Chelsea full-back Ben Chilwell has outlined his desire to win the big trophies with the West London club, but only if they can show the consistency required to keep up with Manchester City and Liverpool.
The former Leicester man missed the majority of last season after suffering a knee ligament injury in the 4-0 thrashing of Juventus in the Champions League in October 2021.
He only featured in 13 games in the 2021/22 campaign, with Spaniard Marcos Alonso filling in as his deputy as Chelsea failed to win the Premier League, Champions League or either of the domestic cups.
But Chilwell has now turned his attentions to next season, and believes that lifting silverware is well within Chelsea s reach.
Chilwell told the Athletic: This is Chelsea, we want to win the big trophies.
We’ve got a strong team. Hopefully we can add to that strength with some good players.
We’ve got a great manager. New ownership. Great training ground. Good backroom staff. So everything’s in place.
It’s up to us now to work hard and motivate each other to make that happen.
Let s do this!
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC)
While Chelsea were the closest challengers to the top two in the Premier League as they finished third, they were a significant 18 points behind second-placed Liverpool.
And Chilwell understands that him and his teammates need to improve if they want to close the gap.
Chilwell added: Manchester City and Liverpool have set the bar, for maybe the last five years, which every other team in the league is aspiring to get at.
We showed in patches last season that we could compete with them, but it’s that consistency that they’ve shown.
They’re not just one-season wonders, they’ve done it season-in, season-out for the last five years. That’s where we’re trying to get to.
Chelsea s underperformance at times last season, as well as their ownership issues, led to some speculation over manager Thomas Tuchel s future, but the 25-year-old left-back was full of praise for his German boss.
We know we’re not going to get a better manager here, Chilwell explained.
I’m not just saying it. He’s an unbelievable manager in all aspects and he has a lot of trust in us as well.
Everything that could have potentially been tricky last season has all been resolved so it’s up to us to work and try to get that consistency on the pitch.
Chelsea s Premier League campaign begins on August 6, when they will face former player and manager Frank Lampard s Everton.
