Hearing the post-match anecdotes from Cole Palmer and Jordan Henderson about their conversation as they stood over the free-kick against Bournemouth that ended up being planted into the top corner, a question entered my mind: is this the most likeable Chelsea team since BlueCo bought the club in May 2022? The answer is a resounding yes, and it is not even close.
End of the 'banter era'
To assess the shrewdness of Chelsea's recruitment over those four-and-a-bit years would be to arrive at a rating no higher than a four out of 10, but Todd Boehly, with £1billion wasted on his watch, sold his shares and left the club last month. The former interim sporting director, who insisted Chelsea were missing a trick not lining up in a "4-4-3", is gone.
His exit has coincided with what feels like a turning point at the club — the end of Chelsea's 'banter era' of spectacularly failed transfers. Kalidou Koulibaly, Raheem Sterling, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and, if Aston Villa's conditional obligations come in, Alejandro Garnacho are all out the door.
A new path with veterans
So is Robert Sanchez, a goalkeeper who divided the fanbase on the subject of whether he was actually any good, as well as Enzo Fernandez, a big-game player but, in the eyes of many neutrals, the epitome of a Chelsea pantomime villain. There are plenty of Blues fans who were fonder of the £125m cash injection his sale produced than they were sorry to see him depart for Manchester City.
Now Chelsea's evolution has brought them to a place where signing players over the age of 25 is considered crucial rather than taboo. The first signing to break the mould was Danny Welbeck, brought in as competition for his former Brighton team-mate Joao Pedro. Welbeck is 35 now but still a capable striker, a quiet but respected presence in the dressing room and the training ground, an all-round good egg.
The second veteran signing, of course, was the hero against Bournemouth, Henderson. In many ways, the front three of Joao Pedro, Palmer and Morgan Rogers speaks for itself. Chelsea supporters are certainly not the only Premier League fans enjoying the chemistry the trio have struck up.
Likeable characters on and off the pitch
Palmer is still part-superstar part-meme, announcing his lucrative new contract on a live stream hours before playing for Chelsea and then walking home down the Fulham Road after a 5-1 win. Rogers, Joao Pedro, Maxence Lacroix and Moises Caicedo are good people and hard-working professionals whose performances on the pitch only help to ingratiate themselves with a fanbase still firmly invested in the careers of Chelsea academy products Josh Acheampong, Levi Colwill and the club captain Reece James.
Then there is Chelsea's manager. Xabi Alonso exudes competence — committed for the long-term, which towards the end it didn't always feel as though Enzo Maresca was. And truly elite, which it never felt as though Liam Rosenior was.
Unsurprisingly given his age, just 19, there is an endearing, childlike quality to Estevao, a prodigy from Brazil who yearns to impress at Stamford Bridge. Watching the way he would get Chelsea fans off their feet last season, simply by running with the ball, was captivating.
And in Henderson, Chelsea have a Champions League-winning captain still impacting games at 36, driving standards on and off the pitch, building genuine rapport with the younger members of a squad seen by many as the undisputed entertainers-in-chief this season. This is the most likeable Chelsea team since the one that won the Champions League in 2021, and possibly since even longer ago than that.
