How successful can Chelsea be next season?
Season one under Enzo Maresca is in the books and overall, last season must be seen as mission accomplished.
The team were dominant in the Europa Conference League – lifting their first piece of silverware since winning the Super Cup back in 2001. Despite there being a glimmer of a title charge halfway through the season, the team won enough games during the run in to ensure that they booked their ticket for next season’s Champions League and a return back to Europe’s elite competition.
Whilst the team are still battling it out over at the FIFA Club World Cup, the new fixture list for the start of the Premier League season has already been released and focus will soon begin to switch to that first game on the 17th of August where they host reigning FA Cup winners, Crystal Palace.
With the team showing some good signs of recovery last season, how can Chelsea build on that and how successful can they be next season? Let’s take a look.
Winning the Premier League looks unlikely
Despite establishing themselves back in the top 4 last season, the Blues still finished 15 points behind Liverpool and look to have a real task on their hands if they are to overthrow the Reds, Arsenal and Man City this time around.
Having won the title last season, Liverpool aren’t wasting time in the transfer market. They have already splashed the cash on Florian Wirtz and a top-level striker looks to also be on their wanted list.
Manchester City went trophyless for the first time in eight years and with Rodri making his way back from his knee injury and the addition of some canny signings they will be a force once more.
Arsenal have been slow in the transfer market but that should change by the time the new season rolls around. Last season would have hurt the gunners. For the third year in a row they finished second in the league, and they had to painfully watch on as Crystal Palace, Tottenham and of course Chelsea all paraded silverware.
Consistency deserted the team at crucial times last season and if Chelsea wants to mount a serious challenge this time around, they can ill-afford to drop silly points as they did on numerous occasions last season.
Don’t rule out the potential of Chelsea winning a third Champions League title
Chelsea will return to the Champions League for the first time since 2023 and they will be amongst the leading contenders next season.
The new format of the Champions League does buy the team some breathing room, but it will take a real squad effort to navigate eight group stage matches before the knockout rounds begin.
A top 24 finish would be enough for the team to progress to the knockout rounds and that should be the minimum that Chelsea should look to achieve. The real aim should be to finish in the top eight. Not only does that guarantee an easier passage into the quarter finals but it also means that fewer matches need to be played. With the knockout round beginning in February, it falls within the busiest time of the season and the fewer matches the team can play the better.
As we saw in the Champions League this season, surprises can happen. Few would have predicted that a grizzled Inter side could have reached the final, other teams like Aston Villa came within a whisker of reaching the semifinals and there is no reason to suggest Chelsea can’t do something similar.
Chelsea’s possession game is probably better suited to the slower pace of play of the Champions League rather than the hustle and bustle of the Premier League. Chelsea has the quality to compete with the best teams in the game; whether they can do it when it matters the most, remains to be seen.
The Domestic Cups
It wasn’t so long ago that Chelsea seemed to have a stranglehold on the domestic cups, but it has been some time since Chelsea last got their taste of domestic success and you get a sense that the entire squad will be desperate to change that.
Chelsea have lost their last six domestic finals and Wembley of late hasn’t been a happy hunting ground. If your chosen bookmaker runs betting offers, it might be that betting on Chelsea to win either the Carabao or FA Cup could be the right way to go.
The Carabao Cup will see squad players do the heavy lifting during the early rounds, but if they are still in the competition, the big guns should hopefully help the team get over the line.
The FA Cup will mean more to the team and the team should be gunning to lift their first FA Cup crown since 2018.
