I had a bit more optimism lately, but just as has happened all season long for me, that was duly ripped away by Chelsea’s abysmal performance against Burnley on Saturday afternoon. So here we are again, expectations at the very bottom, ready to go! At least for me right now, the only way is up!
I spoke with some of you guys yesterday in comments about how we are all feeling watching Chelsea lately. Some of us just expect to lose and get very little joy out of watching right now, some don’t even celebrate goals anymore (maybe party due to VAR too) because we just expect it to be thrown away, some of us just end up laughing (rather than crying) when we do inevitably end up throwing it away, and Chelsea in recent seasons have just been a chore rather than a hobby. It shouldn’t be that way, but we’ll be here week in week out because it’s our lifestyle, Chelsea is a lifestyle!
We will be back, I do still fully believe this. But we have a bumpy ride still until we are, starting this month!
I spoke yesterday about how Cole Palmer is carrying Chelsea right now and has become our solo talisman with the weight of the club being carried on his shoulders. And then a couple hours after I wrote that, he is used as the poster for Chelsea sharing our fixtures for April, backing up my point from earlier. Palmer has become the Chelsea poster boy, the Chelsea hope, and he really needs his team mates to step up a bit more now.
Chelsea in April. ?️ pic.twitter.com/bZi7AzbSoC
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) April 1, 2024
If you look at Chelsea’s marketing, you will see Palmer is used a lot. It’s great of course, to have such a fantastic player and to see a signing be so successful, but Chelsea now need more Cole Palmer’s! We shouldn’t be relying on a 21-year-old to be our sole saviour and our answers to everything.
April looks tough, right? I was pondering it last week on my Podcast and we were actually feeling quite positive at that moment and believing there were some very winnable games on this list, even Thursday against Manchester United.
But I always hate playing Everton and Aston Villa, with those to being real bogy teams for us and for me in my own memories supporting Chelsea. So I’m never confident going in to those fixtures.
United, I actually think we can win you know. Feels strange to say that after watching the shambles on Saturday, but I think United are equally as inconsistent and liable to fold over as we are this season, so I am actually more confident for that game than I am for Everton and Villa.
And also, I think we can do something against City. Maybe not go through, but I do think we can stand up to them and give them a very good game and who knows, maybe even sneak through? We’ve drawn 4-4 and 1-1 against City in the last two meetings, we have gone toe-to-toe with them, and I am actually a bit more confident for that fixture than I am for others this month, which is odd. But I think that is a real sign of where we are this season with our inconsistencies. We never know which Chelsea we are going to get, do we?
Arsenal away I have zero confidence for, and Sheffield United away could even be a real banana skin that I can see us slipping on.
So largely, I am scared of April, but actually think we can do things in the two Manchester games! Odd, right?
This month will be key and shape the rest of our season and how it ends. We could get to the FA Cup final and climb into the European places in the league, but we could also end it with some embarrassing results and performances and still not in the European places. It could literally go either way. This month is pinnacle to how our season finishes.
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