What’s the Mata with Mourinho and Chelsea?

Last season Juan Mata was key to Chelsea’s success, he was arguably their best player and one of the best in the league. He is the one that controlled the play at Chelsea and makes them tick on attack. Jose Mourinho has returned for his second stint at the Blue’s and it looks like Juan Mata is being pushed out by “The Special One”.

Over the summer Mourinho has bought a few players that can play in the same position as Mata. Andre Schurrle and Willian are both creative midfielders and have been signed big money moves to Chelsea in the transfer window. Kevin De Bruyne has come back from a successful loan spell and looks to be fighting for a first team spot. Unlike last season, it looks like Juan Mata will not be one of the first names on the team sheet. Hazard, Oscar, Schurrle, Willian, De Bruyne, Moses and Mata are all fighting for three spots in the line-up. They are all quality players and deserve to be starting in the Premier League, but they will have to work very hard to get on the field consistently.

Mata will be hoping for regular first team football with the hope of being selected for the world cup next year, in a very strong Spanish midfield. He may be saved by Roman Abramovich who really likes him because of his form in the last two seasons and the way he plays.

Juan Mata is probably the best attacking midfielder in the Premier League and one of the best in the world. He has already proven himself and should be a key player who can open up defenses. But he missed out on a spot in the starting XI against Manchester United, but Mourinho insists “There is no chance Juan goes.”.

It is thought that Jose Mourinho thinks that Juan Mata does not work hard enough defensively and is therefore, dead weight when Chelsea do not have the ball. Mourinho loves players that work hard on and off the ball, but as we saw with Joe Cole, as talented as you may be, if you don’t work on both sides of the ball you may be left out. For this reason it looks as though Mata may not be part of Mourinho’s plans and could be on the way out. It will be interesting to see how this unfolds in the next week, but I predict he will stay at least for one more season.