Chelsea's Injury-Struck Team Starting To Stutter, So Is There Cause for Concern

Going into this Premier League season the prognosis was clear: finish above Chelsea and you'll win the league. This theory seemed clear from the start as the champions raced out to a comfortable lead after taking maximum points from their opening five fixtures.

Defeat at Manchester City was an undoubted setback, but further wins against West Ham, Blackburn and Wolves intertwined with a draw against Aston Villa meant all seemed well at Stamford Bridge.

However, this superb start, 25 points from a possible 30, has since cooled off and the champions have hit a wall of sorts—slumping to defeats against Liverpool, Birmingham, and most worrying of all, a 3-0 drubbing at home to Sunderland.

Chelsea have now relinquished their lead, with Arsenal leap-frogging their rivals plus a still unbeaten Manchester United poised to do the same—there must be some concern at Stamford Bridge.

The bizarre departure of long-term assistant Ray Wilkins has put Chelsea in turmoil, and Branislav Ivanovic has since admitted that the former captain's leave of absence has rocked the Chelsea dressing room.

His replacement, Michael Emenalo, hasn't has the smoothest of starts since filling the gap left on the champions' bench and Chelsea continue to under perform entering the Christmas period.

John Terry, Frank Lampard, Michael Essien and Alex all have or have had injury problems which have called into question the depth of the Chelsea squad with a lot of academy players being called upon to fill the Chelsea bench.

Various members of the Chelsea camp have tried to extenuate the situation but on Saturday, even with the return of their skipper, Chelsea's slide continued as a late Jermaine Beckford equaliser cost the champions more points at home.

Not only do Chelsea need their key players back healthy, they need them firing on all cylinders to quash this dismal run of form that may well come back to haunt them come April and May.