It’s been a long time since we saw the Eagles in action, but eyes turn back to Selhurst this weekend for a rare Saturday 3pm as Chelsea under Brighton’s Graham Potter come to town.
I have no idea what to make of Chelsea this season, so for our latest chat with the opposition I sat down with Chelsea season ticket holder James Denselow to get an inside track on what awaits us on Saturday.
Q – Hi James, how are you feeling about the season so far? And Tuchel’s departure, sad to see him go or just excited about Potter ball?
James – As a Chelsea fan you have to maintain a sense of perspective, we came close to … who knows what, went through a transfer ban and lost so much of the senior people from the Abramovich era very quickly. Tuchel is, and remains, an excellent manager but he seemed to be spiralling, and the wider infrastructure around him really did leave him exposed. The turnover in playing staff over the post season was obviously very challenging and it’s not easy to reconstruct a team, that’s why Guardiola deserves huge credit for what he is doing. We’ve seen world class managers having a set period of success and then almost needing to move – Conte, Mourinho even Ancelotti. (TEB – Hodgson? 😊)
The spending in the window was large, but also somewhat late and perhaps a bit haphazard, of course with a new owner that was perhaps always going to happen. The new owners seem to be very data focussed – hence the interest in Gordon, but it’ll take time to match that with the reality of Premier League football. Expectations are much more focussed on a battle for a top four spot, whereas not that long ago there was a feeling we could be challenging the NW duo for top spot.
On Potter, let’s see, he’s obviously done great things elsewhere, but Chelsea is a different proposition. I think it came out that he’d never even been to a Champions League game before the match with Salzburg. It’ll be difficult to guess the line up for Saturday that’s for sure.
Q – Let me ask you a question a lot of Palace fans think about – Connor Gallagher, does he have a future at Chelsea?
James – It’s a tough one. He hasn’t really been able to play in his favoured position. He’s clearly not a pivot style midfielder in the mould of Kovacic or Jorginho but Tuchel didn’t really have anywhere else to play him so he’s looked pretty uncomfortable when he’s played. He might do a bit better under Potter, let’s see. I mean we probably came quite close to selling him, but the uncertainty over who we might buy probably left Tuchel a bit needing to hold onto him. I wonder what we might have got for him? Possibly close to £50m, it feels like his value would be a fair bit lower now.
TEB – We’ll still have him, anytime. He certainly ‘fits’ in the Palace system!
Q – So what’s your perspective on Palace
Palace have had a decent start to the season with some tough games (TEB – You’re telling me!) Zaha has been scoring and you’ve got an up-and-coming manager. I’ve got no idea where you’ll end up but it is very telling that you’re rarely in any ‘relegation candidate’ type discussion, which does say a lot.
Q – To the match this weekend, where do you think it will be won or lost?
We do have a good recent record against Palace, including in the Cup last season (TEB – sick noise!) I think the midfield will be key, our recent struggles have been in part due to inconsistency in that area, Mount looks off the boil completely, Kante – our most important player has been injured and we’ve talked about Gallagher. There is still Jorginho and Loftus-Cheek but Potter will need to find a good balance in there, especially if Kante isn’t 100%.
Both teams have potentially potent wide attackers, though maybe lacking something through the centre, we’ll see who makes and takes their chances.
TEB – Thanks James, let’s hope it’s the Eagles who make and take theirs!
