Chelsea are title favourites for a good reason. In short, their first-choice team is, quite frankly, terrifying for any other Premier League side.
Thibaut Courtois is perhaps the best young goalkeeper in the world and plays like a man 10 years older. John Terry and Gary Cahill are one of the most secure central-defensive partnerships in the country, Branislav Ivanovic has developed from a centre-half into an excellent full-back both defensively and offensively, while Cesar Azpilicueta has switched flanks to be one of the finest left-backs in the country.
It's tough to imagine a more perfect combination of muscle and skill than the central-midfield partnership of Cesc Fabregas and Nemanja Matic, and in front of them the attacking midfield trio of Eden Hazard, Oscar and Willian provides the ammunition for Diego Costa, who is quickly establishing himself as the best striker in the country.
That first XI has taken them to the top of the table and, if it stays together, should stroll to the Premier League title.
However, that is quite a big "if," given that on close inspection the options beyond that team start looking a little bit thin should they suffer a few ill-timed injuries.
There aren't many problems in goal, with Petr Cech providing back-up for Courtois, but elsewhere in defence, inexperience is the keyword beyond Ivanovic, Terry, Cahill, Azpilicueta and Filipe Luis. Kurt Zouma, Nathan Ake and Andreas Christensen are next in line, the eldest of whom is Zouma, the French centre-back who turned 20 this week.
Should one of the senior centre-backs suffer an injury, Chelsea will have to go into key encounters with defenders who one can only describe as "green," at best.
In midfield there is a little more experience, but one has questions about reliability.
John Obi Mikel has not convinced many that, even eight years after joining Chelsea, he is of sufficient quality for a team of their standing, and while Ramires is a fine player, there are questions about his temperament. The Brazilian suffers from occasional baffling moments of indiscipline, has collected yellow cards in both of his Premier League starts this season and was booked 14 times and sent off twice last term.
The attacking-midfield trio provides more questions. Andre Schurrle is a fine and reliable player, but Mohamed Salah is anything but. The Egyptian has started just six times since Chelsea paid £11 million for him in January, and with good reason, having not particularly impressed in any of them.
And then up front, Didier Drogba will be 37 later this season and, despite occasional flashes of what made him a Chelsea hero, is not the player he was. Loic Remy might be a perfectly decent forward, but one questions how many Chelsea fans would be comfortable with him deputising for Costa for any prolonged period of time.
Mourinho doesn't appear particularly happy with his reserve options either. A much-changed side only just scraped past League Two Shrewsbury in the League Cup on Tuesday night, and Mourinho told the BBC :
I expect people that have not been playing a lot to raise their level and create problems.
I love problems of choice, but it's easy to choose my team for Saturday.
Should Chelsea steer clear of serious injury problems, they should win the league title, and possibly more, with relative ease. However, the chances of Mourinho's side going through a whole season without such issues are slim. Mourinho is right to be concerned about the depth in his squad.
//from Bleacher Report http://ift.tt/1vfvlLs
via IFTTT October 29, 2014 at 04:16AM
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