Chelsea find themselves in an interesting situation in the Premier League, as the Blues have looked odds-on for the title for months without too much of a challenge. However, the defeat to Crystal Palace on Saturday has raised concerns.

The Blues head into the midweek clash with Manchester City with a seven point advantage over second-placed Tottenham Hotspur and will be worried that a negative result in that clash could open the door just a little for their London rivals.

After all their hard work, Chelsea now face a test and Antonio Conte needs to ensure the season finishes with the same bang that the Blues showed in the first-half of the season, as the second-part of their campaign has seen West London outfit look some way from their brilliant best.

Since January, Chelsea have not been as clinical as they were over their 13 game winning streak for instance and haven’t shown the deadly performances that they did earlier in the season- namely smashing five past Ronald Koeman’s Everton and sweeping aside Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United with a 4-0 victory.

Now, the Blues need to use this weekend’s shock defeat as a wake-up call and Conte needs to ensure the players are aware their position within the squad isn’t safe- and he could make that clear by dropping Diego Costa.

Since the January saga that saw the Spaniard clash with his manager and have his head turned by interest from China, Costa has been disappointing for the Blues- shown by the fact he’s netted just three Premier League goals in 2017.

That’s quite a difference from the form he showed in the first-half of the season, with Costa starting the campaign with five goals in as many games and finishing 2016 in tremendous form; netting eight times across 11 matches, with his tally standing at 14 goals.

Costa was leading the way in the Premier League scoring charts but the Spaniard has now fallen behind the likes of Alexis Sanchez, Harry Kane and Romelu Lukaku- and he hasn’t scored for the Blues since the start of March.

It’s well documented that Chelsea are looking for striking additions in the summer transfer window but you have to feel for Michy Batshuayi, who hasn’t really been given a chance. Perhaps, the Belgian deserves a shot at Stamford Bridge now.

Even if Batshuayi continues to be overlooked, Chelsea could utilise Eden Hazard in a central role to begin with, something they’ve already done this season, and it might allow the Blues to bounce back to their best form for the remaining months of the season while still having the option to use Costa from the bench.

On current form, Costa is looking like the player that struggled under Mourinho’s guidance in the first-half of last season and he needs to improve- and while dropping him from the side would raise some serious eyebrows, it could give him the kick that he needs. Or you would have to say is much more likely the Italian boss will stick with his man and rely on the big striker delivering against Man City again as he did in their first meeting this season where the Spaniard turned in one of his best games of the campaign, scoring a fine goal while being virtually unplayable as he led the Blues to a dominant 3-1 victory at the Etihad. Either way based on his tenure so far as the Chelsea boss we can depend on Antonio Conte not to shy away from making the big decisions if they are required or more importantly making the right calls for the good of the team no matter what they are.