Despite Chelsea's Strong Start, Winter Weather Will Cost Them The Premier League

After putting together a fantastic season in 2009-2010 that saw them win the English Double of the Premier League and the FA Cup, Chelsea have continued on with a fantastic start to this season.

So far, Chelsea have scored consecutive 7-0 wins against West Bromwich and Wigan Athletic to start the season before registering a 2-0 win over Stoke City, a 3-1 win over West Ham and a 4-0 win against Blackpool.

On the team sheet, Florent Malouda has an incredible six goals, while Didier Drogba has tallied five goals and Salomon Kalou has scored four goals.

Along with that, Petr Cech has only conceded one goal all season.

And, Chelsea's title chances have gotten even stronger as Manchester United have found themselves four points off of the title chase after suffering draws at Fulham and at Everton so far in their first five matches.

United have also lost one of their biggest players from last season in Antonio Valenica after suffering a terrible leg injury against Rangers in the Champions League, causing Valencia to be out for likely the entire season.

Along with that, Arsenal have also once again had major injury problems, as Robin van Persie, Theo Walcott, and Samir Nasri have all been or are out with injury, despite having 11 points to date.

Some people are also going as far as to believe that Chelsea have already clinched the Premier League title.

However, regardless of Chelsea's strong start last season, they will in all likelihood fail to repeat as Premier League champions this season.

As we approach the colder temperatures of the Premier League season, now is a great time to look at how Chelsea, Manchester United, and Arsenal play in the coldest and harshest months of the Premier League season.

Between December and February last season, Chelsea faced a time in which they nearly found themselves totally out of contention for the title race.

In December, Chelsea only registered two competitive wins in eight matches, as the likes of a weak Everton side, West Ham, and APOEL (in the Champions League) all took points from Chelsea.

Meanwhile in January, Chelsea were able to go unbeaten as the withdrawal of players for the African Cup of Nations allowed the more accustomed players from Europe to the winter weather to succeed in their natural conditions.

But once the African players returned for February, Chelsea returned somewhat to their struggling ways from December, as Chelsea managed to lose to both Everton and Manchester City in the Premier League and Inter Milan in the Champions League.

Meanwhile in Manchester, Man United were able to go all three months suffering only three losses in all competitions, one of which was to Leeds United in the FA Cup.

And Arsenal were pretty solid despite having two losses to Man United and Chelsea during this time.

However, Chelsea's form after the end of the cold weather allowed Chelsea to win the Premier League by one point over Manchester United at the end of the season.

But we shouldn't be surprised by this result considering how Chelsea played with many African players at the end of 2007 and beginning of 2008.

At the end of December, Chelsea's players started to struggle by suffering a draw and controversially beating Newcastle to struggle before playing a fantastic month of January.

Interestingly enough, Chelsea struggled in February by only beating Hudderfield Town before going on a late season surge that saw Chelsea nearly claiming the Premier League title out of Manchester United's hands.

In Chelsea's last winter that did not contain the African Cup of Nations (the winter of 2009), Chelsea witnessed a terrible stretch that saw the players unable to fully adapt to the weather, and manager Luiz Felipe Scolari was dismissed, with Guus Hiddink becoming the new manager with their title chances shot.

After Hiddink took over, the weather started to pick up Chelsea's game, saw the Blues within several minutes of a Champions League final, and were the hottest team in the Premier League at the end of the season.

But this year, Chelsea will not be able to adapt nearly as well as they normally could with the La Nina weather phenomenon about to happen this winter.

For those who don't know what La Nina is, it is the reversal of El Nino, which is a warming off the coast of western South America that affects Pacific jet stream winds, altering storm tracks and creating unusual weather patterns in various parts of the world.

So with La Nina, it currently is building up in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and should continue until next Spring as it crosses across Canada and moves over toward northern Europe.

Because of this, La Nina will cause a colder than normal winter in England and there will be an increase in snowfall totals.

El Nina already has had a major impact in North America, as it has been blamed for Hurricane Igor's emergence to a Category Four storm as the phenomenon allows storms to have a stronger surge.

And with Chelsea's African players not going south for the African Cup of Nations this January, they will play in conditions that they have historically struggled in.

Is it a coincidence that Chelsea's only Premier League title that did not come during the same year as the African Cup of Nations (2004-2005) was a squad that's only primary African player was Didier Drogba, who only played in half of Chelsea's Premier League fixtures and did not play a full match between November and February?

No, it isn't as Chelsea's reliance on African players that historically struggle in winter have been the primary reason why Chelsea have failed to win the Premier League during season's that there are the African Cup of Nations is not played.