Why have Chelsea had such a poor start to the season?

 In recent years we’ve seen Chelsea become one of the most successful clubs in English football, from back-to-back title winners to European Champions. Last year we saw Chelsea become of England after a five year drought - with a League Cup on the side too. But after just eleven games, the Blues have only managed to scrape eleven points, five months after people were naming this Chelsea side as possibly their ‘best ever’.  With such a strong squad and one of Europeans finest managers, fans, pundits, rivals and even the players themselves wonder how they have managed to put themselves in such a dreadful crisis.

“Impulsive and Naive”...

The cracks at Chelsea started at the end of last season with sloppy performances but problems all began when Swansea City visited the Bridge in a two all draw. In the late stages of the match, first team doctor, Eva Carneiro, rushed on to the field to treat winger, Eden Hazard, meaning he would then have to vacate the field after treatment. Jose Mourinho, furiously, named his medical staff “Impulsive and Naive” who don’t “understand the game” within weeks, Carneiro left Chelsea Football club with people wondering if Mourinho did another classic distraction of his team’s poor performance that backfired badly. The result in Mourinho’s distraction has found himself in an individual legal action from Carneiro with her lawyers already suing the club for constructive dismissal.

Departure of club legends...

With the exit of all time goal scorer, Frank Lampard, and left back, Ashley Cole, we saw Jose Mourinho bring back Didier Drogba with Chelsea fans open armed to his arrival, giving Mourinho’s side extra experience with the likes of Captain, John Terry,  Petr Cech and Branaslav Ivanovic.  This season, we saw Cech leave to rivals Arsenal and Drogba to MLS side Montreal Impact, leaving Terry and Ivanovic to lead the way but with both players struggling to find any form, Chelsea’s dressing room is left with no help to pick up confidence.

Poor Performances from individuals...

Cesc Fabregas, Eden Hazard and Diego Costa were Chelsea’s superstars last season but this year not one player has performed to standard.  Fabregas had a whopping nineteen assists with Hazard awarded PFA Player of the Season, but the Spaniard has only managed one assist and Hazard with just two this Premier League season. Costa was Chelsea’s highlight last year scoring an impressive twenty goals in all competitions but the Spanish striker admitted recently that he returned to Chelsea ‘a little overweight’, which clearly shows the effect it has had. Costa scored twice in eleven games this season but last time out, he had an incredible twelve goals in eleven games under his belt.

The Special one?

Everyone in world football knows that Mourinho is a tactical genius and his countless trophies support that, but Mourinho is in a situation that he’s obviously never dealt with before. Chelsea is currently sitting in fifteenth place and has already lost nine times this season, making Jose’s worst start in his managerial career. This year, Mourinho has been more controversial than ever after unnecessary action towards Doctor Eva Carneiro, his continuous jabs at fellow manager Arsene Wenger and his consecutive fines and blames at referees. Mourinho’s future at Chelsea is seriously under doubt, with media claiming he has ‘2 games left’ and according to BBC radio 5 Live presenter, Garry Richardson, one unnamed Chelsea first team player was quoted saying he’d ‘rather lose than win for Mourinho’ leaving people to conclude that he has already lost the dressing room.  

Time will tell what happens at Chelsea football club if results don’t start going their way, problems will only go from bad to worse with a risk of dropping out of the top four and easily lose the claimed ‘best manager Chelsea ever had’ in the next couple of weeks. 

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Are Arsenals strikers good enough to lead them to the Premier League title?

“Boring, Boring Chelsea” echoed across the Emirates Stadium after Chelsea celebrated their 0-0 draw like a win, but four months on, it’s Arsenal who are struggling to entertain their home crowd - without scoring a single home goal this campaign. In past years, Arsenal have had some of the best forwards in European football; with the likes of Dennis Bergkamp, Thierry Henry, Ian Wright and more recently, Robin Van Persie - who controversially left to rivals Manchester United in 2011. Every team in the league who is challenging for the title has a feared striker going forward, Man City with Aguero, Man United have Wayne Rooney and Champions, Chelsea have Diego Costa. But Arsenal seem to be missing that player of the required qualities.

