Chelsea had 14 problems to deal with in the 14 days leading up the big kick off in the Premier League, and they have made some decent progress on them.
We’re hesitant to say they’ve “fixed” the sloppy defensive mistakes, but Inter’s goal at least came from a more broad team failing than an error in defence. So we’ll take that off the list and live in hope that things are heading in the right direction.
We’re not sure about quite knowing where Cole Palmer fits into the team yet, but he did at least get some match minutes, as did Nicolas Jackson, so we’ll take those two off. Both players will certainly be fit for minutes against Man City, if not starts.
As for building up confidence with wins in these final friendlies- well, we didn’t manage that, but there are no friendlies left to play now. We did at least play some good stuff against Inter, and we feel better after that game than after the Real Madrid game. A last minute equaliser helped, but we’d played some good stuff earlier in the game.
Sadly we’ll also have to add one back in. Last week it seemed the backup striker situation had been sorted, but the move for Samu Omorodion has collapsed and left us short once again.
We’d love to say that both Christopher Nkunku’s position and the midfield had been decided by now – but both very interlinked questions are very much up in the air. We will find out Maresca’s final decision on Sunday.
The 6 left
- Work out how to fit Christopher Nkunku into the front line.
- Decide on a midfield – Enzo and Caicedo and Dewsbury-Hall all in, with Lavia on the bench?
- Sell or loan Romelu Lukaku before things get even more awkward.
- Make a final decision on who gets the final precious loan slots.
- Can we shift Kepa permanently?
- Sign a backup striker.
