Sixth best team in 2024 - How Pochettino turned Chelsea's Premier League season around

In what has been something of a rarity this season, Chelsea go into Saturday evening’s Premier League clash with high hopes of picking up all three points and continuing a good run of form. Mauricio Pochettino’s side travel to Nottingham Forest, who have one of the worst home records in the English top-flight this season. However, what’s perhaps more pertinent is that the London club seem to finally have the wind in their sails and may now look like the team Chelsea fans have been waiting for all season. 

Indeed, over the course of the last 10 Premier League match days, Pochettino’s team have picked up more points than all but two clubs in the division - Arsenal and Manchester City. And when we take a look at the league table since the start of this calendar year, it places the Stamford Bridge side sixth in the league table. With all three points on Saturday, Chelsea could leapfrog Newcatle into sixth place, which would be their highest spot in the league all season and further proof that Pochettino may be turning things around. 

What has changed at Chelsea in the last five months?

Having spent no less than €460 million on new players this season, there’s no doubt that Chelsea would have always needed a period of time to let the dust settle on their squad and allow Pochettino to find the right system and group of players to rely on. And when we look at the club’s recent performances and how they’ve picked up points, it certainly seems as though the Chelsea manager may have finally settled on a preferred starting XI. And, perhaps most importantly, a reliable front line capable of scoring goals as well as any front line in England. 

Since the turn of the year, Chelsea have scored 36 goals in 15 league games giving them an average of 2.4 goals per game. Not only is that impressive in isolation, but the scorching run of form becomes even more apparent when we compare it to Liverpool (2.47 goals per game) and Manchester City (2.6) - similar results despite both clubs being in much better form this season. And it’s no great surprise why Chelsea are now finding so much success in front of goal. Over the course of the last four months, Pochettino has more or less settled on a front line of Nicolas Jackson as the line striker, Noni Madueke on the right wing, Mykhaylo Mudryk on the left and Cole Palmer through the middle as the classic No.10. And it has worked tremendously well. 

So far this year, Jackson has bagged six goals and three assists in 13 games and Madueke has picked up five goals and assists in 11 games. But the clear star of this team is undoubtedly Palmer, who has scored 15 goals and assisted a further five in 2024 so far. When we couple that with the consistent form of Conor Gallagher and Moisés Caicedo - who’ve also bagged nine goal contributions this year between them - then it certainly seems as though Pochettino’s team are on the ascendency that could see the Stamford Bridge side still finish as high as fifth before the end of the season.