Chelsea have excessive expectations round them after an outstanding summer season, however no one is kind of certain the place they’ll find yourself this 12 months. Are they actually title contenders?
As we noticed final 12 months, they’ll beat anybody on their day, but in addition have weak intervals in video games and in the midst of the season. Watching them is a bit like utilizing your Qbet bonus code to guess on the slots or roulette – a recreation of likelihood.
The opening day summed all of it up. The hype had constructed round Enzo Maresca’s workforce following a robust exhibiting on the finish of the season and thru the Membership World Cup, which they ended up successful.
Excessive power wins in our two pleasant video games in opposition to Bayer Leverkusen and AC Milan had many followers and pundits satisfied that the Membership World Cup hangover wasn’t going to be as dangerous as thought.
The brand new signings all appeared nice, Maresca was into his second 12 months in cost, the harm state of affairs was largely good, it was a house recreation… it was all lined up for the Blues to make a mark on the brand new season.
However, soccer being soccer, it was a 0-0 draw. A very uninteresting one at that. A reminder that the summer season hype can solely let you know a lot, and that flashy new signings don’t at all times hit the bottom operating.
It was additionally a reminder of the standard of the Premier League. “Crystal Palace” doesn’t have the identical cachet as a reputation Milan or Leverkusen, however they’re a very sturdy facet with numerous good gamers and a very good supervisor.
That’s true of the vast majority of the Premier League – even the promoted groups look good this 12 months. There might be only a few simple video games, and even fewer video games that are simple to foretell.
Chelsea completed 4th final 12 months and can after all need to enhance on that – however in a 12 months the place most of the prime groups might be higher than final 12 months, that received’t be simple.
The problem of enjoying within the Champions League relatively than the Convention League will even change issues majorly. No extra resting eleven gamers in midweek. Some would say that ending fourth with that added problem can be a feat in itself.
It’s a very fascinating marketing campaign in prospect as Chelsea attempt to get again to the highest. Consistency would be the key, and this workforce, for all its expertise, continues to be very younger: consistency over the course of the entire season could also be simply what they lack.
