A Progress Report on Chelsea Heading into October International Break

We didn't need the Chelsea board to alert us to the unease that has enveloped west London this season.

The Chelsea players have done a good job of that.

On Monday, a short statement was published on the Chelsea website that gave the club's backing to under-fire manager Jose Mourinho.

"As Jose has said himself, results have not been good enough and the team's performances must improve," it read. "However, we believe that we have the right manager to turn this season around and that he has the squad with which to do it."

Mourinho needed some support, and now he's got it, as the pressure has been increasing steadily over the past few weeks.

As the Premier League takes a back seat for the next fortnight, Chelsea's first and last results since the last international break and heading into this one are identical.

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Facing Everton on September 12, Chelsea were well beaten 3-1; when Southampton visited Stamford Bridge this weekend, the scoreline was the same.

It's meant Mourinho has sent his players off packing across the globe with their ears ringing following another dour display.

If we're talking progress for the reigning champions, there hasn't been any. They're heading in one direction right now, and it certainly isn't forward.

When Chelsea picked up just four points from four games back in August, suffering defeats to Manchester City and Crystal Palace in the process, the informed mind couldn't fathom the slump continuing much further beyond that.

Things were bad, real bad. Mourinho's side were eight points behind leaders City and were looking undercooked after a late return for pre-season.

The expectation was that a multimillion-pound squad would eventually have enough to pull it together, to turn things around simply by turning up; they're too talented not to.

As we've seen, talented players aren't much if they don't play within a team unit, and that's what we're seeing at Chelsea right now.

They're all over the place.

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The theories behind a poor pre-season impacting Chelsea's form have long since been proved wrong. The problems run much deeper than that.

Too many of Mourinho's key players just haven't got going. Eden Hazard looks a shade of the player who was picking up every award going in England five months ago. Cesc Fabregas is the same, while Diego Costa hasn't been on the pitch enough in recent weeks on account of his disciplinary record.

Branislav Ivanovic has been the Achilles' heel defensively, with his constant horror showings leading to panic throughout the back four.

What's most alarming about this slump is why Chelsea have seemed powerless to combat it; it's because teams have worked them out.

There was an element of that when Chelsea were made to squeeze every remaining point from the season in order to finish up as champions in the back end of last season. 

With momentum behind them, they were able to do it and had enough to overcome the opposition.

It's a different story in 2015/16. Premier League sides are wiser to their threat, and without much change to the squad, Mourinho is facing the same problems.

Whereas Chelsea would control matches, they're now passing them by. The key to this has been rival managers targeting the central midfield area, where Nemanja Matic has been overrun.

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Fabregas' qualities are in possession. They're not when he has to consistently track back and fend off attackers, which has meant Matic's workload has proved too much.

Fabregas is weak defensively, and teams have exploited it, leaving Matic more exposed than he should be.

That's led to panic at the back, where Ivanovic has lost his head, resulting in the defence looking more like a back three. Teams are cutting through Chelsea too easily, as holes are appearing in the key areas.

It was no different against Southampton on Saturday. Chelsea had no answer to the attacking threat Ronald Koeman's side carried. Sadio Mane has never had it so good in English football, running through all afternoon, rarely picked up.

And with teams flooding the midfield area, Chelsea also struggle to execute their offensive game plan.

So much of that revolves around Fabregas. When he raced clear in the assists charts last season, Chelsea were an unstoppable force. It was the Spaniard's vision and execution that sent Diego Costa and Hazard free on goal.

Now that the service line has dried up, so have the goals for Chelsea. Save for the wonder strikes from Ramires and Matic in September, Chelsea didn't score a goal from open play all month in the Premier League. They relied on Willian's free-kicks for goals, with either the Brazilian or a teammate finding his way onto the score sheet.

Fabregas has been smothered in midfield. He isn't afforded time in possession, which has limited his impact, so now Chelsea are back to where they were in Mourinho's first season, when their forward movement lacked cohesion.

It was acceptable then, as not much was expected. Chelsea were the so-called little horse, and it was a year of transition. But after two full seasons back, these problems shouldn't exist.

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After eight league games, Chelsea look a worse team now than they did two years ago. Indeed, if we use that barometer to judge teams, Chelsea haven't been this poor since the 1970s. And that's saying something given the struggles that have been seen at Stamford Bridge in the intervening years.

That's why two weeks away isn't such a bad thing for Mourinho or his players.

Mourinho often laments the amount of time he has to dedicate to press conferences and other media duties, but for the best part of 12 days, he isn't going to be the story.

There are times when the pressure cooker needs to have a release, which is the lifeline the international break has thrown up.

We heard that at end of August, of course, but the impression now is that Mourinho needs these two weeks more than ever.

The manager needs to rethink his strategy and come up with an entirely new formula to get Chelsea back to winning ways.

One negative is that he can't apply that on the training ground, but the drawing board doesn't require players, which is the stage Mourinho is at.

Right now, there are questions being asked of the manager that have never been in football. He admits that it's the worst stage of his career, and now he must show another side of his character to prove his reputation hasn't been a facade this past decade.

We can't talk progress yet, though. It's too early for that.

While the Premier League rests, Mourinho and his team of assistants need to be working harder than ever to turn things around for Chelsea.

Garry Hayes is Bleacher Report's lead Chelsea correspondent. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Follow him on Twitter @garryhayes