Chelsea Team Preview

Chelsea

Chelsea are coming off of a very chaotic season as defending Premier League champions last season once again. It’s like this club is cursed when they become champions. Once again, Chelsea have sacked and replaced their manager this time Conte being replaced by Maurizio Sarri. A new manager means a new system. Chelsea are expected to be playing a much more high press style of football which should lead to a lot more entertainment for Chelsea fans as last season was just pure boredom in terms of play style. Chelsea have had a good transfer window, not only that Eden Hazard and Willian have decided to stay, but Chelsea have made three signings that being Jorginho, Kovacic and Kepa Arrizabalaga. With Thibaut Courtois officially gone to Real Madrid which may not seem as such a blow now, Chelsea have found a very solid replacement in Kepa, a young 23 year old keeper formerly played for Bilbao looks like a promising signing although he is now the most expensive goalkeeper of all time at £71m but given the market nowadays it’s nothing new. Furthermore the addition of Kovacic (on loan) will provide more strength and depth for Chelsea’s midfield as a midfield trio of Kovacic, Jorginho and Kante looks very promising although they aren’t the most creative players, they are capable and by freeing each other up in that midfield, we may see one of them bomb forward more often and who knows it could really work. Let’s not forget Chelsea still have Fabregas, Loftus-Cheek and Barkley coming off the bench so midfield is clearly not the problem anymore.

Alvaro Morata will be a huge key this season as a striker, after starting strong last season he really faltered towards the end failing to score goals in the second half of the season, he must wake up this season and we all know the talent is there but can he finally turn that into goals at Chelsea? Chelsea have the creative players, it’s just a question on whether Morata can finish his chances. If he can’t then surely at some point we’ll see Batshuayi, Giroud and even possibly Tammy Abraham get chances to start.

One thing to watch out from Chelsea is youth players. It could be very likely that we may see a few young players finally breaking through, mainly Callum Hudson-Odoi who impressed everybody in the pre-season as the 17 year old had already featured against Arsenal and Man City in the shield final, also we could see the likes of Loftus-Cheek, Abraham, Ampadu breaking through and many more. Chelsea will be targeting to return to UEFA Champions League for next season so a finish in top 4 is something that is a must, however they still have another way of qualifying for CL due to the fact that Chelsea will take part in Europa League. A lot of questions to answer for Chelsea coming into this new campaign, but if they keep their star men then surely you’d have to favour them getting a top 4 place under a fresh new start in an attacking system with players such as Kante, Hazard, Fabregas, Willian etc. After all this squad did win the Premier League just over a year ago.

Transfers

Ins – Jorginho, Robert Green, Mateo Kovacic(Loan), Kepa Arrizabalaga

Out – Mitchel Beeney, Wallace, Trevor Chalobah(Loan), Nathan Baxter (Loan), Reece James(Loan), Dujon Sterling(Loan), Lewis Baker(Loan), Jake Clarke-Salter(Loan), Danilo Pantic(Loan), Jonathan Panzo, Eduardo(Loan), Kenedy(Loan), Jhoao Rodriguez(Loan), Jamal Blackman(Loan), Todd Kane(Loan), Mason Mount(Loan), Jeremie Boga, Mario Pasalic(Loan), Nathan(Loan), Jacob Maddox(Loan), Victorien Angban(Loan), Kasey Palmer(Loan), Fikayo Tomori(Loan), Kyle Scott(Loan), Thibaut Courtois

Expectations and Results

Last Year’s Finish – 5th

Target for 2018-19 – UEFA Champions League Qualification

Key Players – Eden Hazard, N’Golo Kante, Cesar Azpilicueta, Antonio Rudiger, Alvaro Morata, Jorginho

Manager – Maurizio Sarri