Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few months, you would probably know that Chelsea have had a truly awful season so far.
Sitting 16th in the Premier League after 12 games, out of the League Cup and with many rumours circulating about potential dressing-room problems, it has not been an ideal start for the reigning champions.
Many commentators, pundits, journalists and fans have given their opinion on the problems that Chelsea face, and being a Chelsea fan myself, I thought I would make some comments myself.
Firstly, and it is crucial not to underestimate the importance of this, the sacking of Eva Carneiro has almost certainly affected the harmony of the dressing room.
n extremely popular doctor at the club, it can only have been detrimental to see the manager and his bosses treat her so poorly, especially considering she had not done anything wrong.
This is a lingering issue that refuses to go away, as Carneiro prepares to sue Chelsea for unlawful dismissal, a case that in my opinion she will be sure to win.
None of the players have openly expressed their disappointment about this situation, however it has been suggested that some of them lost confidence in Mourinho because of this.
Most importantly of all however, is that not one of Chelsea’s key players are hitting the heights that they were last season. Cesc Fabregas, Nemanja Matic, Eden Hazard, Diego Costa, John Terry…the list just goes on and on.
Costa has looked more willing to fight opponents than score goals against them, Terry’s lack of pace has been shown up more than a few times, Hazard seems like he’s in Madrid already, Ivanovic has had his worst season so far at the club – in fact, something could be said for every single one of the players, bar Willian perhaps.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to comprehend this alarming collective demise – surely this cannot last for the whole season? As the old saying goes, “form is temporary, class is permanent”.
Let’s start with the attack, where Diego Costa has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons. While he hit the ground running in his debut season, he has so far received more yellow cards (three) than he has scored goals (two).
In fact, quite embarrassingly own goals are currently Chelsea’s top scorer. However, Mourinho has few options to rectify this, as Falcao looks even worse than Costa and Loic Remy seems to be out of the manager’s plans for the time being at least.
It remains to be seen whether there will be any top-class strikers available in the transfer window, and if not Chelsea will have to contend with these three options.
In the midfield, only Hazard has more than one assist in the league (he has two) and only the Brazilians Willian and Ramires have scored more than once.
Last year’s PFA Player of the Season Eden Hazard has looked a shadow of his former self and is yet to score a goal in any competition.
Matic has not provided any form of defensive stability while Fabregas has not registered anywhere near the same amount of assists compared to this time last season.
Moving on to the defence, notoriously a strongpoint of Mourinho’s sides, Chelsea have conceded 23 goals in the league already this season.
To put that into perspective, only Sunderland and Bournemouth fare worse with 26 and 25 respectively, while in Chelsea’s title-winning season of 2004-05 (the Portuguese’s first season in charge), only 15 goals were shipped all season.
Kurt Zouma has been promoted to starter recently and will undoubtedly develop into a fantastic defender, but the whole system cannot function if half of your defenders are suffering a prolonged slump in form.
What accentuates this problem is that the midfield are offering no protection whatsoever and there is nothing to suggest this will change any time soon.
An area in which Mourinho has come under significant criticism recently is his history of promoting youth players (or lack thereof).
In his five full seasons in charge at Chelsea, the manager has given debuts to just five players, only one of whom is currently at the club.
That man is Ruben Loftus-Cheek, a rangy box-to-box midfielder who many feel should be given a chance in the first team sooner rather than later.
He has only been afforded just over sixty minutes of league football by Mourinho, a somewhat surprising figure when you consider the praise that the Portuguese manager has lavished on the young Englishman in the past.
Finally, a number of detractors have pointed out that Chelsea might be suffering a third season syndrome typical of Mourinho’s teams.
It is well known that he has never managed a club in the long term, and the trend so far in his career has showed a decline in performances in his third season at the helm for whatever reasons.
Chelsea lost out in the league to Manchester United in 2006-07 and Real Madrid came away with just the European Super Cup in his last season there, a disappointing record for two clubs with lofty expectations.
It is difficult to see when any of these problems will end for Chelsea, and there is now no chance that they will finish in the top four.
A couple of signings in January, coupled with key players hopefully returning to form soon and a few younger ones being given a chance in the side, will surely propel Chelsea up the table closer to where they belong.
Otherwise in the worst case scenario, Mourinho will find himself being sacked by Roman Abramovich for the second time and the humorous Facebook event “Chelsea’s relegation party” may become ever more realistic.