Can Chelsea win the Premier League title? FIFA Club World Cup champs must show consistency but have momentum

World Champions, Champions of Europe Chelsea. But could the side of Enzo Maresca really become the first to have the conference competition, club world cup and Premier League title belts at the same time (there are no belts but that should be)?

Ask Levi Colwill and he would tell you that it is pre -eminently possible, that winning the biggest prizes in the game is nothing less than a requirement for someone in his shirt.

“We are a team and that is in the identity of Chelsea,” he said afterwards Lift the title of the Clubworld cup. “You stay together, whatever happens. I think players like John Terry, Frank LampardDidier Drogba, they have started and we wear it.

“They were all great players, the best players who have won a lot, but we have the best players in our team-young players for sure: to win the biggest trophies for Chelsea. We are certainly able to do it. I think we showed that. Everyone said PSG was the best team in the world.”

You could hardly blame the graduated Academy, more than a decade in his time at the club, because they believed that the best yet to come, certainly not in the aftermath of the best performance by a Chelsea side, because they insured their place in this competition by winning the 2020-21 Champions League. The game plan of Enzo Maresca was implemented to perfection, his players were aggressive, organized and fearless. Play in a season of 38 games and heaven is the limit for every team.

That is of course the problem. Chelsea did not play so often close to that level during the first season of Maresca. That’s why they finished 15 points behind LiverpoolDelete for a top five berth when their manager had suppressed the conversation about title conflicts halfway through the conversation. The final Premier League table offered a better reflection of who they were than the dizziness of November and December, safely nestled in the third to fifth zone, but a long off title position.

Chelsea did not score enough last season, and although their defensive record was the third best in the competition with 43 admitted, it must be much superior when only 64 goals enter the other side. Their expected target difference of 21.16 was more than half of that of Liverpool and an honest path of an injury Arsenal.

Their victory against PSG was all the more brilliant because of how atypical it was. Against the rest of the top four of last season, Chelsea lost four, pulled one one and won the other, an impressive 3-1 defeat of a Liverpool side whose feet are already resting on the Premier League title. The European Champions of Luis Enrique only registered 17 touches in the box, four less than the average top-flight opponent of Chelsea, despite the fact that they had two-thirds. A side that can occasionally be guilty of passivity with and without the ball broken in the first 10 minutes, putting the tone there. The men of Maresca were brilliant. Atypical so.

How Chelsea Paris Saint-Germain defeated in their own game to claim Club World Cup Glory

PARDEEP CATRY

There is a risk that the cups will tell a simplified version of Chelsea’s progress under Maresca. They did the only thing they could do in the Conference League, rage through it and got the breaks in the club World Cup. Their second place seemed fortunately enough when Benfica Bayern Munich hit the last 16 draw in Charlotte. Then Al-Hilal and Fluminense released the way of Manchester City and Inter.

Nothing of this is to a discount on the excellence with which they have removed the European champions, nor which their supporters can feel when seeing that big Golden Badge on sponsorless kits (of which it must be said is an atmosphere). It is just worthwhile to keep the robust assessment of Todd Boehly of Chelsea’s Club World Cup campaign in balance – “The boys have shown that they are a force to take into account”, he told Talksport – with their semi -final opponents Fluminense being assessed by Opta.

Yet this momentum offers, right? Probably, but there are much skeptical about how that will be in balance against the five weeks of rest and preparation before their 2025-26 season starts. And Chelsea are clearly an improved team from last season, right? It is reasonable to keep an honest wedge of individual growth from this young side, but there are questions to their transfer company.

Joao Pedro started Felly Stateside, but scrubbing fines from the comparison and he has 10 goals of 58 Premier League matches in the past two seasons, on average two and a half shots and 0.3 xg per 90. For Nicolas Jackson, now circled by Manchester United and AC Milan, those figures were scored 24, 2.78 shots and 0.55 xg. Exciting Noni Madueke for Jamie Gittens gives Maresca another option on the left, where Chelsea has long had trouble finding the man. However, it is difficult to shake the feeling that a remarkably impressive route in the short term for the new signing that comes to a more difficult competition is to play At the level of the man he replaces.

What makes Chelsea’s approach curious is that there seemed to be a way for this team to become an excellent legitimate way, especially now that there is a Club World Cup prize money that burns a hole in their pocket. There is a chance here to be silent briefly from the $ 70 million-like youngsters with top and to put down a little more to add the star quality. Suppose they have changed Jackson for a striker at Victor Osimhen level, returned a center at elite level to anchor their defense and bought one more keeper, it from the upper echelon. Then you would have a team that checks every box.

After all, the future still looks incredibly clear to every team that has Moises Caicedo as anchor and Cole Palmer Like his creative spark. There are nice component parts around them in Reece James, Marc Cucurella and Enzo Fernandez to name just a few. Chelsea are not That Far away from at least the title interview, even if it seems at the moment that their recruitment department does not make the optimum movements to get them there.

Although the high watermark from Chelsea is a team that can blow the champions of Europe apart, PSG seemed to be heavy legs, then there is reason to believe in the vision. It will just be a few games until this standard before the world champions can strive to be the best team in their home country.