Ex-Ireland and Chelsea defender Paddy Mulligan believes that Diego Costa not replicating his forward runs from last year has blunted the Blues attack this season.
The Spain international scored Chelsea's winner against Norwich on Saturday to end a poor run in the Premier League but has been otherwise blunted during the season with his clashes with opposition players grabbing the headlines instead.
"I thought that they totally outplayed Norwich and should have won by more. Costa got the winning goal but he had a nightmare up to then, not getting into the box. There's an awful habit he's after developing this season. For some peculiar reason, the runs he was making last year, he's not bothering this year," said Paddy on Newstalk's Rewind podcast.
"Some smashing balls were going across the face of the goal but there wasn't one Chelsea player in the six-yard box to go and have a tap-in. Last year, that was his bread and butter. Mourinho was criticising him, saying he's not making the runs."
And as we discussed on the Rewind, the lack of runs has a knock-on effect on creators like Cesc Fabregas, and Paddy also feels that Jose Mourinho's hopes of a Top Four finish likely hinge on next weekend's match against in-form Tottenham and a struggle for the rivals above them.
"They have a huge game against Spurs next Sunday with Spurs playing really, really well and Pochettino is after turning an awful lot around there. That's going to be a big ask for Chelsea and what Chelsea are relying on as well is teams losing a fair amount of matches as well. The teams at the top will start losing matches as well, so whether Chelsea can take advantage of all of that, that's the next question for Mourinho."
Listen to Paddy's full Premier League review on the Rewind podcast including City v Liverpool and Tottenham v West Ham:
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