Just what is going wrong at Chelsea?

A sluggish start:

Chelsea’s season has been one littered with problems and set-backs – everything that could have gone wrong has done. But the warning signs were there right from the very start of pre-season that Chelsea had lost some of their edge of last season.

“The Blues'” troubles can be traced back to the very first game of the season against Swansea at Stamford Bridge. After a mediocre pre-season, Chelsea came into the first game on the season still finding fitness and form, as most teams do in the opening weeks of the season. Nothing unusual here.

The performance against Swansea was not bad by any means – yes, it was far from great, but decisions had gone against them in that match and they had done reasonably well in responding to Swansea’s equaliser. However, unfortunately for Chelsea fellow title rivals Manchester City had hit the ground running and were playing some outstanding football, and so Manuel Pellegrini’s men naturally went into the match against the Champions as slight favourites. The outcome was not a big surprise, but the manner of it was, and this was the first indication of Chelsea lacking the same desire, commitment and quality of last season. Chelsea went on to win their next game but two sub-standard performances (and defeats) followed, as the pressure really started to mount on Mourinho’s men.

The root of Chelsea’s sluggish start is down to one or more of the following:
1) Complacency – not typically associated with a Mourinho side, but this crop of players certainly showed glimpses of them letting off slightly.
2) A lack of new signings – arguably one of the biggest mistakes made by Mourinho and the board. Probably encouraged the complacency due to a lack of competition in the squad.
3) Key players off form – the biggest factor in their early-season struggles. The likes of Ivanovic, Hazard, Fabregas, Matic, Terry, Cahill and Oscar were all performing way below their usual standards, and being the core of their success last year, their lack of form became really costly.

The defence was most affected by this sluggish start, as Chelsea leaked goals left, right and centre. Mourinho prides himself at having a very disciplined defence, making them hard to beat, and then building from these strong foundations, as was the case last year where Chelsea had the meanest defence in the league by quite some distance. This season was anything but tight defensively, as Chelsea conceded 19 goals in their first 11 games. Compare that to last season, where they conceded 11 goals in the same time period.

Scoring goals, was also a problem (still is): Whilst Chelsea did conceded an unflattering 11 goals last season in the same number of games, they did score 28 goals, remained unbeaten and with a goal difference of +17. Compare that to this season: 16 scored, 19 conceded, 6 defeats, 2 draws and only three wins with a goal difference of -3  – Chelsea were a million miles away from the level they were playing at the same stage last season.