Chelsea in 'meltdown' and things could turn nasty if Jose Mourinho continues blame-game

The Sunday Supplement panel discuss Chelsea's unimpressive start to the season and question whether they can still challenge for the Premier League title

Chelsea are in "meltdown" after their poor start to the season, and Jose Mourinho's blame game is typical of the Blues manager, say the Sunday Supplement panel.

The Premier League champions have started the term poorly, picking up just four points from four games, and were beaten 2-1 by Crystal Palace on Saturday.
It was only Mourinho's second home league defeat at Stamford Bridge on his 100th outing, and The People's Steve Bates insists the team are in disarray.

Chelsea players react as Crystal Palace grabbed the winner at Stamford Bridge on Saturday

He told the Sunday Supplement: "By Chelsea standards it's a total meltdown. They look a team in disarray, the problems seem to piling up and they look unrecognisable to the team who started the season last year.
"If this carries on you could seriously see this situation escalating for Mourinho because this is not what you expect from champions.
"They need to arrest this decline quickly."
Both the Daily Telegraph's Jason Burt and the Sunday Times' Jonathan Northcroft believe Mourinho is unhappy with Chelsea's summer transfer activity, and that the Portuguese boss' complaints are something we have seen times before.

Paul Pogba was one target Mourinho missed out on, says Jonathan Northcroft

Chelsea have brought in Pedro, Baba Rahman, Asmir Begovic, Kenedy and Nathan to the club, as well as Radamel Falcao on loan this summer.
But Northcroft says Mourinho wanted midfielder Paul Pogba from Juventus at the start of the season, and with the champions potentially missing out on Everton's John Stones, an uncomfortable atmosphere may develop.
Northcroft said: "Yes, he hasn't got what he wanted. I think he wanted Pogba at the start of the summer, that was one he pushed for. And obviously he wanted Stones.
"The decline of certain players has probably shocked him. People like [Cesc] Fabregas, [Nemanja] Matic, [Branislav] Ivanovic in particular, and then somebody like John Terry going over that hill defenders go over. I think he's been spooked by that.

Mourinho says the referee made a ‘huge mistake’ not to award Chelsea a penalty when the score was 0-0 in their 2-1 defeat at home by Crystal Palace

"It's typical Mourinho behaviour to show signs of rebellion when things aren't going his way.
"It already feels like the title is City's title to lose. If they maintain what they're doing they've got enough already. Chelsea need a huge, huge winning run now and they look so far from that."
Burt echoed Northcroft's words, saying a look back at Mourinho's previous tenures at clubs suggest he will not want to be the man blamed for any failure at the club.
He said: "If he's not getting what he wants [in the transfer market], history tends to show he does kick off.
"He's not got what he wanted and he's going to start complaining more and more. That's what he does. It happened last time at Chelsea and it's happened at every club he's been at.
"He will not want to be blamed if Chelsea don't retain the title or don't have a good run in the Champions League, he'll start blaming other people.
"It could get increasingly intense and difficult for everyone. We know that when Mourinho doesn't get what he wants he becomes very fractious."