Former Arsenal midfielder Paul Merson has picked Chelsea as the top four English Premier League favorites; they are “pole position.”
Chelsea is enjoying an upturn in form since they sacked Frank Lampard in January. The Blues has run 10 gamest unbeaten under the German Thomas Tuchel. The Lampard successor has reignited Chelsea to realize their strength and has guided the back to the top four.
Merson believes Chelsea FC, who has secured back-to-back League victories over Liverpool FC and Everton, is a favorite.
“Chelsea are now in pole position to finish in the top four after a big week of results. But it is not a foregone conclusion,” Merson said.
“They have to keep producing right until the end of the season,” he added.
“There are not too many concerns about injuries at the moment. They have a really good squad and we’ve seen it utilized in the last few weeks by Tuchel.
He continued to highlight the Blues’ strength in their squad and the available options for election.
“(N’Golo) Kante and (Mason) Mount were rested on Monday. Olivier Giroud is on the bench too and Tammy Abraham is not even getting a look in.”
However, Merson warned that Chelsea still needs to keep this run of good results.
“It’s far from job done, though. They need to keep this run going because we’ve already seen this season that things can change very quickly,” he added.
“West Ham keeps winning and Tottenham is flying again. It’s lucky Chelsea have been on this brilliant run and are in the position they are in because otherwise, they’d have been out of it,” he concluded.
Chelsea was facing a steep competition from Everton who was 46 one point behind them but a 2-0 victory at Stamford Bridge put them 4 points clear.
Chelsea has kept the pace for top-four since appointing Thomas Tuchel, who is unbeaten so far, to replace Lampard.