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The winner of Chelsea’s player of the season for the last two years is out of favour. And with the season still fresh the little Spaniard has already been served an ultimatum.

So far this season Juan Mata has only played two hours of Premier League football, while Oscar, the man wrestling him for the coveted number 10 spot, has featured in all 5 of Cheslea’s opening league games. 

Two weeks ago Mata was told to adapt or risk spending the rest of the season on the fringe. Of course the only man on the planet that could get away with laying such threats is Jose Mourinho and the fan reactions to Mou’s quotes were duly expected (“in Jose we trust” etc. etc.).

How can Mourinho rationalise such an injustice to Chelsea’s main man of the last two years? Frank and straight to the point as ever.

“In this moment, Oscar is my No. 10 and, if somebody tells me that Oscar is not Chelsea’s best player since the beginning of the season, I’d have to disagree. These are football issues.

[Mata and Oscar can play together], when [Mata] adapts to it. But I’m not ready to play Oscar following full-backs [ed – i.e. as a winger], because he plays in that position for the country with more talented players than anyone else in the world in that position. I want to build with Oscar as my No. 10. I want the other two players, from the side, to adapt to that reality and learn now to do things that they were not ready to do before.”                                                                                                                                                          -Jose Mourinho. Source: ESPN.

After Jose explicitly pointed out that Mata had to prove himself, this weeks Capital One Cup game was billed as the midfielder’s chance to earn a regular starting spot for the big games ahead. When the 90 minutes were said and done first team coach Steve Holland reflected on the man in questions impact and effectiveness where it mattered against Swindon:

“If you look at [Mata’s] performance tonight, he made Fernando’s chance early in the game, he was involved in the goal, so if you take those moments, it’s goal-making and goalscoring actions, and then in injury time he conceded the final corner of the game supporting Ryan Bertrand in the left-back spot, which is how he as all night. That’s been the message from Jose from day one to all our attacking players, not just Juan Mata.

Jose has made it quite clear what he wants the attacking players to do in all those positions. That message is not just to Juan, it’s to Willian, Kevin, Andre Schurrle, all those players. Tonight we are very pleased with Juan’s contribution, with and without the ball.”

                                                         -Steve Holland. Source: ChelseaFC.com

Not straight from the Jose’s mouth, but Steve Holland’s words do offer some comfort that Mata’s efforts may have been enough to warrant him another chance. However, a closer analysis of his performance reveals that he did not entirely deliver on the managers desires.

While the bearded magician worked his usual magic in the final third of the field, playing a part in both goals and creating two more guilt-edge chances, did he fulfil the defensive brief asked of him?

Source: Sports.yahoo.com

For all of his tireless tracking and attempts to mark the Swindon midfield, Mata still showed that he lacks the nous to win the ball cleanly in a tackle and muscle up when under pressure. Credit must go to the number 10 for his work ethic and the obvious effort he was putting in to try and prove that he can be the physical “defender-from-the-front” that Mourinho yearns, but the numerous fouls he gave away in our defensive half fell short of the mark.

Oscar on the other hand, showed his adeptness at winning the ball back in Chelsea’s dismantling of Fulham last weekend. The 21-year-old Brazilian underlined the steeliness at the centre of Mourinho’s praise, with 7 tackles in the match – the Blues most on the day (an astounding feat for an attacking-mid). This combined with the three tackles, two chances created, a miraculous curling shot that hit the cross-bar and a goal (his seventh in eight CL games) in his man-of the-match performance against Basel in the Champions League three days earlier, and you can see why Mourinho has chosen Oscar as his central stalwart so far.

While all Chelsea fans would love to see Mata in the starting eleven week-in week-out, it’s hard to argue against Mourinho’s reasoning. Oscar is the one in form and the man Mou picks to play behind the striker for the Tottenham derby this weekend will shed some light on exactly how Mata measures up in his manager’s eyes post-Swindon.

Only time will tell if Mata will continue his bit-part role from the outer or if he will return to the forefront as Chelsea’s chief creator 

Mackenzie Lyon

Without a doubt, in his first ten years as Chelsea owner Roman Abrahmovich has introduced and solidified a stigma of big-spending at the club, year after year relentlessly splashing the cash. But while Chelsea Football Club deep pockets are universally recognised, it is easily forgotten that some of the most influential players in the Roman Abrahmovich era actually arrived for nothing.

