We are about to enter the busy and potentially season-altering Christmas fixtures period, almost midway through the season.
Chelsea sits at the top of the tree with Manchester City trailing them by 3 points and things look very encouraging for the Blues as they’ve won titles on each occasion that they topped the table come Christmas day.
Throw in the fact that Jose Mourinho is the kind of manager who knows how to maintain the lead at the top, we might say that it is almost certain that Chelsea will emerge the Champions this season.
The Blues have played some fine football all round the season in the country, if not Europe, dominating games and rarely giving their opponents any hope of getting something out of the game.
They have been compared to the Invincibles all through the season, at least till their perennial Waterloo, St.James Park.
Even though they’ve finally lost a game, this Chelsea squad is as close to perfection as a team can be: watertight at the back, dominant in the midfield, and deadly upfront.
So in a series of Polls by us, we compare each and every position from this Chelsea squad to that of the great Invincibles’ squad, culminating in a definitive SUPER–INVINCIBLE squad (as chosen by our readers).
We kick off the series with the goalkeepers:
Jens Lehmann:
Jens Lehmann was the custodian of the Invincibles.
The crazy German was the custodian for the Invincibles side and he played every single game of their incredible unbeaten season.
He just joined the Gunners from Borussia Dortmund and replaced the legendary David Seaman in goal.
He had some very big boots to fill in and the German had no problem doing that.
He was great when it came to commanding his area, one–on–ones, positioning, and making some wonderful saves, but the German always had some madness to his game.
We still remember when Juventus beat The Blues as I was placing big betting on, my good friend was Betting on Juventus and of course, he won, I will never forget that day.
Anyway, he is remembered more for mistakes such as the ones in the Title winning game against Tottenham where he pushed Robbie Keane during a corner or the mistake he made which led to a Champions League eliminating defeat against Chelsea that season or even the red he got in the opening stages of the Champions League final against Barcelona.
But then football fans rarely remember good over bad.
Thibaut Courtois:
Thibaut Courtois had no problems adjusting to life at Stamford Bridge.
Thibaut Courtois is similar to Lehmann in the sense that he replaced a legend in the goal for Chelsea as the German did for the Gunners.
Signed from Belgian side Genk for a reported 8 million, Courtois is a live example of one extreme of the mass “Buy ‘em Young” mantra that the Blues have been following.
He spent 3 successful years in the La Liga with Atletico Madrid, winning laurels both at personal and club level as he went on to win the UEFA Europa League, UEFA Super Cup, Copa del Rey, La Liga finishing as runner–up in the Champions League, and claimed the Zamora trophy twice (best goals: minutes played ratio) and created the viral Thibaut–ing phenomenon on the social platforms.
Pretty good for a 19-year-old lad from a small Belgian town!
He replaced the legendary Petr Cech in goal for Chelsea this season and has impressed so far.
He made countless crucial saves that kept the Blues in the game.
His ability to pluck the balls from the air and claim them with calmness has been really impressive.
He has learned to communicate and command his area as the season progressed, which is really important for a keeper coming into a new team.
Still 22, the sky is the limit for young Thibaut and there is no reason he cannot become the ‘greatest goalkeeper ever’ as his colleague Felipe Luis claims.
Note: This poll is to compare the players in the respective seasons, ie 2003–04 for the Arsenal players and the ongoing season for the Chelsea players.
Please vote accordingly.
