FanPost

So What's Next for Chelsea?

After Scott Arfield opened the scoring for Burnley in the 14th minute, the thought came into every Chelsea fans head, not again. I suspected that Burnley would sit back and absorb pressure for the rest of the game while Chelsea tried to find a way through the best defensive in the championship. An exact replica of last year, where the weaker opponents looked more likely to score. But that wasn't the case and Chelsea went on to dominate and control the game by scoring 3 amazing goals. We looked like the best team in the premier league this weekend and are now top of the league where many people predict us to finish so I ask what's next for Chelsea?

I know it was only the first game of the season and it was against a newly promoted side, but I still feel like it meant a lot. These are exactly the type of matches where we just could not find a way to win. If you look back at the second half of last year's season, we were 9-0-0 against the top 10 teams but subsequently 4-3-3 against the bottom half and this came down to not being able to break down teams that sat back. We could sit back and "park the bus" against the top teams but when we were forced to keep possession and be creative a lot of our players let us down. Though this year with the likes of buying some key new players, we no longer look like "a small pony" but real favourites and even Mourinho has said that the goal is to win the premier league this year. We look to have everything this year with a a good strike force looking to actually make runs, lots of creativity, pace, possession, anchor in the midfield, good back line, great at set pieces and I'd say the best goalkeepers in the world right now. Our starting 11 looks really strong and the only weak point I saw in Chelsea's performance was fitness but every team is weak in that department in the early stages of the season. Though for some apparent reason I still feel like we need another player, doesn't need to be a starter but for some depth in case of an injury or lack of fitness when the other cups start. I analysed all the positions, which is down below, but I still can't find the player that we need the most and that's realistic.

Goalkeepers

Goalkeepers: Cech, Courtois, Schwarzer and Blackman

Reading those names there are no improvements that need to be done there and we actually might have too many good goalies. Now we have an issue with foreign players, as you're only allowed 17 but we have 18 and goalies is the most likely to get downsized. Since Blackman qualifies as a U21 player and Mourinho seems to have chosen Courtois as the number 1 goalie right now, they will both stay so the only things that can happen are Schwarzer getting left out of the squad or Cech leaving. In my opinion I'd love to keep both Courtois and Cech but its highly unlikely and even though I love Cech he deserves first team football so it would be best for him to leave. I don't think Courtois is better then Cech right now but he has the potential to become something really special and has already played in some really big matches. Don't forget he's played against the likes of Ronaldo and Messi for 3 seasons now, won La Liga and been in a champions league final. Schwarzer is good enough to be our number 2 goalie and I even heard of Chelsea signing some 19 year old keeper as well but all in all goalies is not a position we need to improve and we will probably be downsizing by the end of the transfer window.

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Cech or Courtois?

Defenders

Defense: Azpi, Ivanovic, Luis, Cahill, Terry, Zouma, Ake and Christensen

We had the best defense in the league last year and we further improved our defense with the signing of Filipe Luis so many people think that we don't need any other players in that area. I disagree. We have Terry and Cahill which is a great centreback partnership with Ivanovic on the right and Azpi on the left the whole of last season and even the opening weekend this season. Now with Luis, who is a left-back, we can put Azpi back at his natural position on the right and leaves us with Ivanovic on the bench challenging for either a defensive full back position or even centreback. Those 5 players look to be really strong but I still think we might need just 1 other player for depth purposes. I'm all for giving a chance to young players but although Zouma is physically strong and fast, he just seems to not read the game that well right now. I would like to see him play some League Cup or FA cup matches alongside Christensen and Ake who are just not ready yet. So we have 5 great defenders and really good system but if you look at Liverpool and Manchester City they have so much depth in those areas that they will never have a problem later on in the season. Now I'm not saying we should have depth like those 2 teams, (Liverpool has 5 centrebacks right now and Manchester City has 3 rightbacks!) but I do think we need 1 more defender. There has been rumours of us signing Benatia from Roma and from what I seen and read on CasablancaBlue8's article he is an amazing defender and can replace Terry as the leader in our back line but I don't think there is any place for him on our team right now. He's too good of a player to not be a starter but that would mean dropping one of our centrebacks which I don't think is fair and necessary right now. After Terry leaves or starts to slow down he would be a great signing but there have been no signs of that yet. There was rumors of Varane coming to Chelsea and being reunited with Mourinho which I still think would be more likely then Benatia. But to be honest even though he is young and is sitting on the bench at Real Madrid behing Pepe and Ramos, I don't really think he would be the best signing for Chelsea especially after I saw what Hummels did to him in the world cup. So I do think we need another defender but I can't find anybody that is good enough and realistic right now. Or maybe it's best to not sign anybody and not change the area of our team that was so successful last campaign.

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Could the Roma defender be coming to Chelsea?

