Since Thomas Tuchel joined Chelsea, replacing club legend Frank Lampard, the German took the Blues from strength to strength, turning what seemed like a weak and spineless Chelsea side into European champions.
Now, the Blues are comfortably one of the best teams in the world under Tuchel’s guidance, who has brought a togetherness within the squad that probably hasn’t been there since the early days of Jose Mourinho.
Every player and staff member at Chelsea has bought into Tuchel’s method and its easy to see why.
In his short spell thus far with the Blues, Tuchel has built a brand-new identity at Chelsea, with the Blues now boasting the defensive prowess of a Mourinho team, the attacking quality of a Carlo Ancelotti outfit, while playing with the passion and desire of an Antonio Conte-coached side.
When Chelsea lifted the UEFA Champions League in 2012, many could argue that despite winning the continent’s greatest cup competition, the Blues were still not the best team in the land, proving that sometimes the best team doesn’t win.
But now, it’s fair to say that Tuchel’s side were, in fact, the dons of Europe as Chelsea cruised to Champions League triumph without any discomfort at the back-end of last season.
Despite the success and looking deadly in every department on the pitch, Chelsea’s missing piece to the puzzle was always a deadly number nine to lead the line up front, and now with Romelu Lukaku, who has hit the ground running in his second spell in London, the Blues can be confident of achieving much more than they did last season and reach levels never achieved.
Edouard Mendy has grown into of the world’s best goalkeepers and currently holds the accolade for being UEFA’s Goalkeeper of the Year. Mendy has made the most saves this season, and considering that this statistic usually doesn’t bode well for defenders, it shows that the Senegalese shot-stopper can produce the goods when called upon and save his side a few points this term.
The way Tuchel sets his side up doesn’t expose any weakness within the team, with two or three players covering each position. That offers the wing-backs licence to roam further up the pitch, which has seen Marcos Alonso rejuvenated down the left flank for Chelsea, while the German boss has the luxury of rotating two of the league’s best right-backs in Reece James and Cesar Azpilicueta in his preferred starting line-up – more often than not, they both find a way into Tuchel’s best team.
Goals win you games, and as they say, defences win you titles. Looking at the form of Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen under Tuchel, as well as academy graduate, Trevor Chalobah, its almost certain that the Blues claim yet another piece of silverware soon.
The foundation has been laid for Chelsea now and everything seems to be going in the right direction for the Blues. In midfield, Tuchel has arguably the best midfielder on the planet in his ranks – certainly the most reliable – in N’Golo Kante, while Jorginho and Mateo Kovacic’s form has also elevated under Tuchel’s tutelage.
Even though Chelsea have fielded a two-man midfield for the most part of Tuchel’s reign, very seldomly do the Blues lose midfield battles. In fact, this new-found formation for Chelsea has actually brought out the best in Tuchel’s double pivot on any given matchday.
Up front, Lukaku has proven to be a striker that any club would hope to have in their team and has re-fitted back into the Chelsea team like a glove.
Should he get what is required, which will be to bang in over 20 league goals and another 10 in Europe, Chelsea could well be on their way to defend their Champions League crown, as well as claim their first league title since 2016.
What makes the Blues more fearful this season would possibly be their strength in depth. Players like Thiago Silva, Ben Chilwell, Saul Niguez, Christian Pulisic and Timo Werner all make up a world class bench that would arguably start at 95% of the teams in the league.
That would no doubt make Chelsea a contender for the FA Cup trophy, regardless of how serious they take it considering the quality they have in reserve.
If the Blues were to seal their first ever treble, not only would Tuchel deserve to be tied down to the club with a new and improved contract, but Chelsea would become only the second English club to ever win the treble, after Manchester United.
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