What’s the Mata, Jose?

Since the return of ‘The Chosen One’, Chelsea haven’t looked anything like the team from his first spell at the club. The team have played with a complete lack of confidence so far, and are really lacking in firepower.

Torres has been misfiring ever since he signed for Chelsea, and it’s now getting to the point where you could label him a dud. Then there’s Demba Ba, a completely average player since he signed from Newcastle. Lastly, new signing Samuel Eto’o plays as if he’s better than anybody on the park, which is an appalling attitude to carry. The one game that they’ve played in the Champions League was very poor, and after going a goal ahead, they lost the game 2-1 to Basel. In fact I’d go as far to say that Chelsea have been terrible in every game that they’ve played in minus one, against Bayern Munich in the Super Cup.

That leads to the question, how can they play great against Bayern Munich, the current best team in the world, but terrible against the rest? Juan Mata is the reason why Chelsea have lost their ‘spark’ this season. Why on earth is he not in the team? We are talking about a player who won more games for the team than anyone else last season for Chelsea. All in last season for club and country, Mata played an incredible 74 games. He returned 21 goals and 39 assists in these games, involvement in 0.81 goals per games played. In the English Premier League he scored 11 goals and assisted 17 times in 35 games. Again this shows involvement in 0.8 goals per game played. Now why does Mourinho insist on leaving him out? I’d say Mata is Chelsea’s best player, he’s that good.

Mourinho has come in though and froze Mata out of the picture. Nobody will question this however, as Mourinho ‘knows best’. I for one couldn’t care less what Mourinho is trying to do here and what he says regarding the matter. He has challenged Mata to fit into the new style of play among the team. Come on Jose, Mata is a player that should be in the team week in week out, regardless of what style of play you’re trying to achieve. Even the players play better when Mata is on the pitch. Leaving Mata out of the team is showing in the games played so far.

Chelsea are usually dominant at home, but there has been three less than convincing wins so far against Hull (2-0), Aston Villa (2-1) and Fulham (2-0). The other two games have ended in a 0-0 draw away to Manchester United and a 1-0 defeat away to Everton. The only time Chelsea have been ahead at half time was in the game against Hull on match day one. The four goals scored by Chelsea in the league have been by Lampard, Ivanovic, Mikel and two from Oscar. The two goals in the Super Cup were scored by Torres and Hazard, with Oscar scoring the only goal in the Champions League. Oscar is Chelsea’s top goal scorer with three goals.

Mata is the player who can help get Chelsea up and running and can put matches to bed with ease. Mourinho has to get rid of this arrogant approach that he’ll do what he wants and he will play who he wants and just put Mata into the team. It will benefit the team as a whole to have Mata playing. Players like Hazard, Oscar and Lampard will all thrive with the chances created by Mata. Maybe even Eto’o will drop the ‘I’m the best player on the pitch attitude and take to Mata being in the team.

Chelsea’s next matches are against Swindon, Spurs, Steaua Bucuresti, Norwich, Cardiff, Schalke, Man City and Newcastle. Next up in the league is Spurs. Spurs will beat Chelsea on current form. Mourinho needs to decide what he wants more. Does he want to show that he is the boss and will do so even if it means falling behind in the league title race? Or does he give the fans and players what they want and start playing Juan Mata? Surely even Mourinho knows the answer to that now….