EPL: Can Chelsea FC go Unbeaten?

E PL: Can Chelsea FC go unbeaten?

Chelsea have started the Premier League in devastating fashion. With ten wins and two draws in their opening twelve games, talk of them going unbeaten for the entire season is gaining momentum.

It has been the ruthless nature of their performances that have provoked speculation about whether Jose Mourinho has assembled a squad that can rival the Invincibles of the 2003/4 season, an Arsenal side that won the Premier League without losing a single match.

The Premier League is arguably the most competitive league in the world, with fixtures against the lower sides still providing tests for the league’s heavyweights. Chelsea will have to answer a number of questions if they are to come anywhere close to going the entire season unbeaten and we take a look at the most pertinent of those questions below.

Can Diego Costa be their 30 goal man?

Questions were asked of Chelsea’s signing of Diego Costa after many detractors claimed he had only had one good season for Atletico. Combine that with an end to the season and World Cup that was hampered by injury and suddenly even Chelsea fans were anxious that they might have another flop on their hands.

Costa has clinically proven these doubters wrong, with a series of outstanding performances at the start of his Chelsea career. His work-rate is truly phenomenal, but he also gets the goals to cement his status as one the Premier League’s most deadly strikers. With 11 goals to his name already, he looks set to threaten the 30 goal marker that is so often used to distinguish a great season from a good one.

Costa’s personality on the pitch bleeds through in everything he does. He is confrontational and aside from Chelsea fans, he is not all that likeable. However, the Spanish striker is happy to play the villain. His goalscoring has done the talking so far in the Premier League and some of the league’s top defenders have failed to shackle him.

It’s hard to see how teams can plan facing Diego Costa in his current form. Committing more men to deal with his threat leaves the obvious problem of being undermanned elsewhere and when you still have the likes of Eden Hazard, Oscar and Willian to contend with then this really isn’t an option. Chelsea might just have found their striker to replace Didier Drogba and when Costa’s not firing, his predecessor Drogba is waiting in the wings.

Can Chelsea avoid the minefield of the Winter fixture list?

From now until the New Year, Chelsea have nine fixtures, including eight games in December. It is a period in which past Chelsea sides have stereotypically struggled in recent title assaults and they will have to be wary of a similar slump this year. The danger is that one poor performance can snowball into a drop in form, as there is very little time between matches to recover.

Fortunately, Chelsea have been handed a kind schedule for their busiest period of the season and will look to the depth in their squad for the first time this year. In the Premier League they face Tottenham, Hull and West Ham at home and they travel to Newcastle, Stoke and Southampton.

Add in a Champions League group stage tie against Sporting and a League Cup quarter final away to Derby and you have the very definition of fixture congestion. Nonetheless, you can be sure that Mourinho will be thinking pragmatically about the pile up of fixtures.

Chelsea have already topped the group in the Champions League and they look to have made Stamford bridge a fortress for home games. They face some tricky away days but the teams they are up against will also be contesting with a busy period of fixtures.

There is little doubt that Chelsea’s untarnished record will come under threat at some point in the coming month. A lot will depend on the character and will of the squad, which on current evidence seems to be as strong as ever. Whether they fight as strongly for each other when things aren’t going so well remains to be seen.

Can Chelsea keep key players fit and in form?

Probably the question that is most difficult to answer, but one that has a hugely significant bearing on whether Chelsea can go unbeaten. Injuries are inevitable over the course of a season and can be extremely damaging to a team’s success, just look at Manchester United and Arsenal.

Chelsea’s medical staff have been praised in the last few months for their work with keeping the squad fresh and injury-free. Cesc Fabregas announced recently that the work he had done with the medical team meant he was playing pain free for the first time in a long time. Similarly, players with minor injuries like Loic Remy and Didier Drogba seem to be coming back into the fold quicker than expected.

Form is more likely to be the factor that Chelsea lose control over as the season progresses. If a player loses form, there isn’t some magic formula to get them firing again and if there is, Mesut Ozil will be pay a good price. Cesc Fabregas gained a reputation with Barcelona of starting season’s strongly and slowly becoming more anonymous as the season progressed.

Fabregas, by his own admission playing some of the best football of his career for Chelsea, must be given all the support available to avoid the same fate this year. Whether that is simply letting him get on with it or lumping praise on the Spanish midfield maestro, it is imperative Chelsea keep Fabregas on top form.

His combination with Nemanja Matic in the middle of midfield has been arguably the strongest feature of Chelsea’s game at the start of the season. Matic seems to compliment Fabregas and give him the license to dictate from deep. It has allowed Chelsea to strangle games and shut out opponents.

Can anyone expose the Chelsea defence?

After the first few games of the season, if you had posed this same question, the unanimous answer would have been ‘no’ and the justification would have likely been that Chelsea’s defence will be exposed at least once over the course of the season.

Chelsea were struggling to keep clean sheets and there were criticisms of Gary Cahill for looking slightly error-prone and Branislav Ivanovic for thinking he was a right winger. However, the back-four seem to have gelled once again and are back to their ruthless displays.

Behind them they have, in my opinion, the best young goalkeeper on the planet. Thibaut Courtois has all the qualities required to be a world-class goalkeeper for the next decade. It mirrors Petr Cech’s emergence at Chelsea and Courtois has shown he can make the same impact at the club.

His aerial dominance is a feature that is very rarely seen these days. His distribution is also at the highest level, but above all else his calming demeanour does wonders for the confidence of his defence. I haven’t seen him look flustered once in his time in the Premier League and when you have a goalkeeper who is not fazed by anything, your defence is going to share that belief.

Opinion

It is early in the season to make such a bold claim, but in my eyes I think this Chelsea side can go the season unbeaten. They have looked dominant in every game they have played this season, with their two draws away to both Manchester clubs minutes away from ending in victory.

Even if they don’t manage this feat this season, and they could well lose to Tottenham at the weekend such is the nature of the Premier League, what other teams should be worried about is that their squad is so young. The likes of Costa, Hazard, Oscar, Willian, Matic, Azpilicueta and Courtois are all under 26 should give you an idea of the direction Chelsea are heading in the coming seasons.

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