For the first time in a hell of a long while, Chelsea are in something of a club crisis.
Having earned just four points from their first five Premier League games, the champions currently trail early pace setters Manchester City by a whopping 11 points causing many to believe that their title challenge is over already.
With Jose Mourinho looking like he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry in his post-match interview after the Blues’ most recent loss to Everton on Saturday lunchtime, the Portuguese manager wryly claimed that people are enjoying his current downfall.
Having not been in this position in his career before, it is uncharted territory for Mourinho but surely he is the man to turn it around having worked so many wonders with the club he has such a deep association with.
So far this term, many Chelsea supporters have vented their anger at the likes of Branislav Ivanovic, Cesc Fabregas and strangely Diego Costa and Eden Hazard who have been uncharacteristically average too.
With the whole squad seemingly in disarray at the moment, it will take some psychological shift to get the Blues firing again and with London rivals Arsenal next up at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, there is no manager Jose Mourinho would love to beat more than Arsene Wenger in order to kick-start his troops.
While it is largely confidence based with players such as Ivanovic and Hazard still representing class players, we’re looking a little deeper today while selecting five Chelsea stars who we deem to be overrated.
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Click on the image below to reveal the 5 most overrated Chelsea players in the current squad.
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Oscar
Speak to more fickle Chelsea fans and they will still talk about Oscar in glowing terms, fondly remembering the likes of his scintillating goal in the Champions League against Juventus in his debut season.
However, spectacular solo play like that from the Brazilian has been in short supply since those days with the former Internacional man struggling to find his best form last season and as a result, now being utilised as a substitute at the minute.
With Pedro signed and set to dominate the right wing berth all season, we’ve seen Willian moved into the number 10 role where Oscar usually plays and in fairness to Jose Mourinho, he’s been right to drop Oscar whose goals and assists ratio was down behind the likes of Jordan Henderson, Jamie Vardy and even Nacer Chadli last term.
Perhaps being kept on his toes by the Blues themselves but still overrated in certain quarters from the Chelsea fanbase.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek
How often will a Chelsea fan tell you that their academy is absolutely fantastic while often pointing to Ruben Loftus-Cheek as the darling of their current youthful crop?
The answer is quite a lot but while Loftus-Cheek does look like an exciting prospect, we all heard about the rather public dressing down that Jose Mourinho gave the youngster following a lacklustre performance away on an end-of-last-season tour game against Sydney FC.
With even Mourinho himself questioning the player’s desire and commitment on that occasion, we also have to ponder why the kid is raved about so much having only made four Premier League appearances in his fledgling career to date.
Looking ordinary against West Bromwich Albion away in a 3-0 humbling last term, perhaps Chelsea fans should save their praise of the youngster for senior Blues games, not reserve fixtures.
Ramires
When it comes to Ramires, what you find is that those in punditry often wax lyrical about the Brazilian international’s running power and stamina yet some Chelsea fans who watch him a little more closely week-to-week claim he’s a headless chicken!
Firmly a utility member of Chelsea’s squad nowadays following the arrivals of Nemanja Matic and Cesc Fabregas, we see far less of Ramires than we used to but when we do, Blues fans are sometimes left questioning just what is it that Ramires does?
Conversely, commentators often still talk about Ramires in glowing terms that were much more applicable to his first few seasons in English football where he was much more of an important squad member compared to nowadays.
Loic Remy
You often hear commentators and some Chelsea supporters claim that they have two class ready-made strikers in Diego Costa and Loic Remy at their disposal but ask yourselves this, when Costa is missing, does Remy really make up for the club being without their usually clinical Spanish international forward?
Scoring seven goals in 21 Premier League appearances last season, this record is at best ok and at worst average but most certainly nothing on the standards of Costa who boasts his own record of 21 strikes in 29 top flight appearances to date.
Chelsea fans wouldn’t be feeling so comfortable if Diego Costa was injured for any significant length of time so with this being the case – and Radamel Falcao also now an inferior option in reserve – talk of Remy being a world class option should be nipped in the bud.
Cesc Fabregas
Most definitely suffering from a distinct lack of confidence having uncharacteristically given so many balls away in possession this term, Cesc Fabregas has in truth been missing in action as Arsenal fans now claim since the mid-point of last season.
Therefore, you can’t help but ask yourselves whether a player in the peak of their career such as Fabregas should be experiencing subdued performances for that elongated period of time.
Make no mistake; when Fabregas ticks, Chelsea do with the player having struck up a simply frightening partnership with Diego Costa in the first half of their debut season together but it is worrying how far Fabregas’ performances have trailed off since that time.
Should he perhaps have received a FIFA rating drop in video game terms we wonder? Not according to FIFA 16 who still rate him as an 87 central midfielder.
