Chelsea Fantasy Premier League Preview 2020/21

I’m going to be completely honest again when I write this, I actually had a feeling that Chelsea was gonna struggle last season especially with losing Eden Hazard, like it would of been very hard to find someone who could do the same as him. I didn’t really rate Frank Lampard either, yes he took Derby to the play off final two seasons ago but still didn’t think he would be able to match it with some of the worlds best coaches. In my opinion he went above and beyond my expectations and had Chelsea finish 4th and make the FA Cup final against Arsenal, where he eventually lost 2-1, but nevertheless a very successful start to his premier league managerial career, especially when he couldn’t use the transfer window either. Last season he brought in and blooded a few of Chelsea academy players, while this season he has spent well over 220m to bring in players to help boost his squad and challenge for a title, he has brought in the likes of Timo Werner from RB Leipzig, Kai Havertz from Bayer Leverkusen, Thiago Silva from PSG, Hakim Ziyech from Ajax and Ben Chilwell from Leicester City. Plus they are linked to many other players like Mendy from Real Madrid and Declan Rice from West Ham. I’m a little worried at how they all will gel together and if they do so quite quickly then they could come close to winning the league. 

In regards to Fantasy Premier League Tammy Abraham was Chelsea’s highest scorer with his first full season In the league with Chelsea after being out on loan, he scored 153 points and finished with only 15 goals, I say only because early on in the season every shot he was taking was going in and he was on 10 goals pretty quickly. Behind Abraham was Mason Mount with 137 points, followed by Cesar Azpilicueta with 130 points. Another two Chelsea players hit 100 points while Ben Chilwell also did but played for Leicester last season. 

Chelsea’s opening 5 games are:

Brighton (A)

Liverpool (H)

West Brom (A)

Crystal Palace (H)

Southampton (H)

They only have 1 difficult game inside their first five and that is again against Liverpool but it is at the Bridge, for the last couple of seasons they have faced Liverpool at Home first. Apart from that they have very winnable games and should provide lots of FPL points for all coaches. 

Goalkeeper:

Kepa Arrizabalaga (5.5): Will always be remembered for that infamous “sub-gate”, when Sarri wanted him to be subbed off but he said no and refused to leave the field. But back to last season, saw himself lose 5 games last season due to his lack of quality, and if he hasn’t realised for a young keeper at a big club, it’s very easy to be replaced, only scored 90 points last season and even isn’t guaranteed to be the number one keeper for Chelsea this season, especially if they are trying to go for Dean Henderson or someone else. Since the loss of Courtois the Chelsea keeping ranks haven’t been that good. I will be STAYING away from this guy for the whole season, very risky pick especially with his attitude thinking he’s the best keeper when clearly we have seen he’s not.

Defenders: 

Ben Chilwell (5.5): Arrived from Leicester for 50m and proved himself time and time again last season on Leicester’s quest for European Football. I won’t forget the absolute banging goal against Watford that landed in the top corner, but he scored 114 points from 2374 minutes contributing 3 goals and 3 assists while being involved in 9 Leicester Clean sheets. Currently is injured but a very good shout to be in your team when he’s full fit especially with the likes of players that Chelsea have now up front and in the midfield, he can easily increase his point output even over lesser minutes as he will be challenging Marcos Alonso for that Left Back spot.

Reece James (5.0): Was involved with the first team squad 29 times last season playing 24 times, starting 16 times and being used as a sub 8 times. He played 1510 minutes scoring 61 points contributing 2 assists and being involved in 5 clean sheets. He’s not a bad option this season if Lampard goes with him at RB instead of Cesar Azpilicueta and play Cesar as a CB in which he has played before one numerous occasions. With the start Chelsea has definitely keep an eye on him and see if he is a regular starter and if so then place him in your team after the second Gameweek. 

Cesar Azpilicueta (6.0): He’s a very versatile defender and can play anywhere along the backline, he’s played LB and CB last season along with his natural position of RB. He was Chelsea’s top scoring defender last season with 130 points, he played 3229 minutes contributing 2 goals and 6 assists while being involved in 8 clean sheets. It very unknown where he is going to play this season either at RB or at CB. Watch him!

Midfielders:

Mason Mount (7.0): Last season he came out of nowhere and made a huge impact for Chelsea. He played 2865 minutes scoring 137 points contributing 7 goals and 6 assists. He was very good for the whole season for a young player he was exceptional. It is quite unknown where he will play and how many minutes he will receive this season due to the signings of Kai Havertz and Hakim Ziyech along with already established midfielders Pulisic, Jorginho and Kante, currently in 10.8% of teams but I do see that coming down a bit before the season starts. 

Hakim Ziyech (8.0): Made the move from Ajax to Chelsea in the current July transfer window, he played 21 of 26 games for Ajax last season scoring 6 goals and providing 13 assists from the RW position. Will definitely be in Chelsea’s opening game squad if he can get up from a slight injury and I know there’s a massive difference from Eredivisie to premier league so if I was considering him in my squad then I would definitely make sure I watch him in the first few game weeks and then probably get him after Chelsea come up against Manchester United in Gameweek 6.  

Kai Havertz (8.5): Another one of Chelsea’s big transfers this summer, he moved from Bayer Leverkusen to Chelsea a few days ago but the transfer was in the movements for a number of weeks. He played 30 games of a possible 34 for Bayer Leverkusen last season scoring 12 goals and providing 6 assists, he played in a number of positions in the attacking line and will provide Lampard with the versatility that Chelsea needs, he is a baller and still very young and will have lots to prove, as mentioned with Ziyech, I would watch him early on and see how he finds it in Premier League before selecting him in your team. He might struggle in his first season like Pepe did, but I don’t think so because these up and coming young stars just take the game on and they don’t look back.

Christian Pulisic (8.5): I have this guy to thank for making an Eden Hazard kind of run against Manchester City to put Chelsea up 1-0, I think I cheered as much loud is I cheered when Salah scored the second goal against United and The Kop was singing “We’re gonna win the league” but back to FPL he played only 1717 minutes scoring 127 points, contributing 9 goals and 8 assists which is quite good considering he played just over half the minutes. Definitely consider him in your midfield this season. I will be and I never really have Chelsea players, if he plays about 2700 minutes this season i do see him coming close to the 200 mark. 

Forwards:

Timo Werner (9.5): He had some sort of season at RB Leipzig which probably added another 10m onto his transfer fee. He was involved in all of the 34 games for Leipzig last season, scoring 28 goals in the Bundesliga and providing 8 assists, that’s better than 1 goal contribution a game, definitely is worthy of his 47% ownership. Already is off the mark for Chelsea with a goal against Brighton in a friendly that ended 1-1, plus got off the mark against Spain in the Nations League opening group game a few days ago. He is a proven goal scorer but will he bring it to the hardest league in the World, most probably he will is the hope of all the coaches that are confident in starting with him, he comes up against Liverpool which might be a difficult game for him but apart from that he does look quality to be your “set and forget striker”. 

Tammy Abraham (7.5): He started last season on fire, was leading the golden boot for some time and raced to 10 goals, unfortunately he couldn’t continue his blistering start and only finished with 15 goals, but maybe I’m being too hard on him since he still young and it was only his first full season in the Premier League for Chelsea. He was Chelsea’s top scorer as mentioned before with 153 points contributing 15 goals and 6 assists, it is up very unknown what Lampard will do with Abraham now that they have signed Timo Werner, he most probably will be used as a sub most of the time with the rare start here and there unless Lampard changes formation to 2 up front, but even then he might play Kai Havertz up top with Werner as Havertz has played up front for Bayer Leverkusen on numerous times, just keep him on your watch list for now.