What Premier League coach said his team deliberately targeted when they played Chelsea this season

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Chelsea have performed poorly in the Premier League this season, losing 4-2 to Wolverhampton Wanderers over the weekend.

Chelsea now find themselves in the bottom half of the table and it looks like other teams have identified a real chink in their armour.

One Premier League coach has told the Daily Mail that his club have deliberately targeted Chelsea’s young core as a specific weakness when coming up against the Blues this season.

Mauricio Pochettino has a very young side, with the likes of Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo and Levi Colwill — key players for the Argentine — all 23 or younger.

Colwill, in fact, is not even 21 yet and has already captained Chelsea in the current campaign, showing the infancy of this squad.

Chelsea need more experience

The above alone tells you that Chelsea need to add more experience to their ranks.

Thiago Silva is probably the only player at Stamford Bridge who possesses both experience and leadership qualities and his contract expires at the end of the season.

Ben Chilwell is now 27 so is hardly a novice and was made Chelsea vice-captain in the summer, but he misses so many games because of injury.

Ultimately, when you look around the Blues’ dressing room, then, you can quickly see what is lacking there.

So who is to blame for the issue? Well it has to fall on the club’s sporting directors and owners. Since arriving at Chelsea, they have allowed so many experienced players to go and plenty of young footballers to come in.

Some of those additions have really struggled to make an impact. Mykhailo Mudryk, 23, and Noni Madueke, 21, for example, scored one Premier League goal combined last season.

Going into the 2024/25 campaign, Chelsea need to make sure they have a much more balanced squad.