Newcastle v Chelsea: Are Chelsea title contenders?

 Hello everybody

I hope you're well and having a great start to the week.Thankful to be back after the internation break(the last one of 2020). So Chelsea picked up another win on Saturday lunchtime at Newcastle to be top of the table (albeit 2 hours) and extend their unbeaten run to 12 games if I'm not mistaken.

The Blues were strong at the back despite missing Thiago Silva,who had just returned from Brazil. It was great to see Antonio Rudiger play with Kurt Zouma together. This shows that with Mendy in goal, Reece James on the right and Ben Chilwell on the left, the defence is solid. I think this is the best I've seen Chelsea defend since Mendy arrived and with 7 clean sheets in 9 matches, he's looking worth the £20 million spent by the Blues.

The midfield also did a good job with Kante and Kovacic protecting the defence and attacking very well. I must say that the World Cup winner is looking like the player of old who won 2 consecutive titles with Leicester and Chelsea. Now there's definitely competition for starting places with other midfielders such as Jorginho and Billy Gilmour who can slot in when called upon.Mount also put in a shift today and has been excellent for club and country the last couple of weeks. I used tro dread seeing him in the line up but he has proven me wrong and it looks like he's going to play an important role going forward.

Now for the attack. They had lots of occassions to kill off the match but were wasteful. Timo Werner could have had a hat trick but thankfullly Tammy Abraham was there to score the second goal for Chelsea which was his 4th in 5 games. Thanks to the vision and accurate passes of wizard Hakim Ziyech the forwards will have plenty of occassions to score this season but need to be more clinical. With Havertz to return this week in the Champions League and Pulisic hopefully this sunday, Frank Lampard has the depth required to compete on all fronts this season. With Giroud and Hudson-Odoi, Chelsea are definitely stacked in this department which will be crucial as we approach december with games coming thick and fast.

Do I think that Chelsea are title contenders this year? Well based on recent results I'd say yes but only just. I prefer to wait and see if they'll be in and around the top 3 come Christmas. If thats the case and there arent many injuries, I give them a chance to push Liverpool and Man City all the way. Lets not forget sunday's opponents Tottenham who will visit Stamford Bridge fora derby which is known to be fesity and I'm sure José Mourinho will relish getting one over his former player Frank Lampard but with their poor record (1 win in 30 visits in all competitions) it could be a tough night for Spurs but when it comes to a derby,the form book is thrown out the window. Looking forward to watching the game at 5:30 pm sunday evening.

Anyway thanks for reading my slightly longer than usual piece.If you ever want to discuss football,feel free to contact me on social media.

Take care, wear a mask and lets enjoy football safely

Ciao

PS Here are the highlights from saturday's game in case you missed it. Enjoy !

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