It is fair to say that by any estimation Chelsea’s season has seen some serious highs like inflicting Liverpool’s first defeat of the campaign when they knocked them out of the Carabao Cup while grabbing all 3 points in the Premier League when they handed Manchester City their first League defeat of the season.
Reaching the final of the Carabao Cup and losing only on penalties to Man City following the Arrizabalaga drama and the previous all too recent 6-0 loss to City at the Etihad showed that “Sarri ball” could work if it is given the chance to establish itself at Stamford Bridge under Maurizio Sarri. The Italian should definitely be given the chance to see out his project and contract at Chelsea despite what pundits like Paul Merson have said lately in the media.
In spite of the seeming unrest at the Bridge, Chelsea have progressed in the Europa League which they could quite possibly win and the Blues are still in with a good chance of finishing in the top 4 of the Premier League. Interestingly the betting markets as you can see on sites like stoixima24.net are only listing Tottenham, Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea as betting options for finishing top 4 now. Clearly the bookies see Liverpool and Manchester City as the only candidates for the top 2 places with a duo between the 2 clubs seen as the eventuality for this season’s Premier League champions.
Interestingly, Chelsea are listed as Europa League winners bookies’ favourites ahead of Napoli and Arsenal with Sarri’s men available at odds of 19/10, however crazily the Chelsea manager is still the bookies favourite to be the next manager to leave his post available at 8/11. What even makes this even crazier is that the bookies still see Chelsea at a short price of 11/5 only marginally behind Man Utd at 6/4 and Arsenal at 8/13 to finish in the Premier League top 4 betting markets.
What is key to Chelsea’s season push is how the recently arrived Gonzalo Higuain performs over the rest of the season not to mention the continued excellence of Eden Hazard plus the team needs to avoid the injury bug. They face Sparta Praha from the Czech Republic in the quarter-finals of the Europa League 1st leg on April 11th which is a decent draw where their chances have to be good of progressing into the second leg with a lead.
In their Premier League run-in Chelsea still have to play Liverpool, Manchester United, Cardiff City and Leicester City away plus West Ham, Burnley, Brighton and Watford the first 2 games’ results vs Liverpool and United could define their top 4 aspirations with a win over United perhaps ending their top 4 chances and even ruining Ole Gunnar Solskjaer being the permanent United manager at Old Trafford.
When it comes down to it qualifying for the Champions League by whichever route has to be the only goal for Chelsea. Sure winning the Europa League trophy would be nice but the club need to secure Champions League qualification to be sure Eden Hazard is happy and they can get back where they belong in the top tier of Europe’s Premier Club Competition.
Hazard is happy and settled in London and has been very loyal but he wants Champions League football and the Blues should deliver ahead of the inevitable Real Madrid spending spree coming this summer where they may well make overtures to the brilliant Blues’ Belgian.