A lot has been made about Enzo Maresca's A team vs B team rotation this season. Chelsea's surprising results should be attributed to the ability to rest the starters during the midweek. Chelsea's starting 11 not only will be less fatigued but there is no risk of an injury on the bench compared to playing a mid week European game.

Summary:

-Liverpool has 13 different players with 1,000+ Minutes played in All Competitions, while Chelsea only has 10. Arsenal has 10 but they are all over 1,200 minutes.

-The biggest difference comes with the big minute players. Chelsea's highest Minute player is Marc Cucurella (1,444 Minutes). Liverpool has 6 different players with more minutes played. Arsenal has 8 players with more minutes than Cucurella.

-While Liverpool has a lot of high minute players, Chelsea has a lot of players who played a medium amount of minutes. Chelsea has 11 players who played between 500-1,000 Minutes while Liverpool only has 5. Arsenal has 7

-Chelsea has played 26 games this year and has 1 player with 20+ games played (Nkunku). Liverpool has played 24 games and has 10 players with 20+ games played. Arsenal has 11 players over 20+ Games played.

-Here is a key point that will make a huge difference the rest of the season. Liverpool has at minimum 5 more games to play than Chelsea. They have a makeup game vs. Everton, 2 Champions League Group games, and 2 Semi-Final Carabao Cup games. That difference can grow based on the FA Cup, going to a Carabao Cup final, or Knockout results in Europe. Enzo was smart to throw the Carabao Cup game vs. Newcastle. Those extra games will not help Chelsea. Arsenal has 4 extra games (Carabao Semis and Champions League Group Stage). The Calendar will be crowded in 2025 and I know would rather have less games than more.

-Speaking of that calendar congestion, Chelsea and Liverpool play on May 3. Liverpool potentially has a brutal stretch at that time. They will play Tottenham at home, Champions League Semi-Final Leg 1 midweek, Away at Chelsea, Champions League Semi-Final Leg 2 midweek, Home to Arsenal. I would not want that 5 game in 15 day span.

In my opinion, Chelsea and Liverpool have 2 key players who are indispensable, Palmer/Caicedo and Salah/Van Dijk. Both teams would be lost without their star players. Here is a comparison of their minutes played.

In all Competitions:
Van Dijk: 21 games, 1,890 Minutes

Salah: 23 Games, 1,879 Minutes

Caicedo: 16 Games, 1,415 Minutes

Palmer: 16 Games, 1,387 Minutes

That's a ~6 Game, 500 Minutes difference

In the Champions League/Conference League:
Van Dijk: 6 games, 540 Minutes

Salah: 6 Games, 511 Minutes

Palmer: 0 games, 0 Minutes

Caicedo: 0 Games, 0 Minutes

Salah and Van Dijk have to go high intensity every week in the Champions League while Palmer and Caicedo get to rest up. If Liverpool makes the Semifinals, that's an extra 8 games, ~600 Minutes played. It's not better for Arsenal either. Saliba, Rice, Saka, Havertz, and Partey have all played 1,600+ Minutes.

The difference is minutes played for Chelsea compared to Liverpool, Arsenal, and City is a storyline that needs to be monitored all season.

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Today Chilly Turns 28 love this dude so much

Also the way Palmer trying to fit in the pic 😆

I will not be posting updates. Deleted old one as wrong flair

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Give me anything really - match, performance, signings of the players, winning a trophy - anything. I will start. For me it is a match between Chelsea and Napoli - round of 16 in Champions League 2012. Several reasons for that. First of all we had to overcome the result of 3-1 in first leg. After that match AVB was sacked and temporarily replaced by Roberto DiMatteo. AVB tried to play with young players and make squad for the future, so he often benched legends like Drogba, Lampard and Terry. DiMatteo take them back and what happend in 2 leg? All three scored in that match making it 3-1 and going to the extra time where Ivanovic scored after assist from Drogba. Then Stamford Bridge almost exploded. So we reached the quarterfinal and eventually won the Champions League for the first time. For me that was the best Chelsea match that I have evre saw. In that campaign we didnt played nice football, but man that emotions were something else, the team simply wanted that more than anybody else. Absolutely magical. So what is yours best moment? P.S. I will be also glad if you talk about that 2012 match or whole campaign, I love to discuss that.

One of the them is a skipper /s

(Just kidding guys, I love RJ)

Nico Jackson sent a lovely picture of Cucu..

Maresca is building a team no one wants to play against.