Christmas is just around the corner, and some smart shoppers will be looking at FC25 accounts for sale already, but what Chelsea fans will really want in their stocking are some good results from their football team.
The Blues have a poor record over the last 10 years when it comes to this time of year. In fact every time we’ve managed to avoid struggling through late November and December, we’ve usually ended up winning the title, or coming close to it.
This year, a run of tough games through October and the first part of November seems to have cleared out calendar out a little, and there are some winnable fixtures on the horizon.
Not only that, but we’re in a really good injury situation right now, with no senior players out. That, combined with the strict A team, B team policy being employed between the cups and the league by Enzo Maresca means that his first XI are coming into the festive period as fit, as fresh, as available and as in-form as any Blues team we can remember in years.
There’s competition for places, but a good mood overall at the training ground too.
If any team was going to snap the bad streak of results at this time of year, it would be this one. So who is actually on the agenda between now and the New Year?
Well you couldn’t get more of a present than Leicester to start with, next weekend. An early kick off after an international break is always a little bit of a curve ball, but we should see it off pretty easily. That and the Southampton game 10 days later should be 6 points, but the Aston Villa and Spurs games in between will be a lot tougher.
Having said that, neither of them are in great form right now. It’s a good time to play them both, relatively speaking.
After that it’s a steady mid-table run through the rest of 2024. Brentford, Everton, Fulham on Boxing Day, Ipswich on New Year’s Eve. All winnable, although the hectic calendar at that time of year always makes things more complicated.
There really is the chance to pick up a whole chunk of points to cement us in the top 4. In fact, win the majority of them and we’ll probably be pretty close to top spot in the league, if someone can nick some points off Liverpool elsewhere during this period.