#3 Juan Mata
Juan Mata was signed by Chelsea in August 2011 and had a flying start to his Blues career with a goal on debut. He took to the Premier League like a fish to water and went on to win the Chelsea Player of the Year award for two years running.
The return of the “Special One” in 2013 turned out to be not so special for Mata as Oscar was favoured over him in the central playmaker role. Further, Mata was asked by Mourinho to adapt to a wider role and put on more defensive work. This triggered a move to rivals Manchester United in January 2014 with first-team football hard to come by at Chelsea.
Mata was a hit at Manchester United and shone well in a struggling team under Louis van Gaal, before he was replaced by Jose Mourinho this summer, reuniting the manager-player pair. Initially, it looked like Mata would be sold owing to their previous differences, but Mata has so far been an important player this season with the team never having lost when he has played so far.
The replacements bought by Chelsea to play out wide in the form of Mohamed Salah and Juan Cuadrado have failed to materialize so far with both the players currently plying their trade in Italy.
Although Chelsea do have good players for the role, Conte would have definitely loved to have the Spaniard amidst his ranks as the playmaker.
