Advertisement

Chelsea sitting pretty at top of Premier League, but can they really push on and challenge for the title?

There are signs Maurizio Sarri is beginning to implement his style: Getty
There are signs Maurizio Sarri is beginning to implement his style: Getty

The big question outside Stamford Bridge is whether Chelsea can actually go and win the title this season, but it’s rather different within the club.

Sure, the players will willingly and honestly talking about how they’re aiming for it – and they are – but Maurizio Sarri is equally honest when playing everything down. The Italian and those at the top level of the club know that the squad doesn’t quite have the ingredients to fully implement his style, or to fully challenge Manchester City and a supremely primed Liverpool. Those two just already have so much in place, but then there’s the tantalising sight of Chelsea, still sitting in first place.

Part of the issue is, ironically, that usual hallmark of champions: winning without playing all that well.

Results have been better than performances in the five games so far. And while there are clear signs the broad idea of Sarri’s pressing and passing game are also in place, it is still greatly lacking the little, more-developed elements that really elevate it. It is inevitably missing that integration and understanding that allowed Napoli to score so many flowing goals, that saw the touches and flicks that made them move at such a higher level.

Chelsea currently sit on the top of the Premier League (Getty)
Chelsea currently sit on the top of the Premier League (Getty)

Instead, the broad domination possession has got the team to a certain point on the pitch, before requiring the individual incision of attackers like Pedro or —predominantly – Eden Hazard. It is still only “Sarri-ball” to a certain point, too.

Some around Cobham do feel an extra challenge for the manager is having to mentally unshackle the players from the rigours of Antonio Conte’s approach. One line used in jest is “brainwashing”, such was the psychological conditioning from the former manager in terms of so often running the squad through the 11-a-side shape without the ball. It just became ingrained, almost too co-ordinated.

As with many such things in football, these approaches are progressive and brilliant when things are going well, but a sudden problem when results go a different direction and players get jaded.

Those same players are right now loving the “fun” of Sarri’s coaching, the allowance of such self-expression, the amount of work with the ball. There's just an attacking freedom, within an overall structure.

And, for the more excitable or optimistic members of the squad – like the effusive Hazard – there is a fair optimism over what might be possible when the players do fully understand the approach, when they do reach those levels of integration.

One other thing some around the club are saying is that few thought they would challenge for the title in the September of 2016 under Conte, either, but events – and form – took on a life of their own. The team got into gear, and just kept going through the gears.

That was admittedly a season without a fully firing City or Liverpool, and there are still bigger questions about a defence that has David Luiz and Marcos Alonso so far forward. Chelsea haven’t quite been properly threatened yet, bar against a similarly nascent new Arsenal.

The likelihood is that won’t change until Liverpool next week, unless West Ham United can on Sunday replicate the sudden, and almost out of nowhere, surging football seen at Everton.

Manuel Pellegrini does at least favour the kind of attacking that Chelsea haven’t yet faced.

Manuel Pellegrini is up against it this weekend (Getty)
Manuel Pellegrini is up against it this weekend (Getty)

The Chilean still has a very open defence, though, that itself looks especially susceptible to the way Chelsea move the ball.

If that makes it six wins from six, the questions from outside will only grow. Might the optimism within?