Chelsea squad audit: Young potential, a midfield revamp but lack of bite remains
Matthew Barrera
Published Apr 07, 2026
The dust has settled on a dizzying transfer window of incomings and outgoings at Stamford Bridge, leaving new Chelsea head coach Mauricio Pochettino with a squad that has been almost entirely overhauled in the space of a year by owners Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital.
As you can see from the positional depth chart below, Chelsea’s new squad is the youngest in the Premier League, consists almost entirely of players signed to ultra-long contracts, and features plenty of exciting talent.
Advertisement
There is also a fair amount of positional versatility to suit a variety of possible formations and tactical systems.
But how complete are the options open to Pochettino in every area of the pitch? How ready are this group of players to compete near the top of the Premier League this season? Does enough experience and proven quality remain to help guide the masses of potential?
This seems like a good time to give Chelsea’s squad an audit, so let us take a closer look…
Goalkeepers
There is a new battle for the No 1 spot at Stamford Bridge with Kepa Arrizabalaga and Edouard Mendy both gone. Robert Sanchez held the post unchallenged for a matter of days before the arrival of Djordje Petrovic from MLS club New England Revolution, but it is hard to imagine either enjoying Pochettino’s full trust yet.
Both represent a very different physical profile from Arrizabalaga: Sanchez is 6ft 6in (1.97m), Petrovic is 6ft 4in (1.94m), and both have large wingspans. The raw physical tools in both cases are very tantalising, but most elite European clubs have a clear first-choice goalkeeper with more senior experience at the top level than both men combined.
Sanchez was Brighton & Hove Albion’s No 1 for the equivalent of two full seasons before losing his place to veteran Jason Steele, while Petrovic rocketed from the Serbian Superliga to the Premier League in the space of 14 months. Both are development projects to varying degrees, with plenty of time to grow but not much margin for error given Chelsea’s aspirations.
There has been no evidence in the early weeks of this Premier League season that Sanchez is a downgrade on Arrizabalaga, but there are no guarantees he will prove an upgrade either. If he fails, Petrovic is an unknown quantity at this level.
Full-backs
The picture here has been somewhat muddied by Pochettino’s decision to start the Premier League campaign with Ben Chilwell as a left-winger in his 4-2-3-1. Earlier evidence of his selection in pre-season indicates the England international will revert to being first choice at left-back when Chelsea’s injury crisis abates, with club captain Reece James at right-back.
Advertisement
Beneath them, Chelsea’s full-back depth is stronger than it has been for the last three years.
Levi Colwill has done a generally solid job filling in as a more conservative left-back with Chilwell in front of him in the opening games of this season, and Ian Maatsen is capable of bringing more attacking thrust to the position if required. The less said about Marc Cucurella, the better; even the more positive parts of his game at Brighton have disintegrated, and Pochettino’s team selections this season underline how little he is trusted to play.
GO DEEPER
Chelsea's transfer window: Heavy spending, significant sales and bargain Jackson
At right-back, Malo Gusto is the James alternative that Chelsea have been desperate to find: far more physically dynamic than Cesar Azpilicueta in the twilight of his career, defensively sound, very comfortable in possession and a credibly dangerous provider in the final third. At least half of the teams in the Premier League would be happy to have him as their starter.
Overall it is no longer a total disaster when Chilwell or James are missing. Given the team’s travails without them in recent years, that is an unequivocal improvement.
Centre-backs
Fending off Liverpool and Brighton to commit Colwill to a new long-term contract might have been Chelsea’s most important business of the summer. His future lies at the heart of this defence, but it is nothing short of remarkable how prominent Thiago Silva continues to be in this team at 38.
It remains to be seen whether he will keep his place once Chilwell returns to left-back. Chelsea believe Colwill and Benoit Badiashile to be two of the three best young left-sided centre-backs in the world, with Manchester City’s marquee summer signing Josko Gvardiol being the other. If that is true, one or both of them should overtake Silva sooner rather than later.
Badiashile also has experience as a right-sided centre-back, but summer signing Axel Disasi is the man in possession of that spot. He brings an aerial dominance and physicality that many of Pochettino’s other centre-back options lack, though whether he represents a clear overall upgrade on the unwanted Trevoh Chalobah is less clear.
Advertisement
Wesley Fofana suffering another serious injury has made his place in Chelsea’s centre-back picture uncertain. He will first need to return and demonstrate that he is fully recovered, with no lasting consequences for his mobility or athleticism.
Chelsea have an array of good options in central defence, and a clear pathway to a bright future. The immediate priority should be to evolve beyond the reliance on Silva.
Midfielders
Another area of wholesale change in Pochettino’s squad, and the area that now boasts two of the four most expensive signings in Premier League history.
