Three things Chelsea must address to steady the ship

Boston, MA — What a mess the start of the Premier League season has been for the reigning champions. Jose Mourinho and Chelsea have taken just one point from two games to begin the defense of the Blues’ title, and if their performance against Manchester City was anything to go by, it could be a long season ahead.

Honestly the warning signs have swirled around Chelsea since the end of last season, and between Mourinho and Roman Abramovich they have not been addressed sufficiently.

Here are three things Chelsea must address before the season devolves into a downward spiral.

The Ivanovic dilemma.

Against Swansea Chelsea’s vice-captain was badly shown up by Jefferson Montero and it was Montero’s dominance on the right that eventually led to Willian man marking the Ecuadorian international. Willian eventually played Gomis on-side — while marking Montero —, and we all remember what happened next: Courtois, red card, penalty, goal. 

While Ivanovic was arguably the best right-back in the Premier League last term, Chelsea fans have lamented about his defensive contribution and his offensive contribution. Ivanovic is slow, clunky, and rarely beats the first man with a cross. If we look at Ivanovic’s stats over the last 5 seasons, however, we are able to see that last season was a complete outlier season for the Chelsea vice-captain, and maybe Jose Mourinho should’ve cashed in at seasons end.

The Serbian’s 5 assists his most in a campaign since he joined Chelsea, the 36 chances he created 7 higher than his previous high on 29 the season before, which was 15 higher than the 14 he made in 2012/13. While Ivanovic posted his best ever contribution in the “tackles won” column in 2014/15 with 75 (21 higher than the previous season), he also has also increased in the “tackles lost” column over the last 3 seasons exponentially: 21 in 2012/13, 44 in 2013/14, and 50 last term.

Literally moments after the final whistle at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester Chelsea announced the signing of Ghanaian youngster Abdul Baba Rahman from Ausburg in Germany. Mourinho has been vocal about replacing Felipe Luis and it will be interesting to see if Ivanovic makes way sooner rather than later to make Chelsea less lop-sided.

Jose Mourinho normally knows when to move on from an also-ran player, and even though the Serbian has looked super-human in big games for Chelsea during his stint in London, the gig seems to finally be up.

What has gotten into Jose Mourinho?

Jose Mourinho is the best manager in world football. At least, we’re pretty sure he is… ok we were pretty sure he was, honestly now we don’t know anymore. Does Jose even know who he is anymore?

There was always the notion that Mourinho had an A, a B, a C, and a D plan — whatever a game threw at Mourinho, he knew how to counter act it. This might have been true in the past, you cannot argue with his extensive trophy haul spanning 4 different countries, but it ended when Chelsea finally secured the title last season.

Since Mourinho has come back to England he has been at loggerheads with the media, picking up where he left off in Spain. He has complained of a campaign against Chelsea by media outlets, singling out pundits, broadcasters; you name it along the way.

His latest outbursts include telling Rafa Benitez’s wife that she should concern herself with her husband’s diet, rather than focussing on the “Special One,” and branding first team doctor Eva Carneiro and physio Jon Fearn “naive” for entering the field of play against Swansea last weekend.

Whether Mourinho is right or wrong to make the inflammatory statements he’s making, at least they used to be for a reason — to take the pressure off of his team, and enable them to focus properly on the next game.

Right now he’s just bringing more, and more negative attention toward Chelsea and one could argue this is having a detrimental affect on his team.

Toward the end of last season there was a lot of questions being asked of Mourinho’s team. They were grinding out results and scrapping their way to the title, but many attributed it to Diego Costa’s dodgy hamstrings, Didier Drogba’s age, and the late season injury to playmaker Oscar.

If we look at those performances in relation to the performances so far this season, though, it’s obvious that certain players are beginning to tire, and others are beginning be figured out. Usually Mourinho would have a plan for this, or at least a deep squad full of talent to freshen things up, but looking at Chelsea’s bench is a bit dismal these days — something not often said of teams that won a league championship less than 90 days ago. 

Mourinho says his relationship with the board is better this time around, he says that he is happy at Chelsea and wants to stay at Chelsea for the long-term, hoping to emulate Sir Alex Ferguson — but strange substitutions and team selections are continuously analysed at being “messages” sent to the board.

The game versus Manchester City makes the first time John Terry has been substituted by Jose Mourinho in 117 games and while the Blues’ captain is rumoured to have a hamstring complaint, Mourinho said the move was “tactical.” Couple this with Ramires starting on the wing ahead of Victor Moses and Juan Cuadrado and you could certainly make an argument that Mourinho’s mind-games extend to within the confines of the club.

Third seasons have become a problem for Jose Mourinho and even though most of it seems co-incidental, its becoming a trend: A falling out with Abramovich; a falling out with Iker Casillas, Pepe, and the Spanish press; and now “Physio-gate,” on top of more thinly veiled sniping at Arsene Wenger.

Nobody is doubting Mourinho’s coaching prowess, but rather questioning if his ego is getting in the way of the Portuguese achieving what he deserves.

Is Jose trying to send messages to Roman Abramovich with this erratic behaviour? Nobody knows. But it needs to stop; his mind games are disrupting the team now, rather than taking the pressure off of them.

The summer transfer window, and squad depth.

If it’s true that Juventus are interested in offering real life money for Ramires then Chelsea should take it, the Brazilian midfielder hasn’t progressed like most had thought he might and is clearly not talented enough to be playing at the highest level in the Premier League.

However if Ramires were to leave he would join: Cech, Felipe Luis, Oriol Romeu, Didier Drogba,   Mohammed Salah, and potentially Juan Cuadrado (also Juventus) out of the Stamford Bridge exit door. The only “reinforcements” Mourinho has brought in? Radamel Falcao on loan from Monaco for a second crack at the Premier League after failing miserably with Manchester United last season, and Asmir Begovic.

On the back of Chelsea’s first two performances of the season there has been much backlash from fans regarding Chelsea’s lack of movement in the window, but honesty who have their rivals signed that would improve the current Champions?

Obviously defense is an issue, but the Blues announced the signing of Abdul Baba Rahman Sunday evening and it’s likely John Stones will follow from Everton before the end of the window.

Simply put, though, there is not enough competition for places at Stamford Bridge. Players like Diego Costa and Eden Hazard may be the first names on the team sheet because of past performance but if they are not being pushed to perform, the likelihood is they will not. As a result, Hazard has played the worst three games he’s ever played in a Chelsea shirt and Costa looks like he’s stranded on an island up-front.

In this summer window we have seen Andre Ayew join Swansea, Memphis Depay and Morgan Schneiderlin join Manchester United, Raheem Sterling join Manchester City, Christian Benteke and Nathaniel Clyne join Liverpool, and Xherdan Shaqiri and Ibrahim Affelay join Stoke City.

Perhaps Mourinho’s antics in Spain — and now in England — have worn thin on potential transfer targets, leaving Chelsea Football Club’s previously famous strength-in-depth nowhere to be seen.

Chelsea look to get back on track against West Bromwich Albion next Sunday.

Follow Scott Nicholls on Twitter: @scottnicholls