Chelsea's lack of European football is not an advantage - Do you agree?

If Chelsea win the Premier League this season, Antonio Conte's side will not receive the recognition they would deserve because they have not had to play any European Football this season.

We hear Pundits on TV all the time harp on and on about how Chelsea are fresh, have time to prepare for games at the weekends properly and should be fitter and stronger than other teams who play in Europe this season. It's because of those opinions that I fear that Antonio Conte will not receive as much credit as he should if we win the League and would only be judged if he could repeat the same success next season if we qualify.

Thibaut Courtois has given his take on the argument and has stated that it is not an advantage. He said:

"The players don’t want to relax. Everybody wants to play in Europe and if you’re in the rhythm of playing a game every three or four days, sometimes you can play better, even though it’s harder at the end of the season.

We have a lot of people on the bench who want to play and maybe haven’t had as many minutes as they deserve, and if we had European football they would have played more minutes. The other year, when we were champions, we had European football so I don’t think it makes a big difference.” - Source: The Telegraph.

I guess there is an argument for both sides here as Courtois has stated. By playing every three to four days you do get into a rhythm but at the same time you do tend to use much more of your playing squad, whereas at the moment, we have a number of players restricted to the bench in the Premier League with the Cup competitions as being a time to be involved from the start.

Without question this season has been a blessing for Chelsea not having European games and for Conte personally to work with the players to adapt to his style. It will be interesting to see how we cope next season (if we qualify) but you only have to look at Conte's record at Juventus to see that he could cope with playing in both so why not the same at Chelsea?

What do you think of the argument?