Premier League 2018-19: What is going wrong with Chelsea?

Ah Chelsea... that team in the Premier League that always manages to be in the conversation, no matter how badly things may be going for them.

The Blues are part of this season's conversation for all the wrong reasons. Their manager, Maurizio Sarri, is happy to publicly criticize his players, but one can't help but think that that's completely unjustified because he doesn't even play them in the right positions!

For example, Eden Hazard is being used as a false nine, when naturally he's a left winger/forward. Going out in public and slating your top players is professional suicide as a manager, especially in the Premier League.

When Jose Mourinho did it to Paul Pogba, the French World Cup winner very nearly left the club. Hazard is probably going to leave Chelsea anyway after revealing in an interview that he has made a decision about his future at the club, with Real Madrid looking the most likely place he is going to end up at.

But that does beg the question: What do Chelsea do then?

How do you replace a player like Hazard? How do you convince any world class player with a world class ego to move to a club where the manager isn't afraid to publicly criticize you if you're not playing too well?

THAT is the decision Roman Abramovic has to make. Is Sarri the man to take the club forward? With the Carabao Cup final on Sunday looming, we will soon have our answer.

According to numerous sports news outlets, Sarri will face the sack if he loses the final against Manchester City. That is quite a tall order: beat the strongest, quickest and most valuable squad in English football in a cup final, or lose your job.

From a neutral point of view however, it looks like sacking Sarri is the best thing to do, because then the club could move for Zinidene Zidane, a man who knows how to make it in Europe. The other manager linked with the job is club legend Frank Lampard, but he's not ready for this level.

Chelsea have got a lot of decisions to make. They need to establish an identity and work out what they want from their season. They've spent too much money and gone through too many great managers to just keep doing the same thing: spend and sack, spend and sack.

Chelsea have gone from being one of the teams in the league everyone was afraid of playing, to the laughing stock of the Premier League. That warrants some serious introspection.