“We are ready” – Chelsea favourite shoots down “fatigue” excuses already | OneFootball

There was real curiosity and real concerns about how Chelsea might perform in the early stages of this season, given how little break they had following the Club World Cup, which had itself come right after a long and gruelling campaign.

Mixed messages from Chelsea over long term fatigue

Joao Pedro celebrates scoring against West Ham. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

So far it’s been mixed messages – the Blues looked surprisingly lovely in two friendlies at the start of the month, then looked off the pace against Crystal Palace on the opening weekend.

They battered West Ham on Friday night, but there is a question over how much that proves about their tiredness, given the Hammers were just so bad.

One person who is convinced that nobody is going to be talking about this for very long is Trevoh Chalobah, whose quotes for the club’s official website make it clear that he’s not worried about he and the squad not being ready yet:

“We have come off the back of a busy summer but the boys are ready, we don’t look fatigued, and we are ready to go,” he said.

“We know the levels we can get to, and we need to show that this year. We have a big squad and a lot of players will play this season and everyone will be important. Having a strong squad like that in different positions will help the team because we will have a lot of games.”

Improved squad vital as Chelsea try to take on Champions League challenge

That improved squad will certainly play a role as Chelsea look to compete on multiple fronts, without the Conference League freebies of last season:

“Hopefully we can achieve something big. We hadn’t won anything for the past few years so to get our hands on two trophies as a young squad is what we need. This is what we will take into the season.

“We have to believe ourselves, but it is game by game and then we will see where that takes us.”