Chelsea are in the middle of their busiest period of the season – they will play 8 games in December. The players and the manager will complain about the fixture pile-up, and blame any bad results or injuries on the fatigue from so many games, compounded by a busy summer which saw us play in the Club World Cup until mid-July.
Chelsea set to fly around the world for friendly days after World Cup final
Chelsea players in preseason training.
Chelsea players in preseason training. (Photo by Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC)
And yet the club aren’t too bothered, clearly. They’ve just booked a game for next summer, in Sydney of all places. We will face Tottenham on the 1st of August, after a game against Western Sydney Wanderers on July 28th.
That’s less than 10 days after the World Cup final in late July. Numerous Chelsea players are likely to go far in that tournament, given the teams they play for and the pre-tournament odds.
We would expect only a very depleted group even make the trip to Australia, let alone play in the games. But the Blues will have committed to some level of first team involvement when signing up at all.
Who are they going to blame for the injuries and fatigue this time next year? That’s what we want to know about the whole situation.
In other news…
Emanuel Emegha is already signed up to join Chelsea in the summer, but some are suggesting that move could be brought forward to January after an injury to Liam Delap that could keep him out for 2 months or more. We’re not so sure that will happen.
Marc Cucurella has been speaking about how the club use technology to help guide their decisions over players, and how sometimes you need a rest even if you don’t feel like it.
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