After falling away from the title race last season, Chelsea will go again as they hope to win their first Premier League since 2017 (Chelsea 16/1 Premier League Outright).
Following their Champions League success against Manchester City in 2021, Chelsea thought they had brought in the missing piece of the jigsaw in Romelu Lukaku, with the Belgian striker making his return to Stamford Bridge on the back of winning the Serie A title with Inter Milan.
However, he never truly fit into Thomas Tuchel’s system and a lack of goalscoring prowess ultimately became the Blues’ undoing.
Now under the stewardship of Todd Boehly, Chelsea are hoping to try and get back to the top of the Premier League tree, and have made some eyec0atching signings.
Hopes for the new season
A club of Chelsea’s stature will always be aiming to challenge for the Premier League title, though there will have to be some turnaround from last season.
Chelsea finished third on 74 points, 19 adrift of winners Manchester City and they were made to pay for a poor period over the winter in which they won just two of nine games.
However, they have bolstered their squad significantly with the arrivals of winger Raheem Sterling and Napoli centre-back Kalidou Koulibaly.
They are classically Chelsea marquee signings and they are likely to be perfect for Tuchel’s style of football.
At an absolute minimum, Chelsea will be going for a top-four finish (8/11) with their squad looking in strong shape ahead of the new season.
The Blues’ first match of the new season is away at Everton, managed of course by Chelsea legend Frank Lampard (Everton 18/5, Draw 11/4, Chelsea 7/10 – Match Betting).
Arrivals and Departures
In:
Raheem Sterling – £50m – Manchester City
Kalidou Koulibaly – £45m – Napoli
Out:
Antonio Rudiger – free – Real Madrid
Andreas Christensen – free – Barcelona
Romelu Lukaku – loan – Inter Milan
Star man
Chelsea have got a lot of star quality throughout the squad and Tuchel is a manager who isn’t afraid to rotate and extract as much game time as possible out of his players.
However, one virtual constant in the side is Mason Mount with the England midfielder a fully-established first-choice at Stamford Bridge.
Last season, the 23-year-old scored 11 times in the Premier League and has proven to be a very good link between Chelsea’s midfield and attack.
Mount will relish the chance to feature alongside his England colleague Sterling at Stamford Bridge and the two are likely to have a good understanding of one another from the off.
Manager/Tactics
This could be a big year for Tuchel on the back of what, ultimately, was a disappointing campaign last year.
They were nowhere close to winning the Premier League, while they lost the two domestic cup finals and blew their chance in the quarter-finals of the Champions League against eventual winners Real Madrid.
Tuchel has built up enough goodwill to warrant another go and his first task will be to add more goals to a side that is stacked with quality.
Defensively at least, Chelsea are usually very sound and his back-three formation has been hard for teams to get the better of.
Last season – 3rd
