It’s a strange old season, whichever way you look at it. A few years ago it would have seemed incomprehensible that we were in the middle of November, Abramovich no longer at the club, Graham Potter at the helm and the season stopped for a World Cup. But this is where we are.
Other factors aside, how will this forced break affect Chelsea, relative to those other teams fighting for a place in the top four, especially as the World Championship 2022 odds show there is a strong possibility that several members of the team from Chelsea stay up late? in the tournament in Qatar?
There will be 135 players plying their trade in England’s top flight in Qatar. 12 of them will be from Chelsea, the third largest representation in the Premier League behind Manchester City (16) and Manchester United (14). Tottenham and Arsenal will have 11 and 10 players away respectively, Brighton 8 and Liverpool only 7.
Surprisingly, Newcastle will only be missing 5 players. Just for the record, the teams with the fewest players represented at the World Cup are Southampton, Bournemouth and Crystal Palace, all with 3 players in Qatar.
Having such a large number out for such an extended period will surely have an effect on them and the team and their balance. Some of those players will be playing, a lot, others will just be warming up the bench or, judging by the temperatures in the Middle East, trying to stay cool on the bench.
Players who remain at home will be rested, nurtured into fitness, and while they will certainly take part in some games behind closed doors, they may lack match fitness when it restarts.
12 Chelsea players were on the plane to Qatar.
Work on the training grounds will revolve to some extent around tactics, but it’s hard to implement anything new with half the first-team squad absent. There is a very real possibility that in January games, the teams in the top half of the table will look very unbalanced, such as when a manager brings in a large number of new players in August and struggles to integrate them.
With no rest, plus the intense nature of the World Cup and EPL before and after the break, players could very well be extremely fatigued in the later stages of this season, with the drop in performance and injuries that follow. Due.
Chelsea, like the other teams with big numbers in the tournament, will expect different things from their players in the Middle East. For some, like Mason Mount, Raheem Sterling, Christian Pulisic, Kai Havertz, Edouard Mendy and Kalidou Koulibaly, the World Cup could be a way for those players to get a few minutes on their legs and/or play in some semblance of form. The length of that list of what should be key players for the club shows what a season it has been so far.
On the other side of the coin are players like 38-year-old Thiago Silva, who, while likely pivotal for Brazil, Chelsea fans will be desperate not to play too, too deep. And, of course, there is the constant spectrum of injuries.
In a season that hasn’t started well, a break is not necessarily a bad thing. It gives the players, the manager, the club, a chance to reset and come back stronger after Christmas.
There will be other clubs, Arsenal more than anyone, who will see the forced stoppage as the worst thing that could have happened to them, so it’s not all bad. It’s probably, fingers crossed anyway, that this is the only time this happens, so we should all sit back, watch what happens, and try to enjoy it.
