With just a few days to go before the 2025-26 Premier League season begins, we ask the biggest questions facing Chelsea as they look to build on their Club World Cup success.
As the new Premier League season comes into view, there is plenty to feel positive about at Stamford Bridge.
A summer of major investment was punctuated by FIFA Club World Cup success, and Chelsea head into the new season with a little more pep in their step than they had for much of last season.
Of course, this club’s fans will know better than anyone that signing expensive attacking talent in the likes of João Pedro, Jamie Gittens and Liam Delap is no guarantee of immediate improvement, but there is also reason to believe this time it might be different.
But will it be different? Here, we ask the big questions for Chelsea and manager Enzo Maresca as they head into the new campaign.
Was End-of-Season Form and Summer Success a Sign of Things to Come?
Chelsea ended last season with a run of eight wins in nine games. That was helped somewhat by a few Conference League victories against lesser opposition, but even if you take that competition out of the equation, their end-of-season form was still very good. They took five wins from their last six in the Premier League, and lost only two of their last 12, showing that their positive end to the campaign wasn’t just a cup run in a competition they were expected to win from the very start of the season.
They then headed to the USA for the Club World Cup which, if we’re honest, few expected them to win. The Opta supercomputer made them fifth favourites to lift it before the tournament started.
And even after they’d advanced to the final, they were still huge underdogs against European champions and the best team in the world, Paris Saint-Germain.
But Chelsea were reliable and effective throughout the competition, and they were exceptional in the final as they ran out comfortable 3-0 winners in New Jersey. It was PSG’s biggest loss of the season and only the second time they had conceded three goals in a game all campaign, too (also in the 3-2 Champions League defeat to Aston Villa).
club world cup final stats
The fourth-best team in England last season, Chelsea certainly aren’t the best team on the planet, but what that Club World Cup title did do was give the players confidence in their ability together and some added belief in Maresca’s work, particularly following on from their impressive end to 2024-25 domestically.
That could be crucial heading into a new season in which Chelsea are rank outsiders to win either the Premier League or the Champions League. Perhaps it would be unwise to doubt them again.
Will a More Consistent Cole Palmer Take Chelsea Up a Level?
Seven games into last season, Cole Palmer had six goals and five assists to his name, and it looked as though he, rather than Mohamed Salah, might threaten the Premier League record for goal involvements in a season.
But Palmer added just one more goal and no assists in his next four games. He eventually came back into some form but from mid-January, he registered just one goal and two assists in his final 16 Premier League appearances of the season.
Palmer is without question one of the best players in the country, if not Europe. He can change games all on his own and regularly does. However, if there was one criticism of him, it could be that he doesn’t quite do it enough.
And when he’s quiet, his team often suffer. If Chelsea are to get to where they want to be, they need him on form more consistently.
Palmer is such an exceptional player that he genuinely could be the difference between a good season and a surprise title challenge. He ranked second in the Premier League last season for shots (126), chances created (89), expected assists (9.1), big chances created (24) and the number of open-play shot-ending sequences in which he played a part (254).
attacking sequence involvements Premier League 2024-25
A slightly more consistent season from Palmer could jump him up to first spot for a few of those metrics, and that could help Chelsea force their way into contention in the top three.
Can Chelsea Improve Results in Big Games?
One big problem last season was Chelsea’s form against the best teams. A mini-league of the eventual top six shows just how poor their record was in the biggest games: they won just three and lost six of 10 games against the other members of the top six and had the worst overall record of the lot.
Premier League Top Six Mini-League 2024-25
Their wins came against a depleted Newcastle, an Aston Villa side who came into the game on their worst run of form of the season, and Liverpool after they had already been crowned champions. Crucially, too, all of those games came at home.
In fact, Chelsea lost all five of their away matches against other members of the eventual top six. They scored just three goals in those five games and came away empty-handed every single time.
The PSG result should increase belief that this group can take points off the best teams and also get results against Europe’s elite now that Chelsea are back in the Champions League.
But if they don’t improve that terrible record, it’s difficult to see how they improve on last season’s fourth-place finish.
Is João Pedro Elite?
João Pedro has been dividing opinion for a few years now. Some people think he has what it takes to be one of the Premier League’s best players; others see an inconsistent mid-table player who flatters to deceive with a handful of eye-catching performances each season.
So, what’s the truth?
Now that he’s got his £60 million move to Chelsea, he has the perfect platform to show what he can do at the top level.
And it appears as though he has the full backing of his new manager; the Brazilian went straight into the starting lineup for the biggest games at the Club World Cup this summer after he joined mid-tournament.
He didn’t disappoint, scoring both goals in the 2-0 semi-final win over Fluminense, before putting the icing on the cake in the final victory over PSG.
Joao Pedro club world cup xg map
He is versatile and can play in a few positions, but from the evidence of those two starts, it appears as though Maresca sees him as his first-choice number nine for the upcoming campaign. That is a huge vote of confidence as he looks to make the step up to a big team and the Champions League.
But João Pedro still has much to prove. He has never scored more than five non-penalty goals in a Premier League season. His best at any level is a mere 10 in the Championship for Watford in 2022-23.
Now leading the line for a top side, it’s probably fair to say this season would be a disappointment if he didn’t set a new record for himself and break 10 non-penalty goals in Premier League games. This is his chance to prove his fans right and show just how good a player he is on the grandest stage.
Is Sánchez Really Still Chelsea’s First-Choice Goalkeeper?
There’s been a fair amount of discussion about Chelsea’s goalkeeper situation. Specifically, most people are in agreement that they need to upgrade between the sticks.
Gianluigi Donnarumma, Emiliano Martínez and Mike Maignan are just a few top keepers who have either been targeted or rumoured as potential signings, but nothing has materialised, and we’re now just a matter of days away from the start of the season.
That means Chelsea appear destined to start the new campaign with Robert Sánchez still as their first-choice goalkeeper. That’s not something that many of their fans will feel too happy about.
No player made more errors leading to an opposition goal in the Premier League last season than Sánchez’s five, and it is those horror-show moments that stick in the memory more than any of his good work.
He is probably a better shot-stopper than many give him credit for. He prevented two more goals being scored than the average goalkeeper would have last season based on expected goals on target data from his games, and that isn’t something that Chelsea have been able to say much of their goalkeepers in recent years. Sánchez’s overperformance of +2.0 when it came to his shot-stopping is the second-best by a Chelsea goalkeeper in any of the last eight seasons.
But even so, his slightly-better-than-average goalkeeping does not and arguably should not make up for his all too frequent and costly mistakes.
Given the rate of player turnover at Stamford Bridge, it does seem a little curious that Chelsea could be heading into the new season with a goalkeeper who has underwhelmed for too long.
Premier League Stats Opta
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