Chelsea’s season is underway, with a 0-0 draw against Crystal Palace providing a big let down after a summer which saw the hype build.
Isn’t it amazing how quickly the excitement fades? The Club World Cup win and the transfer before and since really had everyone believing that this team had already gone to a new level. The opening weekend was a reminder that it’s never quite that simple.
The odds still look in Chelsea’s favour. Sites like 1xBet play Plinko have Enzo Maresca’s team rated as likely to finish 3rd or 4th among teams at the top which have all improved significantly. A title race is still considered beyond them, which is probably fair.
The transfers this summer have improved the squad without doubt, but the continued moves for young players mean that the average age either drops or stays the same, meaning we face another bedding in period for players like Jamie Gittens, Estevao Willian, Andrey Santos and Jorrel Hato, who are all likely to play a good amount this season.
To win the title you need to be both good and consistent. We can see Chelsea being good this year, but consistency may take a little more time. If the plan is to keep flipping players for profit after a couple of years (as we saw with Noni Madueke and likely Nicolas Jackson this summer), it will be hard for this group to ever grow together and build the experience they need to play at the very highest level for 38 games.
Still, nobody is expecting a title charge anyway. What we want to see is a season like last year, but one without the nightmare middle period which almost blew our Champions League spot.
That shouldn’t be hard to achieve – we may not have title winning experience or consistency yet, but Maresca’s second year should see him and his group able to avoid the major tailspin that hurt them so badly last time out.
Champions League football will be a spanner in the works, however. It’s easy to forget how much of a bonus it was being able to play a fully rotated team in midweeks last season. That won’t be the same now, and the increased load of minutes could bring more injuries to important players too.
The false start on Sunday was maybe to be expected – but this team must get into gear soon. They need to start racking up point before they are drained by European exploits.
