Chelsea's 1-0 victory over Everton on Saturday was the deserved result of a dominant team's battling performance, fighting to victory against an opponent determined to sit the game out for a point. Or at least, that's the narrative Jose Mourinho would like you to believe. The truth is that Chelsea were lacklustre for large stretches of the game, creating little against Everton's outstandingly organised defence and needing Petr Cech to be at his best against several dangerous counter-attacks. Mourinho certainly deserves enormous credit for instilling his team with a never-say-die work ethic and greater defensive discipline than the schizophrenic Chelsea sides from virtually every season since the departure of Carlo Ancelotti, but while the Blues remain difficult to beat, there is an increasingly strong sense that they are altogether less confident in their attacking play and opponents are wising up to them. It's a difficult case to make while Chelsea are sitting top of the table, albeit assuming that Manchester City do not win their game in hand. Mourinho's teams have always achieved success through graft rather than grace, a model which appears on the surface to be working wonders again this season. The problem is when you look at the problems Chelsea have endured this season, how many of them have come as a result of Mourinho's decision making, and how likely they are to grow in prominence next year, or the year after. In order to better examine the problems facing Mourinho now and in the future, this article is divided into four sections: this introduction, a Tactical Analysis on Page 2, his self-imposed Lack Of Options on Page 3, and a look at how Teams Change on Page 4.
28-year old English writer with a borderline obsessive passion for films, videogames, Chelsea FC, incomprehensible words and indefensible puns. Follow me on Twitter if you like infrequent outbursts of absolute drivel.
