Chelsea
are in "meltdown" after their poor start to the season, and Jose Mourinho's
blame game is typical of the Blues manager, say the Sunday Supplement panel.
The Premier League champions have started the term poorly, picking up just
four points from four games, and were beaten 2-1 by Crystal Palace on
Saturday.
It was only Mourinho's second home league defeat at Stamford Bridge on his
100th outing, and
The People's Steve Bates insists the team are in
disarray.
He told the
Sunday Supplement: "By Chelsea standards it's a total
meltdown. They look a team in disarray, the problems seem to piling up and
they look unrecognisable to the team who started the season last year.
"If this carries on you could seriously see this situation escalating for
Mourinho because this is not what you expect from champions.
"They need to arrest this decline quickly."
Both the
Daily Telegraph's Jason Burt and the
Sunday Times'
Jonathan Northcroft believe Mourinho is unhappy with Chelsea's summer
transfer activity, and that the Portuguese boss' complaints are something we
have seen times before.
Chelsea have brought in Pedro, Baba Rahman, Asmir Begovic, Kenedy and Nathan
to the club, as well as Radamel Falcao on loan this summer.
But Northcroft says Mourinho wanted midfielder Paul Pogba from Juventus at
the start of the season, and with the champions potentially missing out on
Everton's John Stones, an uncomfortable atmosphere may develop.
Northcroft said: "Yes, he hasn't got what he wanted. I think he wanted Pogba
at the start of the summer, that was one he pushed for. And obviously he
wanted Stones.
"The decline of certain players has probably shocked him. People like [Cesc]
Fabregas, [Nemanja] Matic, [Branislav] Ivanovic in particular, and then
somebody like John Terry going over that hill defenders go over. I think
he's been spooked by that.
"It's typical Mourinho behaviour to show signs of rebellion when things
aren't going his way.
"It already feels like the title is City's title to lose. If they maintain
what they're doing they've got enough already. Chelsea need a huge, huge
winning run now and they look so far from that."
Burt echoed Northcroft's words, saying a look back at Mourinho's previous
tenures at clubs suggest he will not want to be the man blamed for any
failure at the club.
He said: "If he's not getting what he wants [in the transfer market],
history tends to show he does kick off.
"He's not got what he wanted and he's going to start complaining more and
more. That's what he does. It happened last time at Chelsea and it's
happened at every club he's been at.
"He will not want to be blamed if Chelsea don't retain the title or don't
have a good run in the Champions League, he'll start blaming other people.
"It could get increasingly intense and difficult for everyone. We know that
when Mourinho doesn't get what he wants he becomes very fractious."
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