Crystal Palace produced one of the shock results of the weekend with an impressive 2-1 win away at Stamford Bridge. Jose Mourinho had a real go at some of his players, but fell short of naming just who were under performing. Chelsea have now conceded 9 goals in just four games, last season they have conceded just 32 goals in 38 games. Something just isn’t going right with the Blues and Jose Mourinho has to work his magic to get them back to where they belong.
Chelsea haven’t looked anything like the team that were brushing aside opponents in the first half of last season or the Jose Mourinho like team who were gritty and getting 1-0 wins in the second half of last season. It seems that clubs have understood how to play against Chelsea or many of the players have been playing well below par.
Age finally catches up
There have been three players, more than anyone else who have had a torrid season so far. Branislav Ivanovic has been found out of positions time and again. One of the best right-backs in the league last season cannot seem to compete with players with pace and ability. The right-back hasn’t been able to contain wingers on his side of the defence and that has been exploited to great effect by Chelsea’s opponents. What can Mourinho do to fix this?
Nothing that great really, they don’t have a right-back who can slot in as easily as they have for their left-backs. Mourinho could shift Ivanovic to the centre of defence and he could play Cahill or Zouma as a right-back. Ivanovic is one of the best defenders and probably needs some rest or two out of the firing line for a few games.
The midfield which dominated teams extremely well last season has gone missing as well. Matic and Fabregas can’t seem to do the defensive duties all that well, Matic has also been below par and the midfield pairing have been dominated by the other teams they face. Probably playing Fabregas in a more advanced role, behind Costa could be the solution to this problem, it would also reduce the defensive work load on the Spanish midfielder and give him more control on the attack. It would also give Costa more linkup opportunities with his Spanish international teammate.
To help Chelsea in their defensive issues, they should go back to playing Matic with either Mikel or Ramires, both players can provide cover to the defence and this would be a throwback to the Chelsea of the old with Mourinho first deciding to keep the opposition quiet and not conceding before they decide on scoring and winning. Pretty football isn’t required at Chelsea at the moment, results are more important, they are already eight points behind Manchester City at the moment and if they don’t work on the issues they have at the moment, they could lose more ground as the season progresses. Mourinho has a couple of weeks to think about his team thanks to the International break, the timing of this couldn’t have been better for Chelsea and Jose.