Chelsea’s next two opponents – Manchester City and Morecambe United, have both had their most recent fixtures cancelled due to coronavirus outbreaks in their squads.
There’s still a strong chance that the Citizens will have enough players fit for Chelsea to force this weekend’s game to be played, and the story could be the same next week in the FA Cup. But the possibility that both games are postponed and Frank Lampard’s team don’t play again for two weeks creates an interesting scenario.
Suddenly, on the back of an exhausting Christmas period and some bad results, Chelsea would have a fortnight to rest, refocus, and get some injured players back fit again.
Hakim Ziyech, Reece James and Ben Chilwell would all be back at 100% in two weeks, and the team would look a lot better for it.
It would also allow the white-hot spotlight of the media to drift elsewhere, finding its way to another team in crisis and taking the unwanted column inches elsewhere.
There is always a risk that such a long break after bad results allows the rot to set in, and just increases the pressure as players and coaching staff nervously wait for the chance to get the monkey off their back. But in this case, the trade-off to have a fully fit first XI again would seem to make it a worthwhile trade-off.