This week sees the return of European football – although not for Chelsea, who are not in any European competition this year.

The Blues’ collapse at the end of last season saw them miss out even on the Conference League. And right now, we’re feeling pretty smug about it.

The likes of Arsenal, Man City and Man U all have really tough games, while Chelsea are resting and recovering. Our upcoming games see us face Everton, Spurs, Liverpool then Man U. We will go into those games with a relatively fresh squad, especially considering we’ve just had a long international break.

If you want to bet on Chelsea finishing in the top four, now is the time to do it. Their odds could get lot worse with good results in those games. They’re six pointers all round. And if you happen to be in Luxembourg, you can find the best bookies around here.

We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves after just one win over a struggling Bournemouth team without their two best players. Let’s not forget, we went into the international break on the back of four games without a win.

But we can’t shake the optimism that comes from having such a strong attacking force. The Cole Palmer – Morgan Rogers – Joao Pedro trio looks as good after just two months as we’d hoped it would look after a whole season together.

The defence has been poor, but the return of Moises Caicedo at the weekend made an instant impact. If we can keep him fit, and keep some solid coaching of the back line going, we should see marked improvements in the weeks to come.

We’re actually glad to have some tougher games coming up – without European football, we are all the more excited to see what Xabi Alonso can do in the big league fixtures. The run after the next international break – where we face Liverpool, Man City and Aston Villa on the spin – will also be a vital string of games.

By then, we’re hoping the new players will be fully settled and the defence looking stronger. If things break our way in the next couple of weeks we could actually find ourselves closer to the top of the table. It looks like it’ll be hard to catch Arsenal or Man City this year, but beyond them there don’t seem to be many teams capable of joining the breakaway.

Could Chelsea end up in third this year?