Chelsea’s path to the Champions League is clear if they take it

At some point during Chelsea’s 17 match unbeaten run with Frank Lampard, many started to believe. Sadly, a cold and hard winter slog destroyed that belief before the end of January. Thomas Tuchel was brought in mainly to steady the ship and push on next season.

That hasn’t happened, in fact it has been the opposite. Tuchel’s Chelsea remains undefeated as they tap in to the Blues’ old DNA mixed with a fair bit of modern flair. There are still concerns on the attacking end, but so far this has been an impenetrable fortress marching forward.

Chelsea now knows their opponent in the next round of the Champions League: Porto. Their path to the final is clear, should they take it. But what will that look like?

When the Blues return from break, they have a pretty solid go of things. West Brom at home will be followed by Porto away, Palace away, and then Porto at home. Not only is Porto arguably the easiest draw Chelsea could have gotten, but they got it during a run of winnable games and the Blues even get to play at home in the second leg to make things less complicated.

Speaking of complicated, from that point on the schedule could get a bit muddled. Should Chelsea advance in the FA Cup against Sheffield United, the semifinal will follow the Porto match. If the Blues fall this weekend, the match following Porto will be Brighton. If Chelsea does make the semifinals of both the Champions League and the FA Cup, where that Brighton match will fit in is anyone’s guess.

Following that FA Cup semifinal or Brighton, things will get much more difficult in the run in. The Premier League schedule alone for Chelsea is rough. West Ham away, Fulham at home, Manchester City away, Arsenal at home, Leicester at home, and Aston Villa away round the season out. Should Chelsea have a Champions League semifinal, the matches against Real Madrid or Liverpool will be either side of Fulham. In the sense of aiming for the Champions League final, that’s pretty favorable but it will make that final stretch interesting, especially if Brighton also has to be shoved in somewhere.

Top four isn’t Chelsea’s goal this season; it’s a bare minimum at this point given the current form of the team. But the addition of potentially two semifinals within the top four run in will make things a bit complicated. Chelsea’s run in features at least two teams fighting for top four as well as the (probably by then in all but name) champions. But if an FA Cup and especially if a Champions League final is on the cards, it would be tempting not to put all in one or the other and risk the league. Top four is a bare minimum but it doesn’t much matter if the team wins the Champions League.

The path from here on out is clear, mostly. Chelsea needs to get the job done against Sheffield United, return from break motivated and refreshed, and march on to two semifinals. From there, anything can happen and Tuchel has got the boys believing.