the Chelsea News
·10 December 2024
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Yahoo sportsthe Chelsea News
·10 December 2024
Chelsea’s season so far can be divided into two distinct stages – the soft start, and the tricky second period.
Enzo Maresca’s team made it through the first phase with a good record, but with plenty of doubts remaining about how they would deal with stronger teams. In fact, they did better than anybody could have expected in that phase, drawing with Man U and Arsenal, beating Aston Villa and Spurs and rocketing up to second place in the table just 4 points off the top.
Now we enter stage 3 – another run of easier games. If you were ever going to back the Blues for the title at a local bookies or at sports betting NZ, this is the time to do it. Their still long odds could tumble dramatically if they get the points we expect from the next two months – and if Liverpool drop points there will be an even more severe shift.
Enzo Maresca on the touchline with Arne Slot. (Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)
There are no truly easy games in the Premier League of course, and plenty of these games could turn out to be real “banana skin” games. But there’s also the juicy prospect of us reeling off a series of wins – we’ve proved to be really effective at scoring even against teams set up to defend against us already this season.
Brentford, Everton, Fulham, Ipswich, Crystal Palace, Bournemouth and then Wolves are all on the agenda before we face Man City at the end of January, and that smells like points.
Meanwhile Liverpool face Fulham, Spurs, Leicester, West Ham, Man U, Nottingham Forest, Brentford and Ipswich in that period.
So they have winnable games too – but ours are undeniably easier. Not only that, but while our midweeks have easy Conference League games to play, Liverpool are in the Champions League with games against Girona and Lille to play.
They are absolutely motoring with Arne Slot in charge, and we don’t expect them to drop many points at all – and we understand why they’re considered title favourites still.
But whatever the outcome at the end of the season, this definitely feels like a 6 week period where we can close the 4 point gap and make things really interesting.
If we get to February and we’re as close as we are now to the top of the table, even our manager won’t be able to deny we’re in with our first genuine shot at winning the title for a good few years.