Chelsea started the season under the leadership of Frank Lampard, with whom the “retirees” passed very confidently the tournament distance of the group stage of the Champions League. In a company with Sevilla, Renn and Krasnodar, the London club had no problems. With 14 points Chelsea turned out to be the strongest in the quartet, being ahead of the second Sevilla by one point. However, a series of failures in the English Premier League forced the club’s management to dismiss Lampard, whose replacement was found very quickly. According to the management, Thomas Tuchel, dismissed from PSG, was supposed to help expensive compatriots quickly adapt in England, as well as bring the club to the Champions League next season. It should be noted that so far the German mentor is doing everything. Chelsea are on the fourth line in the table after 28 rounds. Fighting for the title will already be unrealistic, given the 20 points gap from Manchester City, but for a place in the top four, the retirees are able to impose a fight on Liverpool, Everton and Tottenham. In the last round Chelsea scored a goalless draw with Leeds, thus not conceding in the fifth match in a row. However, points were lost and Tuchel had to make excuses for his too cautious play, who blamed everything on poor implementation. As far as the Champions League is concerned, Chelsea have an excellent opportunity to advance to the quarterfinals. Olivier Giroud’s brilliant goal in the first leg resulted in a minimal clean sheet win. However, this result has yet to be defended in London.
This season “Dogs” have good chances to break the three-year hegemony of the Parisians in the domestic arena. After 29 rounds Christophe Galtier’s team is leading in the standings of the French championship, being ahead of PSG and Lyon by three points. Lille’s unbeaten streak in Ligue 1 lasted for 11 matches, but in the last five rounds there were three draws at once, which did not allow to issue a comfortable handicap over pursuers. Last season Lille dropped out of the French Cup just in the 1/8 finals, sensationally losing to Epinal (1:2), playing in the third most powerful division. Perhaps, then, underestimating the opponent prevented them from reaching the quarterfinals of the tournament, but now this is hardly possible, because rivals are the strongest club in France in the past decade and it is quite possible that PSG remains so at the moment. But Lille will do its best to throw the Parisians off the throne.
