Everton travel to Chelsea this weekend with Graham Potter's side currently in 10th place in the Premier League. It is an unfamiliar position for a team blessed with such wealth and star names – so how did they get to this point?
Back in May 2021, American billionaire Todd Boehly - backed by a consortium - completed a takeover of Chelsea in a deal reportedly worth £4.25billion.
On all evidence so far, Boehly certainly cannot be criticised when it comes to spending his money. £75million was laid out on Leicester centre-back Wesley Fofana, £60million on Spaniard Marc Cucurella from Brighton as well as recruiting Raheem Sterling for £47.5million from Manchester City. So, how have these signings faired so far?
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Fofana suffered a knee injury on October sixth, with a further setback occurring in December, during a behind closed doors match against Brentford. It would be rather unfair to judge the 22-year-old, after registering just eight league appearances this season – nonetheless Chelsea fans will be expecting big things when he has a sustained run in the team.
Sterling has showed glimpses of his quality, but has arguably not delivered to the standard expected from such an established and gifted player. The England international has featured 18 times in the league with a return of four goals. He has some way to go to match his 17 goals in all competitions for City last year.
Additionally, Cucurella was arguably Chelsea's most surprising signing of the summer considering the full-back had only totted up 38 appearances in English football for former club Brighton. This term Cucurella has featured 28 times, registering two assists.
To compliment the summer signings then came January. Enzo Fernandez arrived at Stamford Bridge following a promising World Cup with eventual winners Argentina. A fee of £106million prized the Argentine away from Benfica, smashing the club’s transfer record in the process.
So far, although not lighting up the pitch, Fernandez has shown signs of class, possessing a base of short and long-range passing, notably last time out against Leicester – assisting Kai Havertz with a neat scoop over the Leicester defence. It is not hard to envisgae the 22-year-old growing into the role with every passing game, becoming the main man for the Londoners.
Mykhaylo Mudryk also arrived at the bridge for a fee of £88million. The Ukrainian blessed with a turn of pace and trickery, has featured six times in the league this term, again showing signs of what is to come, although lacking in end product so far.
But plenty of questions are lingering at Chelsea given their position at present.
Have the new recruits disrupted the equilibrium of the squad? Is Potter out of his depth? Will the team suddenly click? Although an uptick in form recently has seen Chelsea string a run of three wins together, plenty of concerns remain.
Everton take on Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Saturday at 5.30pm. With both sides struggling for goals, many are anticipating a low scoring affair.
The ECHO spoke to Chelsea fan James Beckett for his take on where things stand.
On the new recruits, James said: “From recent weeks Fofana and Enzo have really stepped up. Fofana was starting to feel like a waste of money. But he’s one of the first names on the team-sheet at the moment.”
Explaining his feelings on Potter, James added: “I was always wanting to give Potter time, even though results were bad… you could see what he was trying to do and felt like he had genuine excuses as to why it was going wrong.
“With a complete new ownership, and so many players signed at once it was always going to be tough.
“That Southampton loss a couple of weeks ago was when we felt this was the end, but football changes so quickly. That Dortmund game saved his job, the players always had belief in him and never downed tools.”
Giving a prediction for Saturday's action, James said: “The games against Everton are always difficult, no matter how in-form we are. However, with it being at Stamford Bridge, I am confident.
"If we start strongly, I can only see one winner, but if Everton start strongly…I feel like it’s going to be similar to the game in 2021 when Branthwaite scored in a 1-1 draw.”
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