Despite the fact that Chelsea have spent heavily in the transfer market, Jamie Carragher doesn’t believe the west Londoners have a hope of landing the Premier League title.
The former Liverpool stalwart was asked about the title chances for Frank Lampard’s side this season on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football.
“Not for me, no. Because the spending has been at the top end of the pitch and until Chelsea rectify their goalkeeping situation I don’t see them winning the league,” he said, cited by the Daily Star.
“You only have to look at Pep Guardiola’s first season in England, Jurgen Klopp’s first 18 months, until they signed goalkeepers and they made the real difference.”
The pressure on Lampard and his new signings is likely to be incessant, particularly if they don’t get off to a flying start.
Their cause is unlikely to be helped by the lack of a world class goalkeeper as Carragher alluded to.
“If Chelsea signed a top goalkeeper, I think that will make a big difference,” he added, cited by the Daily Star.
“And also to be fair to Chelsea and Frank I think the expenditure of this transfer window is almost three or four transfer windows of money getting spent in one go.
“They couldn’t buy anyone last year, they’ve still got the [Eden] Hazard and the [Alvaro] Morata money, so it is club money in some ways.
“Until they change the goalkeeper I don’t think they’ve got any chance.”
With so many new faces brought on board, it’s bound to take time to bed them all in and get them playing as a coherent unit.
Defensively poor for long periods last season, the Blues need to improve in that area if they want any chance at getting near to the Premier League summit.
However, it will be interesting to see how many opponents can deal with their firepower this season.