Chelsea’s primary aim heading into the summer was to acquire midfield talent that would allow marquee January arrival Enzo Fernandez to operate further forward, and in that regard, the mission has been accomplished. There is no Claude Makelele among Moises Caicedo, Romeo Lavia and Lesley Ugochukwu, but all possess defensive attributes and are young enough to be moulded into pretty much whatever Pochettino needs them to be.
Then there is Conor Gallagher, who has established himself as a consistent and versatile performer for Pochettino — often operating as the deepest midfielder, which is not his best role — despite being more valued for his potential sale price than his on-pitch contributions by the Chelsea hierarchy.
GO DEEPER
Selling homegrown players: Good for the balance sheet, sad for the soul
Chelsea should dominate possession against most opponents but the lack of a proven high-level No 10 in this squad is glaring and has already been felt in Premier League defeats against West Ham and Nottingham Forest. Christopher Nkunku will likely be first choice in the role when he is fit — Carney Chukwuemeka appeared to be making the most of his opportunity there before he picked up an untimely knee issue at London Stadium.
Injuries are hindering Pochettino’s ability to find the right balance in the middle of his Chelsea team, but he has plenty of talent with which to work.
Wide attackers
There was a wonderful fluidity to Chelsea’s play in pre-season, facilitated by Pochettino’s decision to start Nkunku as the nominal left-winger in his 4-2-3-1. In reality, the France international frequently drifted infield to become an additional No 10, creating a midfield box and leaving the entirety of the left flank open for Chilwell to charge into.
Advertisement
Nkunku’s absence has shifted much of Chelsea’s attacking play in the early weeks of the Premier League to the right, where Raheem Sterling has returned to his best form as a prolific dribbler and on-ball creator of shots for himself and for others.
The other notable feature of Pochettino’s attacking selection has been the relative lack of minutes for Mykhailo Mudryk, who looks desperately low on confidence and tactically lost in this Chelsea system. Chilwell has been preferred on the left wing because he can be trusted to make the right movements at the right times, with and without the ball.
GO DEEPER
Mykhailo Mudryk deserves some patience at Chelsea but will he get it?
Pochettino also seems to have more trust for Noni Madueke — who did not play a minute of pre-season due to a muscle injury — and deadline-day signing Cole Palmer, who is considered a No 10 and even a No 8 option as well as a winger who can operate on either flank if needed. Both are very direct wingers with a similarly exciting blend of speed and skill.
The big question here is whether Chelsea have a genuinely elite, consistent match-winner among their wide attackers — the kind they have lacked since Eden Hazard left in 2019. Sterling is the closest right now, but will need to maintain his early-season form over a longer stretch of time. Nkunku might be in the longer term, but he is new to the Premier League.
Strikers
The most underwhelming area of Chelsea’s squad — worryingly so, when you consider that scoring has been by far the biggest problem at Stamford Bridge in recent years.
Nicolas Jackson deserves the fanfare that greeted his pre-season performances, and Pochettino’s effusive endorsement of his huge potential. His all-round game is highly impressive and, regardless of whether or not he becomes a prolific Premier League goalscorer, he should be a positive asset for a long time.
Nkunku’s injury has placed more of the scoring burden on Jackson’s shoulders than is reasonable at this early stage of his Chelsea career, and that burden has been evident in his most glaring misses. Chelsea do not even have Armando Broja to turn to yet as the Cobham graduate is eased back from an anterior cruciate ligament injury suffered last year, and Brazilian teenager Deivid Washington is a raw project simply filling the emergency cover role Mason Burstow vacated.
Chelsea really like Broja and remain big believers in his potential but even before his injury, he had not demonstrated the ability to find the net regularly in senior professional football. Jackson’s record on that front basically consists of a two-month hot streak at the end of last season for Villarreal. Relying on either or both in front of goal requires a leap of faith.
Advertisement
The plan for this season was clearly for Nkunku to be the team’s primary scorer. With him due to miss pretty much the whole first half of the campaign and Broja not quite back yet, Chelsea are a Jackson injury away from being in serious trouble up front.
Chelsea’s squad is far from what most supporters would expect to see in the wake of seeing around £1billion ($1.25bn) committed on transfer fees in a little more than 12 months. This might be the most expensive array of football talent ever assembled, but it is not built to win at the highest level right now and it does not look particularly complete.
Such assessments are likely to shift significantly with time. The inevitable consequence of having this many young players and development projects in one squad is that some will make spectacular leaps forward, others will stagnate or regress and the rest will follow trajectories somewhere in between.
Pochettino’s decisions will play a big role in setting those wheels in motion, and his responsibility beyond building a team that wins more consistently will be to ensure there are considerably more players in his young squad trending upwards rather than downwards.
What we can say with confidence after the summer window is that this Chelsea squad is the truest representation yet of the model Boehly and Clearlake want to follow. No club has ever bet so much on young talent.
The immediate and longer-term results will be fascinating to watch.
GO DEEPER
Why Chelsea believe their £900m transfer spending is within FFP rules
(Top photos: Getty Images)