 During the time of the Invincible's, Arsenal were among Europe’s finest, having world class players across the board. Players such as Patrick Viera, David Seaman and Robert Pires helped make up their league winning spine. But who could forget Thiery Henry? Arsenal’s all time goal scorer. From 2002 to 2006, Henry became the first striker to score over 20 goals in the league in 5 consecutive seasons but compared to the strikers today, there is not even a slight resemblance. Theo Walcott was claimed by Arsene Wenger that he could follow in Henry’s footsteps, and like the Highbury legend, converted him from a winger into a striker. But unfortunately, due to injury, Walcott missed a whole year of football. “I’ve always said he’s a goal scorer because he has the movement (for it)”. Since the departure of Van Persie, Arsenal have struggled scoring goals from that position, they hoped ex- Montpellier striker and Ligue 1 top goal scorer, Oliver Giroud, would fill his boots - but the Frenchman has suffered from bouts of inconsistency.  Giroud’s highest goal tally for Arsenal, in his debut season, scoring sixteen goals, which isn’t the worst record but compared to previous title winning strikers, it’s clearly not good enough to win you a Championship.

There was, at some point, the remote possibility of Arsenal singing Real Madrid hit man, Karim Benzema, but all rumours were dashed in one fell swoop after the Frenchman tweeted those who dared discussed his move away, referring to them as “clowns”. More bad news for Arsene. The Gunners are in major need for a main man up top, they need a Thierry Henry, an Ian Wright, and someone with that strong presence. Worryingly, Arsene Wenger isn’t close to signing a forward saying “I cannot say I am very confident [Of landing one of those specific targets] because we are not close to signing anybody”, giving Arsenal fans doubts of their title ambitions.

Despite Arsenal’s somewhat predicable start to the season, people shouldn’t be ruling them out this early. There is an incredible squad in there, but if they were to really challenge for the title this year, they would need to sign a box office striker in these final days of the transfer window.

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Pedro to Chelsea after Manchetser United lose interest

Chelsea has agreed a deal with FC Barcelona to sign their winger, Pedro, 28, for a reported fee of £21.2 million, the Spanish international is already in London, ready to perform his medical. Manchester United has now dropped all interest in signing Pedro, after seemingly being clear favorites to sign him on Tuesday. United had their chance to sign Pedro earlier on in the transfer window but haggled to get him at a lower price.

Now that Chelsea are favorites to gain Pedro, United are attempting to make amends by now over spending on Thomas Muller for a reported £60 million but Bayern Munich have said that the German is “not for sale.”

With two ex-teams mates of Pedro, one being Fabregas, who plays for Chelsea, and the other being Victor Valdes with Manchester United, it’s  been reported that he spoke to both and got their views on where he should join with both having to very contrasting times at both clubs. Fabregas had such an effective season and playing most matches for Chelsea he had advised the Spanish International to join him but with Victor Valdes not playing at all and being frozen out of the squad completely, he has told his ex-team mate not to join United and spoke about his views on Louis Van Gaal.

This is not the first time Chelsea have went under a rival clubs nose and taken their signing. In 2013, Tottenham were interested in signing the Brazilian winger, Willian, but again at the last minute Chelsea swooped in to steal the player, even though the winger had already had a medical at Spurs. 

Rumors have it that Pedro was already unsure about joining United, with Louis Van Gaal last season not playing Angel Di Maria for majority of the season and then selling him to PSG. Pedro would make a fine addition to the Chelsea squad, adding more depth and competition with a Barca-esque style of attacking. 

Manchester United are reported to have lodged a bid for Southampton's, Sadio Mane, but the amount of money at this point is unclear. Are Manchester United right to allow Pedro to go to Chelsea or should they stay in the race for his signature? 

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Is this the beginning of the end for John Terry?

Is this the beginning of the end for John Terry?

Title holders, Chelsea, On Sunday Night were humbled by a determined and hungry Manchester City, losing 3-0 to the ex-champions, giving them a five point gap with only two games played. City laid down their presence in this Premier League title race and showed the Champions that they are stronger than last season. Mourinho is known to have a strong record in the big games against rivals and for clever tactics - but at half time Captain, John Terry, was substituted for the first time ever by Jose Mourinho, Who said it was purely for tactical reasons ” Zouma is a different player to John Terry” Sergio Aguero scored their first after five previous attempts on goal - with Begovic pulling off some fine saves.

The Manchester club are now top of the table with Chelsea in sixteenth place. Chelsea took a long time to get into the game, with City starting quick as Aguero already had one-on-one against Chelsea Goalkeeper, Asmir Begovic, towards the 30th second and from that point on, problems went from bad to worse. In the past two games, Chelsea have conceded 38 shots on goal. 

