Unsurprisingly, our resident Chelsea supporters in the Football Transfer Tavern are incredibly frustrated right now having seen their side lose yet another game this season away to FC Porto in the Champions League last night.
On Jose Mourinho’s homecoming to the club where he first made his name, it was the Portuguese side who came out the victors following two well taken goals from both Andre Andre and Maicon.
With Chelsea having levelled up in fantastic fashion from Willian literally a second before the half-time whistle, the Blues were very convincing in spells with Mourinho claiming that the performance was much better but due to individual defensive mistakes, Blues supporters got that sinking feeling yet again come the full-time whistle.
Prior to the game kicking off, Mourinho claimed there were no longer any “untouchables” in his team and this has only really been the first time this season that the manager has publicly outed his underperforming squad with the Blues boss usually being one to protect his players no matter what.
But with Eden Hazard dropped from the starting line-up last night, you can tell that Mourinho is on his last tether regarding his squad’s dramatic fall from grace with those players now needing to stand up and be counted.
As we know from his two spells in English management so far, Mourinho has always succeeded when both he and the players trust each other as a tight-knit compact unit but with the likes of Branislav Ivanovic, Hazard, Cesc Fabregas and others not fully knowing if their place is safe right now, you can tell the squad is nervous and therefore making mistakes.
We’re not going to pretend it’s been an easy watch for Blues supporters because it hasn’t to far but we’re at least trying to cheer our Chelsea contingent up by devising a list of their five best strikes so far this 2015/16 campaign.
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Click on the image below to reveal the five best Chelsea goals so far this 2015/16 season.
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Nemanja Matic vs Everton (A)
We knew things were really starting to turn sour for Chelsea back on September 12th when the Blues travelled to Everton while getting a hiding from a convincing Toffees outfit who were inspired by Steven Naismith’s fine hat-trick.
Not even a starter in the fixture, Naismith entered the fray on nine minutes when Muhamed Besic succumbed to an injury on the Scottish international didn’t look back opening the scoring in the 17th minute.
Going on to score two more well taken goals that put the game beyond Jose Mourinho’s men, at least there was one moment of glory for Chelsea on 36 minutes when they scored a consolation strike with the game at 2-0 to the Merseysiders.
Nemanja Matic pulled the game back to 2-1 and at the time seemingly back into the Blues’ reach with a fine 25-yard strike from distance to leave Tim Howard absolutely no chance in the Toffees goal.
What a hit son!
Diego Costa vs Maccabi Tel Aviv (H)
Diego Costa hasn’t nearly began this season in the same scintillating form he displayed last time around in his debut season but one particular glorious moment the controversial striker enjoyed was registering the third goal in a comfortable 4-0 rout of Maccabi Tel Aviv back on September 16th.
Despite the Blues enduring a tough start to the campaign prior to this Champions League group stage opener, even depleted Chelsea supporters thought they’d walk this one and so it proved with Mourinho’s men running out 4-0 winners over the Israeli side.
Two nil up at the break, Diego Costa added the third and the best goal of the game on 58 minutes when he collected a floated Cesc Fabregas assist within the 18-yard box before swinging his right boot at it to smash a excellently taken volley into the postage stamp and beyond Maccabi stopper Predrag Rajkovic.
No chance for the goalkeeper!
Willian vs FC Porto (A)
Only registered last night, Willian’s equaliser right on half-time against FC Porto was an excellently taken goal that was cheered even louder than usual in the tavern given Chelsea’s current run of disappointing results.
The Brazilian has already scored two free-kicks this term that were intended as crosses but the former Shakhtar Donetsk man definitely meant to score this one for himself as he curled a pearler beyond Iker Casillas to give the former Real Madrid stopper no chance right on half-time.
Going in 1-1 at the break, a point would’ve perhaps been a good result considering Chelsea already won their first group stage fixture but it wasn’t meant to be with yet another defensive lapse meaning that Porto captain Maicon could nip in to put the Portuguese giants back in front only seven minutes after the restart.
This proved to be the winning goal of course with Diego Costa being incredibly unlucky to have hit the bar in the second half.
Ramires vs Newcastle United (A)
Considering the quite dire season Newcastle United have endured up until last Saturday evening, nobody was really expecting them to get the better of Chelsea this time around, despite the Magpies having won their last three home fixtures against the Blues prior to this season’s encounter at St James’ Park.
But being Chelsea’s bogey ground, that same sinking feeling came again for Mourinho’s men after both Ayoze Perez and Georginio Wijnaldum put Steve McClaren’s side into a deserved 2-0 lead.
In a first half whereby even Mourinho admitted his side simply didn’t show up, the Blues left it 11 minutes until the final whistle before they started mounting their comeback.
Earning the initial consolation goal in quite stunning fashion, substitute Ramires lashed the ball home and past Tim Krul from what seemed like miles out to get Chelsea back on the march again.
With Willian making it 2-2 with just four minuets to go, the Blues could’ve even nicked it but being the season that it is at the moment, that wasn’t meant to be either.
Kurt Zouma vs Arsenal (H)
This isn’t the best goal you’ll ever see but considering the size of the occasion against London rivals Arsenal, not to mention the pressure it temporarily lifted off the Blues, you have to include Kurt Zouma’s header against the Gunners a few weekend’s back.
After Arsene Wenger’s men conceded a foul outside the 18-yard box, it was their old boy Cesc Fabregas who floated in a delicious ball that was aggressively attacked by the young Zouma who got up and above a half-hearted Gunners defence to head the ball home past Chelsea old boy Petr Cech.
With Eden Hazard striking a ball off Calum Chambers who put through his own net to make the game safe late on, this rather standard home win over the Gunners is long forgotten on Chelsea’s part now considering they haven’t managed to build upon it ever since.
