Paul
Merson insists Chelsea are Premier League title contenders this season, but
Frank Lampard has one big challenge: keep the players happy.
Don't rule out Chelsea for the league
Frank Lampard has now got who he wants in key positions and you can really
see the difference.
Thiago Silva is world-class. They've got two full-backs who are as good as
any in the league and for me, they [Reece James and Ben Chilwell] are the
two England full-backs, in my opinion. They are outstanding. Silva is also
only going to make Kurt Zouma a better player and the goalkeeper Edouard
Mendy is solid.
I know Sheffield United are down at the bottom at the moment, but they are a
hard team to play against. They are organised and when you go 1-0 down, you
know it's going to be a difficult evening.
However, they literally dismantled Sheffield United. They made them look
like a proper relegation team, which I don't see that because I think
Sheffield United will be okay this season. They made them look distinctly
average and that's a sign of a good team.
It's coming from everywhere too. Hakim Ziyech has got a left foot that can
open a can of worms, Timo Werner scores plenty of goals, Tammy Abraham looks
like he's getting better and then there's Mason Mount. They've just got so
much attacking talent.
The problem is going to be keeping everyone happy and that's going to be the
hardest job in the world. You are going to have top, top-draw players not
playing, and that's hard.
Kai Havertz wasn't even in the squad because he was unwell and Christian
Pulisic is injured too. Mateo Kovacic played on Saturday, but he hasn't been
playing. That's going to be the problem Chelsea have to contend with going
forward.
Is the squad too big? It depends how far they go in certain competitions,
but that is where Mourinho was great. If you look at his Chelsea team and
the squad he had at Stamford Bridge, you never heard anybody moaning.
From the outside, you always thought, 'wow'! How do you keep all those
players happy? There's got to be an art to it because when you've got that
quality of player, to keep them all happy when they are not playing is a
major skill.
It's alright people saying they get £100,000-a-week, they get paid well or
whatever, but they want to play football. As a player, you want to play
football and that will be Lampard's biggest challenge going forward.
They also have to play a better quality of opponent in the games coming up,
but everything at the moment looks good.
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