Friday 27 October 2017

Chelsea are not quite as imperious as last season

It's hard to work out just what Chelsea are at the moment. One minute they are thumping Stoke City and beating Atlético Madrid away from home and the next they are being beaten by Burnley and Crystal Palace. Their up and down form has got pundits already writing them off from defending their Premier League title, but away from home it is only the Palace game that has really put a stick in their spokes.
Without Diego Costa, Chelsea don't seem quiet the team
they were but they still have an impressive line up.
Antonio Conte was said before the Watford win to be not worried but realistic that Chelsea could sack him if results did not improve. What Chelsea would consider an improvement is harder to put your finger on as even against Watford there were moments when the Hornets could have given Conte more of a scare. David Luiz and Gary Cahill have looked vulnerable this season and while Morata and Batshuayi have been among the goals there is a distinct  unpredictability about Chelsea. Fabregas was on the bench most of last season but has been playing a lot more this season, especially with Kante being injured, while the loss of Costa is still probably having a lingering affect around the team and the dressing room.

Advertisement

Unfortunately, Chelsea did not have a European Champions League game this week so they could rest their best players for this game. There has been rumours of over training at Chelsea to which the players have been upset about, but Conte is unlikely to change what proved successful for him last season. Chelsea will see Bournemouth as an easier game than many they will have but there are definite signs that Chelsea are not having all things there own way.

Meanwhile, with Asmir Begovic and Nathan Aké now at Bournemouth, the game takes on a new meaning of importance for AFCB. Players playing against their old club always like to do well and Bournemouth have a scalp, if they could get a home win against Chelsea. It would give Bournemouth 10 points from 10 games and they would be more or less back on course with where they need to be to finish out of the bottom three.

Cherry Chimes has been answering some questions from Chelsea HQ ahead of this game. So if you head over to ChelseaHQ, after 7pm, you can find out how I did under the spotlight.

You can also see Cherry Chimes' AFCB v Chelsea match preview at ASkFans.

AFCB Home Form
LLWD

Chelsea Away Form
WWWL

No comments:

Post a Comment

tag: