Chelsea FC: What They Need to Do to Remain a Top Premier League Team

Following a great start to the season, scoring 21 goals in their opening five games while conceding just one, Chelsea gradually dropped off the pace and also began losing out on valuable points.

Since then the club has dropped down to the "outskirts" of the top four, becoming embroiled in a battle for the Champions League positions with Tottenham and Manchester City.

However, recent fortunes have turned the club around again—if only slightly—and they look to be heading in the right direction once again.

To maintain their form and ensure that they remain a Premier League giant in the foreseeable future, they need to do a number of things.

Chelsea are renowned for having one of the oldest squads in the Premier League, making the nickname "pensioners" even more appropriate.

The club have some big talent in their youth, including Josh McEachran, Gael Kakuta and the loanee Daniel Sturridge, currently at Bolton.

While the older players are still arguably the better players, the club must not rely on them too much otherwise it could cost them in their long term future.

Roman Abramovich will always have the money to build a new team but even if he is happy to spend, a complete new team in a few years time will still cost an absolute fortune.

Their best option is to utilise the youth far more now and reap the rewards in the future.

Chelsea have a very strong squad and therefore could not be said to have relied on one player too much before.

With that said, they seem to have been over-reliant on a group of players instead of just one. Frank Lampard's injury saw Chelsea suffer during his absence significantly.

With Nicolas Anelka off form for a short period of the season and Drogba not seeming the same player following his bout with Malaria, Chelsea's stars were almost being picked off one by one.

The club had the talent to fill these gaps and they still do, but the belief seemed to disappear during these tougher times.

The club just need to make sure they don't expect the same from Fernando Torres, despite his price tag.

It was mentioned in the title slide that Chelsea's recent fortunes seemed to be changing for the better, which neatly coincided with them being written off in the title race.

Having also exited the Carling Cup and FA Cup early, Chelsea are now not massively expecting silverware.

As the club's performance dropped, the initial pressure grew for the club to bounce back to form but with most silverware written off already, the club suddenly seemed to revive under the lighter pressure.

Now the club could force themselves back into contention for the Premier League title late with Arsenal and Manchester United dropping points, and they also have a realistic chance of reaching the Champions League final.

Since the departure of Jose Mourinho, Chelsea have been through a number of bosses too quickly. Some weren't performing at the top of their game admittedly, but consistently swapping managers is never healthy for any club.

If the club did choose to sack Carlo Ancelotti this summer, then there would be a good chance that the replacement would feel under unnecessarily huge pressure.

If a new boss were to come in and knew the fates of many of those who had suffered short spells at the club before him for not living up to expectations, then they could well also fall under the pressure.

Constant chopping and changing is a bad thing for all teams and if the club have to put up with regularly changing managers it will do far more worse than good.

Roman Abramovich has always been there for Chelsea recently, providing almost any money the club needed to succeed.

In fact, after a poor start to the season the club splashed out again in January after a huge investment from the Russian billionaire. They spent over £70 million on transfer deadline day bringing in both Fernando Torres and David Luiz.

While David Luiz has looked like a solid signing so far, Torres has failed to live up to expectations and more specifically his £50 million price.

The club need to learn that money will not automatically save their team from all problems, and provided they remember that, then they can remain a Premier League giant for years to come.

The Premier League will always have the top four even with the disappearance of the big four.

It may sound stupid but Chelsea need to make sure that they fully understand that the big four no longer exists.

While their was no security in finishing in the big four previously anyway, the top of the Premier League table is rapidly becoming much closer, with Tottenham and Manchester City now joining in right at the top competing for the Champions League.

Liverpool have also started redeveloping their team in order to push back on towards the top of the league.

Nothing is a given and Chelsea must be aware that just as much as they are chasing those in front of them, there is a very able chasing pack right behind them.

As previously mentioned, Chelsea have been knocked out of the FA Cup and Carling cup this season in the early rounds.

They can now focus on the Premier League and the Champions League, and while the club have the ability to do well in both, they need to choose one to give more of their attention to.

If they focus too much on the Premier League, then what looks like a realistic path to the Champions League final could go begging.

On the other hand, if they focus too much on the Champions League then they could end up losing focus in the Premier League and dropping outside the top four.

Chelsea need to make sure they're doing what is best for the club in both the short term and the long term.

So often in football the media are blamed for a lot of things, and often with much reason. In this case the expectation that was heaped on Chelsea could have been partly responsible for the teams' poor performance so far this season.

There's nothing wrong with having goals and expectations for the season, in fact it's very important to have them, provided it's the club themselves that set them.

When the media create expectations and throw them upon the team, that's when problems are caused and the public also expect certain things from a team.

If Chelsea can remain focused on their own goals and expectations as opposed to those that the public media are placing on them, then they'll surely remain a very successful Premier League team for a long time to come.