‘Chelsea have to qualify for the Champions League for this season to be a success – they showed that they have the players to perform at a high level, they need a win quickly now’ Blues legend’s fears over recent bad run

When Chelsea beat Brentford in mid-December, they were two points behind Liverpool and looking on course for an unlikely title challenge under new boss Enzo Maresca.

Since then, they’ve won two of their last nine league games to slip to sixth place, 18 points behind Arne Slot’s Reds.

The Premier League is likely to have five Champions League spots next season, but the Blues have serious work to do to arrest their slide, having now been overtaken by surprise package Bournemouth.

Former Chelsea star gives his view

Chelsea legend Gus Poyet has been watching recent results with some concern, having been encouraged by how well his old club started the season.

Given the position they were in at one point, he believes that Maresca’s side have to qualify for the Champions League for this to be considered a successful season for the club.

“Yes, 100 per cent,” he told FourFourTwo. “There was plenty of progress in September, October, November and December, and that progress showed that the players can perform at that level and win games.

“It would be a shame after that improvement if they cannot finish the season well and qualify for the Champions League.

“They’re in a bad spell, which is normal, it’s a young team that has improved quite a lot. But we always say as coaches, ‘We need to stop it, you cannot keep going down, down, down, we need to stop it somewhere’. So they need a win.”

Poyet's new adventure

Poyet has been watching events from afar, having recently taken a job as manager of South Korea side Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors.

His new club started the season with a 4-0 win in Thailand against Port FC, before victory over Gimcheon Sangmu in their opening league game last weekend, although the logistics of the fixtures were challenging.

“We started well,” Poyet said, speaking in association with makthavare.se. “Our first official game was in Champions League Two – here in Asia, there’s the main Champions League, and Champions League.

“We won, but then our first league game was probably one of the most difficult games I ever had to prepare for. We played on Thursday at 7pm local time in Thailand, 9pm in Korea.

“Then we went direct to the airport, waited two-and-a-half hours, the flight was delayed, we left at 2.30am local time, arrived in Seoul past 9am, collected everything, jumped on the bus, three-hour bus, stopped to eat somewhere, then arrived at 2pm local time.

“We had a little warm-down, then next afternoon, Saturday, boom! Everything about the other team, formation, how we’re going to play.

“You hope that you help the players to recover and understand what’s needed, but it’s up to them really, and they were outstanding. We won an incredible game on Sunday, it was a great start for everybody.”