Facing a difficult away day at West Ham United tomorrow afternoon, our Chelsea supporters are more cautious travelling to Upton Park than they usually are given the Hammers’ excellent start to 2015/16 while in contrast, the Blues’ beginnings have been rather shaky to say the least.
That said, with the Blues unbeaten in their last five match-ups against the side from East London, West Ham United seem to suffer a complex of inferiority when facing the men from across town and our resident Chelsea fans are hoping this will prove to be the case again come 5pm tomorrow.
Still in the bottom half of the table in 12th place at present, at least Chelsea were back to winning ways last Saturday in the Premier League where a comfortable 2-0 victory over Aston Villa gave Jose Mourinho his third league victory of the season so far.
In what has been an incredibly peculiar fall from grace for many members of this obviously talented Chelsea squad, it’s hard to put your finger on why the Blues have slumped so much following their title triumph last season but one thing’s for sure; there’s no room for passengers at the minute.
Jose Mourinho has proved ruthless in recent weeks, dropping both first team regulars Eden Hazard and Nemanja Matic from last week’s victory over the Villains and it’s most certainly a case of every squad member needing to pull in the right direction to grab victories and lots of them to make up ground.
With the January transfer window on the horizon, some fans are hoping the injection of a few marquee signings might save the Blues’ season.
With Metro reporting that Chelsea might rekindle their interest in Atletico Madrid’s Antoine Griezmann in the near future, not to mention their previous admiration for his team-mate Koke, we wonder how this duo would fit into the Blues’ team.
Here’s how they might look with the Spanish-based duo both included in the starting eleven.
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Click on the image below to reveal the best Chelsea XI under Jose Mourinho including Griezmann & Koke.
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Thibaut Courtois
In no disrespect to current deputy Asmir Begovic who has put some solid performances in during Thibaut Courtois’ absence, the Belgian stopper is still a big loss to this Chelsea side with the ‘keeper having proved last term that he’s definitely among the top three in the world right now.
Even at the start of this season, the wave of negativity surrounding the Blues even transmitted itself to their usually cool-headed number one who got himself sent off against Swansea City before succumbing to a knee injury which will be keeping him out of action until December.
What’s for sure is that Chelsea will be better off when their commanding 6 ft 7 in keeper is back between the sticks.
Branislav Ivanovic
Now we know what you’re thinking Chelsea fans; Branislav Ivanovic should be nowhere near a best Chelsea eleven-type gallery right now but considering Blues fans are still finding out about Baba Rahman’s capabilities as a left back, we were reluctant to include him either while reverting Cesar Azpilicueta to this position..
So we’ve gone with Ivanovic who has in seasons prior to this proved that he’s one of the meanest defenders in the business.
Simply needing to rediscover that form this season before it’s too late, the sad thing for Chelsea fans is that they know what the Serbian is capable of but he doesn’t have much time on his side with a lot of Blues supporters having already written the long-serving player off, claiming his legs have finally gone.
Gary Cahill
In at centre back, we’ve gone for Gary Cahill over Kurt Zouma simply due to the fact that despite the Frenchman’s up-and-coming status in the game as a huge prospect, we think Chelsea need to rely on experience right now to get them out of their current predicament.
In his time as a Blue, Cahill has won everything there is to win at club level and you can’t underestimate the importance of having seasoned professionals in the starting eleven during times of need.
Make no mistake; Cahill isn’t Mr Perfect either but in his Premier League career to date, we’ve become used to consistent performances from the former Bolton Wanderers man on a regular basis.
John Terry
Having been dropped out of the team in favour of Kurt Zouma on numerous occasions this term, we’ve stuck with John Terry in this eleven due to the fact that we don’t think he’s passed it just yet.
Enduring a tough start to the season like many other Chelsea players so far this term, it is easy to pick on the ageing Terry who is of course nearer the twilight of his career at the moment.
The sheer fact of the matter however is that the likes of Nemanja Matic and Cesc Fabregas haven’t provided as consistent a shield in front of Terry and the Chelsea defence as they did last season.
Naturally, Terry has been caught on the back foot more often with mistakes being illuminated even further.
Like Mourinho himself, Terry is still a class act and will find a way to turnaround his form, such is the professional he is on the training ground.
Cesar Azpilicueta
Having received some game time back at his former position of right back against Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge last Saturday, Azpilicueta deputised for the missing Branislav Ivanovic with new signing Baba Rahman coming in at left back.
In truth, no Chelsea fan really missed Ivanovic due to his plethora of errors already this term and as we know, the Blues ran out comfortable 2-0 winners.
With Mourinho having no room for passengers at the moment, we expect Azpilicueta to remain in the team at right back for now until Ivanovic’s confidence returns and when that happens, the Spaniard will easily slot back in at left back again where he has been a revelation over the past couple of seasons.
