Jose Mourinho's Denial Isn't Going to Save Chelsea's Season
Chelsea are grieving.
The club is in a state of misery brought on by a third defeat already this season, leading to the realisation that any realistic hopes of successfully defending their Premier League title are fading. Fast.
It's going to be a long road back for the champions as they cope with that, going through each stage of the grief process like they're taking a trip through Dante's Inferno.
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And it's going to feel like hell, although fortunately there aren't nine circles of grief. It's just five: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.
On the back of Saturday's 3-1 loss to Everton at Goodison Park, it's clear some sections of the Chelsea support have moved onto step two. Until Jose Mourinho does the same, it's going to be all the more painful.
As his post-Everton comments told us, the Chelsea boss is in denial as to his team's failures.
"The results are going wrong," Mourinho told the BT Sport cameras when asked what has happened to Chelsea this season.
"Too wrong for our quality, too wrong for our status and too wrong for what the players deserve."
He continued:
"The players deserve much better than what they are getting. I know that now is easy for everybody to criticise me and the players and that everything is wrong. I completely disagree. I am the champion and the players are the champions. The way they are playing is not as bad as the results.
"
Criticism of Chelsea this season hasn't come about from simply looking at the Premier League table to pinpoint their failures.
It's not even come from an emphasis on stats, which can be misleading at times.
Chelsea's naysayers are basing their opinions on something far more tangible: the very performances Mourinho doesn't see as a problem.
In each of their five Premier League outings in 2015/16, Chelsea have looked second best. Against Swansea City on the opening day, they were stretched; they looked desperate, and that problem has persisted.
Teams have been flooding the central areas to expose Nemanja Matic and Cesc Fabregas. They've won the battle in the middle, and it's allowed them to assert control all over the pitch.
It all seems rather too simple.
Chelsea have stopped pressing their opponents, are sitting off and being exposed as a result, Everton's second goal at Goodison being the prime example: Romelu Lukaku, Ross Barkley and goalscorer Steven Naismith waded through the middle without a single tackle being attempted.
With Mourinho unwilling to accept these factors, things are going to continue as they are. As long as the Chelsea boss remains in denial about his problems, it's going to be open season for their opponents, which it was for Everton.
Mourinho didn't see it that way, though, suggesting the Toffees' win was down to an element of luck more than anything.
"In every game, everything goes against [us]," he continued. "[Everton] start the game with [Muhamed] Besic to close the left side. Besic gets injured, they play [Naismith] and after two minutes [he] is scoring two goals."
Perhaps Mourinho should look at why those goals were conceded instead.
He shouldn't be made the scapegoat for Chelsea's demise, but fingers are rightly pointing at Branislav Ivanovic this season.
Naismith's first-half goals came from Chelsea's right, and on each occasion, Ivanovic played his part in the Scot enjoying success.
The first saw him caught in two minds, debating whether he should stick or twist in picking up his man. He hesitated, doing a better attempt at dancing the tango than he did at defending, and that indecision proved futile.
That's 10 goals from the 12 Chelsea have conceded this season that have come directly from Ivanovic's side of the pitch.
That alone tells us something has got to change, yet Mourinho refuses to acknowledge it.
Speaking after his team had sealed a 2-1 win at Stamford Bridge before the recent international break, Crystal Palace manager Alan Pardew confirmed to Bleacher Report that Ivanovic was the target for his team to expose.
That afternoon, Palace doubled up on him—first with Bakary Sako and Wilfried Zaha before replacing the latter with Yannick Bolasie after the interval.
The result was Pardew inflicting just a second Premier League home defeat on Mourinho in 100 games. And yes, both Palace goals resulted from crosses on Chelsea's right.
"We doubled up on him [and] it worked for us a little bit, then it didn't," Pardew explained. "I don't think [Ivanovic] got much protection today.
"[It was our intention to target] that side of the pitch a little bit, yeah."
Despite all this, Ivanovic is alarmingly the only Chelsea defender who has played every minute of every game this season.
John Terry was axed at half-time against Manchester City, with Gary Cahill benched against West Bromwich Albion and Everton. Kurt Zouma didn't feature from the start against Swansea and Cesar Azpilicueta was subbed in that loss to Palace. Baba Rahman has yet to feature.
Either Mourinho's dramatically lost his ability as a manager or his refusal to accept Chelsea's problems is ensuring they continue.
Given his track record of relentless success in the game, it has to be the latter. If it isn't, Chelsea have bigger problems than we may think.
"We are dominant," Mourinho said, trying to convince the BT Sport reporter Chelsea's problems aren't real.
"We dominate, we dominate, we dominate. [Everton] go there in a counter attack and scored the third goal. Everything goes against [us].
"It's easy to say that I agree completely that the results are too bad. I don't blame my players and I don't blame myself."
Batten down the hatches. Until Mourinho gets angry, until he starts bargaining, feels a weight of depression and accepts Chelsea's problems, the grief is going to continue.
Garry Hayes is Bleacher Report's lead Chelsea correspondent. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Follow him on Twitter @garryhayes
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