Chelsea won 2-0 against Atletico Madrid in the second leg of the round of 16 of the UEFA Champions League and knocked the Spanish club out of the tournament on an aggregate score-line of 3-0. With this win, Chelsea have now kept 11 clean sheets in 13 games in all competitions since Thomas Tuchel took over. Hence, the question that will be on all FPL managers’ mind, ‘do we start investing in the Chelsea defence now?’
On paper, Chelsea have one of the best defence in the league. In the summer transfer window of 2020, the then Chelsea manager, Frank Lampard, made 7 signings, with 4 of them focusing on strengthening the defence. However, the defence got off to a rocky start with just 1 clean sheet in the first 6 league games.
Since Thomas Tuchel has taken over, Chelsea has looked unbeatable, especially in the defence. With the defence in such great form, Fantasy Premier League players will be scrambling to get some defensive Chelsea assets in their squads. With the Blues having some of the most reasonably priced defenders, it will certainly be popular among players, with the most expensive of them being Cesar Azpilicueta and Ben Chilwell, both priced at a cool £5.8 m. Thiago Silva (£5.6m) has seen his price take a fall due to being sidelined for a long time with injuries. Andreas Christensen, Antonio Rudiger and Reece James are some cheap options priced at £4.7m, £4.6m and £5.0m respectively.
Kurt Zouma, who was one of the brightest spots, in the early days of the season, is priced at £5.6m. He was a regular starter under Frank Lampard, although his playing time has decreased drastically since Tuchel arrived. Emerson is priced at £4.7m, but he does not seem to feature much with the likes of Alonso and Chilwell all ahead of him. The goalkeeper Eduardo Mendy (£5.1m) is the most in-form goalkeeper in the league right now, having started all league games under Tuchel bar one. He has kept clean sheets in 7 of the 9 games since the German manager took over.
Tuchel seems to trust the centre-back pairing of Rudiger and Christensen more since Thiago Silva was injured. With Zouma not in the best of forms and Silva’s return date unknown, it will not be a surprise if the current pairing continues for the rest of the season.
Will you be transferring in any Chelsea defenders ahead of the new gameweek?
