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This season’s title race has arguably been the best title race in the premier league era. We are into march and there are still 4 teams with a realistic chance of winning the title Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City.
Let us start with the team currently at the top of the table, Chelsea. Chelsea are in a good position leading to the title run-in. They have a 6 point lead on the chasing pack having played two games more. It took Mourinho a few months to get acclimatised to his new squad but once they got into their stride they never looked back. At the beginning of the season they had quite a few uncharacteristic results where they conceded 3 or 4 goals in a couple of matches for example when they lost 3-2 to Stoke city or won 4-3 against Sunderland.
As the season progressed Mourinho has shored up his defense by drafting in Azpilicueta instead of Ashley Cole and putting more emphasis on his midfielders to track back and help out his defense.
A huge factor in Chelsea being at the top of the table has been Jose Mourinho’s tactics in the big games. He is not afraid to play out 0-0 draws against the big teams away from home if he has to. A perfect example of this was their performance at the etihad, where they were they first team to beat Manchester City at the etihad with a gritty hard-fought 1-0 victory. The Chelsea manager never shies away from playing mind games with the other managers around him to get under their skin and unnerve them, as seen by his comments about Arsene Wenger and Manuel Pellegrini.
Hazard celebrates after scoring for Chelsea
You cannot talk about Chelsea’s season without mentioning Eden Hazard. The mercurial Chelsea youngster has been their talisman and has often single handedly won matches for Chelsea. With 12 goals and 10 assists he has played a huge part in Chelsea being at the top of the table.
There have been some negatives for Chelsea this season. Firstly Chelsea’s strikers have failed to make a huge impact on the season. Both Torres and Eto’o have had good spells but they have not showed enough consistency to cement their place in the first team, and Ba has been out of the picture completely. They have 14 goals collectively which is not good enough for a side fighting for the title.But one major aspect of Chelsea’s game that has stood out is the rotation of the players playing in the attacking midfield positions particularly Hazard, Willian and Oscar. This makes them extremely difficult to mark and has more than made up for the failures of their strike force.
Another negative was that they were forced to sell one of their fan favorites, Juan Mata. I’m sure there were many fans who were dissapointed to see the two time Chelsea player of the year leave for a rival.But Chelsea hafve done some smart business in the January transfer window by bringing in Matic and Salah. The former has already proven to be a very good signing and has made a huge impact after returning to Chelsea from Benfica. Chelsea have gotten themselves into a strong position and no matter how much Mourinho denies it, Chelsea are the favorites for the title now.
