Chelsea left-back Ben Chilwell has admitted that Chelsea is ready to compete and close the gap Premier League gap on Manchester City and Liverpool.
Manchester City and Liverpool have dominated the Premier League for the past five years. Their level of consistency and performance has also turned the Premier League title race into a two-horse race.
The Blue started last season’s Premier League very strongly and were on top of the Premier League table till November when Manchester City overtook them. Chelsea finished third in the Premier League but the points gap between them and the two clubs (Manchester City and Liverpool) was 19 and 18 points respectively.
Ben Chilwell missed the greater part of last season through injury and made only 13 appearances for Chelsea scoring 3 in the process. The England international was one of the players to return for pre-season earlier to continue with his field work after recovery from injury along with Callum Hudson-Odoi.
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Chelsea has been busy in the transfer market to strengthen their squad ahead next season in their quest to close the gap on Manchester City and Liverpool. The Blues are set to announce the signing of Raheem Sterling in the coming hours after 27 year old completed his phase for his medicals and could finish the second phase soon following his £45 million transfer to Chelsea.
The Blues are also in the transfer market trying to replace Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen. Chelsea is also closing in Manchester City defender Nathan Ake, with personal terms with the player agreed. Chelsea is now negotiating with Manchester City on the transfer fees.
What did Ben Chilwell say?
Speaking ahead of Chelsea’s pre-season tour in the US, the England international said: “City and Liverpool have set the bar, for maybe the last five years, which every other team in the league is aspiring to get at.
“Me being a Chelsea player, I’d say we’re the closest to them, and we’re aspiring to get on the same level as them. We showed in patches last season that we could compete with them, but it’s that consistency that they’ve shown — they’re not just one-season wonders, they’ve done it season-in, season-out for the last five years.
“That’s where we’re trying to get to. We’ve had conversations in the dressing room, as players and with the staff, that consistency is the thing that we now need to [achieve].
“We’ve got the talent in the team. We showed that in the Champions League two years ago. We showed it in the first half of the season last year when we were top. We beat Juventus 4-0 in the Champions League. So we’ve shown we’ve got the talent in the team. We need to now have that consistency that Liverpool and City have got.”
Todd Boehly consortium took over from Roman Abramovich and things are beginning to take shape under the new owner. Ben Chilwell admits that the players are in good morale and spirit ahead of next season.
The Chelsea left-back added: “I think everyone from the outside presumes it’s going to be difficult for us as the players and staff in this building. But we literally know as much as you guys.
“We just focus on what we’re doing in the building which, last season, could potentially have been a very good end to the season, with the cup finals and stuff. That’s all we were focused on: the football, training, eating well, and staying in hotels; I was focused on getting back from my injury. It doesn’t really get spoken about. We’ve got a job, which is to play football and win games for the club. Every other job, which we don’t know anything about, it’s up to them to sort out. All we can do is our best to help the team win matches.
“We didn’t really feel the weight of [the Abramovich situation] but maybe in terms of the club, it lifted a weight off everyone involved with Chelsea’s shoulders. Now that it’s been resolved — obviously we see the rumors the way you see the rumors — yeah, it’s a weight off the club’s shoulders, now we can move on, we’ve got new ownership, which seems amazing, they want to get involved and invest a lot in the club, which is a positive thing. The club’s in a good place which is very positive going forward.”
Chelsea is currently in the US for their pre-season tour and will play their first match on Saturday against Club America.
