5 reasons why Chelsea has struggled this season

After finishing the season as the Premier League champions with 93 points and a league record 30 wins, it is natural that the expectations on the team would have skyrocketed for the next season.

With Manchester City steamrolling opponents, the English media is having a ball ripping apart the rest of the league with often redundant team press conferences that run more on provocation and less on tactics and team news.

There have been many times in the season where Antonio Conte has been rumoured to be on the verge of getting the sack from the 'trigger happy' Roman Abramovich. News about player dissatisfaction and absences have been blown out of proportion and a sense of disquiet seems to be around the club, much to the disappointment of Conte.

In reality, Chelsea is 3rd in the Premier League, closing in on the 2nd place with a points tally which could end up being just 4 points short of what the title-winning team of the last season had at the end of December. They have also progressed to the Champions League round of 16 and the semifinals of the Carabao Cup, while still being alive and well in the FA Cup too.

So by bringing some context into the picture( i.e. Manchester City's historic run), let us have a look at some things that have gone wrong for Chelsea since lifting the trophy last season.

#1 The Diego Costa saga

Costa having an extended vacation in Brazil

There is no doubt about how instrumental Costa was in bringing the Premier League back to Stamford Bridge after an abysmal season the year before. There were many moments when he single-handedly converted draws and losses into 3 points for Chelsea.

The club and its fans will always have fond memories of the enigmatic striker but all of it was undone when he decided to play be stubborn with the club's management in order to earn his transfer back to Spain.

In reality, it all started in the January transfer window when an alleged rift between Conte and Costa happened due to the striker pushing for a big-money move to China. And ever since then, the relationship has always been hanging by a thread, something that the fans absolutely hated because it was a recurring blemish on an otherwise perfect season.

Once the season ended, Costa flew off to Brazil and had a little too much fun for the club's liking by putting on a lot of weight during the holidays. His behavior along with Atletico's reluctance to match the asking price put Chelsea between a rock and a hard place for much of the window.

Admittedly, Conte was the one to cut off the relationship first with his now infamous 'seasono' text message. But the way Costa went about handling the situation for earning his move was nothing short of unprofessional. The end result was a toxic departure with Chelsea losing a marquee striker while gaining a whole lot of negative press along the way.

#2 A Bad Summer Transfer Window

Davide Zappacosta has been a deadline day signing to provide cover at right back

If you observed closely, the one recurring theme in most of Conte's press talks has revolved around an imperfect summer transfer window.

Chelsea fans still have fresh memories of waking up to very little or no movement in transfer activity from the club, while fellow contenders made quick and decisive purchases.

Ever since the antics of Costa, the club searched for an able replacement to lead the attacking line. For a while, Romelu Lukaku seemed destined to come back to the club after yet another impressive season in the top flight. but after what seemed like an elaborate courtship display between Lukaku, Manchester United and Chelsea, the Belgian decided to move to Old Trafford.

The club had to scramble to get another striker's transfer. Regardless of who they were going to buy next, this showed that the club was not operating as it has done in the past.

This became a window of opportunity for the media to spin countless stories on the dynamics between the owner, board and the manager.

Chelsea left it late in the transfer window as a result of not getting their first choice players and this hurt the team in many ways.

They ended up having to settle for multiple players in already covered positions like central midfield and given the time when they joined, quite a number of the new players are still bedding in.

It must be frustrating for Conte as he could have followed up last season with an equally good if not better performance this season but he had to work with his hands tied

For a manager that left a legendary Juventus team because of a lack of funds and support from the board, it is a similar situation once again which isn't ideal both for him and the club as they seemed to be a great match just last season.

#3 Selling Nemanja Matic to Manchester United

The sale of Matic went through despite the objections of Antonio Conte

Though Chelsea failed to bring in the players that Conte would have wanted, they did spend a lot of money buying quality talents in Alvaro Morata, Tiemoue Bakayoko, and Antonio Rudiger.

