Chelsea star backed to mirror Van Dijk's impact at Liverpool

Talksport pundit Adrian Durham has backed Chelsea as potential title challengers and heaped praise particularly on new signing Thiago Silva.

Chelsea are among the sides well equipped to mount a challenge for the Premier League title this term, says Durham.

The Blues are unbeaten in their last seven games in all competitions. In their last two games, they have scored at least three goals. In the same vein, their defense has also improved a great deal with five clean sheets from their last seven games.

7 games unbeaten streak, 5 clean sheets in a row, scored 3+ goals five times within this period. Unbeaten in the Champions League and top of the group.

I love this club.
— Mod (@CFCMod_) November 4, 2020

Much of the latter is down to the additions of goalkeeper Mendy, the improvement from Zouma, and leadership from Thiago Silva so far.

Many doubted if the Brazilian defender would be able to cope in the Premier League prior to his move.

Asides from the Blues’ 3-3 draw with West Brom, Thiago Silva has impressed for the west London side and Adrian Durham backs him to play a key role for the club. In fact, the pundit compares the leadership abilities of the Chelsea star to that of Liverpool’s Van Dijk.

“Thiago Silva, in a very different way, is Chelsea’s Van Dijk,” Durham said to talkSPORT.

“But it is because of the leadership skills, they look up to him, don’t they? In terms of winning the title; I got back to that weekend when Chelsea were 3-0 down at West Brom and drew 3-3 and everybody was erupting.

“Soon as the final whistle went, ‘Oh Chelsea are no good, he can’t get his team right, he’s no good.”

“Then Man City lose 5-2 at home to Leicester, Aston Villa beat Liverpool 7-2 and all of a sudden, we are realizing it is just a bit of a crazy season. That West Brom result, for Chelsea, wasn’t actually that bad! It showed they’ve got a bit of character.”

“It also showed they’ve got goals in them, it also shows they still needed his goalkeeper and center-half situation sorted out. That happened; Thiago Silva has now settled in, if he stays fit and Mendy stays fit, I think they’ve got a very, very good chance of winning the title.”