Nemanja Matic
Scorer of one of Chelsea’s beat goals so far this season away at Everton, this has proved the only real highlight of Nemanja Matic’s campaign with the Serbian international strangely looking off colour of late.
Having returned to the club for a second spell after impressing away at Benfica, Matic has been lapping up the plaudits left right and centre and it’s no surprise with the domineering defensive midfielder having revolutionised the definition of what a player in his position should be doing but this season, he seems to have lost his steel.
Like many others, he’ll rediscover his form because he’s a quality player but he needs to prove his worth to Mourinho right now, having been dropped for Blues starlet Ruben Loftus-Cheek last week.
Koke
We often wonder what our Atletico Madrid friends over in Spain think of Chelsea given the fact the Blues have mounted a huge raid on the Vicente Calderon club at the start of last season.
With Diego Costa and Filipe Luis arriving from the Spanish club, not to mention the loan recall of Thibaut Courtois in the same summer transfer window of 2014, a huge chunk of Atletico’s title winning team was immediatley prised away from Diego Simeone and that theme continues with the Blues having reportedly seen a huge 65 million euro bid rejected for Koke this summer.
Undoubtedly a class act, Koke has been billed as the heir to Xavi’s central midfield throne in La Liga and this is high praise indeed given what the Barcelona legend has achieved in his career.
A central midfielder who completes defensive and attacking duties in equal measure, we think Chelsea might find prising him away from the Spanish capital a little more difficult than when they landed Costa, that’s for sure!
Antoine Griezmann
This past summer transfer window for Chelsea was relatively strange because other than Pedro, all the rest of the Blues’ signings weren’t really of a marquee nature and pundits recite time and time again that the great clubs still continue to build by signing huge names while not standing still.
We saw that with Barcelona this summer who despite winning the terrible last season, not to mention their transfer ban, still swooped to sign Atletico Madrid’s Arda Turan and Sevilla’s Aleix Vidal who will become eligible to play in January.
One marquee name Blues supporters in the tavern were pleading with Roman Abramovich to get the chequebook out for was Antoine Griezmann of Atletico Madrid who Jose Mourinho is reportedly insisting should be signed in the near future.
Like Koke, Griezmann is one of the current gems in Diego Simeone’s sides’ crown and it would take a monumental offer to get him out of the Vicente Calderon.
That said, Atletico have shifted on some of the world’s greatest forward players in the past such as Radamel Falcao, Sergio Aguero, Fernando Torres and of course Diego Costa so if the price is right, Griezmann may be moving on.
Cesc Fabregas
With Jose Mourinho having persevered with the drop in form as suffered by Cesc Fabregas so far this term, there is an onus on the Spanish international to turn his form around as quickly as possible.
Looking like the old Fabregas in small glimpses so far this season, the former Arsenal captain has strangely given the ball away time and again, allowing opposition midfielders a clean run at the Blues’ defence.
That’s why with Koke metaphorically included in this Chelsea eleven, we’ve shifted Fabregas into the number 10 role where he can still thread those eye-of-the-needle passes through to his partner in crime Diego Costa while not having to complete so many defensive duties at the same time.
With Oscar usually being deployed here for the Blues, not to mention Willian on occasions, these pair have also been inconsistent this term so a regular berth seems to be open for whichever player puts in the most consistent performances over the next month or two.
Eden Hazard
Perhaps one of the biggest falls from from grace in this Chelsea team right now is being experienced by last season’s PFA Player of the Year Eden Hazard who has really gone into his shell this term.
An absolutely outstanding contributor to the Blues’ dominant Premier League title success last term, Hazard has looked half that player this term and it’s hard to put your finger on why.
Jose Mourinho has spoken about the Belgian international in glowing terms before, alluding to the fact that he’s on par with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo but that comparison seems laughable at the minute with Hazard going through the motions, so much so that he missed a penalty on international duty in the recent European Qualifiers break.
Like Matic, Ivanovic and Fabregas, Hazard will pick his form up because he’s a class act but he needs to eliminate these sticky periods from his CV if he is to truly realise his potential as a truly world class player in the next few seasons.
Diego Costa
With the controversial striker having recently admitted that he’s “no angel” in the understatement of the year, unfortunately for the Chelsea striker, he hasn’t been scoring nearly as many goals as last season to stop people from talking about his shady on-field antics.
In one of the talking points of the season so far, Diego Costa remained on the pitch against Arsenal a few gameweeks back with Gabriel Paulista correctly succumbing to a red card after falling for the Spanish international’s wind up ploy and as a result of this deviance, the player was kept out of Vicente del Bosque’s squad for the recent European Qualifiers.
Costa is absolutely adored at Stamford Bridge for his maverick style of play but deep down, every Blues fan would rather he kept his head down while bagging a regular glut of goals and then perhaps he can go back to his usual wind the opposition up game plan when the Blues are far higher up the table than they are at present.
