We’re now just one game away from the second international break of this season. That point, at the start of October, is always a nice staging post to see how a team is getting on.
We’ve played enough Premier League games to have faced a variety of opposition teams with different levels, plus the Champions League calendar is well underway and we’re seeing how the squad copes with two high level games a week.
Not well, it turns out. Chelsea’s injury situation started badly and got worse. The depth we bought isn’t up to the right level yet, and the starters are being run into the ground.
A look at the Card Player’s list of US trusted and reliable bookies show the same thing – our chances of making the top 4 have slipped a little. We remain favourites to finish 4th, but the closing pack are a hair closer.
So where do we think Chelsea will be at Christmas, the next natural break point? The upcoming international break could go either way. On the one hand it gives another fortnight for injured players to recover, and for those who are just back to get closer to full fitness.
On the other hand, it also gives everyone another chance to go and get injured or fatigued playing for their country. We never tend to do well in the game directly after an international week, and typically we’ve got the worst slot of all this time, playing the early kick off on Saturday against Nottingham Forest. The South American players in our squad will have had about 48 hours back in the country before that match kicks off.
That should at least be a winnable game – after that we’ve got Ajax in the Champions League, a vital 3 points we need to get our campaign back on track. Then impressive Sunderland come to the Bridge. That’s followed by a game against Wolves in the EFL Cup, then Tottenham away in the Premier League at the start of November.
A run of 4 wins against Forest, Ajax, Sunderland and Wolves would see us right back up the table in the Premier League, back on track in the Champions League and through to the quarter finals of the EFL Cup. That would be a very successful October.
However, until we know how much damage is done by the break to come, it’s hard to predict how likely that is. Let’s hope we’re going into that Spurs game riding a positive wave.
