After a run of good results through October, Chelsea beat Barcelona 3-0 then managed a draw against Arsenal, the most in-form team in Europe, with just 10 men.
That was a high point, but what’s happened since has gone the other way. Predicting Chelsea results right now you get the same sort of rush as playing online slots. You don’t know if you’ll get a trumping of Barcelona or a feeble defeat to Leeds.
December’s fixtures make things even harder to predict. It’s a deceptive run of games – we don’t face Liverpool or Man City or any traditional “big 6” sides, yet there are some hugely tricky games in there.
It starts this weekend, with a potentially horrible game against Everton. David Moyes has them battle ready and confident, while we go into the game with extremely low confidence after 4 games without a win.
To make things worse, the Toffees are coming to Stamford Bridge and know they can be happy with a point. They can set up to defend and try to hit us on the break. Meanwhile we’ll have to attack and try to break them down – something we’ve struggled with.
The good news is that Cole Palmer will be back at least. But even then, he’s only working his way back to fitness, and didn’t look close to his best in his cameo against Bournemouth last week.
After the Everton game we do get one softer game – against Cardiff in the EFL Cup. But given we’ll be playing our second team, that could turn into a battle too. The match that weekend, away at St James’ Park, looks like a horrible test at a stadium where we have bad record. Moises Caicedo will be able to play after his suspension at that point, at least, and Palmer should be closer to full fitness.
After that we have Aston Villa (now ahead of us in the table) and Bournemouth to close out the month.
It’s honestly hard to be confident about a win in any of those games. A good result against Everton on Saturday should restore some confidence, but if we fail to beat them and make it 5 without a win, our traditional winter spiral will be well and truly underway.
There’s no time for doom and gloom though – just take it game by game is the best we can do, and we’re sure that’s the message that Enzo Maresca has for his players right now.
