Chelsea: Stop trying to make a best XI happen, it’s not going to happen

Chelsea is blessed with one of the deepest squads in the Premier League in a season when it matters most. There is no best XI to be found and that’s great.

In hindsight, the transfer ban has proven to be less of a punishment and more of a gift in three separate ways. The first is Chelsea’s only reinforcement could come from within, so the barrier keeping the likes of Tammy Abraham, Reece James, and Mason Mount was shattered. The second is it allowed the club to take a risk on Frank Lampard and he has rewarded that faith by making the Blues feel like themselves again. Finally, the third is that the club was sitting on a massive pile of cash at a time when everyone else was running on empty. The swath of signings this summer simply couldn’t have happened otherwise.

All of that is why, perhaps for the first time since Carlo Ancelotti’s tenure, the Blues are absolutely stacked from top to bottom, from starter to out of the squad all together. It couldn’t have happened in a better season. With games coming at an almost inhumane pace, Chelsea has a squad not only with the numbers but the quality to survive when few others can.

Yet, fans are understandably still debating over who is and who isn’t in the best XI. The question has largely become academic. Form and fitness play a part, but Chelsea arguably has a best 18 or more now. Almost any player could come in and perform well and it makes the Blues one of the deadliest teams in all of Europe.

The main one here is who plays up top between Olivier Giroud and Tammy Abraham. The former has seven goals in 11 appearances. The latter has five goals and five assists in 16 matches. Is one obviously better than the other? Not particularly. A striker should be scoring so Giroud edges out there. But if they are involved in 10 goals, does it matter? It shouldn’t.

The main difference will be the type of opponent. Abraham is better suited for pressing teams, and that is even considering Giroud’s goal against Leeds. Giroud is better suited to teams that sit back and concede space, like Spurs did the previous week. Yes, Frank Lampard probably got those two starts backwards.

What about on the wing? Much is made of Callum Hudson-Odoi not making the bench after the last two Champions League performances, but should he be making it over Christian Pulisic? And that is even with Hakim Ziyech and Timo Werner starting. Against Leeds, Werner showed he can perform well on the right to make room for Pulisic on the left. Hudson-Odoi has been showing he has the right on lockdown. Simply put, Lampard is packed with options in the “wide” areas.

Then there is midfield, where Mateo Kovacic has reinserted himself during Kai Havertz’s Covid enforced time away. He offers a counter balance in the middle that Havertz cannot quite do, but the German is much more attacking. Like Giroud and Abraham, this may come down to one being against a pressing team and the other against a sitting team.

Even at the back this depth is evident. Cesar Azpilicueta is amazing but he has been firmly benched by Reece James. Antonio Rudiger is having a renaissance whenever Thiago Silva needs a rest. Andreas Christensen is firmly fourth but he did well last time out. All of that is not even including Fikayo Tomori.

Chelsea could field an XI that all deserves to play, plus a bench with six outfielders that all deserve to play, and they can still leave another two or three players out entirely that deserve to play. That is depth that Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Bayern Munich all built their empires on. The hardest part about Lampard’s job right now is simply picking the right players for the right matches and keeping everyone happy even when they aren’t picked.

There is no best XI. Almost any lineup Chelsea can put out has a case for being the best XI. The entire squad will be needed for Chelsea to compete on all fronts through this crazy season. So long as form and fitness are maintained, Lampard always has a best XI.