Sky Sports’ Sunday Supplement pundits took swipes at Chelsea yesterday after their poor start to the season. The criticism was mainly aimed towards manager Jose Mourinho – but the panel insist that the Blues season is already in meltdown, and that the title is now Manchester City’s to lose.
“By Chelsea standards it’s a total meltdown. They look a team in disarray, the problems seem to piling up and they look unrecognisable to the team who started the season last year. If this carries on you could seriously see this situation escalating for Mourinho because this is not what you expect from champions. They need to arrest this decline quickly.” said Steve Bates.
Jason Burt (the Telegraph) and Jonathan Northcroft (the Sunday Times) believe that Mourinho is unhappy with Chelsea’s summer transfer activity, having signed just Asmir Begovic, Baba Rahman, Kenedy, Nathan and Pedro on permanent deals.
Northcroft said: “Yes, he hasn’t got what he wanted. I think he wanted Pogba at the start of the summer, that was one he pushed for. And obviously he wanted Stones.”
“The decline of certain players has probably shocked him. People like [Cesc] Fabregas, [Nemanja] Matic, [Branislav] Ivanovic in particular, and then somebody like John Terry going over that hill defenders go over. I think he’s been spooked by that.
“It’s typical Mourinho behaviour to show signs of rebellion when things aren’t going his way.
“It already feels like the title is City’s title to lose. If they maintain what they’re doing they’ve got enough already. Chelsea need a huge, huge winning run now and they look so far from that.”
Jason Burt followed on from Northcroft by saying Mourinho will not want to be blamed for Chelsea’s shortcomings.
He said: “If he’s not getting what he wants [in the transfer market], history tends to show he does kick off. He’s not got what he wanted and he’s going to start complaining more and more. That’s what he does. It happened last time at Chelsea and it’s happened at every club he’s been at.”
“He will not want to be blamed if Chelsea don’t retain the title or don’t have a good run in the Champions League, he’ll start blaming other people.”
“It could get increasingly intense and difficult for everyone. We know that when Mourinho doesn’t get what he wants he becomes very fractious.”
[All quotes via Sky Sports]
It’s far too early in the season to count Chelsea out. We all know the Blues haven’t made the best start, but it is unlikely that they won’t battle hard to retain the league this year. Everyone fancied Chelsea before the season began and now with just 4 games gone it’s ‘City’s to lose’. Whilst Chelsea may not do anymore significant business by tomorrows deadline, it’s worth mentioning that they still have the best squad all-round in the league.