Two truths and one big lie for Chelsea's crucial January transfer window

Even though Chelsea have probably spent most (if not all) of their transfer budget for the season, they’re still likely to be among the busier teams in the Premier League over the coming weeks, with a legion of players set to leave Stamford Bridge and the potential for the club to add new players if they make enough money from sales, with Marc Guéhi linked with a return to his former club.

This could be a key transfer window for Enzo Maresca and for Chelsea’s chances of making the top four for the first time in three years, and the Italian head coach has been unexpectedly talkative about his plans for January, discussing the futures of outgoing players like Ben Chilwell and Cesare Casadei openly and responding freely to questions about Guéhi, the goalkeeping situation and much more.

That gives us plenty of clues about what Chelsea might do over the next three weeks, but what do they need to do to give themselves the best chance of making the Champions League and to improve the long-term health of the club – and which mistakes should they avoid? To answer that, we’ve picked out two truths and a lie from Maresca’s January plans…

Truth: Guéhi could make all the difference

Chelsea’s recent poor form has cast light on a few weaknesses still present within the squad, and the defence is among them – this is a club which lacks experience and quality across the back line, a situation exacerbated by a fresh injury for the luckless Wesley Fofana, who could miss the rest of the season with a hamstring issue.

Levi Colwill has only intermittently showcased his best form so far this season and those playing alongside him such as Tosin Adarabioyo have yet to entirely convince. A first-rate centre-back would undeniably make a significant impact, and Crystal Palace’s Guéhi is among the best in the business.

A former academy player with Chelsea, it would be hugely expensive to bring him back – Palace reportedly turned down bids worth close to £70m from Newcastle United over the summer – and that may make such a deal impossible to strike until the summer, if at all, but the intent is right. For Chelsea to become a top class team again and challenge for trophies, they need to shore up the back line, and Manchester City are the only other team in the top seven to concede more so far this season.

Maresca himself has openly admired Guéhi, telling the press that he likes the England man “a lot” while stopping short of confirming the club’s interest in him. We suspect a deal will prove impossible to strike this winter, but that doesn’t mean that the club don’t have the right idea in looking at him.

Truth: Chelsea don’t need a new goalkeeper

There are plenty of supporters in the stands at Stamford Bridge who are convinced that Chelsea also need a new goalkeeper given that Robert Sánchez has failed to make the number one spot his own since signing in 2023 – but Maresca has hinted that he doesn’t plan to push for a change between the sticks, insisting in December that he trusts the Spaniard.

The club also signed young goalkeeper Filip Jörgensen from Villarreal in the summer and he has impressed in the cup competitions, hinting that the 22-year-old could become first choice down the line – in other words, Chelsea would only be wise to bring a new stopper in now should it be a move which would make a significant difference to their chances of Champions League qualification.

And while Sánchez may not have endeared himself to the fans, the statistics suggest that his contributions in goal this season have been rather underappreciated. Compared to the volume of expected goal they have faced in the Premier League season, only three goalkeepers have stopped more goals from going in – Sánchez has prevented an estimated 2.5 goals against the average, with only Guglielmo Vicario, Mads Hermansen, Łukasz Fabiański and Mark Travers (who has played just four games) ahead of him.

In other words, even if Sánchez isn’t the long-term solution, he is presently preventing more goals than most glovemen would having faced the same shots from the opposition. He may be flawed, but he’s doing a job that’s better than many fans might have realised. If there are limited funds this January, spending them on the defence makes much more sense right now.

Lie: Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall has a role to play at the club

On Friday, Maresca spoke frankly about the future of several players currently struggling to get into the side and while he bluntly stated that players like Chilwell and Casadei would be moved on if possible, he also claimed that summer signing Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall had “a future” with the club and hinted that he would not leave, whether permanently or on a loan deal, despite the potential need to fund a move for Guéhi or another centre-back.

Since signing for Chelsea for £30m over the summer, Dewsbury-Hall has played less than an hour of Premier League football and while he has played regularly in the Europa Conference League, scoring twice, he clearly isn’t close to displacing Cole Palmer as the number ten or earning a berth on the wings. It looks like signing him from Leicester City was likely a mistake, and it’s surprising that there doesn’t appear to be a willingness to admit that and move on despite rumours linking him with a move away.

Even before the 26-year-old moved to Chelsea, he hadn’t looked quite good enough for the Premier League – while he shone in the second tier, two full top-flight campaigns as a regular starter at his former club yielded just three goals and four assists. He has yet to prove that he belongs at the highest level and certainly isn’t doing it now.

This was a punt which seems to have gone wrong, and with glaring needs elsewhere and depth in attacking midfield, it makes sense to move on and try to get some money back to spend somewhere else in the squad. If selling Dewsbury-Hall tipped the financial scales towards signing Guéhi, it should surely be a no-brainer. Perhaps Maresca’s faith will be justified down the home stretch, but as it stands, there are few indications that Dewsbury-Hall has the quality to make the difference in a push for a European placing.