With Chelsea having made their worst start to a league campaign since 1988, there undoubtedly is a lot of pressure on Jose Mourinho to get things right, after all the buck does stop with him. The Portuguese manager hasn’t had the greatest of times this season, apart from the whole Chelsea not playing well part, there was this ugly spat with the club doctor Eva Carneiro and the attempts to sign John Stones didn’t really work out that well either.
Mourinho, for his part, has stated that he does not feel pressure at Chelsea. The manager of the Premier League Champions also does not believe the results are accurate with Chelsea losing three out of their opening five fixtures and having conceded 12 goals in those games. There has been a great bit of discussion regarding what Chelsea and Jose need to do to get their season back on track with the defence coming in for a lot of scrutiny.
Time to change the back four
The first player who needs to make way as soon as possible from the starting XI is Branislav Ivanovic, the Serbian might have been one of the best right-backs in the Premier League last season but this time, he has been horrible and has been at fault for a number of goals that the Blues have conceded. He seems to have lost his pace and defensive ability, after being taken to the cleaners in almost every game.
The Blues can play Cesar Azpilicueta down the right, the Spaniard has been another one of Chelsea’s consistent players and he should feel right at home in the position of Ivanovic. Chelsea should let Baba Rahman play down the left as the big money signing was brought in from Bundesliga club Augsburg, there might be a few who say that the youngster is not ready for Premier League football but Chelsea need to make changes or they could be swept further away from the top of the Premier League table.
The Champions sit in 17th place at the moment and are eleven points behind Manchester City already. Another part of the game which has affected Chelsea massively is their lack of attacking fluidity. The Blues have only scored seven goals this season and neither Diego Costa nor Cesc Fabregas have done much, their link up play last season was excellent but that partnership hasn’t blossomed this season yet.
Eden Hazard is also having a woeful time in attack and does not look like the player that won the Player of the Year award last season. Jose Mourinho might want to play new signing Pedro down the middle and drop Fabregas to the bench. The former Barcelona player is known to play down the right or left but he is adept at playing as a striker as well and would provide Diego Costa with the support that he needs.
Chelsea played with two holding midfielders in the last game and that is the way to go at the moment. They should also revert to a centre-back pairing of John Terry and Gary Cahill as they are best suited to hopefully get the Blues out from their blues. The good thing about all this is that Chelsea have 33 games to rectify their problems and get back in the race for the crown, if adequate steps and measures are not taken, they could find themselves out of the Champions League places and fast.
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