Chelsea should expect slow start after unprecedented 11 months

Chelsea are via to the quarter finals of the Membership World Cup after an thrilling win over Benfica on Saturday night time, and so far as we will inform everybody is actually having fun with our summer season journey.

We’re seeing new gamers in motion, profitable video games and incomes huge sums of cash to spend on transfers. It’s additionally filling the weeks we’d usually be itchily ready for soccer to return.

However as a lot as we’re having fun with our adventures in opposition to the world’s greatest out within the USA, the actual focus will quickly flip to the Premier League. No matter occurs in the remainder of the Membership World Cup, it’s already been successful, particularly if we will navigate previous Palmeiras into the semi finals.

However how a lot will that success price us? Not solely are our gamers piling fatigue on prime of an exceptionally lengthy season simply gone, they’re additionally consuming into their vacation. They’ll begin the season in August after simply two friendlies which occur the week earlier than we open our season in opposition to Crystal Palace on the seventeenth of August.

Manchester Metropolis are with us within the USA, however our rivals are resting up. Video games like Chelsea v Spurs and Chelsea v Arsenal subsequent 12 months are going to be particularly attention-grabbing on this context. The North London pair have all this time to arrange for the brand new season earlier than we play them in November.

After all the worst factor that would occur now could be an damage to one of many gamers who’ve performed an insane variety of minutes since final August after we confronted Servette to kick off our Convention League marketing campaign. High of the listing are Moises Caicedo and Marc Cucurella, who desperately want a really prolonged break. We’re praying they’ll make it to the tip of this match with out an damage.

However even with out damage, the bodily and psychological fatigue we’re accumulating is sort of unprecedented at soccer of this  stage. The truth that there’s a World Cup subsequent summer season (additionally within the roasting warmth of the USA our gamers are experiencing now) doesn’t even bear fascinated by.

We will nonetheless have an excellent season, however we don’t anticipate the form of quick begin we had final 12 months. Enzo Maresca and his coaches and medical employees have their work reduce out making an attempt to handle all this and ensure we arrive in our Premier League opener as rested as attainable, with out being undercooked.