Chelsea showing they can surely last title race

After this past weekend’s Premier League fixtures, Chelsea have underlined their determination to make this season’s title fight a three-horse race with a 4-0 thrashing of Burnley.

At the start of the 2018-19 Premier League season, the majority of commentators were predicting a battle between two teams for the title; defending champions Manchester City and Liverpool. Chelsea were not considered to be a strong contender at first.

City were obviously the team to beat again after their record-breaking and dominant title triumph last season. And Liverpool were seen as the side on the rise and likely to give City the strongest, most consistent challenge.

Chelsea were undergoing yet another transition as they again replaced their manager, with Mauricio Sarri taking over from fellow Italian Antonio Conte.

The Blues also lost goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois to Real Madrid and there were constant summer rumours Eden Hazard would follow him.

However despite these uncertainties and Sarri introducing a new passing and possession-orientated approach, Chelsea have quietly gone about building real momentum in the Premier League and along with City and Liverpool, they remain the only other unbeaten team in the league.

Sunday’s win over Burnley underlined Chelsea’s determination and ability to sustain a title challenge over the course of the season. Eden Hazard has had an outstanding start to the Premier League campaign. But he was absent for the trip to Turf Moor.

Admittedly Burnley have been struggling badly this season but was still an important game to see if Chelsea could go and win comfortably without the massive influence of Hazard.

One of the things that gives the Stamford Bridge club a good chance of being able to last the full 38 games, apart from the fact that many of the last title-winning squad are still there, is the emergence of several players who look as though they can take some of the pressure off Hazard.

A player who fits that mold, is Ross Barkley. The former Everton midfielder had a difficult and uncertain start to his Chelsea career. But recently he has become an increasingly important contributor to Chelsea’s season.

Barkley’s career was threatening to go downhill as he struggled to fulfil his obvious potential at the club he supported as a boy and where he came through the youth system.

It was perhaps the best thing for him to move on and get a fresh start at another club. Sometimes a young player can seem to lose their way and begin to stagnate at the club where they have spent so much of their formative years as a footballer.

Whether that is what happened to Barkley, he now seems to be rediscovering at Chelsea the kind of form that he only sporadically showed at Everton.

Another young player that might finally be able to carve a career for himself at Stamford Bridge is Ruben Loftus-Cheek.

Like Barkley, Loftus-Cheek has been a highly regarded and much talked of talent for several years. But like so many youth-team products at Stamford Bridge he has found it very difficult to get a sustained run in the first-team.

Last season he spent on loan at Crystal Palace and impressed at the South London club. So much so that he got a place in Gareth Southgate’s England squad for the summer’s World Cup.

Although he only had a fleeting role for England in Russia, Loftus-Cheek seemed to feel that he was ready to try to force his way into the new Chelsea manager’s thoughts, rather than go back out on loan.

Again like Barkley, its taken time but just recently he has begun to underline his ability and potential contribution.

He scored a fine hat-trick in the Europa League on Thursday night and then added another goal in the win over Burnley.

A different type of player to Barkley Loftus-Cheek is powerful and pacey with the ability to take and beat a defender and provide as well as score goals playing in a wide attacking or forward position.

If Barkley and Loftus-Cheek can fulfil their early promise, Chelsea will have two very good footballers on their hands. The pair’s creativity, attacking threat and goal scoring could prove invaluable and will also ably supplement the match-winning excellence of Hazard.

Their contribution could then play a big role in helping Chelsea to make a really strong, sustained title challenge this season.