Courtois injury surely ends Blues’ title hopes?
With news today of the Thibaut Courtois injury possibly lasting as long as four months, Chelsea‘s nightmare start to the season hits a new low, with their slim title hopes surely already put to bed for 2015/16.
Here’s our full five reasons we think the Blues can say goodbye to Premier League glory for the season:
1) Courtois injury
The Courtois injury is surely too big a hurdle to get around? With Petr Cech gone as a backup, the Belgian international is truly the only world class shot-stopper at Stamford Bridge, with Asmir Begovic looking shakey whenever he has played so far, including a couple of real howlers in pre-season. A top player for a club like Stoke, but the Bosnian was not signed to play four months as number one for a title challenger.
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Chelsea transfer news
2) Terry form
Such an important part of Chelsea’s success last season, age finally seems to be catching up with John Terry as he looks well below par this term. He’s already been dragged off by Jose Mourinho at half time in the defeat to Manchester City, and he got himself sent off against West Brom to further highlight his own poor individual start. Put simply, the club captain is no longer the reliable giant at the back that he once was, and with Mourinho failing in his efforts to land John Stones, the alternatives at the back don’t look great.
3) Lack of strikers
With Diego Costa not looking at his best, Chelsea could really have done with adding more depth up front, though based on what we’ve seen so far, the likes of Radamel Falcao and Loic Remy aren’t the most reliable options either, both in terms of being able to stay fit and also in terms of being at the peak of their powers performance-wise.
4) Mourinho looks fed up
At odds with owner Roman Abramovich over signings, and having already had high-profile bust-ups with physio Eva Carneiro, it looks like being one of those seasons where it all falls apart for the notoriously difficult Jose Mourinho. Having won the Premier League title for a third time, is he losing motivation to succeed at Stamford Bridge again?
5) Man City too good
Quite simply, Manchester City look a stunning team at the moment with the signings they’ve made. Raheem Sterling will surely take them to another level, while Nicolas Otamendi and Kevin De Bruyne haven’t even got going yet. Elsewhere, the likes of Vincent Kompany, Yaya Toure and David Silva look back to their best and could make the 2013/14 champions unstoppable once again.