Chelsea: History does not support Europa League schedule as an excuse

Chelsea make the short hop across London to face West Ham United at the London Stadium in the first installment of this season’s Thursday-Sunday post-Europa League routine. The game will be the 50th league meeting between the two clubs in east London.

With Chelsea holding a 100% win record so far this season, Blues fans will look forward to the game with a degree of trepidation. The Blues still carry the perception of having a soft underbelly against the capital’s ‘lesser’ teams. Antonio Conte’s Chelsea fell to a Crystal Palace side without a win or a goal in his difficult second season. Last season Conte’s team also lost 1-0 at the London Stadium.

Another popular myth the media like to play on is how (all) clubs tend to struggle after returning from European games. Chelsea lost at home to Manchester City, after beating Atletico Madrid three days earlier in Madrid in the Champions League group stage. Having suffered a heavy 3-0 defeat in Rome, Chelsea followed that up with a 1-0 home win over the other Manchester team. In the final away game against minnows Qarabag, Chelsea faced a trip to Anfield to take on Liverpool, where they came away with a creditable 1-1 draw.

There was no European football for Chelsea in 2016/17. So, jumping back to 2015/16 and Mourinho’s season of discontent, his ailing side lost 3-1 at home to Southampton having been beaten 2-1 in Porto. Next up came the long trip to Dynamo Kiev. A 0-0 scoreline in Russia preceded a trip to this weekend’s opponent, West Ham. The game ended with the Hammers winning 2-1. The final group game and Mourinho’s last European encounter with Chelsea was at Maccabi Tel Aviv. Chelsea won 4-0. Five days later they drew 0-0 against Tottenham.

Having reached the knockout stages and with Guus Hiddink at the helm, a now infamous 2-1 defeat against Paris St-Germain saw Chelsea return to beat Manchester City 5-1. Hiddink’s side was unchanged from the French trip and comfortably saw off a selection of City’s squad players in the FA Cup tie.

The only opportunity to check on Chelsea’s Thursday-Sunday credentials is, of course, to check how they got on back in 2013 when they won the Europa League. It has been their sole encounter in the competition so far.

Looking at all the games, home and away, a total of eight Sunday games followed the club’s Thursday exploits. Three were FA Cup games and five were league encounters. The results were five wins (Brentford, West Ham, Sunderland, Swansea and Manchester United), one draw (Manchester United) and two defeats, both against Manchester City, one in each competition.

In the end, it all comes down to the mindset of the players. Can they overcome the perceived belief that Thursday-Sunday football is any more difficult than Wednesday-Saturday games? It obviously isn’t – the timescale is exactly the same. It falls on the manager’s shoulders to lessen the mental burden.

Maurizio Sarri managed Napoli through the league stages and beyond of the Europa League in 2015/16. Their Thursday-Sunday routine saw them undefeated on the weekend following their European exploits. Of course, the Italian league games are generally always played on Sunday so there’s no real alteration from the status quo, so does any of this mean anything?

There’s an old English saying that goes stats and facts can tell the truth… but you can twist them anyway to suit your own narrative.

The truth is Chelsea’s group of players are technically better than those of their east London rivals. However, winning a game of football is about so much more. It’s about wanting to win or, put better, wanting to show the watching world you’re better than your reputation. West Ham have shown those qualities in the past, expect no different today.

Read the stats how you want, but it will take 90 minutes on the pitch to give you all the answers.