Gus Poyet has compared Chelsea’s defence of their league title with Real Madrid’s this season, in a report from the Mirror.

Many were looking forward to this season, with Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal all strengthening ahead of the new season, as well as Chelsea, who ran away with the league title in the previous campaign.

However, for one reason or another, Chelsea have not shown the same quality as they did last season and Manchester City have now all but claimed the league title by February.

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Now Bordeaux manager, Poyet, played for Chelsea from 1997 to 2001 and has drawn comparisons between both the Blues, who play Barcelona on Tuesday night and Real Madrid.

Madrid were widely expected to go on and win La Liga this season, but have surprised many as they struggle to even put up a fight, sitting fourth in La Liga, 17 points behind leaders Barcelona.

I see Chelsea as a destabilised team, they are struggling and this has happened too many times after winning the title. The next season things go wrong. It happened with Ancelotti, Mourinho and now Conte.

The former Chelsea player went on to add:

Last season Chelsea were strong and had a solid system, now you don’t know what is going to happen. Sometimes they lose 3-0 at home and they are similar to Real Madrid; they only play like champions at certain moments. Barcelona are favourites if we look at their form and league position.