Chelsea season so far has had two stages – the easier run to start, and then the more difficult set of games we’re in the middle of now.
After starting brightly in the easier fixtures and battling their way up to 4th, a predictable loss to Liverpool at Anfield followed a disappointing draw against Nottingham Forest at home.
Fortunately for us, Newcastle don’t look the formidable force they did a year ago, and we were able to earn 3 points off them in a game which wasn’t nearly as tough as we might have expected when glancing down the fixture list in the summer.
Plenty of betting sites have now seriously upgraded our chances of making the top 4, and churning our way through the next few games with as many points as possible will be vital in setting ourselves up for a Christmas period where we hopefully remain in touch with the Champions League places.
So what’s next on the fixture list, and what do we expect?
The game to start this run is perhaps the most interesting and hard to predict, especially following the news that Erik Ten Hag has been sacked by Manchester United.
It’s not clear if there will be a new manager in place this weekend – it seems more likely that Ruud van Nistelrooy will be an interim. We have no idea who will be in the dugout, what style or formation they will play, what the atmosphere will be like in the stadium or the morale among the players.
All we know is that we’d rather be playing them at the tail end of a manager’s collapsing reign than at the start of a new era. The “new manager bounce” could be in full force.
After United, and after a midweek Conference League game, we then have our third beefy Super Sunday in a row – this time against Arsenal. They still look a top team, and the injuries that are currently affecting them will likely have eased by then.
That game is followed by an international break, and unfortunately Enzo Maresca will have to navigate his team through the Saturday 12.30 kick off to follow – thankfully it’s against a rotten looking Leicester team.
That’s an essential 3 points, because after that come a menacing Aston Villa team plus a trip to Tottenham sandwiching a midweek Premier League round against Southampton.
By that point, squads will be stretched to breaking point, and the benefits of having a full B team to use will really be felt. Hopefully as the December grind kicks in, we’re better placed than our rival teams who are also in Europe, but without the depth we have.
Win the softer games against Leicester and Southampton and we can afford a few dropped points in the other games. But bad results against Spurs and Villa especially could have huge consequences down the line as we compete with them for Champions League places.
Maresca is still working on our patterns of play, but we’ve already shown we’re among the most dangerous counter attacking teams in Europe, and that should be a huge help in plenty of these games.