Finally the Blues are back after a long summer of football all around the world going from the Euros that covered most of Europe to the America’s and then ending in Belfast. What a season this could be for the current European Champions.
The season starts with a very difficult run of games for the blues but this might not be a bad thing. Remembering back to our last title triumph Chelsea mustered a run of 14 straight wins that featured games against Spurs, Manchester United, Manchester City and Leicester. A strong start to the season isn’t out of the question if Chelsea can keep a 100% record until the international break in early September, but that success may be down to the latest edition Tommy T intends on adding to his front line.
I was at the game when Romelu Lukaku was announced as a Chelsea player. I remember thinking that’s a Didier Drogba 2.0. Now for the best part of 3 seasons I was probably wrong. However the move to Everton followed by a huge money transfer to Manchester United and the subsequent Scudetto won at Inter Milan has proved my initial thoughts correct. He is the closet player to our legendary Ivorian since the big man retired in 2018.
I also think Lukaku will be the missing piece for this Chelsea side and he can be the man to link up and help improve various players. Kai Havertz, Mason Mount and Jorginho will finally have a striker they can either play off or find in the box on a regular basis, not to mention the fact that Timo Werner may now finally have a striking partner that he also can use to play off in the same way Nicolas Anelka used to do for Drogba. Some-what a homecoming, could turn into a crowning moment for a potential Chelsea Legend.
Looking at the past 2 months it needs to be recognised that Chelsea have had some serious success outside of domestic football and on the international stage. Not only did Chelsea have the most players on international duty (yes more than PSG and Manchester City) but they had players claim more silverware after that famous night in Porto.
Christian Pulisic found success straight away with the USMNT winning the Nations League and scoring the vital penalty to give the team a 3-2 win late in extra time. Andreas Christensen scored arguably the best goal of Euro 2020 against Russia to help send Denmark on a fantastic run to the semi-finals. Billy Gilmour added to his debut man of the match awards when he dominated the midfield against England also at Euro 2020.
Ben Chilwell and Reece James also enjoyed a lengthy tournament with England while Mount was a more integral part to the team only for England to fall at the final hurdle to deserved winners Italy. That same Italy team featured Emerson who had to fill in for arguably player of the tournament Spinazolla and did a stellar job doing so. Our midfield regista was included in the team of the tournament for Euro 2020 after dominating games for Italy, bravo Jorgi.
Thiago Silva unfortunately tasted defeat in the Copa America final this summer too. However this is further evidence that Chelsea are on there way back to the top of world football with so many players having very successful international summers.
Finally with our curtain raiser to the season we had a tough game against a very compact Villarreal side who beat Manchester United in last years Europa League. A game in which after Hakim Ziyech came off injured Chelsea seemed to really struggle. Ziyech really showed his ability and drove Chelsea forward and controlled the game. It’s a shame that once again a week before the season starts he finds himself injured. A strange start as a fair amount of Chelsea players had only just returned from holiday hampered Tuchel’s ability to make genuine substations that would change the game. Nonetheless the substitution of Kepa Arrizabalaga was a stroke of genius. Kepa played no more than 10 minutes of the game and did an amazing job to save two penalties. Something that seems to be a speciality of his. Confidence will hopefully be back in his gloves.
It would be very good if Lukaku could hit the ground running, because we know that a big striker is exactly what we were missing last season. Up the Chels and keep the blue flag flying high!
