Chelsea's frailties compounded by Everton - What has gone wrong for the Champions this season?
A Steven Naismith hat-trick was enough for Everton to see off Chelsea comfortably and saw the champions leave Goodison park with their heads held in shame. John Stones and Steven Naismith ran riot against a hapless Chelsea team who simply let Everton boss them. This is the third defeat in the first five games of the season for Chelsea which is as many as they lost in the whole of last season.
They have also conceded 12 goals in five games – the highest in the premier league so far; and for a team that allowed only 32 goals last season and boasted the best defence in the league something is seriously going wrong for the Blues.
Forget defending the title, Chelsea are showing relegation form
Mourinho’s Chelsea has undergone some serious regression from being the all conquering champions of last season’s premier league. It begs the question is this the same team that won the title? The truth is it pretty much is – minus Radamel Falcao, Kenedy and Papy Djilobodji who hasn’t even kicked a ball yet. While Manchester City went ahead and brought in Raheem Sterling, Nicolas Otamendi, Kevin De Bryune among others Mourinho refused to strengthen areas which were screaming for re-inforcements.
At times John Stones practically walked past the Chelsea midfield for fun when playing out of defence, Ross Barkley seemingly had all the time in the world on the ball while Naismith was allowed to ghost in the box without any pressure on him.
Meanwhile Chelsea provided nothing to even suggest they won the same fixture 6-3 the previous season. The Champions looked disinterested, lethargic and unlike any Chelsea side let alone a Jose Mourinho team anybody has ever seen.
Last season’s trump cards Diego Costa, Eden Hazard and Cesc Fabregas all seemed to disappear as the game wore on. Costa couldn’t bully Stones who was excellent, Fabregas who blitzed the league with assists last season hardly even influenced the game or came close to providing any creativity while Eden Hazard apart from a few darting runs here and there showed no sign of the form that won him the premier league’s player of the season award in 2014/15.
Mourinho’s problems lie all across the pitch starting from an aging defence, a tired midfield and an impotent attack and probably most importantly psychologically.
Chelsea’s right hand side, these days it seems, that if teams play a pacy winger against Branislav Ivanovic they are almost certain to win the game. Ivanovic has had a horrendous start to the season and has easily been Chelsea’s worst player on the pitch.
Ever since Jefferson Montero exposed the Serb’s lack of pace on opening day, every single team has targeted the Blues right hand side and have suceeded in causing havoc for the blues defence. Most of the goals conceded by Chelsea this season have come directly or indirectly from the right hand side of defence.
To see Ivanovic backing off every player standing 3 yards away with his hands behind his back and then getting beaten for pace has become some sort of a norm this season. It’s apalling to see such a revered servant of the club perform so poorly but bad form is bad form and he has got to be dropped.
Perhaps Mourinho thinks its still too early in Baba Rehman’s Chelsea career to start him and deploy Cesar Azpilicueta at his preferred right back position but its a change that is needed.
Too old and Too young Centre Backs
John Terry is 34 and Kurt Zouma is 20. Terry couldn’t be blamed for any of Everton’s goals and had a decent game in all but surely this must be the Chelsea stalwart’s final season with age catching up to the Captain, Leader, Legend.
Meanwhile Zouma’s inexperience was clearly highlighted against the Toffees with Romelu Lukaku giving him a torrid time and his positioning, marking and tackling could get better. Gary Cahill is 29 and quite often does get turned by pacy forwards while Papy Djilobodji remains a mystery. Mourinho must find a way to galvanize his defensive unit into the formidable wall it was last season if he is to salvage anything from this season.
Chelsea’s Engine Room
“You look at Fabregas playing in the midfield with Matic two weeks ago against Burnley and everyone said ‘he controls the game’, and all the reports after the game on Saturday were about the link between Fabregas and Costa,”
“But watching the first half against Swansea it was a real poor performance from Cesc Fabregas in terms of the position he was asked to play. When playing as a two in midfield…he does some things you would never, ever do. He hasn’t got the discipline, he follows the ball, he hunts the ball.
“Because his willingness all of the time is to hunt the ball, he gets ahead of the ball which for [Matic] is a no-no. Against Manchester City…in Champions League games, you’re done if you allow that space to develop. It’s something they got away with time and time again.
“It was a really bad central midfield performance from a defensive point of view.”
These were the words of Gary Neville against Swansea last season, ominously stating the theme of things to one a season later. Chelsea engine room is functioning like worn down hoopty instead of a well oiled Bentley.
Against City Fabregas’ poor positioning and lack of intensity exposed Nemanja Matic defensively and the Serb couldn’t cope with the City runners getting behind him.
Mourinho reacted quickly after the first four games by pushing Fabregas further up the pitch to the number 10 role and fielding Obi Mikel alongside Matic against Evertton but this again proved ineffective. Fabregas hardly influenced the game and Mikel just existed playing short forward, backward and parallel passes.
Fabregas needs to find his feet and start showing signs of the player that provided the most creativity last season or must be dropped to the bench or he needs support in midfield and a player to do the defensive work for him. If it wasnt for Matic Chelsea’s midfield would have gotten further overrun by Everton and would have resulted in more goals being conceded. The Serb got his name on the scoresheet with a breathtaking effort but needs his team-mates to step up.
Where is The Player of the Season?
Eden Hazard needs to start re-thinking his game. This season so far he has attempted fewer dribbles, fewer crosses, fewer shots and is running at a slower speed than the last campaign.
He along with Diego Costa have clearly put on a few pounds and perhaps that could be affecting his game - something for the Chelsea nutrition team to think about. Although its still early in the season Eden Hazard needs to get back to his hazardous best and more than anything Chelsea need him to do so.
Diego Costa was pictured partying in Ibiza right after a premier league game and it looks as though the forward’s head is not in the game. He simply isnt the fiery beast of a striker that tore apart defences last season.
Maybe its the lack of service or maybe its the excess weight but Chelsea need to see Diego Costa hit the back of the net consistently again this season before his ham-string gives away or risk playing the floundering Falcao. His return of 1 goal in 5 is very unlike the Spain International who needs to perform at a higher intensity and get on the score sheet more often.
“Sometimes when you beat the champions you need lucky breaks or you have to weather the storm,” Martínez said. “This wasn’t like that. We played a very similar game to the one we played last season, and again we scored three goals. The big difference was that Chelsea scored six last season and this time they managed only two attempts on target.” Martinez was spot on.
Chelsea aren’ t the same attacking threat they were a year ago and they were beaten because the let themselves get beaten. They let Everton control the game. Mourinho needs to re-kindle the winning mentality that championship winning sides usually have and re-inforce the importance of playing with high intensity for ninety minutes if they are to defend their title again this season.
Fortunately there is still a long way to go in the season and a turn-around is possible but Mourinho must acknowledge that his players just arent performing and its not just the case of bad results and things going against them as he claims.
Yes two red cards in five games and not having goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois for most of them is a bit unlucky but if the players played better and with more intensity, drive and self belief the results would come. There’s just the small issue of Arsenal up next for Chelsea. No biggie.