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When Antonio Conte started this season with an aim of avoiding the “Jose Mourinho” season, most fans and critics alike passed on it as a joke. Fast forward a few months later, the situation is turning out to be something not short of an epic disaster.
A title-winning procession which was expected to conquer Europe after the exploits on the English shores went off the wheels in a horrific manner.
Spiralling down from the high ambitions of winning the Champions League, the club now instead faces a battle to qualify for next season's competition after a horrific run of results in 2018 has led to them dropping out of the Champions League spots in the Premier League.
Also, there is no Jose Mourinho this time to poison the dressing room atmosphere with his Eva Carneiro-like episode. The season started with the signing of talents like Alvaro Morata, Tiemoue Bakayoko and the EPL return for the home-grown Andreas Christensen after his heroics in the Bundesliga.
These actions resulted in the hopes of having an exceptional season which included defending the Premier League title alongside taking a tilt at the biggest prize in Europe which the Blues last won in Munich in 2012.
So, what has gone wrong?
The things had started to turn sour even before the first goal of the season was scored courtesy a bad-blooded text message sent by Antonio Conte. Stirred on by the transfer shenanigans of his first-choice striker who had his head turned around by a big-money offer from China during the last winter transfer window, Conte decided to wield his axe.
However, not only the summer vacations of the perennial bad boy of English football were ruined that day but instead a major wheel from the Stamford Bridge title winning juggernaut broke off. Yes, it looks like that text message breakup is a major reason for the mess the Blues are facing this year.
Physicality: A must in the Premier League
The most successful periods for the Blues footballing history have always coincided with them possessing a no-nonsense physical striker who can bully the defenders and act as a single point of attack.
Past legends like Didier Drogba, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Eidur Gudjohnsen were all masters of this elite craft. Costa too bought these same vital attributes to the team.
For a club like Chelsea which plays with a strategy of working around a single attacking focal point, this is a requirement which needs to be ticked first. Costa’s absence made the club bereft of this edge.
Granted Morata is an extremely talented striker poised for major future success with the Blues but he is definitely not a physical presence in the field as compared to Costa. His continuous struggles with the physicality of the English League is a testament to this.
Costa’s physicality also allowed him to create the space in the final third for the likes of Eden Hazard, Pedro, and Willian to showcase their fancy skills.
Hazard also recently admitted that he does not prefer the false-nine strategy deployed in the recent games by Conte which had to be used due to Morata's continuous struggles in the Chelsea frontline since the turn of the year.
Costa: The ultimate poacher
Despite all his other shortcomings, there is no denying the fact that Costa’s finishing ability was absolutely top-notch, arguably only Luis Suarez comes close to being a better all-out striker than him in the past few years in the League.
His absence came to bite back the Blues during the Champions League round of 16 clashes against Barcelona where they missed a lot of goal scoring chances.
Remember, it was the mercurial Diego Costa who scored that all important goal against Manchester City in the previous season when the City were absolutely bossing that game resulting in an epic turnaround for the Blues not only in the game but the League.
In the matches where the team is not operating at its best and creating few chances, the importance of having someone as clinical as Costa comes to the fore.
Chelsea still have FA Cup to aim for and a strong finish to the Premier League can still result in a Champions League birth next year resulting in a satisfactory season. However, the questions will always remain about what great things could have happened this season had Conte decided to not send that fateful message that day.
