Poor Performances
One of these players was Branislav Ivanovic. Teams were constantly attacking down the right hand side and saw it as a possible way to exploit the back four. Players like Yannick Bolasie, Steven Naismith and Sadio Mane were causing the Serbian international all kinds of problems.
Diego Costa, Cesc Fabregas, Nemanja Matic and Eden Hazard were others who had amazing campaigns last year but were underperforming massively at the start of this season. When key players are underperforming, it’s hard for any team to be winning games. The players have to take the blame for that.
Mourinho, though, was causing a lot of problems off the pitch. He was constantly hit with fines and bans and it was spiralling out of control. This continued until he was sacked. During the first few games of Guus Hiddink’s reign Chelsea were squandering in the bottom half of the table and a place in Europe next season looked in jeopardy.
Eden Hazard won every individual award that was possible last season, but he has thus far failed to score a goal from open play with no goals at all in the Premier League. He’s looked disinterested and I wouldn’t be surprised if he left in the summer.
Diego Costa has looked better under Hiddink but the red card against Everton in the FA Cup a few weeks ago showed signs of the ‘Old Costa’. When Costa is at his best he is a handful and in some games he has shown that. Apart from the Everton game, he’s channelling his aggression in a more positive way and using it to try and get a psychological advantage over the defenders he is up against. Hiddink has evidently helped him to use his emotions to try and score goals rather than constantly having tussles with other centre backs.
Fabregas has looked sharper and quicker under the interim boss as well. I think having John Obi Mikel next to him gives him the freedom to move up the pitch more and help to create and score goals. His link up play with the attacking players, in particular Costa, is starting to take shape again.
Next: Antonio Conte