Our Chelsea fans here in the Transfer Tavern are hoping the downward spiral they seem on at the moment will sort itself, after picking up their fourth league win of the season against Southampton. Indeed, while things aren’t quite as bad as that title defence under Jose Mourinho, the regulars on a whole have hated every minute of this season so far.

Since the turn of the year, Chelsea have struggled for wins and with constant rumours surrounding Antonio Conte’s future, the team have been missing that certain something that many in the pub can’t seem to put their finger on. It seems that it’s going to take a lot for the team to turn its fortunes around in the latter part of the season, although many are hopeful of a second FA Cup final appearance on the trot in May happening.

With the fans in the bar laying the blame on many of the first team players and their lack of togetherness and fight, they feel Conte shouldn’t bear the brunt of the disappointment of this season, even though it appears he already has.

Indeed, the Blues need to agree with our barman here and look a little closer at these TWO players that have flopped this season…

Gary Cahill

The club captain is not having the best of seasons and stats suggest the Blues have been a better team without him in it currently, an unthinkable notion prior to the start of the campaign. Not having their captain playing to the best of his ability and poorly leading the side would have for sure aided this season’s terrible defence of the Premier League title.

Cahill has won everything during his time at the club and at the age of 32, it seems that the years may be catching up with him.

Michy Batshuayi

Michy Batshuayi is currently on a short loan at Borussia Dortmund and is massively out of favour with Conte, with the striker looking likely to move on in the summer. The Belgian hasn’t had the best of times at Stamford Bridge during his 18 months at the club and following the World Cup, he will be hoping to put himself in the transfer spotlight.

However, due to the trust issues Conte had with Batshuayi, he opted to play Morata for longer periods than he should have done. This led to the Spaniard becoming fatigued and coincidently since then he has struggled to re-find his form, aiding much to Chelsea’s dip in form this calendar year.