Central Midfielders

Central Midfielders: Oscar, Fabregas, Ramires, Van Ginkel, Matic and Obi Mikel

Arguably one of the signings of the premier league this season was Cesc Fabregas and he delivered during his first match earning himself the man of the match. He's the direct replacement for Lampard but I think Fabregas is even more unique because not only can he play as a box to box midfield like against Burnley but also as the attacking midfield which is probably his strongest position. This offers some serious competition to Oscar who did amazing when Mata was at the club but fell off once he left and his World Cup performance was below par. Our midfielders are very strong this year so where do we go from here? Well I think, again, we might need an extra player as it's a long and physical season in the premier league especially for a central midfielder. Starting at the holding midfield role, we have one of the best in the league with Matic. Tall, strong, great vision and good distribution are all qualities you look for in a holding midfielder. He does the dirty work and what's great is he doesn't bomb himself up the pitch but picks his moments and rather stay right in front of the back line. Not many other of the big teams have a true CDM. Liverpool have Lucas who they don't use because frankly he's not good enough, Man City have Fernando who didn't look that great and Arsenal have Arteta who's not really a physical presence on the field. One issue is our only real back up is Mikel who is alright and he will be gone for a big stretch of the season for the African Cup of Nations. For our box to box midfielders we have Fabregas who I think is amazing especially against the weaker sides because he is more offensive so pairing him up with Oscar will always ensure great creativity. Then there is Ramires who I think is the perfect back up and he will probably play a lot against the bigger teams because I don't think Mourinho wants to play both Oscar and Fabregas when Ramires did so well last year against the big teams. We also have Van Ginkel who had a good pre season and might challenge Ramires for the 2nd string spot so we don't need any other box to box midfielders. Our attacking midfielders are narrowed down to just one player after Marin was loaned to Fiorentina and that is Oscar. He can be amazing at times but also invisible some games but this year Oscar has some real pressure with Fabregas who is able to play that attacking midfield role really well and like I said before Mourninho probably won't start both Oscar and Fabregas against Man City, Arsenal or Liverpool. Oscar does strive when there is competition so it will be interesting to see how he does. There was talks over signing Khedira but I don't think Chelsea need Khedira unless we got rid of Ramires because Khedira is more of a box to box midfielder then a holding midfielder. So overall our central midfielders are already a lot stronger then last year but it would be great if we signed a better CDM then Obi Mikel and maybe even bump up 17 year old Jeremy Boga who played amazing during preseason and would not qualify as a foreign player. We could even go for Chalobah or even Lewis Baker who was another youngster that was impressive during preseason.

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Fabregas celebrates his first goal for Chelsea FC

Wingers

Wingers: Hazard, Schurrle, Willian and Salah.

We have quite a youthful bunch of wingers on our side with all them being under the age of 26 and the first name mentioned above proved to be not only our best player on our team last season but also the best winger in the premier league and he was awarded for his performances by being on the front cover of FIFA 15. I expect much of the same this year from our number 1 winger but for the first time he might actually have some competition on the right side from Schurrle. Last season I felt we never had a real set and stone second winger. Hazard's name was always the first one on the teamsheet but whoever was playing on the right was mostly a toss up with Willian starting most the time. Most people agree that Willian had a good first season for Chelsea and was very good defensively for us but I'm still not a big fan of the Brazilian as I feel he tries to play the same style as Hazard and it's not what we need. Willian wants the ball preferably at his feet rather than in space but with likes of Fabregas, Oscar and Hazard we would have all this possession but nobody to make the runs. We were lucky that Schurrle had a great World Cup because if he can pick up some form he's exactly the player Chelsea needs; a winger who makes runs even if they're lost causes and has a good finishing which he demonstrated against Burnley. It's now on Schurrle's boots to prove to Mourinho that he deserves that starting spot on the right and I think him and Hazard can be dangerous like Robben and Ribery and even Bale and Ronaldo. Willian will be a good substitute and same with Salah who is still very young and promising and just needs to improve his finishing. Though 4 wingers is not enough for any squad and I was surprised when we loaned out Moses to Stoke because he even qualifies as a home grown player. There has been no talk in signing a winger and the only winger I thought about before the beginning of the season was Di Maria but then we would have too many quality wingers and I believe Schurrle can be just as good. The solution maybe to promote a youngster and again I'm thinking of Jeremy Boga who would kill 2 birds with 1 stone as I believe he can play as an attacking midfielder and a winger. Though 17 is really young in such a physical league.

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Hazard receiving his Chelsea player of the year award with Mourniho

Strikers

Strikers: Costa, Drogba, Torres.

Last year this was definitely the weakest area of our team as our strikers would time and time again not be able to score against the weaker squads or provide any kind of spark. They scored some important goals like Ba against PSG but never took control of a match and created a goal out of nothing like world class strikers do. So this season Mourinho made signing a striker priority number 1 and he delivered by signing Costa and Drogba while getting rid of Ba and not re-signing Eto'o. Our strike force is already way better then last years and we have good depth but the only issue I have is not good enough competition. Costa is a great striker, he might not score screamers but he makes up for it with hard work rate and clinical finishing which is exactly what Mourniho wants. He can become a star at Chelsea but I think he needs serious competition because everybody keeps on telling me that Costa just had 1 break through season at Atletico and every striker does well at Atletico Madrid. Right now he has the number 1 spot locked up with Torres not being good enough to be a number 2 and Drogba being too old to really offer us any kind of future. That's why I was really upset at first when we got rid of Lukaku because he would have been perfect competition for Costa. Though nobody wanted to sign Torres because of his wage demands and because he is Torres so selling Lukaku for that kind of money was a good idea. Though if Costa gets injured again like he did at the end of last season we will have a real problem up top. If you look at Man City they have FOUR quality strikers on their team. Good news is that there have been rumours that Roma want to sign Torres and are willing to use Destro as part of the deal. Now I haven't seen to much of Destro but I do know that he is still very young, 23 and he can become a good number 2 and offer some serious competition to Costa if the deal goes through!

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Torres has his head in his hands while Drogba's legend flag waves on

Conclusion

Right now our starting 11 is the best it's ever been in a long time and it will be really interesting to see how we play against another newly promoted side in Leicester City. Though I still feel like we do not have enough depth in some areas and just need one more signing this season, doesn't need to be a big one but just one more to provide more competition on our side. I know it sounds really greedy and anyways Mourinho likes smaller squads but in a league that's so physically demanding and a fixture list packed with games, there are bound to be a couple injuries here and there. One more good signing and I can already see us lifting the trophy again come May! Though I could be totally wrong and would like to hear your thoughts.

AHHHH

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