Barclays Premier League Season Preview- Chelsea.

Editor Dean Mears previews Chelsea Football Club ahead of the 2011-2012 Barclays Premier League season.
Expectations: Premier League: 2nd FA Cup: Winners Carling Cup: Quarter Finals Champions League: Semi Finals


Key Player: He arrived for a British transfer record of 50 million pounds, and has only one goal in a Chelsea shirt. However I believe this will be the season when Chelsea finally start to see some success from Fernando Torres.

Torres needs to start repaying his transfer fee with goals.

It was quite a season at Stamford Bridge last year, Chelsea started with a flurry of wins, with performances to match. However, the sacking of Ray Wilkins and a drop in form meant that Chelsea slipped out of reach of the title and pressure started to build on the clubs first ever Double winning coach. To his credit, Carlo Ancelotti rejuvenated his team, and took them on a run that could have seen them win the Premier League again, however defeats to Manchester United in both the league and Champions League meant that time had run out for Ancelotti. 

Chelsea need stability, they need a coach to stick around, Roman has been far too trigger happy in his 8 years in charge at Stamford Bridge, sadly, there's no one at the club brave enough to talk honestly with Roman. Chelsea should go with Hiddink, bring in Zola as his assistant, and let Guus mould Zola into a real manager to take over the reigns when Hiddink decides to call it a day. 

Chelsea also need a over haul of the clubs players, they hold too much power within the club which isn't right. The manager should be the one in charge, but just ask Scolari about this issue. Chelsea need a different type of a player, they simply cannot power their way to success on the European stage, they need a play-maker, somebody like Luka Modric or Wesley Sneijder.

A creative midfielder who can feed Torres is what Chelsea need to take them to Euro success.

With an aging squad Chelsea need to bring in some young talent, either from other clubs or from the academy.  With academy director Frank Arneson leaving for Hamburg, a number of youngsters who feel they haven't been given a chance at first team level will be leaving this summer. Unfortantly for Chelsea's managers, the pressure on them to win the Champions League means they simply cannot risk blooding in youngsters from the academy. The harsh reality is, the club is broken.

The likes of Terry, Lampard and Drogba won't be around for much longer, and the sooner replacements are found, like David Luiz the better. There's not an awful lot wrong with the squad of players, just a few replacements here and there. The biggest change needs to come in the board room.

Written by Editor Dean Mears, who tweets @deanmears