Pep Guardiola can prevent Chelsea from the worst Premier League humiliation possible.
Chelsea may continue to lose, but thanks to Manchester City, their chances of being demoted may be eliminated this weekend.
Since taking over as interim manager at the beginning of April, the standard operating procedure has been the image of Frank Lampard's defeated countenance and folded arms on the touchline at the Emirates Stadium.
Another sad night arrived on Tuesday night for Chelsea supporters who were already downhearted. This time, it was at the hands of a strong and merciless Arsenal team that refused to let recent defeats derail their title chances. In the later Arsene Wenger years, Chelsea used to regularly hand out this kind of humiliation to the Gunners.
Even though this was not the notorious 6-0 victory in March 2014, the difference in quality was just as terrible as this most recent defeat's impending doom. With the majority of the opposition Chelsea has faced this season, the huge gap in value and productivity between the two teams feels like a weekly realization.
The fact that Arsenal's league campaign has already outscored any point total the Blues have achieved since 2017 serves as a sharp reminder of how far Chelsea has fallen short of a meaningful title challenge in recent years, even if they don't win the Premier League. Even while going trophyless may hurt Arsenal supporters, at least they have a team that seems capable and is doing better than anticipated heading into the season.
Given Chelsea's current gloomy outlook, any talk of a title push may seem decades rather than years away, but it illustrates the humility that will be required in every aspect of the club to acknowledge how far Chelsea has fallen short of the standards of previous teams.
Frank Lampard, whose coaching career appears to be in ruins at the moment, has been unable to elicit any kind of response since succeeding Graham Potter, and he continues to display the tactical failings that cost him his jobs at Derby, Chelsea the first time, and Everton.
In Lampard's 4-3-3, which so far feels like the latest in a failed series of experiments with a disorganized squad since the influx of names in January, Martin Odergaard and Granit Xhaka were able to take advantage of the openings. The shoddy defending that led to Gabriel Jesus' goal to make it 3-0 was the funniest one this season.
Chelsea still needs one more win to reach the 40-point plateau, which has some people looking down the table in fear at the relegation zone.
In truth, Leeds could only reach 39 points by winning their last three games and having the lowest goal differential if Manchester City defeated them this weekend, thus Chelsea would effectively be secure. The same is true for Nottingham Forest and Leicester City.
It would be difficult for Chelsea to overtake the bottom three even if they dropped all of their remaining matches against Bournemouth, Forest, both Manchester clubs, and Newcastle.
The magnitude of this season's humiliation can be gauged by the fact that we are even having this conversation about a team that was both the world's and Europe's champion in the previous 18 months. The remaining matches lack any sense of excitement for anything bigger than a contractual duty from everyone concerned.
