Blues defender Kenedy was the unlikely scorer of the Premier League’s fastest goal of the season this week, netting in 39 seconds at Norwich as Chelsea continue their extraordinary belated surge.
The 2-1 midweek win at Carrow Road followed victory away to Southampton… with Stoke City visiting Stamford Bridge this weekend in a game which could see the Blues challenge once again for a European place.
It’s a topsy-turvy world. While early front-runners such as Palace and Watford are going off the boil, the once-doomed boys in blue can do nothing wrong.
At this rate, Guus Hiddink will be giving Claudio Ranieri a run for his money as manager of the season – although the Leicester City gaffer is still clear favourite.
Encouragingly for Chelsea, the club’s youth team is also making progress, reaching the semi-final of the FA Youth Cup last week with a Stamford Bridge win over Reading.
The Blues have won the U18 tournament for the last two years. Only Manchester United have ever won three times on the trot… and that was back in the 1950s.
Jay Dasilva and Tammy Abraham were on target for Chelsea youth last week – two promising prospects, although it was muscular defender Trevoh Chalobah who was my man of the match on a freezing cold night.
But back to the big boys. Taking on board the patchy, stuttering form of every Premier League club this season, it is still not beyond the realms of possibility that the Blues could finish in the Champions League places.
Had you suggested that at Christmas, you’d have attracted laughter.
Hiddink has focused a squad which had started to even distract itself. He’s wringing dazzling performances out of the likes of Cesc Fabregas, Diego Costa (a Tuesday night scorer) and even Eden Hazard, a player most people had shrugged and written off.
Twelve games unbeaten! Bring on Stoke!
The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and unless specifically stated are not necessarily those of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham
