Chelsea got back to winning ways with a laboured 2-0 victory over Aston Villa, who remain in the bottom three in the Premier League. Chelsea didn’t have Branislav Ivanovic and Eden Hazard in the starting XI and even gave a chance to Loftus-Cheek and Baba Rahman in front of the Stamford Bridge faithful.
Goals from Diego Costa and an own goal from Aston Villa’s Alan Hutton gave Chelsea the three points, but they were far from convincing and Aston Villa didn’t really put up a fight against the Premier League champions, who could have been there for the taking. Tim Sherwood might be the next manager to get the sack, as his side look woeful, but Chelsea’s manager still has a lot of work to do as well. Jose Mourinho did say that he may remain in the job even if his team finishes mid table.
Chelsea at the moment are 12th and we provide three reasons as to why the Blues will not finish in the top four this season.
Not enough quality players performing
This reason has been done to death, but it still is the most accurate cause as to why Chelsea might not make it into the top four. When the season began, every team out there brought quality players in while Chelsea brought in Falcao, Papy, Baba and Begovic, not the greatest of names. They did also sign Pedro who started his first game for Chelsea extremely well, but then it has all gone pear shaped.
Chelsea can’t seem to get the best out of any player at the moment that includes the likes of Diego Costa, Cesc Fabregas, John Terry and Eden Hazard. Even against Aston Villa, the Blues laboured and until they play to their potential or to a similar level to last season, Chelsea will not win as many games as expected.
Better teams out there
On paper, Chelsea do have one of the best squads in the Premier League but they aren’t playing like a team out there. The likes of Southampton, Leicester, West Ham and Tottenham seem to have gelled better at least at the start of the season and that should help them get better results than the Blues.
It isn’t that Chelsea are not together, they have shown that the players support Jose Mourinho, or at least that is being said in the press but the time Chelsea might take to get their groove going could take too long.
The Blues are already 10 points behind Manchester City, who sit at the top of the league and the gap to the top four seems to be growing as every game week goes by. The Premier League is unpredictable, and if Chelsea do get on a good run, they could finish high up the league table.
Jose’s antics could be getting to the team
While Jose Mourinho does say a lot to the media, most of it has been to protect the team, you will never hear him say something negative about his team, even if it is a poor performance, like the rant he put out after the Southampton game.
But this season, it doesn’t seem to be helping the team out as in previous seasons. Chelsea do not look like the all-conquering team that they were last season and look spent and tired. Jose might need to take them out on a break, even before the midseason point to get them back on track.
The whole Eva Carneiro and John Terry and Stones saga would not have helped the team, it only provides more distractions and this season this could be the Achilles heel for Jose and the team this season.