The 3 players Chelsea know they can build their team around

Chelsea have been the most disappointing team in European football since Todd Boehly became the club’s owner, as they have been a laughingstock on the transfer market with many of the worst signings made by any club.

Financially, the Blues’ investment has been a disaster, but, in some ways, their reckless spending has one benefit. Out of 20 signings, even if 15 fail miserably, if 5 of them pan out, then those are 5 players Chelsea can count on.

As dire as things have looked for Chelsea, their recent 4-3 comeback win over Manchester United and 6-0 demolition of Everton are clear signs that there are positives underneath the surface of another likely mid-table finish.

Cole Palmer has been the obvious hero of those victories and many more positive results for Chelsea, to the point where he is very much the club’s best player since the iconic Eden Hazard left for the Santiago Bernabeu

Joining Palmer are two other players whom Chelsea can feel are parts of a future team they can rebuild around for a true Champions League chase.

Cole Palmer

With 20 goals and 9 assists on the 2023/24 Premier League season, England international Cole Palmer has been a goal-scoring machine and assist-providing savant on a team that really had neither of either type of player coming into the season.

Palmer is putting up numbers even beyond what Chelsea were hoping from Christopher Nkunku, a one-time Ballon d’Or candidate at RB Leipzig whose injuries are causing him to teeter on being the Blues’ latest expensive flop.

Hopefully, Nkunku can consistently get back on the pitch and return to the levels he showed in the Bundesliga, where he was named the Player of the Season above a free-scoring Robert Lewandowski.

If not, Chelsea will at least have Palmer, whose 20 goals have come in just 23 starts as an attacking midfielder. Palmer has been the goal-scoring solution for a team with no real No. 9, as Nicolas Jackson has quickly joined Romelu Lukaku, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and Armando Broja on the list of strikers who have flopped badly.

Palmer has been such an inspired signing that, at this point, the question isn’t about how important he will be to Chelsea in the future, but rather about how important he will be in the context of European football. He is challenging Bukayo Saka and Mohamed Salah as the best player in the Premier League.

Malo Gusto

Reece James was seen as the best right back in world football before injuries hit him, and while he is still very much in the conversation with the likes of Trent Alexander-Arnold and Dani Carvajal, there’s a chance Chelsea choose one of his teammates over him at right back.

Malo Gusto is performing at a high level at the right back position, and while it would be more than presumptuous to assert that he is better than James, the reality is that he’s the one healthy and playing.

Furthermore, a lot of decisions are made based on future performance, and Gusto may have more to offer Chelsea in the long term when you look at the fact that he is 20 years old whereas James is 24.

That’s not to say James is old or washed, but it is to say that at 20, what Gusto is doing at the right back position is mighty impressive. Despite already having James, Chelsea signed Gusto for a reason, because they saw the all-around electricity he was providing Lyon as a ball-winner, ball-progressor, and even creator.

Gusto has racked up five assists for the Blues this season in the Premier League with 2.2 tackles per game, 1.3 key passes per match, and 1.2 fouls drawn per contest. He defends with full intensity and creates clear-cut chances for his team. What more could you want from a 20-year-old right back?

Levi Colwill

Although most people roll their eyes when the comment is made that Chelsea spent 62 million pounds on Marc Cucurella from Brighton in order to secure Levi Colwill, there is a kernel of truth within that statement.

Colwill has looked like a real building block in defense in his own right, showing versatility by competently slotting in as a left back, left-sided center back in a three-man defense, or as a center back in a “traditional” four-man set-up.

This season, the 21-year-old is averaging 2.1 tackles and 1.1 interceptions per game while being dribbled past just 0.3 times per contest. Those are elite defensive numbers for someone who has made more starts (14) at left back than at center back (12).

Colwill has a long-term future with Chelsea as a starter, and there’s a case to be made that he’s been the team’s second-best player after Cole Palmer this season.