Five reasons for Chelsea fans to be cheerful includes Sanchez and one injured star in particular

Chelsea have endured their worst start to a league season since 1978, picking up five points from six games and scoring a frankly pathetic five goals. Somehow, we’ve come up with five reasons for the Blues fans to be cheerful…

Robert Sanchez
Other than the six months or so when Edouary Mendy was brilliant in that Champions League-winning run – and he was bloody brilliant – Chelsea’s goalkeeping situation has been an anxiety-inducing mess since Thibaut Courtois left for Real Madrid in 2018.

Kepa Arrizabalaga was fine last term – there was certainly a vast improvement from his horror 2019/20 season – but he was never able to command his box to a comfortable degree. His replacement makes fine reaction saves, reads the game well, is decent with his feet and is among the best around at coming to collect crosses.

Sanchez is a well-rounded goalkeeper, and concern that Chelsea could be undone by a rick – if they ever do manage to take the lead – has diminished with his arrival.

Christopher Nkunku
After 58 goals in his last two seasons for RB Leipzig, Nkunku could be Chelsea’s saviour. Or of course – as is the way at Stamford Bridge – they may rush him back from injury too early, meaning he misses a couple of chances and he joins the rest of the Blues forwards, past and present, on the confidence scrapheap, never to score again.

Sorry, this is reasons to be cheerful. Nkunku is a natural finisher, which isn’t something that can be said for those same forwards – past and present – and is also an expert creator, having logged 43 assists in just 119 Bundesliga appearances.

And while the pressure will be extreme by the point he makes his debut should Chelsea fail to climb out of their slump in the meantime, he looks to be someone who will thrive being the main man rather than someone who would shrink in the spotlight.

Returnees
Trevoh Chalobah’s personal trainer describing the current injury situation as an ‘absolute mess’ has strengthened a long-term suspicion that the medical staff isn’t fit for purpose. He took issue with the rehabilitation methods of the club in leaked WhatsApp messages that have now seen him banned from the training ground, and will likely mean his client will be out on his arse in January.

Whoops, look at us being negative again. The silver lining to the extensive list of absentees is that those players will return (for a short period at least before getting injured again), and will drastically change the look of Mauricio Pochettino’s squad, and probably his starting XI.

Reece James obviously comes straight back in – impressive though Malo Gusto has been at right-back; Nkunku will play somewhere in the front four; Benoit Badiashile and Wesley Fofana will battle Levi Colwill and Axel Disasi for the centre-back spots, with Chalobah presumably set to leave and Thiago Silva to be phased out. Carney Chukwuemeka would start ahead of Mudryk based on the form he showed before his injury, but could also be used in a deeper role, where Romeo Lavia will also be fighting for a starting spot.

At the moment, despite the vast number of players that have arrived at the club, the injuries have meant there’s little competition for places, and getting those players back will likely improve the attitude and commitment of the players who have been playing, while offering Chelsea alternatives who may make a better fist of winning football games.

Expected goals
Whichever Expected goals model you look at has Chelsea on at least twice the number of goals they’ve actually scored, and around sixth in the Premier League – which is where most probably would have predicted they would finish this season.

The fans would accept the inexperience excuse for this very talented group of players if they were in and around the European places, and while xG is essentially meaningless, it’s positive for Chelsea in that it suggests an easy fix – buy a goalscorer.

The fact that they haven’t spent some of the £1bn on a top-class striker is truly baffling, but what was obvious to everyone else before the season started must now be obvious to Todd Boehly. This guy would do.

Future-proofing
The policy of buying expensive children has predictably created the nightmare Chelsea are currently experiencing. Under huge pressure due to the mammoth transfer fees, with very few experienced heads around them, the young players are struggling.

But chances are at least one in three of those very talented children will become very talented and successful adults. The club may need to do a sort of reverse revamp to speed up that process and buy some oldies to coddle and cajole the youngsters, but whether it’s next season, three years down the line, under this manager or with Boehly’s tenth appointment at the helm, it will happen.

It’s not as though there are no glimpses of that young talent. Take the Aston Villa game: Mykhaylo Mudryk – emblematic of Boehly’s failing project – played a stunning through-ball for Nicolas Jackson, ‘who’s got something about him’, if not goals; Cole Palmer delivered a similarly brilliant pass to create a chance for Ben Chilwell.

Chelsea have got excellent young footballers, some of whom will come good, given what the fans will be sick to death of already but will hear a whole lot more: Time.