You Bet | Chelsea’s double target made easier with lack of European commitments
The league leaders can focus on domestic trophies as rivals such as Arsenal, Spurs and Manchester United are distracted by mid-week matches
The difficulties of fighting on many fronts were made clear again for Arsenal and Tottenham this week – catastrophically so for the Gunners – and served to emphasise that a key factor in Chelsea’s rise back to the top has been their relatively straightforward fixture list.
Chelsea are involved in this weekend’s FA Cup fifth round – as are Arsenal, Tottenham and the two Manchester clubs – but unlike those rivals Antonio Conte’s team do not have the additional burden of playing in Europe this season.
Even when the FA Cup rolls around, space is cleared in the Premier League schedule and Chelsea can switch focus to another competition without the midweek fixture congestion experienced by most of their title rivals (Liverpool, likewise not involved in European competition, are the exception).
This season Chelsea have played only six midweek matches, and several of those were in the minor League Cup where most clubs choose to rest their key first-team players. By contrast, Manchester United have had 14, Arsenal 13, Manchester City and Tottenham both 12 and Liverpool nine (their figure is higher than Chelsea’s because they reached the two-legged League Cup semi-finals and had to play an FA Cup replay).
Chelsea’s steady diet of weekend football, with plenty of time for work on the training field plus rest and recovery, has been a massive bonus for Conte in his first season in English football. When Chelsea were having early difficulties and Conte wanted to change to his preferred three-man defence, he had the time to drill his players to make the system work and the results have been obvious.
By contrast, the results of the other big clubs were bound to suffer at certain times when the matches piled up. Take Manchester United, for example: at one stage in mid-October they were away to Liverpool on a Monday night, played a Europa League tie on the Thursday night, travelled to play Chelsea on the Sunday, then had a League Cup tie against Manchester City on the next Wednesday, a Premier League game on the Saturday, another Europa League tie the next Thursday and another Premier League match on the Sunday.