Over the past few months, as Chelsea’s hierarchy started to settle into the club, they became fixated on a specific idea relevant to this weekend’s game. They began to study what makes 100-point seasons and record-breaking sides. That might seem some way off, to an almost comic degree, but you’ve got to have goals.
Manchester City are the obvious case study, since they are the only club to manage a centurion season and they still break records. As regards what made that possible, the usual explanation might be “one of the most lavishly expensive football projects in history” but Chelsea’s owners also have huge resources and are clearly willing to spend them. Their outlay on transfer fees so far, if not quite wages, has recalled the dizzy days of Roman Abramovich between 2003 and 2006 and the first few years of the Abu Dhabi ownership at City.
