Although Chelsea managed win against Arsenal,their performance showed no signs of improvement. A combination of Diego Costa and Arsenal’s poor first half saw Chelsea win comfortably in a controversial match where Mike Dean’s refereeing was the central talking point.
Chelsea’s troubles this season are a combination of poor form of key players and an ageing defence. Ivanovic who had a decent game up against Alexis Sanchez has had a horrible run of form this season but still remains the first choice even after the arrival of Baba Rahman. Mourinho still doesn’t acknowledge his side’s problems but deep inside he knows that Chelsea’s dismal run is a sign of deep problems and it needs radical action to be solved. Mourinho’s general plan of action in trouble has been to solidify defence and “park the bus” and somehow eke out 1-0 wins. This plan generally works for the Portuguese and again worked against Arsenal where both the teams were dire and generally had no creativity in the final third. The only creativity we saw was from Diego Costa who employed his street skills to get Gabriel sent off.