Palmer expresses frustration at Moises Caicedo as Chelsea clarify two transfer situations
The 2023 summer transfer window has now closed and for Chelsea and Mauricio Pochettino, they now have their squad ready for the remainder of the season.
The Blues completed an awful lot of business during the transfer window while spending over £400million in the process. Cole Palmer for £42.5million became Chelsea’s final signing of the summer window which saw more than 10 players brought into the club in what turned out to be a huge squad revamp.
Moises Caicedo completed a British record £115million move from Brighton, with Romeo Lavie joining a few days later for £58million. The likes of Nicolas Jackson, Axel Disasi, Lesley Ugochukwu, Robert Sanchez, Djordje Petrovic, Deivid Washington, Chrstopher Nkunku and multiple more have also been signed by the west Londoners.
It was also a busy summer transfer window for the club in terms of outgoings, with way more than £200million brought back in in player sales. Pochettino said when he came in that there was likely to be a lot of changes at Chelsea in the summer but perhaps nobody thought there would be this many.
Either way, it has set Chelsea up nicely for the remainder of the season – in what has been a mixed start for Pochettino. An impressive, albeit frustrating, 1-1 draw with Liverpool was followed by a 3-1 defeat at West Ham United. Chelsea, though, did pick up their first win of the season against Luton Town last week, where they beat the Hatters 3-0 at Stamford Bridge.
With so many players at his disposal, the question begs for Pochettino; what is his best-possible team? Unfortunately for the Argentine, there are a lot of injuries at the moment meaning he cannot choose from them all. So, football.london has taken a look at all of the available players and tried putting together Chelsea’s ‘best XI’…
Chelsea’s best-possible team
The introduction of Palmer is a very exciting one for Chelsea and their supporters. The 21-year-old has signed for the Blues in the hope of being a star in the first-team but he may need to be patient to properly get his opportunity.
The system Pochettino has been using at the start of the season, which he has shown no signs of stopping to use anytime soon, means there are only two real out-and-out attackers. Thus far, that has been Jackson and the in-form Raheem Sterling, who simply does not deserve to be dropped out of the side right now.
We’re still yet to see goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic in action for Chelsea since signing from New England Revolution last month. There are hopes at the club, though, that the Serbian can go onto become Chelsea’s first-choice in goal after a while but patience may be required, so Robert Sanchez makes our line-up for the time being.
Axel Disasi has been impressive since signing from AS Monaco in August and with the injury to Wesley Fofana, there are not too many other options right now. Thiago Silva and Levi Colwill are pretty obvious candidates for the other two centre-back spots in the system Pochettino has been using thus far this season.
Malo Gusto has done a stellar job at right-back so far following the injury to Reece James. Ben Chilwell is the standout option on the other side with Marc Cucurella still not impressing supporters with his performances.
Moving onto the midfield is where it gets really interesting. Conor Gallagher has been great in recent weeks and looks like a revived player under Pochettino, but you cannot help but feel that when Romeo Lavia is fit and ready to play, he will come into the side as the defensive midfielder.
Enzo Fernandez is an absolute certainty in midfield and the same can be said about record signing Caicedo. Once the two of them can start forming a proper partnership, then this Chelsea team should improve massively.
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