Chelsea being dragged down

bennythedip2 · #1 November 9th, 2015, 12:03

'Mourinho dragging Chelsea down':

(Nov 9th 2015)

Jamie Redknapp says "something is dramatically wrong" at Chelsea and that Jose Mourinho has to take responsibility.

Chelsea's struggles continued as Marko Arnautovic's second-half volley earned Stoke City a 1-0 victory on Saturday Night Football.

Mourinho was not in attendance at the Britannia Stadium due to his one-match stadium ban and the result leaves the reigning Premier League champions just three points above the relegation zone, and 13 points adrift of the top-four places.

"This time after 12 games last season they had not lost, now they've lost seven matches - something is dramatically wrong," Redknapp told Saturday Night Football.

"It can't be right. They breezed the league last year, to be in this situation is unprecedented, I can't remember a team ever performing like this after winning the title.

"Mourinho has to take a lot of responsibility for that; the club doctor [situation], taking John Terry off at half-time against Man City, subbing Nemanja Matic on and off - he's the best player you've got - Eden Hazard's form, a stadium ban, how many more things can there be?"

After last week's home defeat to Liverpool, Sky sources reported last week that Mourinho's position as Chelsea manager was not under immediate threat.

However, Redknapp thinks the manager's saving grace could be the perceived lack of a suitable replacement.

"You almost feel he is dragging the club down with his behaviour and if it carries on I don't know what you can do," Redknapp said.

"The problem is who do you get? It's not that easy. Because of his reputation maybe you should give him more time but this is more than worrying, this is terrible times for Chelsea."

bennythedip2 · #2 November 9th, 2015, 12:08

Matic: Chelsea are together

(Nov 9th 2015)

Chelsea midfielder Nemanja Matic insists the Blues are "together"

and not focusing on the Barclays Premier League table that sees them lying just three points above the relegation zone after 12 games.

The champions slipped to 16th on Saturday as they succumbed to a third straight league defeat and seventh of the season, going down 1-0 at Stoke.

Three days on from the 2-1 Champions League victory over Dynamo Kiev, it turned the heat up once again on Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho, who was unable to attend Saturday's contest due to a one-match stadium ban.

But while it was another bad result in the London outfit's grim campaign that left their manager's future looking more uncertain than ever, Chelsea goalkeeper Asmir Begovic has expressed his belief the performance showed the players are working hard for Mourinho in a bid to turn things around.

And that sentiment has been echoed by Matic, who said: "I think in the last two games we played good football, but have been unlucky.

"I don't want to say that we have played well in all games this season - of course, there were some where we deserved to lose.

"But (on Saturday) I think this was not the case and we deserved more.

"What is going well is that the team is together, everyone understands the situation we are in and we will try to be more together and work hard to make this situation better.

"In this moment, we haven't had the luck to change something to make it better for us, but I hope in the future we will."

The 27-year-old Serbia international added: "We are not used to being in this position, but we don't look a lot at the table.

"Last season, when we were champions, for the first 10 or 15 games we also did not look at the table - we just tried to take things game by game and collect as many points as possible.

"I think the table is not realistic now because I think Chelsea deserve more. We will try to recover points which we lost up to now."

Mourinho was left in the team hotel when his side headed to the Britannia Stadium, and Matic felt the Portuguese had done a good job of preparing the players in the time he had to do so.

"He prepared before the game in the last couple of training sessions which we had after the Dynamo game," Matic said.

"He prepared everything, at Cobham especially, and we knew what we had to do.

"I think we did our job well - there was only the one situation where Stoke scored the goal, and they were lucky to score it."

Mourinho's assistants Steve Holland and Rui Faria were overseeing things from the touchline as Stoke forward Marko Arnautovic settled Saturday's game with a 53rd-minute volley.