 Free Transfer’s Off the Roman Empire:
Samuel Eto’o
Mark Schwarzer
Ross Turnbull
Claudio Pizarro
Michael Ballack
Henrique Hilario
Nuno Morais
Neil Sulivan
Yves Makabu-Makalambav

Point in case, one Michael Ballack – heading hero, free-kick connoisseur and Chelsea stalwart from 2006-2010. The midfielder joined from Bayern Munich on a free transfer and scored 17 goals in 105 league games and 27 in 167 matches in all competitions in his four years at Chelsea. But goals weren’t all that the former German international captain bought to the squad. Ballack added leadership to a midfield overflowing with talent and experience. His consistency was one of his greatest strengths, chipping in his fair share ofassists and always lethal from the set piece – whether he was getting on the end of a cross or firing them in himself.

But the man from Deutschland is not the only free agent success story, the signing of Henrique Hilario can, too, be lauded as money well not-spent. The Portuguese keeper, although always playing second or third fiddle, has remained content with his role in the squad and it is hard to fault his efforts when he has taken to the pitch. The shot-stopper made an epic debut for the Blues against Barcelona in October 2006, keeping a clean sheet in the 1-0 Champions League win. He has since played 39 times  in his 7 years at Chelsea and has kept clean sheets in 18 of these appearances -not a bad record for someone who cost the club nothing.

So that brings us to this seasons notable captures on the free agent front. Mr Abrahmovich’s penniless signings of Samuel Eto’o and Mark Schwarzer this window show that even he can mix it with the impoverished of world football – disregarding, of course, the $70 odd million he also spent this summer.

Both of these new signings have arrived as stopgaps, while the club delays the bleeding of more youth into the squad for another season (in the form of Romelu Lukaku and Thibaut Courtois). Although they are not fresh from the fountain of youth, there is no denying Eto’o and Schwarzer are still overflowing with talent and experience.

Of course nothing is ever completely free, with both signings bound to be receiving hefty wages. Nonetheless, one can’t argue with the shrewdness of these deals and it’s hard to see them not performing to their proven potential when called upon. Eto’o will be the more intriguing tale to follow, with the international break only fermenting further questions about what the Cameroonian’s impact will be both on and off the pitch. Will Mourinho thrust the 33-year-old to the top of the pecking order? How will he fair in the English league? and will he be suited to playing as the point-man with the creativity of Chelsea’s midfield behind him?

Only time will tell if these freebies will be as influential as the “Little Kaiser”, or if Roman will come to rue their sizeable weekly pay-packets.

Mackenzie Lyon

Some may argue the league is already at the pinnacle of competitive football, and to be fair many remarkable seasons over the last two decades forge a strong case for the affirmative. Manchester United’s treble in 98/99; Arsenal’s “Invincibles” of 03/04; or even Man City’s last-gasp triumph in 11/12 – were all hallmarks that defined the English competition as a leader on the world stage.

Even so, this is the season that will outdo all the rest. The coming 9 months will see the strongest Premier League sides in history battle it out for the title of English football’s greatest ever champions.

The stars have aligned this year, consummating a title struggle more competitive than anywhere else on planet football has ever garnered.

The fact that, at the end of the past three months of transfer market madness, there stands no outright favourite for first place – instead a pack of five or six greyhounds raring to pounce out for the flying rabbit – speaks volumes for the strength of the Premier League this year. In previous seasons the top three sides have been pre-determined from the outset, with the rest of the pack offering no real pressure or intrigue as they flail for European qualification. But, this year the trifecta is not so easily tipped.

Optimism is rife. The 2013/2014 campaign has a real sense of uncertainty and this has supporters everywhere feeling just a little giddy. Manchester United managed to squeeze Marouane Fellaini through the window in the closing moments, fuzzy-hair and all, and the bulky Belgian will certainly strengthen the reigning champions engine-room.

No surprises from Chelsea or Man City, who spent their usual £100 million or so injecting a bit of youth here and some Brazilian botox there, to give their sides a face-lift. These moves were expected, of course the top three teams of last year would tinker with their squads readying themselves to do battle for the title once more.

But, this is where it gets interesting. Arsene “the man who makes superstars, not buys them” Wenger, saved himself some blushes and an uproar from disgruntled supporters, by making a late snag for German wunderkind Mesut Ozil for a club record fee of £42 million.

Both, Liverpool and Tottenham also made big waves in the transfer window bringing in 8 and 7 quality players respectively. While Tottenham’s big spending may have come at a cost, with the moves all funded by the departure of Gareth Bale, Liverpool managed to hang onto their main man Luis Suarez. That being said, the players Spurs picked up in the process will more than compensate for the loss of their star Welshman – ultimately leaving both teams from North-London and the red-half of Merseyside with formidable starting elevens ready to challenge for the top three.

But thats not where it ends. Middle table sides such as Everton, Southampton, Swansea City, Norwich and West-Ham won’t be push-overs either, having each made notable acquisitions in the summer. Even the new boys haven’t been afraid to splash the cash, and Cardiff’s toppling of Man City in the second round, already reflects the threat these unknown commodities could offer.