Captain, John Terry was substituted off at half time for Frenchman, Kurt Zouma, 21, Mourinho said "I can tell you he was not dancing in the dressing room and I can also tell you he was not having a bad reaction." John Terry has been Mr. Chelsea for the past fifteen years but could this be the beginning of the end? In 2013, when Mourinho managed Chelsea for his second spell, the blues lost their 10^th game of the season, with a 2-0 loss at St James’ Park. Mourinho subsequently dropped, arguably, the best left back in the Premier League, Ashley Cole, and replaced him with Spanish right back, Cesar Azpiliqueta who Chelsea fans, at that time, were not too pleased about. But Mourinho’s decision turned out to be successful one with Azpiliqueta now one of Chelsea’s best defenders. The situation with Terry being substituted is very similar to Ashley Cole being dropped after the Newcastle loss, Cole didn’t have the worst of games but neither did Terry. Mourinho’s next line up will be crucial to see where Terry’s future lies, if not picked against West Brom this Sunday the ex-England Captain’s future could end the same way former team mate, Ashley Cole’s did.

 There has been talk that Mourinho substituted Terry to show Roman Abramovich that he needs reinforcements; but personally I don’t believe that he would risk losing a match by taking off his Captain, even if it was tactical. There were other players that could have been replaced rather than Terry. With Fabregas in holding midfield, who didn’t know whether he was attacking or defending, was stuck between two minds and in the end didn’t do much of either, he could have easily put Zouma in midfield instead, Ivanovic at right back was appalling with him continuously losing the ball in important areas and Gary Cahill wasn’t quite as bad but Terry certainly looked better in the first half. 

Everton have received bids from Chelsea for 21 year old defender, John Stones, but manager Roberto Martinez has said that “he is not for sale and that is the end of that” and with the substitution of John Terry on Sunday would only have made Stones’ price go up a further couple of million. The only positive that Chelsea can take from Sunday night's game is that the transfer window is still up and have time to buy.

Manchester City Vs Chelsea Build up

Manchester City Vs Chelsea 

Defending title holders Chelsea, travel to departed champions Manchester City at the Etihad on Sunday night.  Chelsea look to recover after a disappointing start to their opening game after they drew 2-2 against Swansea with Pellegrini’s side looking to try and recreate the performance they displayed on Monday night with a 3-0 win over West Brom. Chelsea are on a 27 unbeaten streak on a Sunday, the last time they lost on a Sunday was to City in 2013 but Mourinho is desperate to start the new season with a big blow towards their rivals after last Saturdays game.

 Mourinho and Pellegrini’s rivalry has grown in recent years, going back to when Mourinho replaced Pellegrini of head coach at Real Madrid in 2010, Mourinho, 52, pretended to forget Pellegrini’s name by calling him “Pellegrino” after the bottled water and has used this nickname again earlier on last season to mock the City manager. Mourinho continued to reignite the rivalry after commenting on Manchester City’s buying of Wilfred Bony for £25 million, less than 12 months after they were fined for FFP “The rules are different for City”...”They can only play with 11, unless the rules for them are different and they can play with 12”. The two managers head to head against one another, with Mourinho winning an impressive seven games but Pellegrini, winning only one match against the blues boss in a 2-0 FA cup tie, twelve days after they lost 1-0 at home to Mourinho’s “little horse”.

Chelsea were the runaway Champions last season with them practically winning the title in February and finishing 8 points clear of previous champions, City. Ex-Chelsea player, Kevin De Bruyne has been linked with a move to Manchester City for a stunning £47 million pound bid but has made no intention of leaving the German club even though he missed Tuesday’s training session, due to “personal reasons”.  Bayern Munich have also have an interest on signing De Bruyne but it is understood that the German champions have projected a deal for him to start at the beginning of next season.

Chelsea will have to play without their starting goalkeeper, Thibaut Courtois, after being sent off in their first fixture against Swansea City and now faces a one-match ban, they also travel to Manchester without their first-team doctor, Eva Carneiro, after Jose Mourinho criticized his medical staff for being “ Impulsive” and “ Naive” for treating player, Eden Hazard, in stoppage time.  If Cesc  Fabregas starts for the blues this Sunday, it will be his 50^th appearance for Chelsea.