Chelsea climb Champions League ranks after overcoming slow start

Chelsea’s win over Ajax in the Champions League this week was very straightforward, and got the Blues back on track with a second win a row following their opening round defeat to Bayern Munich.

Six points from nine puts us back in the mix to qualify, and our next game being against Qarabag should allow us to climb even further up the table in the next round. A heavy win got a few pundits backing Chelsea to be in the mix to win the trophy this year. As some pointed out, they’re actually better suited to winning a tournament of one off ties rather than a league at this stage in their development.

But for any punters checking out NonStopCasino.co.uk Betting Sites, the Blues odds still seem pretty distant. They’re around 21/1 in most places, making them 8th favourites.

PSG are top of the list, with the bookies backing them to retain the title they won with a demolition of Inter in the final back in May. Scarily for Chelsea fans, their closest competition is Arsenal, who are given only slightly longer odds.

The Gunners have a deadly combination of a very strong defence, a potent attack and lots of depth. They look ready to cope with the season all the way through, even when others might start to fall apart.

Then you’ve got a list of the usual suspects – Barcelona, Liverpool, Bayern, Real Madrid, Man City, before you get back to Chelsea.

If things fall our way in terms of the draw, as they did at the Club World Cup, we can definitely see this team going deep in the competition. We’re struggling with injuries now, but there are months to go until the knockout stages, and the likes of Cole Palmer could be back to his best form by then.

By then, we might have sorted out our attacking patterns, with Liam Delap also back and playing, meaning Joao Pedro can drop deeper. The likes of Alejandro Garnacho and others signed in the summer will also have bedded in more by then.

Given the youth and inexperience of this group, it’s hard to tip them to win it this season, but it’s very feasible that they make a deep run into the knockouts, and could potentially surprise some of the big boys along the way.

First things first though – beat Qarabag, then see how we measure up against Barcelona in the game after that.