3 months and £630 million later, the Premier League clubs are ready to jump into overdrive. Mix this with the fact that the players themselves will all be running their own individual race to book a spot for their nation in Brazil in June next year, and this season really does have all the ingredients of a perfect storm. Once the players return from International duty this weekend, with their fires burning stronger than ever for both club and country, the battle for the premiership will ignite. And the victor when all is said and done… Well they will have the greatest bragging rights of all – the best ever. At least, until next season that is…

Mackenzie Lyon

He has piqued the interest of Champion’s League runners-up Borussia Dortmund, dragged a struggling Werder Bremen through the Bundesliga, and is drawing praise from newspapers such as The Telegraph as having an “instant impact” for Chelsea.

Kevin De Bruyne is seen as one of Europe’s elite young talents and, after proving his worth through two loan stints, now has his chance to start up proper with the Chelsea big guns. The 180cm, 68kg, 22-year-old Belgian started Chelsea’s season opener against the newly promoted and newly named Hull City/Tigers and earned himself a man of the match for his efforts.

The question begging is: how far is De Bruyne away from being a world class player?  

De Bruyne began catching the eye in the Belgian Jupiler Pro League for the club Racing Genk aged just 14. By the 2009/2010 season, he had become a first team regular, and by the following season, had made his debut for Belgium, a team believed by many to be on the cusp of a golden generation. The 2010/2011 season was a stellar one for De Bruyne, helping Genk to a league title, scoring 5 goals and notching 16 assists in 22 appearances. After a prolonged transfer saga lasting several months, Chelsea eventually signed him for around €8-€9mil by the January 2012 deadline day, immediately getting loaned back to Genk as part of the deal.

The following season, De Bruyne was loaned out to struggling Bundesliga outfit Werder Bremen. He flourished, scoring 10 goals and providing 10 assists in 34 appearances in a lacklustre side in one of the world’s toughest leagues. According to squawka.com, De Bruyne created 85 chances in 33 appearances for Bremen. This figure compares favourably with the hyper-creative, two-time Chelsea player of the year, Juan Mata, who managed to produce 95 chances with 35 appearances in the same season with an infinitely more competent team.

He is now back wearing the Chelsea blue as one of Mourinho’s charges after seeing off a few bids for him this transfer window from Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen. But how do his gifts stack up against a Chelsea attacking midfield packed with trequartistas and counter attacking gems such as Schürrle and Moses?

Positionally, De Bruyne was forced to be flexible during his time at Werder Bremen, but prefers to play on either of the wings or in a number 10 role.  At one point, he even played as a false 9, however his ability to draw out defenders was wasted on Bremen players who lacked the talent to capitalise on the space he created. He leans slightly towards playing on the left wing, where his cannon-like shots can be put to best use.

Technically, he is a player right near the top. He has remarkable touch, is exceptional with both feet and has the athletic abilities to beat a man on the wing. De Bruyne has often drawn ill-fitting comparisons with Frank Lampard. While not the same type of player as the legendary number 8, these comparisons have come about from a certain similar confidence in their long range shooting. Luckily, he has a boot to back it up.

De Bruyne also has the ability to punish from dead ball situations, consistently troubling from free kicks and is spot on with his deliveries from corners.

His real strengths lie in his passing vision, quick decision making and tactical nous, some of the rarest commodities in world football, let alone in a player so young. His ability to see play early will make him a joy to watch playing alongside other gifted playmakers such as Oscar, Mata and Hazard. Chelsea will have the potential to play a mesmerising brand of football when all of these players are in sync.

With one man of the match performance already in the bank after a scintillating display against Hull, he is off to a great start, and partially it was down to his perfect application of what was Mourinho’s plan. De Bruyne played the majority of his 67 minutes on the right of midfield, but made intelligent runs infield and even all the way across to the left side of the field. This created an overload which was not managed by the Hull defence, and it was only a matter of time before De Bruyne slotted a precise ball behind the defence for Oscar to nudge in to the net.

Bundesliga pundits often pointed out De Bruyne’s ability to adapt tactically, even when he was playing out of position at Bremen. His ability to follow direction is a manager’s dream.

One flaw, inherent to many attacking midfielders, is his lacking defensive ability. His diminutive figure might also put him at a disadvantage in the notoriously physical Premier league. As has been demonstrated by even smaller players Hazard and Mata, small statures are not an issue if you can draw fouls, beat players with skill (like Hazard) or move play on very quickly (see, Mata).

All in all, De Bruyne has the potential to be one of the best buys ever for Chelsea. His all-around play is phenomenally mature for a player of his age and it would seem that his development is far from done. As for the question, is he world class yet? The coming months will tell all. But he is getting pretty damn close.

