Chelsea face Paris Saint-Germain in the Club World Cup on Sunday night and it’s time to put sniffiness aside and accept that a win for Enzo Maresca’s side would be the first of five steps for the Blues to be crowned Premier League champions next year…
1) Club World Cup win
We’re guessing there may be a few sour grapes among Liverpool folk at seeing the fourth best team in England earning £66m by beating LAFC, ES Tunis, Benfica and Palmeiras this summer after the Reds claimed just £56.4m having finished 15 points ahead of them to win the Premier League last term.
If Chelsea beat PSG on Sunday, they will walk away with a cool £96m to boost what has already been a productive summer transfer window, and – more importantly – gain huge confidence that they can beat the very best in the Premier League having triumphed over the best in the world.
It may not yet be a tournament that your man on the street (in England) cares about, but the celebrations after respective semi-final wins for Chelsea and PSG illustrates the clear uptick in the give-a-damn stakes among the players and staff as they appear to Get It more than we do as things stand, perhaps more keenly aware of the reality of this being a competition everyone will want to win in the not-too-distant future.
It would be the ideal finish to an outstanding last few months of the season for Chelsea, which has seen Maresca’s side come of age having won five of their last six Premier League games to secure Champions League football before completing the European Treble with victory over Real Betis in the Conference League final.
2) Sign a new goalkeeper
Given the excellent work done by Chelsea in the transfer market this summer, with Liam Delap and Joao Pedro both looking like smart additions to fix a long-term problem up top, it would be pure madness to walk into a new season without solving an even more glaring issue named Robert Sanchez.
There have been suggestions they will reignite their interest in Mike Maignan, who is keen on the move to Stamford Bridge, after Chelsea bizarrely baulked at one of the best goalkeepers in the world being valued at £20m by AC Milan having shelled out £45m on actual Joao Felix last summer.
Maignan’s supposed fury at being denied the move works in Chelsea’s favour, while the Blues have also been linked with Aston Villa’s Emi Martinez among others having hopefully come to the conclusion that no team has ever won the Premier League without a goalkeeper at least twice as good as the in situ calamity.
3) Centre-back partnership
Assuming they do sign a new goalkeeper, the main reason cited for Chelsea not winning the Premier League title next season – aside from perhaps enduring doubts over the experience of the side despite recent evidence to the contrary – will be the lack of a solid and consistent back four.
Marc Cucurella is nailed on at left-back and is one of the Premier League’s best, as is Reece James at right-back is he can stay fit, but Maresca spent most of last season chopping and changing at centre-back.
Levi Colwill improved dramatically during the campaign and will surely be one of the two, but there remains doubt as to whether he can lead the defence and if one of Tosin Adarabioyo, the perennially injured Wesley Fofana or indeed Trevoh Chalobah can form a title-winning partnership with him.
Chalobah is perhaps the best bet after Maresca – to his credit – realised his mistake in letting him go on loan to Crystal Palace before handing him plenty of game time in the second half of the season, but a glance at previous Premier League-winning duos suggests Chelsea will come a cropper without a world class defender to play next to Colwill.
4) Beat Liverpool in October
The view of stakeholders at Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea as we head into the new season will surely be that if they can finish above Liverpool then they will win the Premier League title. Assuming Richard Hughes rounds off the summer by signing a centre-back and a striker, only the hottest of Hot Take journalists and pundits will be predicting anything other than back-to-back gongs for Arne Slot’s side – they’ve strengthened a squad which won it at a canter last term.
Chelsea were one of just four teams to beat Liverpool last season, but will know as well as we do that it wasn’t the real Liverpool, with that victory over a team featuring a midfield trio of Wataru Endo, Curtis Jones and Harvey Elliott on the back of Slot’s side clinching the title against Tottenham the week before.
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The Blues play the reigning champions on October 4 in their seventh game of the season in the first proper test of their title credentials after a relatively gentle first six against Crystal Palace (H), West Ham (A), Fulham (H), Brentford (A), Manchester United (A) and Brighton (H).
And while there will undoubtedly be title talk if Chelsea pick up close to maximum points by the time they meet Mohamed Salah et al., that talk will have reasonable grounds and begin in earnest should they triumph over Arne Slot’s side at Stamford Bridge.
5) Get through Christmas unscathed
Lest we forget, in a classic example of said knee-jerk title chatter, Chelsea were very much in the race last season until the wheels fell off in dramatic fashion over the Christmas period. On December 15, the Blues were two points behind Liverpool. On January 15, they were ten points behind.
Being utterly balls during that packed winter schedule has become something of a Chelsea trademark in recent years and they’re at particular risk of burnout during that period compared to their rivals thanks to a summer featuring little rest thanks to their Club World Cup commitments.
If they can through it while still in touching distance of Liverpool or whichever other Premier League side are leading the charge, particularly given three of there four games straddling Christmas are against Newcastle (A), Aston Villa (H) and Manchester City (A), then Chelsea will fancy themselves to stay in the running for the rest of the campaign.
