Chelsea’s fixtures make it clear why pundits are calling Champions League dream dead

Two draws in two games have the broader punditocracy declaring Chelsea’s Champions League dreams dead.

How can that be? We’re 6th, and only need to finish in the top 5. We’re only 3 points off Nottingham Forest in 3rd to boot, and there are still a full 6 games left to play.

Well, the reason the people are bailing on our chances are that the Chelsea fixtures to come are just so nasty. After failing to beat Brentford and Ipswich in our last two matches, nobody has any faith in us to improve on that in the weeks to come – and that includes us too.

In fact, the only games we have any real confidence in this season are our remaining Conference League fixtures. Every single remaining Premier League game looks like it could be a problem, and that includes Fulham, who we face this weekend.

Marco Silva’s team beat us at Stamford Bridge this season, and now they get to take us on at Craven Cottage. We might have been hoping they’d be on the beach by now, but they’re in a European race of their own – they are just 6 points behind us themselves.

After that comes Everton. David Moyes’ team have less to play for, but the Scottish coach always gets his team fired up, and in that early kick off time slot, anything can happen, even at home. To follow that we face Liverpool, and we’re grateful that one is at home, otherwise it could get really nasty.

The crucial game of the whole run in comes after that – if we’re still in the race at that point, we will have to fend off Newcastle, who are coming up hard on the rails and have shot ahead of us in the table, with a midweek game in hand this week to boot.

Manchester United come next – and even with their current struggles we don’t want to be relying on 3 points against them. This is Manchester United football club we’re talking about, after all.

The season ends with a match against Nottingham Forest. Looking ahead to the season when the fixtures were announced that might not have seemed like a big deal, but with the season they’ve had, that could end up being a massive game if they slide down from 3rd and we can stay in touch with them. If we get a good result against Newcastle, that Forest game could then prove to be the match where it’s all decided, on a thrilling final day.