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Chelsea’s Europa League possibilities: Most and least desirable opponents

By The Pride of London Staff

LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 07: Ethan Ampadu of Chelsea in action during the pre-season friendly match between Chelsea and Lyon at Stamford Bridge on August 7, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 07: Ethan Ampadu of Chelsea in action during the pre-season friendly match between Chelsea and Lyon at Stamford Bridge on August 7, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images) /
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LONDON, ENGLAND – MAY 19: Alexis Sanchez of Manchester United and Tiemoue Bakayoko of Chelsea during The Emirates FA Cup Final between Chelsea and Manchester United at Wembley Stadium on May 19, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images) /

Least desirable opponents

Teams who are not kid-friendly (Travis Tyler)

Anyone east of Germany would be a pain to travel to midweek. The last thing Chelsea should want is to be in Russia or Turkey on a Thursday night. Regardless of the opponent, that would be tricky on the back end.

Outside that, it would be less than ideal to draw anyone in the top five leagues who is a powerhouse, current or former. So no Milan’s, Marseilles’s, or Leipzig’s. The ideal group stage would be easy enough to play the likes of Ethan Ampadu and Callum Hudson-Odoi every single match. Draw any of the bigger sides and they have already lost two matches.

The primary point of being in the Europa League should be to help youth break through. The secondary point should be to win it all. Preferably the latter allows the former.

There are a lot of decent teams in this edition of the Europa League. AC Milan, Marseille, RB Leipzig and Stade Rennais are the prospective teams in Chelsea’s group that stand out immediately.

Familiarity breeds contempt (Abhishek Pancholi)

AC Milan are the team who would be worst for Chelsea to face in the group stages. The Rossoneri have been busy in the transfer market and their marquee signing, Gonzalo Higuain, is a player Maurizio Sarri wanted to bring to Chelsea. With the Blues’ luck, Big Hig will score a hat-trick against them and a lot of fans who were dead against his signing will be fuming that he is not at Stamford Bridge. Another player who might be looking for a chance to prove Chelsea wrong is Tiemoue Bakayoko. While technically he is on loan, the buyout option at the end of this season would make him more determined than ever to showcase his worth to his new team.

Another team in this draw from hell are Marseille, who have seasoned professionals like Dimitri Payet, Florian Thauvin and Kevin Strootman in their ranks.

RB Leipzig also carry way too many threats to discount them from being challengers. If Chelsea end up drawing one or more of Milan, Marseille or Leipzig, it would make their task a lot harder than it should be.

Let’s not be silly (George Perry)

OK, as it turns out, FC Ufa is even further from London than Qarabag. Chelsea do not need to be travelling there. In fact, let’s have our fingers crossed that Arsenal draw Ufa, assuming the Russian side overcomes Rangers.

Next. Chelsea will only succeed with proactive, not reactive, managers. dark

Otherwise, it’s key for Chelsea to avoid the Big 5 leagues. The short trip is good, but Chelsea need time to learn and they need time for their Premier League XI to rest. That will not happen if AC Milan, Lazio or Marseille are on the schedule.

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