Chelsea Are Still Ahead Of The Pack
It may not feel like it right now, but Chelsea still have the best squad in the Premier League.
Injuries to Didier Drogba, Petr Cech and Alex mean things look less than rosy during pre-season, but there’s no need to worry.
Admittedly, a couple of new players are needed, most notably a striker and a centre back. Still, if you compare it to the situation at Liverpool, who do not have a left back in their senior squad, it becomes clear how far ahead of the chasing pack Chelsea are.
Other clubs are struggling too. Manchester United look unlikely to add more players before the season starts and will again rely heavily on Wayne Rooney who will find it hard to reproduce his form of last season.
Even more worrying for Sir Alex Ferguson and the Red Devils premier league betting prices is the fact Rio Ferdinand is taking so long to recover from injury. His is an aging squad, and it will be harder to paper over the cracks this season.
Arsenal have been a little more active during the transfer window, but then given the state of their squad last term they needed to be. It seems Arsene Wenger is merely plugging the gaps and unless he goes on an uncharacteristic spending spree before the transfer window closes his squad will not be much better than it was last season.
All this leaves Manchester City, the last of the Premier League’s big spenders. There’s a terrifying amount of talent available for selection at Eastlands and they should be challenging for silverware.
However, as Real Madrid have proved, splashing out on big name does not guarantee success. Roberto Mancini will have to work hard to forge them into a team, and he will come under intense pressure if things aren’t perfect on the pitch. He’s got the players, but it is far from certain that they will perform for him.
As it stands, the Premier League championship betting prices suggest that Chelsea look well positioned to defend their title and a few good signings should help ensure they remain ahead of the rest.
Filed under: Current Players, Injuries, Rants, Rivals, Transfers
Chelsea News 24/7
agree with this — man for man we’re better than all other squads — Man city are a threat but lots of maybe’s there – man u look weaker if anything – LFC will be better just because Benitz was such a tosser he ruined the team – overall they aren’t that much better manpower wise. Arsenal could sign the world cup winning team the problem is mentality Spurs have to string together back to back decent seasons – there’ll be some flushing out of top 4 dead wood this season but we’re above it all.
I completely agree with these sentiments although my one fear where CFC ‘could’ fall down is if Cech were to get injured for any length of time. Hilario is just about ok but Turnbull is a disaster waiting to happen! Chelsea should be looking to strengthen our goalkeeping cover and I think could do a lot worse than bringing someone like Casper Schmichael into the squad. KTBFFH
Turnbull should be given a chance. He makes one mistake in a game where none of our first team defenders are playing and suddenly hes a disaster waiting to happen? The couple of games he did play last season with decent defenders to protect him he looked like he had potential. Even in the Inter milan game he only conceded 1 goal and made some decent saves. Hardly a disaster waiting to happen
we will win the league again, united have no money
Kakuta is our shining light imo plus if we utilise mancienne & cork as our dynamic duo we could be challenging on all fronts.Plus we’ve still got to see the best of our russian ronaldinho.
In response to Steve:
I personally agree that Turnbull should and will be given more chances, and he did a fine job last season in cover and for my money i thought he might be bumped into second string GK but the concerning point about Turnbull’s performance was not the defence (although a first string defence would have made his game a lot easier) but it was his positioning on the goal where he was almost out of the box, do this against any team with a powerful long range striker (Tevez? Rooney?) and the ball will be in the net before Turnbull has even moved.
I believe the club is in a good state atm, we have an excellent first string team and youngsters brimming with talent and potential, Kakuta could be a massive success this year if given the time and patience to develop. McCechran will be huge in years to come however to throw the lad into PL football at this stage in his development could prove to destroy his confidence.
Any additional signings will only strengthen us, and with Ramires, Luiz and Neymar’s name being thrown around not to mention Torres well then next season could prove to maybe even supply that elusive Champion’s League trophy.
KTBFFH
i completely agree with this, i mean yes we to have money but we know the value of it, not just throw money and get talent. madrid are examples for this whn ever they spend high those playerdont perform beckham, zidan to kaka, ronaldo its the same story….we have a good squad and palyers like kakuta and borini and matic we need not wry…..
Agree about the russian ronaldhino