Going into the final stretch of the season, Chelsea find themselves in a familiar position. Champions League qualification is not a certainty. And any form of silverware looks possible, but not exactly likely. The Blues’ form has been shaky at best. We have seen them pick it up in the latter phase of the previous two campaigns though. Hopefully, we see that happen a third time in a row. Their next matchup is against Newcastle United.
Of course, for that to happen, a lot of things need to improve. Joao Pedro has been a standout going forward since Liam Rosenior took charge of the team. But nobody else exactly has shined in the final third.
Cole Palmer has had his moments. Alejandro Garnacho has improved as well. And unfortunately, Estavao’s injury has left Chelsea without a quality option going forward.
Their bigger worries lie at the back though. And they need to be a lot tighter defensively. They have far too many players making errors, leading to goals for the opposition. The PSG game was the perfect example of this. Chelsea did not play badly at all. But when you concede five times, it is almost impossible to win.
Cole Palmer calls out Chelsea’s habit of conceding goals first
Chelsea have shown that they can come back from behind. They did it twice against PSG. They did it against Napoli. And they have done so in plenty of other games since Rosenior became manager. Of course, the fact that they keep conceding early goals is one thing the manager should be worried about. Palmer seems to be.
According to The Chelsea Chronicle, Palmer said in an interview with the club: “It’s good [that we’ve shown we can turn games around]. It’s just probably better if we don’t keep going behind in the first place! But to know that we can do it is good.
“Obviously, the table is tight, so we need as many points as we can get.”
Chelsea’s defence has been a problem since Levi Colwill got injured
Defence has been a problem for Chelsea all season. Levi Colwill has been sorely missed, having suffered an ACL injury in pre-season training. Yet, for some reason, they have not gone out and signed a quality centre-back. Enzo Maresca even called for an addition to be made there publicly but his request was overlooked by the management.
They were linked with a few highly-rated ones in the winter. But then, the best they could manage was cutting short Mamadou Sarr’s loan spell at Strasbourg and calling him back to be a cover option.
Of course, Palmer himself needs to improve. We have seen signs of that in recent months. But he is still not playing at the level we know he is capable of.
It is very possible that he is still not fully fit. There is a mental aspect when it comes to players dealing with recurring injuries as well. He will need to find a way past that hurdle as well.
