Why title favourites Chelsea are bucking the trend

Why title favourites Chelsea are bucking the trend

A fashionable comment to make about modern football is that it is a squad not a team that wins the premier league. With the title challengers likely to be challenging on all fronts, it is said to be necessary to have a squad of players who can be rotated to keep everyone fresh. Chelsea appear to be bucking the trend.

Chelsea have fielded just 18 different players from the start in premier league matches, with Loic Remy, Petr Cech, Fillipe Luis, Ramires Didier Drogba and John Obi Mikel starting 3 games or less out of the 16 played. Therefore, Chelsea have mainly used the same 12 players, yet look to be running away with the league. Amazingly, only Southampton have used fewer players from the start, showing that Chelsea have applied doubt to the idea that squad rotation is vital to perform well in both the Premier League and Europe. In terms of their perceived start of the season rivals, Man Utd have used 26 players from the start, Arsenal have used 20, Liverpool have started 23 different players and Man City have used 22 players.  So whilst squad rotation is shown to not automatically ensure success and indeed a settled team seemingly helping Chelsea, it is individual brilliance that marks Chelsea as better than the rest. Whilst it is argued by many pundits that it is a team and not individuals that win titles, I argue differently and I pick out 5 individuals in the Chelsea side that are irreplaceable within their squad and reasons why Mourinho turns his back on rotation, you may be surprised by the names I don’t include.

In terms of Centre backs Chelsea have 2 of the best 3 centre backs in England I would argue. Only Vincent Kompany is comparable I believe, and his injury problems are such that Terry and Cahill are more valuable to their side. Cahill and Terry are fantastic and are obviously a key reason why Chelsea have only conceded 13 goals. Furthermore, they could not be rotated without clear harm to Chelsea’s backline with only the inexperienced Kurt Zouma and the option of shifting Ivanovic to centre back. I’ve never been a fan of Ivanovic at centre back as I feel his decision making in the position is often rash. Whilst I’ve seen little of Zouma, the problems faced by many young centre halves who arrive in England (note Eliquim Mangala) suggest that it is best if he is bedded in slowly.

You only had to see how much Chelsea missed him to know how good Nemanja Matic is. The Premier League isn’t blessed with a plethora of high quality defensive midfielders but Matic is far and away the best of what we have in the division. John Obi Mikel his understudy is decent but is a long way of Matic’s ability and the gulf between the two shows why Mourinho doesn’t rotate his defensive midfielder too often.

In terms of genuine central midfielders, Cesc Fabregas is as good as you’ll get in terms of creating chances. Quite simply no-one else at Chelsea and probably the league is as good at finding the right pass and playing it. In the last match against Hull, Chelsea were forced to play with Matic and Mikel in midfield, and they missed Fabregas by all accounts despite the 2-0 win.

Last but not least it’s their main flair player Eden Hazard. Whilst they have other players capable of producing magic moments behind the striker, they all lack the consistency of Hazard. Whilst Oscar has potential, too often he doesn’t produce against the top sides.  Andre Schurrle and Mohammad Salah have struggled to make an impact since joining Chelsea, whilst Willian is a fantastic player but it is his work ethic rather than his goals and assists that has been noted since he joined the club.

Many will say I should’ve included Courtois, Costa or Ivanovic but I feel the competition for places in those positions is such that Chelsea have cover. To miss these players for 2 or 3 games would be a blow but Chelsea could cope. Without the 5 I’ve mentioned above, they would struggle more.