Managing Chelsea has to be one of the toughest jobs in the business. Just 14 months after landing the club the Premier League title, Antonio Conte was given the boot. Things started falling apart for Chelsea early last season and there were big question marks over whether or not the Italian was actually going to last the entire season. He did and he managed to get them the FA Cup title as well. But that wasn’t enough and out the door (eventually) he went. In comes former Napoli boss Maurizio Sarri now to bring his flair to the English top flight.
The style of Sarri is comparable to that of Pep Guardiola’s. But will Chelsea have the quality left in their squad to fully implement the plans for the Italian? This is a huge summer for the Blues because there have been heavy transfer market rumours around the likes of Willian, N’Golo Kante, Eden Hazard and Thibaut Courtois. If even most of them go, with the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona and PSG knocking on the door, then Chelsea’ plans of success for the forthcoming season could be scuppered.
The Blues are 11/8 at William Hill* (betting odds taken from August 2nd, 2018 at 6:19 pm) to be the Top London Club for the Premier League 2018/19 season and that will be down to Sarri. His Napoli side, who were a thrill to watch last season, almost upset Juventus’s reign in Serie A last term. But again we have to look at the personnel. Sarri’s style, much like Guardiola’s is a physically demanding one and we can see big problems in that for the Blues particularly in midfield. They look really short in there despite the arrival of playmaker Jorginho. It may be a season where Chelsea have to put a lot of trust in some of their youngsters like Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Tammy Abraham and the promising forward Callum Hudson-Odoi.
Another issue that they could have is in the goalscoring department. If you look at the Premier League Top Goalscorer market for the forthcoming season, you see big threats from the other big six in the league, but Chelsea’s main man Alvaro Morata is out there at a huge 33/1 price* (betting odds taken from August 2nd, 2018 at 6:19 pm). He looked totally lost last season and out of his depth in the Premier League and his pre-season wasn’t all that much better. But the Blues don’t really seem to have a backup plan in place to compensate. Again, that all gets worse if Willian and Hazard depart.
Premier League Outright Winner Odds*
Manchester City 4/6
Liverpool 4/1
Man Utd 7/1
Chelsea 12/1
Tottenham 16/1
Arsenal 20/1
Bar 250/1
* (betting odds taken from William Hill on August 2nd, 2018 at 6:19 pm)
This is going to be a tough season for Chelsea who will be taking part in this season’s Europa League with those awkward Thursday night arrangements. Their primary goal for the season will be to get back into the top four of the Premier League and back to the UEFA Champions League and they are 4/6 odds to do that* (betting odds taken from August 2nd, 2018 at 6:19 pm). If they sacrifice the Europa League their odds of doing that will be increased. The big issue for the Blues is just what kind of squad they are going to be lining up with.
There hasn’t been much activity from them so far aside from midfielder Jorginho and their ambitions are going to be severely tested when the big offers for their big players start rolling in. Are Chelsea going to have to end up being a selling club? To that end, Sarri does tend to operate with just a few central figures to his plans and plug the gaps around them, but he’s not a manager who has really given youth a big chance in his career. Hazard, Kante and Courtois are irreplaceable and the house of cards could fall if they depart.
Fixture List
The Blues open their account against Huddersfield away from home on the opening weekend of the season. Chelsea have won just one of their last three opening fixtures to a league season (D1 L1). Chelsea are 8/15 to land the victory in that one, but then they go follow that up with a big test. They play host to London rivals Arsenal on August 18th in a tough match up for them against an Arsenal side who are pretty much in the same boat as they are.
The back end of the season isn’t all that bad for the Blues really. From the start of March, they only have to face two of the other Big Six in the league (Liverpool and Man Utd) in their final ten matches of the term.
Prediction
The quality of the squad just doesn’t appear to be there for the Blues at all. Sales could impact that further and further as well. Sarri’s style demands a lot of physical exertion and output and we don’t see the current Chelsea midfield with the likes of Tiemoue Bakayoko, Cesc Fabregas, Ross Barkley and Danny Drinkwater fitting into those plans all that well. You get the feeling that the club won’t get a better time to really tear up their blueprint and just go for youth.
The Sarriball style can deliver a lot of attacking thrills as we saw from the powerful Napoli attack last term. We just don’t see Chelsea starting the season with the squad to pull it off though and cannot pass up the chance of 6/5 odds on them to NOT finish in the top four* (betting odds taken from August 2nd, 2018 at 6:19 pm).
