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Chelsea lost to Leicester City 0-1 on Saturday and further jeopardized their position in the Premier League. It can be safely said now that they are out of the title race in the Premier League now.
They had made a promising start to the season under newly appointed coach Maurizio Sarri and were at the 2nd position after the first 10 matches. However, they have only been able to collect eight points from their last seven matches and fallen behind in the race for the Premier League title.
Both Liverpool and Manchester City are considerably ahead of Chelsea and even Tottenham Hotspur lead them by five points now. Chelsea are at the 4th position with 37 points from 18 matches and would have to fight with Arsenal and a seemingly rejuvenated Manchester United for a top 4 finish.
Chelsea had aroused hope with a surprising 2-0 win over City, but now it seems to have been a fluke. Sarri and his assistant Gianfranco Zola would have to make their team perform considerably better if they are to finish inside the top 4 and ensure participation in next year’s Champions' League. One has to remember that Chelsea are not playing in Champions' League this season either.
We would now look at the top 3 reasons why Chelsea have fallen behind in the Premier League.
#1 Lack of a genuine goal-scorer
Chelsea have lacked a genuine goal scorer throughout the season so far. Alvaro Morata was supposed to be their main striker, but is too inconsistent to carry a team on his shoulders. He has scored 7 goals in 21 matches this season and already been linked to other clubs like Barcelona.
Should he decide to leave, the onus would be on Olivier Giroud to score the much-needed goals for his team. Even Giroud has not started regularly for the Blues this season and would have his task cut out as the lone striker.
Chelsea have been playing without a genuine striker and using Eden Hazard as a false 9. None of Hazard, Pedro Rodriguez and Willian are a natural goal-scorer and therefore, Chelsea have found the goals difficult to come by. Even in the match against City, both of their goals were scored by defensive players, Ngolo Kante and David Luiz.
#2 N'olo Kante not playing in his preferred position
Sarri has played N’Golo Kante in a much-advanced role since the beginning of the season. This has resulted in some goals for Kante, but his inadequate passing skills have come to the fore too. Jorginho has been playing as a defensive midfielder but is yet to deliver the kind of performances which can justify Kante sacrificing his preferred position.
In the match against Tottenham Hotspur that Chelsea lost 1-3, Jorginho found the high press of Dele Alli and Harry Kane too difficult to handle. Moreover, Kante remains one of Chelsea's better players and should not be made to play out of his preferred position.
If Kante plays as the defensive midfielder, Chelsea would be able to play another creative central midfielder in the shape of Ross Barkley in their starting line-up. Barkley has been consistently playing second fiddle to Matteo Kovacic, who has not been that great for Chelsea either.
Chelsea have genuinely lacked a good passer or two in the midfield and suffered to some extent because of the stubbornness and rigidity shown by the team management in this regard. It would make more sense to drop Jorginho, play Kante as a holding midfielder and Barkley & Kovacic as the two central midfielders.
#3 Over-dependence on Eden Hazard
Hazard has been Chelsea's most important player for the last 4-5 seasons now, but a team can not afford to be over-dependent on an individual for too long. Hazard has played in 321 matches for Chelsea and scored 99 goals, but they need other players to step up their game and help the Belgian restore his team's fortunes. Moreover, Hazard might actually leave for Real Madrid in January and should that happen, Chelsea would be in even bigger trouble.
Hazard has played as a false 9 in the last few matches when it is pretty clear that he prefers to play as a winger and cut into the opposition penalty box from the flanks.
However, in the current Chelsea set-up, he has to fall back to the midfield too often to collect balls and create moves. Pedro and Willian are often not incisive enough to be able to help him in creating goal-scoring opportunities. Chelsea would have to come out with a solution in this regard.
