Upcoming run decides whether Chelsea is one of Europe’s top teams

The upcoming run of matches will determine whether Chelsea is a contender or pretender in terms of being one of Europe’s best this season.

Group stages of the UEFA Champions League have finished and Chelsea has progressed to the knockout stage as Group E winners. The Blues are currently third in the English Premier League table, as well, so the club is in a comfortable position as far as two premier competitions are concerned. So much so, a few fans have already started to mention the Blues as one of Europe’s top teams this season.

To be fair, it was a tricky start to the campaign as Frank Lampard had to integrate new players and also had to manage various injuries within the squad. Chelsea barely had a match-day with all players fit and ready to go and although the same applies now to a lesser degree, judgement day is coming for the Blues.

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As of now, Hakim Ziyech and Callum Hudson-Odoi are out injured for the next few weeks. It has not been a leisurely journey so far this season, but with no European football until February, the primary focus shifts to the run of games leading up to the new year. Chelsea has six matches in the next 21 days—including two matches in three days for Boxing Day and beyond.

The daunting challenge starts now for Lampard as far as opponents go. Apart from Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea’s opponents have mainly been from the bottom of the table to this point. Against the aforementioned teams, the Blues were unable to score a single goal in the league. The upcoming six opponents have invariably been a thorn in Chelsea’s side over the last few years. They cannot expect to be within the touching distance of league leaders Liverpool and Manchester City if that trend continues against those foes.

Chelsea has had similar experiences in the past campaigns, as well. The Blues start positively and find themselves in talks of title charge after having a good run of form against bottom-half sides. At that point, it wholly changes with some setbacks against better sides. Lampard’s team was in touching distance of second place last year before falling out.

The sprint to legitimacy all starts with the visit to Goodison Park on Saturday. The same team, despite being in a run of lean form, managed to defeat the Blues comfortably in this fixture last season.

After the weekend’s match in Liverpool, the Blues visit Molineux Stadium to face Wolves on Tuesday. The aforementioned is a side that has more than frequently provided a stern challenge to traditional top six sides ever since Nuno Espirito Santo’s men have come back to the top flight. Subsequently, Chelsea has two London derbies. The first comes when the Blues host West Ham before visiting Emirates to take on Arsenal on Boxing Day. The current form is always thrown out for a derby, so they better be prepared, despite the poor form of their north London rivals.

This run of games then ends with two home matches against Aston Villa and Manchester City after the turn of the new year. Villa has already shown this season how dangerous it can be against top sides and Manchester City is always a formidable opponent—to put it lightly.

If the Blues are still within touching distance of a top place after this run, the talks of a potential title run can be genuinely be started. A few dropped points can alter everything in this topsy turvy season and the most typical example of this was the Southampton vs. Manchester United fixture. At halftime, United was in a potential crisis and moving even closer to the relegation zone after going down 2-0. By the end, the Red Devils scored three unanswered goals and the talks quickly shifted subjects, now about challenging for the top four.

Such is the season around Europe. By Monday, Chelsea’s round of 16 opponents will be revealed for the Champions League. So if the Blues can string together a good run of form, they can genuinely look forward to a rewarding season both in the Premier League and in Europe.