Chris Sutton is persistent with his prediction of Chelsea winning the Premier League title as he highlighted the importance of Romelu Lukaku’s form for their title push.
The Blues did very well amid the 28-year-old striker’s one-month injury absence, largely thanks to their squad depth and other players’ stepping-up.
Reece James and Ben Chilwell, in particular, provided the Blues with the goals when they needed it.
However, Chilwell will be out for the rest of the year and potentially even longer because of a partial ACL tear.
Several other key players, such as Mateo Kovacic and N’Golo Kante have also been out.
Chelsea have now dropped to third in the Premier League table after Saturday’s 3-2 derby defeat to West Ham. A tough blow considering they had a six-point lead on Manchester City and Liverpool at some point.
Sutton, however, argued that not being the league leaders has its positives.
“I’ve tipped Chelsea to emerge as eventual champions. A stumble here and there — defeat at West Ham, drawing at home to Burnley — won’t make me change my mind,” the former Blues striker wrote on his column for the Daily Mail.
“Although Chelsea do need to get back on track and get Romelu Lukaku fit and firing, like he was at the start of this season.
“Sometimes it’s nice to be the ones doing the chasing rather than being chased.
“Chelsea can have a go at that now, but they need to regain a ruthless streak. Too many slip-ups and [Manchester] City could start to pull away.”
To be fair, Chelsea are still playing quite well despite recent poor results. They simply conceded too many goals from individual errors.
As Ruben Loftus-Cheek pointed out, Chelsea are likely just in a phase that they must snap out of soon.
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