Chelsea are through to the quarter finals of the Club World Cup after an exciting win over Benfica on Saturday night, and as far as we can tell everyone is really enjoying our summer adventure.
We’re seeing new players in action, winning games and earning vast sums of money to spend on transfers. It’s also filling the weeks we would normally be itchily waiting for football to return.
But as much as we’re enjoying our adventures against the world’s best out in the USA, the real focus will soon turn to the Premier League. Whatever happens in the rest of the Club World Cup, it’s already been a success, especially if we can navigate past Palmeiras into the semi finals.
But how much will that success cost us? Not only are our players piling fatigue on top of an exceptionally long season just gone, they’re also eating into their holiday. They will start the season in August after just two friendlies which take place the week before we open our season against Crystal Palace on the 17th of August.
Manchester City are with us in the USA, but our rivals are resting up. Games like Chelsea v Spurs and Chelsea v Arsenal next year are going to be especially interesting in this context. The North London pair have all this time to prepare for the new season before we play them in November.
Of course the worst thing that could happen now would be an injury to one of the players who have played an insane number of minutes since last August when we faced Servette to kick off our Conference League campaign. Top of the list are Moises Caicedo and Marc Cucurella, who desperately need a very extended break. We’re praying they can make it to the end of this tournament without an injury.
But even without injury, the physical and mental fatigue we’re accumulating is almost unprecedented at football of this level. The fact that there’s a World Cup next summer (also in the roasting heat of the USA our players are experiencing now) doesn’t even bear thinking about.
We can still have a good season, but we don’t expect the sort of fast start we had last year. Enzo Maresca and his coaches and medical staff have their work cut out trying to manage all this and make sure we arrive in our Premier League opener as rested as possible, without being undercooked.
