After suffering high-profile losses against Manchester City and Crystal Palace in the first month of the 2015 2016 English Premier League (as well as an unexpected opening week draw with Swansea City), Chelsea football club are looking like they might be in trouble. But outside of a key signing of Barcelona secret weapon Pedro, the reigning EPL champions aren't likely to see much help from their summer transfer slate-which unlike the transfer arrival lists at Manchester City, Man United, and even Liverpool-is lacking in big names. So could Chelsea's summer transfer window 2015 activity have been more productive?

Staying Frugal

The 20 Premier League football clubs spent a combined total of £870 million on transfers this summer-with Manchester City leading the way with a spending total of £160 million. Man United weren't all that far behind, spending £139 million on their own summer transfer window.

Chelsea, meanwhile, could have easily kept pace with the two Manchester football clubs in terms of spending. The Blues just won the Premier League, for goodness sake, and they'll be getting a chunk of the league's big new TV broadcasting contracts next season: they have money to spend. Instead, the Blues stayed frugal this summer, spending less than £64.5 million across 10 transfers. For those keeping score, that means Chelsea spent almost £100 million less than the football club they beat to the top of the Premier League table last season.

In one way, that's valiant. If Jose Mourinho can beat the rest of the Premier league while only spending a fraction of what its biggest clubs do on transfers, the more power to him. The problem is, it looks like Chelsea's lackadaisical approach to the 2015 summer transfer window is taking a toll. Where Man City won all four of their August games to take an early lead in the Premier League, Chelsea only won one of their first four-a far cry from their from-the-get-go lead last soccer season.

Chelsea's Transfers

It's not that there are no new players headed to Stamford Bridge to don the Chelsea home jersey 2015 this season. On the contrary, the blues paid £21.4 million for Pedro, £14 million for Augsburg defender Baba Rahman, £8 million for Stoke City goalkeeper Asmir Begovic, £6.3 million for Brazilian attacking midfielder Kenedy, and £5 million or less for a half dozen other arrivals.

The Blues also didn't lose any of their stars. Sure, Didier Drogba left for Montreal on a free transfer, and Petr Cech headed off to Arsenal, but the soccer squad's core members (Eden Hazard, Diego Costa, John Terry, Thibaut Courtois) are all back to play in 2015 2016. Chelsea also picked up Radamel Falcao on a season-long loan from Monaco, with an option for a permanent transfer.

Unprepared to Compete?

But with Manchester City getting Raheem Sterling and Kevin de Bruyne; with Man United scooping up Memphis Depay, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Morgan Schneiderlin, and potential star-of-the-future Anthony Martial. With Liverpool bringing in the likes of Christian Benteke, Danny Ings, Nathaniel Clyne, and Roberto Firmino, it just seems like Chelsea didn't really try to put together any big deals this summer.

Their £14 million deal for Pedro would have been the third biggest transfer of the season at Liverpool, the fourth biggest at Man City, and who-knows-how-far-down-the-list at Man United (where many of the transfer fees remain undisclosed). The Blues may have just won a Premier League title, but how can they hope to compete with the
heavyweights if they aren't willing to spend the money that they do have to bring in new soccer talent.

It's possible that Jose Mourinho is just looking to take the tactic that Arsenal have for many years, scouting for younger, less sought after talent, and developing it into national or world championship teams. But with the Premier League spending more money than ever before on summer transfers, Chelsea risk being left behind because they didn't spend big to sign big soccer stars. And the ironic part is, it's not because they don't have the funds.

What do you think? Will Chelsea turn things around after their rusty season start? Or will they struggle to compete with the other Premier League heavyweights this season because they refused to be aggressive in the summer transfer market? Share your thoughts with other football fans on Soccer Box's social media feeds! You can find us on Facebook, Pinterest, Google +, and other popular social networks.