The confidence is back at the Bridge and we have that extra spring in our step, now that the team is winning and the confidence is evidently back I am begging the interim manager to shift the focus. We need to get smart and pick our battles. I believe that Chelsea lost steam in the second half of their Champions League clash against PSG because of the fatigue of some of our players. If some of those players hadn’t played on Saturday we could have left Paris with more than one away goal – possibly even with a win.
Restoring confidence was the most important step towards salvaging our season. The league and top 4 finish are totally impossible now, and I think that Chelsea should start fielding a weakend team in the EPL and field the strongest team in the FA Cup and Champions League. If we continue fielding our best team in the EPL we will finish the season without any silverware.
Costa shouldn’t need to play a full 90 minutes every game,Bertrand Traore should be getting more minutes. The young Burkina Faso forward has managed to score in all 3 games he has featured so far, but he is not as good as Costa. We need to keep Costa fit and happy, but fresh for the Champions League.
We also have a crisis in defence – if we keep fielding our strongest centre back pairing and another defender gets injured, our season might be over. I am begging the manager to only field John Terry in the FA Cup and Champions League, and resort to an Ivanovic-Cahill combination in the league.
Another player that should be rested for big games is John Obi Mikel. He’s proved his worth lately under the new boss, and in my opinion Hiddink should go for Matic-Fabregas or Matic-Loftus-Cheek combination in the Premier League.
Goals will get us victories, which will lead us to silverware. It’s not a good idea to risk Costa in a competition we will get nothing out of. I respect Manchester City for picking their battles. Their young squad showed great resilience in the first half but when the flood gates opened they stuck to the plan. I believe that the current Chelsea team is capable of finishing in the top 10 in the EPL with relative ease. I am also very confident that our in-form Costa can hand Chelsea the Champions League and/or FA cup to salvage our nightmare season.
