Chelsea season doomed by Diego Costa and Nemanja Matic transfers, not Antonio Conte, says Marcel Desailly

'Massive' losses | Diego Costa and Nemanja Matic
AFP/Getty Images

Former Chelsea captain Marcel Desailly says poor summer transfers, and not Antonio Conte, is to blame for the Blues dire defence of their Premier League crown

Despite storming to the league title in record-breaking fashion last season, Chelsea now look likely to miss out on the top four, and Champions League qualification, for the second time in three seasons.

Desailly credits the loss of Diego Costa and Nemanja Matic as key to Chelsea's struggles this season, the former frozen out by Conte before the latter left to be reunited with Jose Mourinho at Manchester United.

"It's been a collective failure at Chelsea this season," Desailly told Daily Mail. "I don't think the situation that Chelsea are in is Conte's fault - you must give him that season.'

"[Costa and Matic leaving was] massive. Massive. Costa would have scored 10 goals more than Alvaro Morata. So maybe that's five more wins and that's a big difference.

He added: "The system of three at the back did not work this season because Conte lost Matic.

"Matic fitted with N'Golo Kante at the time and Cesc Fabregas fitted better in that system with him too. Together they protected the defence like it was needed."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in