Cup draws offer Chelsea hope in two competitions

Chelsea found out their opponents in the Europa League and the League Cup late last week. The draws offer a lot of hope for progression and development.

Cup draws always offer a sense of excitement and expectation even if they are lower end competitions. There is always that hope of drawing a minnow and smashing them with a squad of players rarely seen. Some even prefer the tough draws while of the belief that “you have to beat the best to win the cup”.

Regardless, Chelsea’s opponents in the League Cup and Europa League offer a ton of promise for the future. Outside factors weigh heavily on the League Cup and the Europa League was as kind as it could be in the group. The Blues will still need to go out and get the work done, but half of it has been done for them already.

Now, saying the League Cup draw was good might seem strange to some. After all, Chelsea drew top six rival Liverpool away just days before they host them in the league. Jurgen Klopp is something of a specialist against rivals and that, in theory, should cause Maurizio Sarri to worry.

That would be true if Liverpool’s schedule between the September international break and the October break was not straight out of hell. Chelsea’s three matches leading in are all favorable. The matches after both Liverpool fixtures are also favorable. Liverpool, however, are in for a crucible. Their schedule between the breaks is Tottenham away, Paris Saint Germain at home, Southampton at home, Chelsea at home, Chelsea away, Napoli away, and Manchester City at home. That’s the type of run that can make or break a season.

So it seems likely that Klopp will look at that schedule and rotate for the League Cup. That will be his lowest priority target and he is likely to rotate anyways. But in the context of that run, his rotation will be even heavier than usual. That will offer Chelsea a chance to advance that otherwise would have been tricky.

The Europa League schedule has also been very kind to Chelsea. The Blues drew PAOK, Vidi FC, and Bate Borisov. And though that will involve a lot of travel, those are all very winnable fixtures even for a heavily rotated squad. It would be shocking (and frankly appalling) if Ethan Ampadu, Callum Hudson-Odoi, and Ruben Loftus-Cheek did not start every one of those matches.

Furthermore, Chelsea’s schedule before and after those matches is also very solid. For the most part, the squad will get the full amount of rest time available with Europa League on Thursday and Premier League on Sunday. That is not always the case, but it is for most of the fixtures. Furthermore, Chelsea is not sandwiching the Europa League between two tough fixtures at any point. Sarri is likely to (and should) rotate for Europa League but it helps to have kinder opponents before and after all that travel.

The Blues should be very happy with these cup draws. They offer a fantastic opportunity for the younger and fringe players to feature while also giving Sarri time to work with the squad. The biggest negative is the travel in the Europa League but that was to be expected. So long as Chelsea plays with the right attitude and Sarri rotates, the Blues will have a good chance of staying strong through the run of games.