[dropcap]I[/dropcap]t’s been a fantastic season for the Blues. Winning the Premier League is a huge achievement for any club, and every Chelsea fan must be delighted with their team’s performance this season.
Winning almost 70% of their league games and only losing three times is a typical of a team who were runaway champions and were without doubt the finest team in the highest level of English football this season. This is without even acknowledging their professional performance in the League Cup, putting in a classic José Mourinho performance against Tottenham.
Only Southampton rivalled Chelsea in terms of the quality of their summer acquisitions last year as Diego Costa, Thibaut Courtois and Cesc Fàbregas all came in to light up the Premier League.
However where Chelsea really flourished this season, was not in their attacking play but in their amazing defensive work.
The old bastion of John Terry and understudy Gary Cahill as well as the understated yet industrious César Azpilicueta at left-back and the solid Serbian Branislav Ivanović at right-back with all the defence bar Azpilicueta making the Team of the Season.
The extremely well-disciplined defence shut out most teams from scoring at all by conceding fewer goals than any other team this season and got 10 goals and eight assists between them, demonstrating both their immense defensive and offensive capabilities.
This is without even mentioning the PFA player of the year, the mercurial Eden Hazard.
In undoubtedly his finest season in football, the little Belgian was masterful this season, scoring 14 and assisting nine from left-wing and creating an incredible 100 chances, fully earning his status as the best player in the Premier League this season.
One aspect of Chelsea’s season which could be scrutinised would be their performances in the Champions League, where the Blues bowed out earlier than they should have given the calibre of their side to Paris Saint Germain despite their opponents being a man down.
The team didn’t reflect their domineering league performances in Europe’s finest competition and this will surely be an area where Mourinho will be striving to improve for the 15/16 season.
Chelsea’s recent transfer dealings weren’t perfect either, letting André Schürrle leave for Wolfsburg along with Belgian star Kevin De Bruyne cannot be looked upon as great moves for Chelsea, the latter setting a Bundesliga record of 21 assists last season. However, given Chelsea’s financial muscle, they have enough about them to bring in someone just as good or even better than De Bruyne this upcoming season, if they want to.
With Oscar and Fàbregas currently competing for the number 10 role and Cuadrado and Willian for the wide role, do Chelsea even need to replace De Bruyne and Schürrle?
Their operations in the transfer market last season were successful, players such as Fàbregas and Matic have settled right back into the Premier League, hence why both were considered for the Team Of The Year.
Not to mention Diego Costa who, especially in the earlier parts of the season, looked perfect for the physical side of the Premier League and netted an impressive 20 goals in his debut season and could have got more, had his recurring injury problems not held him back.
The fact that Petr Čech looks set to be allowed to leave by Jose Mourinho is testament to the incredible ability of the Belgium number 1 Thibaut Courtois who at 23, could potentially be the Chelsea stopper for fifteen more years.
Ultimately, it’s been a superb season for everyone involved in Chelsea FC, and the fans will be looking on to next season to see what else this club can achieve.
