Chelsea: Premier League deciding to be smart and bring back five subs

It was ridiculous that five subs went away, but they are coming back as the Premier League comes to its senses. What does it mean for Chelsea?

At The Pride of London, we have a habit of predicting the future merely by looking at the evidence and believing it will equal the most likely outcome. So when we said back in August that the Premier League would return to five subs after A: realizing the injuries were piling up and B: the rest of the world kept doing it, we weren’t wrong. We assumed it would take two years but the Premier League was especially aware of the damage they were doing to themselves and they appear to be changing course just three months later.

The main reason why this rule didn’t stay in put like it did elsewhere is a misplaced belief that it favored the bigger clubs. There is little evidence of that in any league in Europe. In fact, the evidence tends to point towards smaller clubs improving because they don’t have to rely on their benches as much from the start of a match. And of course, don’t dismiss the Football Association’s ability to lean on “well this is how we’ve always done it!” when making decisions.

That being said, Chelsea did seemingly build for five subs over the summer only for the carpet to be pulled out from under them. With five subs, Olivier Giroud and Callum Hudson-Odoi surely would have played more. Ross Barkley would have likely have stayed and done the same. There is an outside chance that even Ethan Ampadu would have remained.

Now Chelsea has to recalibrate after three silly months of the league being different just to be different. On the plus side, this now means more chances for the previously mentioned Giroud and Hudson-Odoi. It will also give more opportunities to Billy Gilmour as he returns from injury. Tino Anjorin is also likely to earn a first team promotion if he is not loaned out in January.

“Frank Lampard doesn’t even use all five subs” is probably the chorus of the boo boys at the moment. It’s not true but let’s look at it in context for this season. A 0-0 draw against Sevilla saw only four subs. Obviously, don’t rock the boat with the game on the line. Lampard began using subs at 1-0 versus Krasnodar, eventually making all five by the 81st minute. With Rennes, it was already 3-0 when subs began and all five were made by the 75th minute.

For comparisons sake, in the 13 matches post restart last season, Lampard made five subs in four matches, four subs in six matches, three in two matches, and only one sub in one match. While it’s not incorrect to say he doesn’t use all the subs, it is incorrect to act like he isn’t using the expanded rules at all. Evidence would suggest this season, with a deeper squad, he is more willing to bring in the changes.

Overall, this rule will only help Chelsea should the Premier League let it come to pass like they should have three months ago. With injuries abounding throughout the league and the long winter slog here, clubs will be left with the barebones come the spring. Without better rotation and rest, the European clubs are bound to be embarrassed by their fresher counterparts come the knockout rounds. That is not to even mention the Euros where English based players will be running on the fumes of fumes even with some additional help.

This rule is less about unfair advantages for the bigger teams (because there really aren’t any) and more about the health and safety of the players after a long and crazy year. If this rule doesn’t return it simply shows the Premier League has other interests. They need to make the right choice.