Premier League: Leeds United vs Chelsea! Is the version advantage over? Even the young Blues struggle with the brutal schedule!

Today, our first match discussion isthe Premier League clash: Leeds United vs Chelsea!

This is a match between a relegation favorite and a title contender.

Chelsea’s recent results have been astonishing—they first secured a 3-0 victory over Barcelona, then nearly beat Arsenal, the leading title favorite, even with a player sent off. For a moment, they stole the spotlight, forcing everyone to seriously consider their championship chances.

Meanwhile, Leeds United are currently on a four-game losing streak and have even lost twice to relegation rivals like Nottingham, which doesn’t inspire much confidence.

However, in midweek matches, sometimes the teams in better recent form are more likely to face problems.

Originally, Chelsea benefited from a bit of“version advantage”this season.

This season is quite unique, with the Club World Cup early on, the World Cup later, various World Cup qualifiers in between, plus changes in the Champions League format, football trends, and refereeing standards—all these factors have made top club players extremely, extremely exhausted.

ButChelsea, as the youngest team in the entire Premier League, averaging only 23.3 years old,have a much stronger endurance. In this tight schedule, while others may operate at 60-70% capacity, Chelsea still maintains around 80-90%.

They can even play very high-intensity football, dominating aerial duels against Arsenal, who are known as the set-piece and heading kings!

Their sprinting speed even surpasses the entire Premier League by a wide margin!

However, human stamina is not infinite; no matter how young the players are, they are not perpetual machines.

Note: Chelsea’s last two opponents have been among the world’s absolute elite teams.

Facing such teams, who dares to rotate? Which team would risk it? They definitely field their strongest lineups.

So we observe thatChelsea only changed one starter in these two matches,switching Gnabry for Pedro, while no other key player was rested.

In fact,some star players have started three consecutive games, such as captain James and the explosive Neto.

Some have even played every minute of three straight matches without a break,like midfield maestro Enzo, world-class wing-back Cucurella, and defensive leader Chalobah.

If it were just the lack of rotation, that would be one thing, but in the last match, they were also reduced to ten men too early.

The player sent off was Kessie, a tireless and invaluable defensive midfielder worth millions, which meantother players had to run even more to cover that defensive gap.

This match cannot be lost—if they lose at home and fall 9 points behind Arsenal early, what’s the point of chasing the title?

So we see Chelsea playing with fierce determination, and managing to embarrass Arsenal despite being one man down is extremely impressive and difficult.

But the cost paid is that their fitness might become an issue today.

A team that usually overwhelms opponents with fitness, if unable to do so, might find it hard to adapt to the game.

Leeds United is a team we’ve talked about quite a bit recently.

Although they have lost four in a row, their football itself hasn’t been bad; much of it is just bad luck.

According to expected goals and conceded goals, their net goal difference should only be -1.63,but in reality, it’s -12, a huge discrepancy.

In their last match against Manchester City, they finally performed much closer to normal, even forcing City’s goalkeeper Donnarumma to fake an injury to buy time for Guardiola to discuss tactics.

Although they lost in the end, their fighting spirit of trailing 2-0 at halftime and still fiercely chasing an equalizer in the second half is admirable. Such morale means they are far from a hopeless team and still have the ability to fight back.

Today, Leeds have had an extra day of rest and are playing at home against a physically drained Chelsea. Can they satisfy their fans? What do you all think? I hope they at least avoid defeat.

Alright, for today’s other matches, I will still send you my written insights in the evening. If anything is unclear, feel free to ask me. “Watch football with understanding,” see you there!

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