They haven't exactly set the world on fire but they settled into the team very well in 5 months and provided Conte with many new options to work with.

The one transfer that hurt Chelsea the most though was the transfer of Nemanja Matic to Manchester United of all teams. Upon seeing that Bakayoko's arrival would be the end of his time at Chelsea eventually, Matic decided to get back to his favorite manager, Jose Mourinho.

This transfer went through despite the objections of Conte who wanted Matic to stay around and help Bakayoko's bedding in. In an interview, the Italian tactician said:

"Matic knows very well what I think about him"

“The importance for me about this player, who is a really good player, a top player, very important for our team, but sometimes you must accept this crazy transfer market.

"And sometimes you must accept different decisions. But he is a great loss for us."

Chelsea's decision to let him go would come back to bite them as they strengthened a direct rival who capitulated on the situation and went on a winning spree (although that has halted now). It left a huge hole in central midfield which had to be covered by a young and inexperienced Bakayoko, especially at the start of the season when N'Golo Kante was injured.

It took about 4 months and a formation change to find a stop-gap solution for the team and though it looks balanced now with the addition of Danny Drinkwater, they still lack the composure and, the solidity that Matic brought to the team.

#4 Injuries and sub-par backups

Injury to Moses has been very detrimental to the squad

Chelsea strolled to the title last season and not playing in the Champions League played a huge part in it. Antonio Conte could field the same lineup every week and he had a lot of time to make the team adapt to his tactical blueprint. Most importantly, his players had time to rest in midweek and play with full intensity come the weekend.

Fast forward to the opening day fixture against Burnley this season, Gary Cahill and Cesc Fabregas got sent off in a reckless fashion. The result, a loss of 3 points and 2 key players affected the team as talisman Eden Hazard was already absent with a broken foot and it took game weeks for him to complete 60 minutes.

Morata couldn't play as a starter for a while because he needed to adapt to the physicality of the league. And Michy Batshuayi did not take the chance to get into the good books of Conte whenever called upon, which has been many times already this season.

Injuries to Kante and Victor Moses disrupted the dynamics of the whole team as the team was forced to play Fabregas in a midfield two paired with Bakayoko. Davide Zappacosta, after an electric start in the Champions League slowly faded away and showed why he wasn't the first choice for Conte.

Most recently David Luiz, the libero of the team, has been out with a knee injury for weeks now. All of this can be boiled down to one fact; the team has the added duty of Champions League fixtures as compared to last season coupled with a good run in the Carabao Cup.

This reinforces Conte's complaints to the board that he wasn't given the players he wanted as this could have taken off a lot of pressure on the first XI, giving them breathing space to rest between fixtures and eventually leading to lesser injuries.

#5 Individuals underperforming

Batshuayi needs to step up his game to stay in Conte's plans

When the team looks and plays in a way which is a far cry from the title-winning squad of just a few months ago, it shows that the individuals haven't been giving their best in the same tactical setup.

Bar Cesar Azpilicueta and Andreas Christensen, everyone else has been punching below their weight and not clicking as a unit. The new signings are still adapting, Hazard and Kante are slowly but surely getting back to their best form after the injuries.

Marcos Alonso looks tired as evident from the Liverpool match when Mo Salah left him for dead. Luiz, Cahill, and Rüdiger have been giving hot and cold performances and Moses just came back from injury.

Batshuayi has been fortunate to get a lot of game time because of injuries and suspensions to Morata but his performances have lacked invention and inspiration.

For a team that stands 3rd in the league 1 point away from being 2nd, it is obvious that due to the exceptional form of last season, the team was expected to do better and haven't hence the criticism.

Nevertheless, there is a lot to look forward to for Chelsea fans as the team is injury free and looks to have finally found a formula that works for them in the 3-5-2 formation. An exciting history-filled encounter with Barcelona awaits and by the looks of it, the team will be more than ready to face Lionel Messi and co. if they can rectify their mistakes and reinforce in the January transfer window.