Raheem Sterling's move to Chelsea didn't go according to plan. Photo: Getty Images/Alex Pantling
A year ago. On Monday, Raheem Sterling scored twice for Manchester City against Newcastle United, the first and last goals in a 5-0 win, and Pep Guardiola's team turned the title race again.
These were not the last goals Sterling scored for the club: three days later he scored the fifth in a 5-1 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers. His fourth Premier League title with City was on the doorstep, and it was Sterling who played a key role in the final day's comeback against Aston Villa, coming on as a second-half substitute to score the first of those three dramatic goals.
However, it was the diminishing role he felt he played at the club that convinced him that this would be his last season at City. He did not feature in both legs of the Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid, although in later games he showed what an important player he has become for Guardiola's team. He left last summer for Chelsea, suggesting he found the reduced role unacceptable. He wanted to play all the most important games.
A year later, Sterling failed to make it into Chelsea's starting XI against Bournemouth on Saturday. The club was in turmoil, and Sterling went through five consecutive 30-plus league seasons, goalscoring totals in double figures and a team spot at the base of the title race was broken. Frank Lampard is now changing sides from game to game to find a solution to his six-game losing streak to Graham Potter and Bruno Saltor.
“Personally one of the lowest scores of my career" Sterling said in an interview with Sky Sports. "It was a pretty smooth sailing, victories, victories and victories, but sometimes in life something catches the eye.
Sterling has started every one of Lampard's six games, except for the return leg against Real Madrid in the Champions League quarter-finals — the irony of fate may not have escaped him. In each of the five, he was replaced. He played in at least five different positions during the season and has not scored a league goal since 1 January. His total of four goals is his lowest since his breakthrough season in the Premier League at Liverpool a decade ago. Last season was Sterling's best with 60 appearances in all competitions for City and 26 goals. These numbers were the main reason why Chelsea made him their highest paid player.
Sterling is a fundamental part of the plans of the consortium led by Todd Boli and Behdad Egbali. Last summer, when he was 27, he signed a five-year £50m contract with an option for another year and a salary in excess of £300,000 a week. He is far from the only Chelsea celebrity to have struggled this season, but if any signing is to be successful, this is it.
«Raheem has had an incredible career,» Lampard said on Friday at the club's base in Cobham. “For the last three years, I have been talking to the young wingers I work with and showing them videos of Raheem Sterling going to the post or how he works defensively. You absolutely cannot take anything from him that he has done. For Manchester City and England.
A look at Sterling's touch cards for Tuesday's defeat at the Emirates and against Newcastle last May shows the difference in his role then and now. His sensor map of the city shows the largest cluster of attackers inside the right and right districts. There are only two touches on his half, just a couple of steps beyond the middle line.
Against Arsenal this week, the picture is much less clear. On his half, 13 touches out of 45, including four in his own zone. It is clear that this Chelsea side at Arsenal was far more behind than champion City were a year later. However, Sterling's touch map with Chelsea paints a picture of a defensive defender, not an attacker or scorer.
0605 Raheem Sterling Touches
Lampard said the player faced problems that were not immediately obvious. “When you change clubs, everyone on the outside says [sarcastically] 'Oh what a tough job to go from Man City to Chelsea … what a terrible situation.' It brings changes to your life. And, perhaps, the form of the team was not very good. There can always be many factors contributing to an individual form. One thing I feel when Raheem talks to him is that he is very honest with himself. He has a bank loan.”
Lampard said there were “many understandable reasons and stories within the team” that contributed to this decline, and that Sterling was one of them. He also added that the constant line-up changes — Chelsea have changed the most of any Premier League team — means that «communications and partnerships within the team» are not being built. «To understand whether the defender will cover them or the linebacker will support them.»
As for Sterling himself, it was admitted in an interview with The Sun this week that the season was not good enough. «I wasn't even close to my usual level,» he said. But there was also the certainty that he would return. “Winning silver at a time like this would be even more satisfying than if you were winning every week.”
Winning every week is something he's used to. The partnership he negotiated with Chelsea has a long way to go and both sides are desperate for his success.
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