Are Chelsea Already Out Of The Title Race?

Facebooktwittergoogle_plusSHARE

 

Let’s be honest. No-one saw Chelsea’s loss to Crystal Palace coming. The team that was rock bottom without a goal to their name were supposed to roll over and die against the defending champions. Bookies and Palace fans will have been delighted with the result but for Blues fans the loss might mean more than a freak bad day at the office. It could mark the end of their title defence.

 

 

It seems ridiculous to write off Antonio Conte’s men so early in the season but they are already nine points adrift of leaders Manchester City. You may as well make that ten points as Chelsea have a goal difference of just +5, City’s is +25.

 

While City have accepted the injury to Sergio Aguero, arguably the league’s most deadly striker, with little more than a shrug, Chelsea looked decidedly and understandably weakened by the absences of Danny Drinkwater, N’golo Kante and Alvaro Morata. Add Diego Costa’s departure to the mix and they look far from the side that swept to victory last term.

 

To further complicate matters, their already stretched squad also have Champions League commitments to contend with. Morata could return for Wednesday’s game against Roma but if Chelsea are to have any hope of regaining their Premier League crown they will have to hope that he and Kante can remain fit, that they can bolster their squad in January, that they are not already too far off the pace at that stage and that City’s form drops dramatically.

 

That’s a lot of conditions that have to come together if Chelsea are to have any chance and at this stage it seems unlikely.

 


Check out our BRAND NEW Premier League Preview Podcast for all the best tips, stats and info!


Facebooktwittergoogle_plusLIKE/FOLLOW

Comments

comments

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.