“Realistically” – Pundit says best Chelsea can hope for is top 5 place; showing how far standards slipped | OneFootball

Tim Sherwood is on Sky Sports News right now talking about Liam Rosenior and his aims for the season at Chelsea.

The former Spurs manager started with some positive words about Rosenior’s predecessor:

“He’s following Enzo Maresca, who did a good job. Let’s have it, right. You know, the Chelsea fans weren’t sure about him, either, but he won a couple of trophies for the football club,” Sherwood pointed out.

“It’ll be really interesting to see what the objectives are. What was the plan? What was the realistic ambition for the club with with Liam taking over.”

Sherwood claims “finishing in Champions League” is success for Chelsea

Chelsea’s team to fact Pafos, fairly generic group. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

Sherwood then answered his own question, to some degree:

“I think a success for Chelsea now, for this season, on the short term, is to finish in the Champions League spots. That’s realistic. Anything above that, to win the Champions League, I think it’d be way above where they’re at now.”

“They’ve got some fantastic players there, but realistically, with a new man going in, with the different ideas, with the time it’s going to take to implement them ideas, I think for them to finish in the Champions League spot, whether it be fourth or fifth in the Premier League, I think is an achievement for them.”

He’s probably right, but that’s exactly the problem: finishing in the top 5 was the aim last year, and the year before, and the year before. Standards have slipped.

In other news…

Chelsea are battling through games at the moment and have two wins in a row – but the big picture around their star player is a little more worrying. There are rumours that Cole Palmer could ask to leave the club.

A win is a win – but not all wins are equal. Chelsea had the chance to build up some serious goal difference last night but didn’t take it, which could come back to haunt them.