Graeme Souness believes that Chelsea will miss out on the top-four this season and are set for a ‘difficult period’ under Todd Boehly.
It’s been a turbulent first season for the Blues under the ownership of Boehly who quickly removed much of Roman Abramovich’s backroom staff at Stamford Bridge before sacking manager Thomas Tuchel early into the campaign.
The club spent a staggering £278million over the summer, but under new boss Graham Potter the club are struggling, currently eighth in the table, six points off the top-four and 16 behind leaders Arsenal.
Performances haven’t looked encouraging, and the stats don’t help matters either with just 19 goals from 15 matches so far, ranking them 12th in the league.
While much can change between now and the end of the season, the battle for the Champions League places is set to be a very tight one.
Arsenal and Manchester City seem certain to make it, while Newcastle, Tottenham, Manchester United, Liverpool and even Brighton are in contention for the final two spots.
But many, Souness included, feel that Chelsea are already out of the running, and the Liverpool legend believes the blame lies with Boehly.
Assessing the top-four race for The Mail, he wrote: ‘Finally, Chelsea. What is going on there?
‘They won’t make the top four. Alarm bells started ringing for me when Todd Boehly came in and took control of football decisions.
‘They went from having an executive team of Bruce Buck, Petr Cech and Marina Granovskaia and a serial winner in Thomas Tuchel as manager to an American owner who knows nothing about football, or even soccer.
‘Everything I see and hear tells me this is going to be a difficult period for Chelsea. Still, it will be interesting to see how it plays out, and that is another reason to enjoy this brilliant league of ours in 2023.’
Chelsea face a difficult start to the new year, with back-to-back clashes against City in the Premier League and FA Cup, as well as trips to Liverpool and local-rivals Fulham.
Before all of that though, Potter’s team travel to Nottingham Forest on New Year’s Day.
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