Liverpool great Jamie Carragher may come to regret the verdict he gave on Chelsea before the season began.
The Blues came in for criticism amid yet another transfer window of mass signings as players like Romelu Lukaku, Raheem Sterling and Conor Gallagher were relegated to the so-called ‘bomb squad’.
However, Chelsea managed to shift out the vast majority of those who appeared to no longer have a future at the club and banked £167.5million in outgoings, ending the transfer window with a net spend of £34m.
Despite the small net spend figure, Carragher took aim at the club’s transfer strategy in August.
“Chelsea have just got to stop buying players,” Carragher said on Monday Night Football.
“And players have got to stop signing for Chelsea.”
Carragher added: “There isn’t anything there. It’s not a young and exciting team. You’ve bought Joao Felix, right, tell me where he’s going to play.
“They’ve signed Neto a week ago, where’s he going to play when he’s already got Cole Palmer.”
Although Neto and Joao Felix are yet to nail down a spot in Enzo Maresca‘s starting line-up, the Italian has got the Blues playing some brilliant football.
In fact, Chelsea’s 11 Premier League goals this season is the second-most in the competition, one more than Arsenal and Liverpool.
The Blues’ 11 goals are also six more than Manchester United and four more than Newcastle.
Additionally, the average age of Maresca’s starting lineups this season has been the youngest in the league at 23.2.
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The second-youngest is Bournemouth with 25, with Everton boasting the oldest average starting team at 28.3.
With the large amount of goals scored coupled with the youngest average age of the starting team in the league, Chelsea fans have been quick to remind Carragher about his comments.
A video of his rant, along with some of Chelsea’s most exciting football this season, has spread like wildfire among the Blues community on social media…
Maresca recently explained Chelsea’s transfer strategy as a deliberate plan to have two top-quality options in each position.
“As left wingers, we have Jadon [Sancho] and Misha [Mykhailo Mudryk],” Maresca said last week.
“As right wingers, we have Noni [Madueke] and Pedro [Neto]. As attacking midfielders, we have Joao [Felix] and Cole [Palmer].
“As a No.9, we have Nicolas [Jackson], Christo [Nkunku] and Marc [Guiu]. We do not have so many players, we have two players for each position.”
It’s not just at the top end of the pitch Chelsea have improved as Maresca’s side have kept three clean sheets in their last three games across all competitions.
Granted, one of those was against League Two side Barrow on Tuesday in the Carabao Cup as a Christopher Nkunku hat-trick inspired them to a 5-0 win.
However, Chelsea face their toughest match in weeks when they welcome Brighton to Stamford Bridge on Saturday.
The Seagulls are yet to taste defeat this season but will be without manager Fabian Hurzeler after he was sent off in his side’s fiery 2-2 draw with Nottingham Forest last Sunday.
