Chelsea need Timo Werner to step up with the injury to Romelu Lukaku
The Blues were in stunning form as they likely made Norwich City wish they were still in the Championship. A 7-0 scoreline is an American Football match result, not a football score. Yet this is how the match panned out with Mason Mount scoring a hat-trick and four other players on the scoresheet.
Thomas Tuchel has to be thrilled, yet will remain measured at the same time. He knows they’ve won nothing this season and while May’s UCL triumph is still fresh in his mind, it is nowhere near the focus at the moment. He is used to coaching teams that can score well, and are loaded with talent. Borussia Dortmund and PSG are prime examples.
The goal is to win the league this season as well as its other competitions. If the team plays like this, a quadruple is not out of the question.
Can this run of form be sustained? Absolutely.
The players and roster depth, the organization and execution, they are all quite brilliant.
But will it be sustained?
That remains up to the players and the fate of their collective and individual health.
Chelsea: A well-oiled machine, but challenges and challengers remain
While Chelsea is in first in the Premier League and coasting through the UCL group stage, the focus will be the number of trophies obtained at the end of the season. These wins are simply a necessary byproduct of the journey so far.
They have such great talent across the pitch, and while Mount played well against Norwich, it can be anyone on any given week. I would imagine that it is quite fun to play there right now.
And that will help the team continue to progress as the year goes on. No one wants to stop winning once they’ve learned what it feels like and if they can remain healthy — the injury to Lukaku shows it can happen at any given time. Not much can get in the way of this Chelsea team.
Manchester City are still pretty good and are as loaded as ever, even if they didn’t sign a striker this summer. If they don’t acquire anyone this winter, then Gabriel Jesus and an incredible amount of midfielders across the pitch will be relied upon for goals. While some might laugh, this suits City and its wingers, and the talent they have at their disposal.
Liverpool, too, will be a tough out as they are looking more like the team that we came to see prior to last season. They are scoring plenty with Sadio Mane, Mo Salah and Bobby Firmino, and are playing better defense. Though early season miscues suggest there is room to improve at the back.
Manchester United will be there at the end. Although they drop points against worse competition quite frequently, but have all the talent to challenge any team. If they can simply become steady under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer – should he remain – United could be dangerous … or they could let everyone off the hook.
Chelsea, unless they suffer some type of epic collapse, will likely not be concerning themselves much outside of the top three. If that’s the case, there could very well be a large gap between the top three and the rest of the league. There is already a growing gap and we’re not even into November.
But there is still an entire season to go. An incredible amount of things can happen from now until April and May. No one knows better than Tuchel. You can be top of the world one moment and bottom of the scrap heap the next. He is a fine coach and should lead this team for however long he wishes to. Chelsea will need the whole squad to achieve their lofty goals this season, but they’ve also got to keep having fun, too.