so much on Sunday. West Bromwich Albion have no one who roams between the lines like David Silva. They, too, are recovering from a 3-0 defeat to City, a process that began by grinding their way to a stalemate at Watford last week.
Yet the fact that Tony Pulis has won his last two meetings with Mourinho and that Chelsea have not scored in either increases the responsibility on the attacking contingent.
A year ago, Costa began his Chelsea career with seven goals in four games. How they would appreciate it if Pedro could follow suit.
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