Chelsea need key man back to compete with Champions League hopefuls

We’re at a crucial point in the Premier League season right now – maybe our favourite part.

Now a quarter of the way through the campaign, we have enough data on the board to start drawing meaningful conclusions – but we’ve still got so much of it to go that anything can happen.

It’s hard to draw too many conclusions from the first few weeks – new transfers and new managers are still settling in and teams’ form is more affected by how hard their fixtures have been than anything else.

But once we’re back from the upcoming international break things will really have settled, and GambleGuru’s LeoVegas review has some really interesting odds on what could come next.

Arsenal are heavy favourites to win the title, especially after they strangled Liverpool to death in an impressive 1-0 win at Anfield last weekend. Mikel Arteta’s team look as strong as they did last year, without the same level of competition to worry about.

Manchester City have taken a step back under Enzo Maresca, and have the pending punishment from the Premier League hanging over their season as a ghost at the feast. Liverpool look like they will be very good on their day, but won’t have the consistency (or perhaps the big game mentality) to pick up the points needed to keep pace with the Gunners.

Brighton are this season’s “breath of fresh air,” but nobody is quite sure how long they can keep it up. Like Aston Villa last season, there’s always a sense that gravity catches up with the major overperformers once the punishing festive fixtures kick in.

As for Chelsea, right now even the fans can’t work out whether they’re a good team, let alone the bookies. Last week’s game against Manchester United saw them run out 2-0 winners, but nobody who actually watched the game would have been very convinced by Xabi Alonso’s men.

Still, given the diminished competition this season, they just need to improve a little and they will find themselves more than able to keep pace with the teams competing for the Champions League spots.

They need to get Joao Pedro back as soon as possible – his presence is going to be key to deciding how far the Blues can go this season. His availability, more than that of Reece James, Emi Martinez or Maxence Lacroix, will be the most vital for the team and their ceiling in this exceptionally open year.