Chelsea

By Karl Matchett.

Chelsea are a club in transition once again, much sooner than they expected to be and in a far more volatile way than anybody could have expected, still only eight months after they won the Premier League title under Jose Mourinho.

The Portuguese man is gone, Guus Hiddink is in-though another, more permanent, appointment will be made for head coach in the summer. The new new boss will have a mix of established talent and young prospects to work with, as well as an array of veterans who continue to divide opinion over their lingering suitability and level of quality.

Whoever comes in it can be expected that the blues will make significant changes to their squad in the summer, and still potentially even an addition in the final days of this transfer window; here we identify the three most critical

Don't call it a comeback just yet, but Chelsea FC are beginning to resemble their old consistent selves again. The Blues haven't lost a match since Guus Hiddink took over as manager. Indeed, their last defeat came on December 14^th against Leicester City-the last game for which Jose Mourinho was in charge. Granted, it hasn't been all wins for Chelsea since. The soccer club drew matches against Watford, Manchester United, West Bromwich Albion, and Everton. But sprinkled in among those stalemates have been a few promising victories, and the most promising of those yet took place over the weekend against Arsenal.

The last time the Blues took on their London rivals, it was the sixth week of the 2015/16 Premier League season and things were beginning to look dire for Chelsea. The football club had only won one of their first five matches, leaving the reigning Premier League champions in a not-so-stellar 16^th place. Despite what was clearly a low-momentum time

By Greg Lea.

It was the ultimate game of two halves. While the first period of Chelsea and Everton's Premier League clash on Saturday was largely devoid of entertainment, the second 45 minutes were among the most enjoyable of the English season so far. 0-0 at the interval, the game finished 3-3, a result that did not really suit either manager.

Roberto Martinez was highly critical of the officials in his post-match press conference, with the Everton boss fuming at the decision to allow Chelsea's stoppage-time equaliser despite goalscorer John Terry being in an offside position when he provided the decisive touch. Guus Hiddink, who sympathised with his counterpart's complaint, focused on praising the character of his players,

There were 11 draws in the third round of the 2015/16 FA Cup, which means that the majority of the match-ups for the fourth round of the tournament won't be completely decided until we get to the third-round replays scheduled for January 19^th and 20^th. Despite the lack of complete information, though, the Football Association announced the draw for the tournament's fourth round on Monday, January 11^th, giving fans a general idea of who their favorite soccer clubs will be competing with at the end of the month.

All 16 fourth round matches are currently scheduled for the weekend of January 30^th. Read on for a quick run-through of that weekend's biggest must-watch fixtures!

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Most of the Premier League's top football clubs sailed through the third round of the 2015/16 FA Cup easily over the weekend, with Manchester City, Arsenal, Man United, Chelsea, West Ham United, and others all cruising through to the fourth round of the Football Association tournament. Read on for a recap of the winners and losers of the weekend!

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One of the big rumors of the 2015/16 season was that Real Madrid's best players-particularly Cristiano Ronaldo-were not playing their best football because they didn't like or respect manager Rafael Benitez. Especially in the wake of the Vikings' 0-4 defeat at the hands of Barcelona in November, soccer pundits everywhere were speculating that Ronaldo was trying to orchestrate an exit from Real Madrid, in favor of a return to Manchester United.

Similar stories have abounded in other parts of the European soccer world. At Chelsea, for instance, as the reigning Premier League champions dipped further and further into an insurmountable rut, speculation abounded that the club's players were unhappy with the leadership of Jose Mourinho. The Portuguese manager did have a notable row with

A long, competitive, and exhaustingly busy Premier League festive period came to an end on Sunday, January 3^rd, finally giving England's top football clubs a deserved break. The Premier League's teams will take the pitch again next week, on January 12^th and 13^th, but until then, we, at last, have a chance to let the dust settle and survey the current landscape of the league.

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Boxing Day brought several surprises and upsets in the English Premier League, with many of the division's top-ranked teams succumbing to losses. Key among those football clubs were Leicester City and Arsenal, who kept their spots at first and second place on the EPL table, but sacrificed some of their lead margin in defeats against Liverpool and Southampton, respectively. Manchester United also lost, intensifying the conversations that Louis van Gaal's days as the club's manager could be numbered.

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Chelsea got a bit of a reprieve from their recent streak of mostly dreadful play on December 9^th, beating Porto 2-0 in a Champions League match. The win pushed the Blues to the top of Group G and earned them a favorable spot in the UCL round of 16. The football club ultimately finished the group stage with four wins, one draw, and one loss-not so different from the 4-2-0 they managed in the groups last year when they were running away with the Premier League frontrunner title.

In other words, Chelsea FC still have a lot of potential-even if they aren't showcasing it on a week-to-week basis in their Premier League matches. That potential is personified in the form of Willian, the Brazilian winger who scored five goals for the Blues in the Champions League group stage. To put that number in perspective, Willian is tied for fourth among the UCL's top scorers, with the same number of goals as worldwide greats like Luis Suarez and Thomas Muller, as well as Premier League

The writing's been on the wall for months, but on Thursday, the other shoe finally dropped. Four days after Chelsea FC lost their ninth game of the 2015 2016 Premier League campaign, and just seven months after they won the English top flight title, Jose Mourinho was sacked from his position as head coach. The exit of Mourinho, widely considered as one of the greatest coaches in modern football, leaves Chelsea without a manager heading into the Premier League's busy holiday season.

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A Second Departure

This isn't the first time Jose Mourinho has exited as Chelsea's head coach. Previously, the Portuguese manager coached the Blues from 2004 to 2007, winning two Premier League titles along the way. He resigned in 2007, supposedly by mutual consent-though