Former Chelsea defender Wayne Bridge has blamed Chelsea’s woeful start this season on a deprivation of leaders, in an exclusive interview with the Express.
Recently retired, Bridge represented Chelsea in nearly one hundred outings over a period spanning six seasons.
The left-back will most fondly be remembered for his late winner at Highbury which sent Chelsea through to the Champions League semi-final at the expense of bitter rivals Arsenal in the 2003-04 season.
Chelsea currently sit in 14th place in the Premier League table, with just 15 points, prompting debate as to whether Jose Mourinho really can guide the Blues out of what can only be described as a crisis.
Bridge, who worked with Mourinho during the Portuguese manager’s first spell in west London, believes Mourinho is the right man for the task.
I still think Jose is the right man for the job even though a lot of people are asking when he is going to get the sack. Even though they are struggling, he should be given until the end of the season because of who he is and given time he will definitely turn it around.
Bridge has also claimed that Chelsea’s current team lack leaders during such a difficult time, pointing to the absence of two former teammates both with Chelsea and England.
From the outside it looks like they haven’t got that one big leader who is going to lead the team. They lost Frank Lampard in 2014 and looked to have coped well in his absence last year but John Terry not playing as much this season has been a huge loss to them. When he doesn’t play you can see they don’t have a leader in the team.
As a result, Bridge, who can be described as a veteran of the Premier League, sees Chelsea’s chances of a top four finish extremely small and states that the Blues will have to rely on results outside of their control.
No matter how well they do now, everyone else is going to have to have a bad spell for them to get back up to where they belong. Even though the league has been unpredictable this year, I cannot see one of the other top teams having as poor a run as Chelsea have had at the start of the season.
