Are Chelsea running out of excuses for their Jekyll and Hyde form?
Straight Outta Cobham: The Athletic FC's Chelsea show
The Athletic
4.9 • 871 Ratings
🗓️ 29 December 2025
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Well, that wasn't very festive Chelsea.
Matt Davies-Adams has got Luke Bosher and Simon Johnson for company as we unpick the collapse in the 2-1 defeat by Aston Villa at the Bridge on Saturday evening.
We discuss the failings of the squad building process of the summer, the defensive lapses which yet again came back to bite this team - and whether Enzo Maresca can avoid the pressure mounting to deliver performances and results considering it's now just two wins in eight matches in all competitions for the Blues.
There's no time to dwell on that result - with games against Bournemouth and Manchester City in quick succession to take us into 2026. We look ahead to those and make the case that no one from the bench exactly made a case to be starting in these ones...
Plus - a quick look ahead to the January transfer window activity and the importance of the League Cup with nine games to come in a crazy month for the club.
We'll be back NEXT MONDAY the 5th of January with our reaction to the Bournemouth and Man City games - plus a look ahead to the trips to Fulham in the Premier League and Charlton in the FA Cup. Strap yourselves in for a crazy January!
HOST: Matt Davies-Adams
WITH: Luke Bosher and Simon Johnson
PRODUCER: Lucy Oliva
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Athletic FC |
| 0:03.3 | It's Chelsea |
| 0:06.5 | Chelsea, Chelsea, maybe. |
| 0:10.9 | It's straight out of common, a show about Chelsea FC from the Athletic. |
| 0:18.8 | Coming up, a game of two halves against Villa, or two thirds maybe. |
| 0:22.8 | Coles face Palmer after sub-snub, a must-win against Bournemouth, and it's transfer talk time. |
| 0:28.3 | The highest rated show on the Athletic Podcast Network, this is straight out of common. |
| 0:36.0 | Well, Chelsea, that wasn't very Christmassy. |
| 0:39.1 | Hopefully things will pick up against Bournemouth. |
| 0:41.9 | We are going to preview that game. |
| 0:43.4 | A little bit of Man City tour, a little bit of transfer, titlettle, |
| 0:46.2 | and look back on the defeat against Astonville. |
| 0:49.6 | I hope you've had a good Christmas anyway, folks. |
| 0:52.3 | It's me, Matt. |
| 0:52.9 | I am joined by two of the Athletics Chelsea experts. Hello, Simon Johnson. Hello, everybody. It's that time of year again. Ho, ho. Only a couple more days left of it as we record on Monday. Luke Boishter's back with this too. How are you doing, Luke? I'm very well, Matt. I think we are still firmly in the festive period. |
| 1:11.9 | So we're very May Christmas to you. Yeah, I was saying we recorded the preview for the |
| 1:16.1 | athletic earlier and I think that this is the last day, the 29th of December, you can get away with |
| 1:20.5 | saying Merry Christmas. Then it will switch to Happy New Year slash, did you have a good one in terms of |
| 1:26.4 | conversation from now on. Now, before we get going, |
| 1:30.0 | let me remind you that you can find us on X&BuSky at S.O.com and Pod, email the show, |
| 1:35.1 | sOC at theathletic.com. Got lots of correspondence to get through today. And thank you for leaving |
| 1:40.9 | us a nice review, Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever you get your pods. It's made as the highest rated show on the entire network. |
... |
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