Once again, a wobbly winter has fans and pundits unsure what to make of this Chelsea. They promise so much, but rarely deliver close to their potential, given the players they have and the money that has been spent on them.
Having come into the season on a high, things took their typical December slip, and now we’re battling just to stay in touch with the top four in the Premier League.
The Champions League looks and even longer shot right now. Football betting sites in UAE will give you the same answer as any bookie – the Blues just aren’t fancied as a top team at the moment.
Arsenal and Bayern Munich are favourites to win it, both sitting at around 5/1. Next come PSG and Man City, a little longer at around 8/1. The third tier has Barcelona, Liverpool and Real Madrid around 11/1.
Finally, only after all them, comes Chelsea at 20/1. That’s a lot longer than we were at the start of the season, where out success at the Club World Cup had convinced everyone we could take on any top team and win. We looked like we had signed some strikers to score goals, and finally had enough depth to compete on two fronts.
Since then, things have been a struggle. Even in the Premier League we’ve struggled to show our best form consistently, and the win over Brentford on Saturday (a a pretty fortunate win at that) was just our second league win since the win over Burnley in late November.
That game was followed in midweek by our 3-0 destruction of Barcelona in the Champions League. It’s crazy to think how good we looked then – a real contender for the European cup. It felt like the moment that this team had gone up a level, instead, it started a downslope which eventually led to the departure of Enzo Maresca.
Liam Rosenior is in place now, and will hope to follow up the turnaround in league form with more wins. A soft game against Pafos this week should allow him to start his Champions League career with a win, and we then have a Crystal Palace team who are unravelling before our very eyes to take on the at the weekend.
Rosenior won’t have a better chance all season to make it 3 wins on the spin and really get some belief back into this team. Then we can check back on those Champions League odds and see what’s changed.
