The Blues have had a successful season in 2016/17 and after having won the English Premier League, a quest for title defence has begun. As always, Chelsea was involved in a number of transfers, with players coming to Stamford Bridge and others, including club legend John Terry, departing.
Who Left?
Four notable players left Chelsea during the summer transfer period. First of all, John Terry was released from the club following an extremely successful career and joined Aston Villa, where he will be able to get more time on the pitch, to everyone’s satisfaction. Terry’s departure was no surprise to anyone, as the aging defender would certainly not be able to compete at the top level for much longer. The departure of Kurt Zouma is also not one to make the headlines, as the player was definitely not an extremely important link in Conte’s squad.
However, two departures that did leave Chelsea fans somewhat worried were those of Diego Costa and Nemanja Matic. The prolific striker left the club, only to come back to train with the B team until he finds a club that will sign him, having missed all the deadlines for transfers in this period. Be as it may, it seems we won’t be seeing Costa in the Chelsea squad this season. The departure of Nemanja Matic was certainly the biggest blow for the Blues, especially as the midfielder joined Manchester United, probably Chelsea’s biggest competitor this season.
Other transfers of the summer included Asmir Begovic and Nathan Ake to Bournmouth and Juan Cuadrado to Juventus for a combined £47 Million.
The New Faces
The biggest name to arrive to Stamford Bridge during the summer was certainly Alvaro Morata, who arrived from Real Madrid for a fee of £55 Million. The striker will serve as a direct replacement for Diego Costa and in many ways is reinforcement to the squad, as Costa was aging and definitely just a shadow of the player he used to be.
Tiemoue Bakayako, Antonio Rudiger and Willy Caballero also arrived to the club, neither of which seem to be big name signings, the likes of those that other top clubs were able to sign. The one name missing from the list is that of Romelu Lukaku, who was signed by Manchester United in yet another summer victory for the Red Devils.
Chelsea’s Odds and Bets You Can Make
With both Manchester United and Manchester City significantly improving their squads during the summer, the bookies are clearly favouring those two teams over Chelsea for the EPL title in 2016. Chelsea’s opening fixtures saw them beat Everton home and Tottenham away, but their home loss to Burnley in the first round certainly won’t be reinforcing the confidence of the fans.
Currently, the bookies are offering 11/2 on Chelsea to defend the title, with City priced at 7/5 and United at 9/4. If the title defence seems farfetched to you, Chelsea to finish in top four is offered at 2/5, which seems like quite a banker bet, especially having seen them play in the first few matches of the season.
Chelsea’s odds of title defence will likely come down to how well their main rivals will be able to compete, but judging by the form of Manchester United with Lukaku in front, it seems hard to bet on Chelsea actually winning it all.
Alvaro Morata is offered at 8/1 to be the league’s top goalscorer, just behind Romelu Lukaku and Harry Kane. Whether Morata can make it will also heavily depend on how successful Chelsea will be overall on the season. You can find even more odds for Chelsea and other Premier League teams for the season at https://www.yourate.com/, with extensive analysis and best boomkakers offered.
What To Expect From Conte’s Men
It is difficult to say at this time whether Conte can be happy with how the summer went. The transfers of Lukaku and Matic to Manchester United surely didn’t sit right with the Chelsea boss who was hoping to bring the striker to Stamford Bridge and keep Matic in the ranks.
Still, Chelsea have a solid squad on hand and their main problem could be with squad depth, as the great number of matches they have to play is bound to take its toll in terms of fatigue and injuries. We expect Chelsea to focus most of its efforts in the early part of the season on the EPL, but they will also be facing a difficult task in the Champions League where they face Atletico Madrid, Roma and Qarabag, meaning they will have to show some solid performances to qualify.
Whether they make anything of this season or not, we are definitely going to have a fun time tracking Chelsea both at home and in Europe, with dozens of exciting features ahead.