YahooSports.com’s Galin Dragiev takes a look into Chelsea’s offseason and what it means re: next season:
Summer Ins and Outs:
In: Andre Schurrle (£18m, Bayer Leverkusen), Marco van Ginkel(£8m, Vitesse Arnhem), Mark Schwarzer (free, Fulham), Cristian Cuevas (undisclosed, O’Higgins)
Notable Out: Yossi Benayoun (released), Paulo Ferreira (released), Ross Turnbull (free, Doncaster), Thibaut Cortois (loan, Atletico Madrid), Jeffrey Bruma (£2.5m, PSV), Marko Marin (loan, Seville), Patrick van Aanholt (loan, Vitesse Arnhem), Oriol Romeu (loan, Valencia), Florent Malouda (free, Trabzonspor), Gael Kakuta (loan, Vitesse Arnhem), Thorgan Hazard (loan, Zulte Waregem)
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What to expect from 2013/14:
The unexpected.
With Jose Mourinho back on the Chelsea throne, it’s hard to expect anything. The guy is as unpredictable as anyone but has constantly delivered results. Mourinho has shown he can win and he had great success last time around in London. He won back to back Premier League titles and lost in the Champions League final because of a John Terry slip on a penalty kick. I don’t anticipate lesser results this time around.
Chelsea have also strengthened their squad. Andre Schurrle is an exceptional attacking midfielder who can provide strength, speed, and work ethic to the Chelsea squad. The Blues are also gettingMichael Essien back after a season long loan to Real Madrid, where the Ghanaian midfielder returned to form after a long injury spell. The Blues haven’t lost anyone from their rotation and seem as solid as ever. There are some concerns at striker and in the central defense, but neither seems fatal. Fernando Torres, Demba Ba, and Romelu Lukaku can probably provide enough scoring power for Chelsea to complement their strong midfield. If John Terry stays healthy and Chelsea keep David Luiz, their defense should be good enough and deep enough for a title challenge. It helps they have one of the best goalkeepers in the world.
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Players to watch:
Romelu Lukaku – Lukaku scored 17 goals last season for West Brom and can be lethal, especially withJuan Mata, Eden Hazard, Oscar, Frank Lampard, and Andre Schurrle behind him. It would be interesting to see if he gets enough playing time, but my bet would be that he does.
Andre Schurrle – Schurrle is certainly a good player and it seems he is built for the Premier League. He is a great finisher and can play on the left wing better than anyone else on the squad. Mourinhohas said he plans on moving Juan Mata to the right wing, so I wouldn’t be surprised seeing both of them on at the same time. Schurrle would be a good bet if he can earn a starting spot week in and week out.
David Luiz and John Terry – There certainly are questions in the defense right now. The key things to look at is whether or not Mourinho trusts David Luiz in the back, since he has been prone to make mistakes. Another thing to follow is John Terry’s health and conditioning. Both can be solid fantasy options if they can earn the time on the field.
Another thing to follow closely is who will be the midfield starters. Between Mata, Hazard, Oscar, Lampard, Essien, Schurrle, John Obi Mikel, Ramires, and even youngster Kevin de Bruyne making a run at a rotation spot, it’s hard to know who’s going to earn a consistent run on the pitch. From a fantasy point of view, the only one I can fully trust right now is Juan Mata and possibly Eden Hazard; everyone else will get playing time but I don’t know if it will be consistent enough to rely on every week.
Prediction:
With such a creative and proven midfield, I can’t see Chelsea outside of the top four. With Mourinho in charge, I am fully confident Chelsea will win the title. Manchester City have lacked consistency and Manchester United are just not as good without Sir Alex. The Premier League title is coming to Stamford Bridge.
Do you think Chelsea will win it all?
With jose mourinho back in charge anything can definately happen
Chelsea have great squad right now n hopefully we will win trophies dis season
it was avram grant who was in the bench during Perry’s slip
The League is in d bag already.just wanna celebr8 d UCL again nd preety soon
Mou didn’t get to the final with Chelsea. Grant did on that occasion of Terry’s slip up.
Looking at the squad for the next season and the Special one. [The Happy One] in charge, I strongly believe as a Chelsea Fan that [they] will win titles
Looking at the squad for the next season and the Special one. [The Happy One] in charge, I strongly believe as a Chelsea Fan that [they] will win titles
Our attack I feel will dissapoint us except rooney comes to chelsea bcos we’l b restricted to open play n teams wit wall defenec will pose very big problem as well as teams wit man macking. All things been equal, I only see Man city as d contender except ass anal snap up gustavo n suarez.
I actually think we re great contenders for the title as our midfield is arguably the best in the league and we are not very solid on the centre back but with cahill all things are possible but why do we need a striker when we have three good ones i think our squad is complete but man city will also be a great contender and all of u watch out for my second best club swansea this season
For the 1st time in how many years now,we have the best midfield in the epl and that”s a great things for us.Well it’s too early to count our chickens before it hatches!Let’s see what happens first!
With fernando torres in the squad I don’t think we wud win d title,get a better finisher like rooney or zlatan ibrahimovic and d stars shall b your limit
I think it will be between Chelsea and Man City. I still think they have more depth and quality than Chelsea. But Mourinho knows how to win titles.. so the chances of us winning are more. Its gonna be all about consistency. 60:40 in favour of Chelsea to win.
EKVR are you smoking pot? when terry missed the penalty the manager was avram grant.
during terry’s slip, it was avram grant.. such massive mistake in such a reputed website is surprising