Are Chelsea In a Title Race?

Are Chelsea In a Title Race?

After Chelsea win yet another Premier League game, they sit in second place only 3 points behind current league leaders Arsenal who they face next week. So are the World Champions in a title race this season or is it just another good start that will fall away.

Chelsea were in a similar place last season where they sat third and were on the tail of Liverpool and Manchester City up until January where the wheels feel off the bus and Chelsea started to implode. Is this season going to be the same as last season or are Chelsea genuinely title contenders?

Chelsea This Season

Chelsea has had a very strong start to the season so far having 23 points in the first 12 games while scoring the joint most goals this season along with Manchester City. They currently sit 1 point better off this season than what they did last season with a better goal difference.

Something feels different about the Blues this season as they keep churning out wins having the worst part of the season so far being a draw and 2 losses just over 2 months ago. However, since then they have only dropped points in the league once and that was against high flying Sunderland who scored a winner in the 93rd minute.

Chelsea has seemed to have taken the form that they had in the Club World Cup and back end of the season into this season, and it has seemed that it might have pushed them into a title race this season especially after seeing the form of other teams who should be fighting for the league.

Yes or no - Are Chelsea title contenders? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/lULXkPHpof

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No Palmer No Problem

One of the biggest reasons Chelsea can be considered title contenders this season or at least currently is because they have been so successful going forward. As mentioned earlier, they have the joint best attack in the league alongside Manchester City, however, unlike City, Chelsea has been missing an attacking player.

As many know when going forward Chelsea normally rely on one man to work the magic and get them going when they need a goal, however, this season they haven’t had him. So far this season Chelsea has had to play 9 games in the league without main man Cole Palmer, and it doesn’t have seemed to have damaged them going forward. The recruitment done in the summer looks to have reduced the damage that it would’ve done.

With Chelsea expecting their main man back soon, we can only expect them to become even better when attacking, this could cause them to genuinely become a serious threat for Arsenal at the top of the league. Adding into this team that is currently firing on all cylinders someone who can work magic with creating chances or scoring, they can only get better.

Adding Cole Palmer to this attack where so many players currently are flowing won’t just reduce the pressure on the other players to score and create but could also tactically help them as teams will go back to trying to stop Palmer. This would then free up space for all the other forwards who are already playing well to play even better.

What Stops Chelsea Being Title Contenders?

The main issue that stops Chelsea is the fact that the team is still very young and inexperienced. When the league starts getting to the ‘crunch’ phase and every point counts, we could see Chelsea start to wilt especially with other competitions being played at the same time.

The other issue they could face is the fact that their defence isn’t perhaps at the level they would need it to be in order to win the league yet, and this has been shown in some of their games where they have dropped point. One of the main ones being the game against Sunderland.

Finally, the main reason could be a single injury. While they have lacked Palmer this season, they have had one of the best midfielders in the league and someone that allows the defence to not be as strong as other teams. If an injury was to happen to Caicedo, Chelsea would almost definitely be out of a title race. He has been vitally important in helping the defence and making sure there is less pressure on them.

So are Chelsea in a title race, or is it going to be a repeat of last season, where they started strong but fell off, what do you think?