What is the Premier League talking about: is Chelsea avoiding the cups?

The Citizens are heading for the title, while the Blues are avoiding sixth and seventh place. Theninth part of our weekly series, in which we look at the interesting facts from the world of English football, will look at two giants who are in completely different mindsets.

Citizens go for a hat-trick

The seemingly unstoppable machine has finally found the right tracks and is overtaking one opponent after another. After Arsenal’s hesitation, they are only six points behind the leaders, with a game to spare and home advantage against the Gunners.

Pep Guardiola’s charges have won five rounds in a row, even nine in all competitions combined. The game is looking very good with and without Erling Haaland, whoever comes on is pedalling. The Citizens simply know how to close seasons.

Although Arsenal have basically emerged as the clear favourite for the title since October, now the reins of the likely winner are slowly being taken over by Manchester, eager for a third triumph in a row. After all, in the week they gave Bayern a three-peat, and the Bavarians were still lucky.

Perhaps most importantly, Kevin de Bruyne is coming into form. And if he can recapture his form from last year or the year before, he and Erling Haaland will form an unstoppable tandem. Against Bayern, for example, Guardiola put together a special game system on them. They didn’t have to work backwards as much, which has paid off in hindsight.

Does Chelsea even want the cups?

Summer strengthening, misery, winter strengthening, misery. Chelsea continue to struggle in the extreme and despite investing hundreds of millions of pounds in new names, they can’t even beat the weakest teams in the league. Last time out they went down 0-1 at Wolverhampton, to the point where you wonder if the Blues are doing this on purpose.

Chelsea are through all competitions without a win for five games, with Aston Villa and Everton being unnecessary losses. Moreover, the Blues are scoring too easily, the strengthened defence has ironically weakened since the summer and Kepa Arrizabalaga in goal alone won’t extinguish everything.

The question is whether the ambitious leadership is driving the players to maximum effort at all. The Champions League is undoubtedly a great motivation, but the loss of 17 points is unconquerable.

Source: Premier League