Football news - Frank Lampard may have to get used to losing

There are different kinds of defeat, each of them painful in different ways: some leave losers with a sense of furious injustice, that the cosmos somehow conspired to deny them what was rightfully theirs; others with pangs of missed opportunity, that although it wasn’t their day, on another day, it might’ve been; and others still with a sickening feeling of utter hopelessness that there was simply nothing they could possibly have done to avoid a richly-merited tousing.

Chelsea’s shellacking by Bayern belongs firmly in that third category, which is not to say that they embarrassed themselves, simply that Bayern embarrassed them. Chelsea competed in the first half and performed more or less as well as they can, but ultimately there is a bottom line: their players are not very good. There is a reason why Frank Lampard makes so many changes, both of formation and personnel, and it is not for the fun of it.

Which is not to say that Chelsea are useless, nor that they have no scope for improvement. But they are painfully short on class – the kind of class that cannot be inculcated on the training ground and it is hard to see how that changes without the lavishing of considerable sums of money.

In goal, Lampard has been forced to dispense with Kepa Arrizabalaga, after he showed not the slightest sign of developing the presence or reliability necessary for a top keeper. Though Willy Caballero, his replacement, played well tonight, he too is not up to standard and there is not a doubt that Lampard would like to buy a replacement.

In defence, Antonio Rudiger is serviceable but not much more, standing out because of the poverty around him rather than his own excellent, while Cesar Azpilicueta remains steady, but is a shadow of the stalwart who has been so good in previous seasons. He found it hard to cope with the pace and cleverness of Bayern’s attackers – understandable in a way – but that is going to get more acute, not less.

On the right side of defence, Reece James is a star, but there is a limit to what a 20-year-old full-back not named Trent Alexander-Arnold can do, while Marcos Alonso let his team down badly tonight.

In midfield, the situation is similar: Chelsea have decent players but little more. N'Golo Kante, the best of them, is finally showing the strain of his devastating workload and style of play – who knows when he’ll be back and if he’ll be the same player – while Ross Barkley is never going to grow a brain to match his ability on the ball. Jorginho, meanwhile, lacks the power and pace to impose himself in a physical game. The former Napoli midfielder's passing is nowhere as perceptive or progressive as that of the serious exponents of the art. In a match like tonight’s, which demanded both elements be solid, he is an encumbrance, while alongside him, it is no longer quite such a mystery as to what Mateo Kovacic does, but his driving runs and passing come to nothing all too often.

Chelsea also have problems further forward. Callum Hudson-Odoi has everything he needs to develop into a proper player, but Pedro and Willian are on the way down and Christian Pulisic is erratic. Mason Mount, meanwhile, has some talent, but looks like someone who sometimes does good things, rather than someone able to impose himself regularly. To play as a number 10 in a serious team, it is not enough to prompt nicely; the return must, in the first instance, be measured in goals and assists.

Ahead of him, Olivier Giroud is good but not good enough, a useful substitute but never a first-choice forward. And while Tammy Abraham’s early season form surprised everyone, his subsequent drop looks like a regression to his natural level, rather than the calm before a further storm.

Of course, a number of these players will improve, but few of them look likely to improve enough. Lampard has an enormous job ahead of him, and if the January transfer window is anything to go by, not the means to attack it in the proper fashion. That sickening feeling might soon be a familiar feeling.