Lachlan Eyers

He’s back

It was only three months, but 95 days can feel like an eternity when the off-season offers such long awaited and anticipated returns such as this one did. ‘The Happy one’ )THO. KDB. Lukaku. Essien. And if that wasn’t enough to tempt the pallet into salacious salivation ahead of the opening weekend, our ever generous Russian ‘emperor’ stuck to his decade long tradition of dabbling in the summer transfer market. As if our sexy squad wasn’t already overflowing with world-class young fellows, in strolled Dutch prodigy Van Ginkel and German wunderkind Andre Schürrle.

Of course Chelsea fans all over the world took to pubs and social media to outline their own master plans for our boys in blue this season right up until kick-off, but all the speculation ceased when, the now ‘happy’ one, finally took his place in the Stamford bridge dugout for his second coming. So after 92 minutes, 2 goals, 3 debuts and a clean sheet its time to reflect on what we got right, what we got wrong and what we are yet to learn…

Mazacar isn’t the be all and end all

This subheading in no way attempts to imply any negative connotations to the magic that our three wizards of the front third conjured at times last year. Instead, yesterday we learnt that while Juan Mata, Eden Hazard and Oscar are amazing, the returning Kevin De Bruyne is more than capable of ousting either three from their starting spots. For me, he was our most impressive player of the preseason and it would appear that form could transcend to the premier league. The smart movement and interchange from right to left and more central was in-tune with his fellow musketeers, Eden and Oscar from the outset.

However, the red-headed Belgian offered a different tact to the trickery and elegance of the other two, bamboozling defenders, not with flashy step-overs, but with slick passing, space-creation and directness. While this influence only lasted for half an hour, to be fair the same could be said about the rest of the team, as it appeared Jose had sent orders to conserve energy ahead of an already busy fixture list. Even so, the signs (an assist on debut) were there that KDB will not simply be a squad filler – and at only 7.0 million in fantasy he might be worth a punt too.

(a) Torres (b) Lukaku (c) Ba (d) none of the above? 

I am sure I don’t need to rehash the well publicized and discussed question mark that has loomed over our striking options since the departure of Didier Drogba, but are we any closer to an answer after our victory over Hull? The simple answer is no. Torres didn’t shine yesterday (cue the deafening scratch of that broken record), Lukaku didn’t get the chance to shine and in my opinion Ba will never shine for Chelsea (controversial I know). While I thought Torres had a good performance in the first-half and linked up well with the three maestros behind him, the cutting edge to his game still wasn’t where it needs to be for a title-favourite’s striker. Lukaku on the other hand was only given a little over 20 minutes to impose himself on a game already drained of any attacking intent from the home side. With just over two weeks until the transfer window slams shut the following fixtures will have a big part to play in the outcome of our season as a whole. Will Torres’ goal drought end, finally flooding the score sheet in true El Niño-esque fashion; will Lukaku deliver on the promise of his 17 goals for West Brom last season or; will we call on the services of a certain man from manure to secure the silverware?

That Frank Lampard kid is gonna go far one day

The greatest thing that came out of last season was not the Europa League victory or, perhaps surprisingly, seeing that fat Spanish waiter leave without a tip. The renewal of Frank Lampard’s contract for one more season was by far the biggest win for all true blue fans. And if you were still uncertain about this raw young talent, the midfielder, aged a tender 35, last night proved why he still has the legs and the game-changing-ability to play a big part for Chelsea this season.

While I don’t see Jose starting him week in week out, our number 8 will supply money-can’t-buy mentorship and support to our youthful squad, be it off the bench, from the start or in the locker rooms.

Mourinho may have learnt a lot, but some things don’t change

Two nil up, 25 minutes in and cruising towards an opening weekend routing of Premier League promotes Hull, then the tactician steps in. I didn’t hear the words straight from his mouth, but I’m sure there were orders in an angelic Portuguese tone relayed pre-match, scripting the exact game plan that unfolded before our eyes at the bridge last night. We wanted three points, a clean-sheet, no injuries and all with minimum strain on player fitness, and that’s exactly what Mr Mourinho delivered. Well knowing that the games over the next weeks had already piled up, THO played it cool, delivered the cheese and splashed just enough flair to further ferment fans dreams of what this talented crop of players could produce over the next 9 months. And ever the consummate mix of professional and deviant; Mourinho was sure to leave the media with enough fuel to fire more speculation over another possible Rooney bid.

Whether the deal comes off and we land a goal-scorer, or it falls through and leaves United with a massive riff in their change-room; Mourinho’s tapping will go down as another masterstroke from the king of mind games.

Mackenzie Lyon

Storify re-cap of the action and reaction on Twitter from the game: http://storify.com/talksport/twitter-reaction-to-chelsea-s-xxxx-win-over-hull-c