Crisis averted
Following on from the article on Leicester City and Tottenham I looked into the problems Chelsea had last season and the use of their players the previous season and it seems they relied rather heavily the chosen ones.
In that season, 2014/15, Chelsea under Jose Mourinho relied significantly more heavily on top regulars that other recent premier League Champions League clubs.
The Washington Post reported last October that:
"The six top Chelsea regulars (Branislav Ivanovic, Eden Hazard, John Terry, Nemanja Matic, Cesc Fabregas and Gary Cahill) played about 92 percent of all possible minutes in the EPL and Champions League.
"The top ten (which adds in Willian, Cesar Azpilicueta, Diego Costa and Oscar) covered about 81 percent of possible minutes.
"Since the 2010-2011 season, no other team had depended on their top six regulars for 85 percent of possible minutes, or for 75 percent of possible minutes from the top 10 regulars."
They then went on to look at substitutes and that usually substitutes account for between 35-40% of playing time, Chelsea used theirs 25% of the time. The difference is significant and suggests Mourinho didn't trust his squad.
There were rumblings before the start of last season and indeed a Chelsea mate of mine who attends frequently told me perfectly seriously that they would not finish in the Top 10. The players were being overworked and they knew it. mentally they weren't in the right frame of mind as a result and their performances suffered.
We survived one season playing players all the time it seems and three of them are injured now, giving them the rest they need. If we hadn't been able to find a striker in the summer we would have been in serious trouble this season, despite the way we are coping without Kane at the moment.
We have strengthened in key areas and in Harry Winks look to have a real prospect coming through, along with Cameron Carter-Vickers. The burn out suffered by Chelsea and now it appears Leciester City has been averted at Spurs by careful planning and our summer transfer activity.
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