Chelsea won their weekend match against Newcastle United with a comfortable scoreline of 3-1 and with that they moved closer to second-placed Manchester United. The Blues went behind to an early Gayle striker but then they shifted gears and won the match thanks to a goal from Alvaro Morata and a brace from Eden Hazard.
But the match has given rise to a lot of questions that need to be answered;
1. SHOULD DRINKWATER BE THE MAN IN MIDFIELD?
Chelsea signed two midfielders during the summer transfer window – Tiemoue Bakayoko and Danny Drinkwater. While the first signing brought in a lot of happiness amongst the Blues fans but the signing of the Leicester midfielder caused a fair bit of uproar. Everyone thought that Drinkwater was a hurried signing and was clearly not fit to play in the Blues midfield. Fast forward 4 odd months and Drinkwater looks more like a Chelsea player while Bakayoko seems to be a misfit.
Bakayoko was given the nod to play alongside Kante and Fabregas, while Drinkwater was recovering from the injury but the Frenchman has not been up to the mark. He has been guilty of losing the midfield battle against opponent players on multiple occasions. But now that Drinkwater is back from injury, Conte seems to finally got the player who can become a long-term partner to N’Golo Kante. And the fact that both have played together for Leicester seems to be an added bonus for Chelsea. Bakayoko looks rash and clumsy at times while Drinkwater is precise and disciplined.
So clearly Bakayoko must up his game or else he will just become another faulty signing for the London outfit.
2. WILL EDEN HAZARD’S FINE PERFORMANCES HURT CHELSEA?
No, we are not talking gibberish.
Eden Hazard has been playing some of the finest football in his Chelsea career. Ever since his return for a serious injury, the Belgian wizard has been in scintillating form and is easily the most influential player for Antonio Conte over the past couple of games. But this fine form might just come at a cost. Real Madrid has shown some strong interest in Eden Hazard over the past few months and now with such fine performances, Zidane’s interest in the playmaker will just increase.
Multiple sources have claimed that the Real Madrid boss has named Hazard as one of his top transfer targets and the Belgian has also made his admiration for Real Madrid public. Now in such a scenario, it is quite possible that Real Madrid will up their game in order to bring Eden Hazard to the Bernabeu next summer.
3. ZAPPACOSTA BACK TO WARMING THE BENCHES?
Victor Moses is back from injury and Antonio Conte has immediately thrown him into the first team setup. This effectively means that Zappacosta has fallen down the pecking order. Apart from Moses, the Chelsea manager also have Caeser Azpilicueta who can play in the right wing-back role which clearly means that the Italian has to up his game or else he took might be warming the benches for a very long time.
