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Originally Posted by Jonathan Ezarik
I guess the problem I have with this is that when I hear someone say something like this, they are just throwing the arguably in to cover themselves. They obviously believe Chelsea is the best in the world or else they would have said "Chelsea is one of the best clubs in the world."
For what it's worth, I don't see Chelsea in the running for best in the world. Third or fourth, but not best. I would take Barcelona, Milan, or even Real Madrid (depending on how they were playing at the time) any time over Chelsea. And I really hate Milan and Real.
Chelsea has a lot of talent and they have more depth than anyone else, but does that make them the best in the world? They're the best in the Premiership, but they need to start winning other competitions. Aside from the Carling Cup two years ago, they haven't done as well as "the best club in the world" should do. Win the FA Cup and the Champions League, or at least get to some finals, and then they can carry the title of best in the world.
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But the thing is, the only team that's been winning a serious domestic league
and has done as well as us in the CL over the last 2-3 years is Barcelona. Real haven't been nearly as impressive in league football and haven't done quite as well in the CL either; it's all very well saying "on their day", but they don't have their day often enough for that to work (and hey, if we're just picking the teams in top form then Didier Drogba is suddenly a world-class player). Milan are a terrific team, but as you pointed out earlier they're a bit CL-heavy. They haven't won Serie A for a couple of years (granting that that might be partly because of poor refereeing), Nesta's the only useful defender they have under 35, and if you're going to call them one of the top two teams in the world based on the CL then they really ought to have won it in the time period under discussion.
In 04-05, Chelsea were the best club team in the world. We had probably the best defence of any English club team ever, shattered the Premiership record points tally, and beat our only real competitors for the title head-to-head in the CL. Then last year Barcelona figured out how to defend a lead in the CL and beat us, we went off the boil after New Year's when the league was all but ours, and Barca were clearly #1. Even then, though, it's not clear who has a better argument to be second: Real had the same disappointing CL performance against lesser opposition butwithout the league win, Juve scraped through to the CL quarters but as much through comedy goalkeeping as through stunning football, and while Milan probably have the best case they didn't win the league either. And then we signed Ballack and Shevchenko.
I think Barca still have to be #1, especially given the Zambrotta signing, but we're plainly in the top two, and if you attach enough weight to (the season before last/Ballack/Sheva/crap refereeing at Stamford Bridge in the CL tie) then there's a case for putting us first.