Chelsea started the English Premier League in a great way. Under Thomas Tuchel, the London side looked destined to win the title for the first time since 2017. They had momentum from winning the Champions League in May of this year. Adding to that momentum, they brought Romelu Lukaku back to England from Inter Milan. In the first few games of the season, it was looking great. Fast forward to late December, and Chelsea is far behind league leaders Manchester City. While there are fans that still believe the squad is in there, here are two reasons why Chelsea is out of the English Premier League title race.

Why Chelsea is out of the EPL title race 

1. Competitors look unbeatable 

Simply said, Chelsea is completely overmatched. With respect to the London squad, both Manchester City and Liverpool look much better than Tuchel's side. In the last eight games they played in the EPL, Chelsea won just three. They lost to West Ham United while drawing against Burnley, Manchester United, Everton, and Wolverhampton. In the same period, Liverpool won six games, and Manchester City won all eight. That is a stark contrast and Chelsea should be worried.

Chelsea should also worry due to their results against direct competitors. The London team won only two games against their top six competitors, losing one to Manchester City and West Ham, and drawing with Liverpool. They still have the second part of the season, but the form is important. With this form, Chelsea cannot hope for much against teams from the middle of the table, let alone against the likes of Manchester City and Liverpool.

Manchester City in particular looks really good this season. The Citizens have lost just two games and have only two draws all season. Right now, with a game in hand, Chelsea is nine points behind. Even if we say that Chelsea beats them away from home in the second part of the season, that still means that City needs to drop an additional six points, which is hard to believe with their squad and the genius of Pep Guardiola.

Liverpool is also in the mix, and they are seven points behind Manchester City with a game in hand, and three ahead of Chelsea after 18 played games. They are powered by an incredible Mohamed Salah season, who is running the show in the Premier League. Unfortunately for Chelsea, they simply do not have weapons to deal with the individual quality of Salah and the overall team strength of Manchester City. It is early to call the season at Christmas, something Liverpool fans know all too well about, but it is safe to say that Chelsea will have a lot of trouble getting a foothold on this race.

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2. Underwhelming attacking talent 

Unfortunately for Chelsea, while he started the season off well, Romelu Lukaku stopped scoring goals. He scored all of his three goals in the first five games of the season. After that, other than two goals in other competitions, the Belgian forward has completely stopped influencing the game. He seems far removed from the 30 goals he scored last season for Inter Milan.

Even more unfortunate for Chelsea is that they do not have many other options. The underwhelming play of Timo Werner is well-documented, as he continuously keeps missing sitters. In terms of other attacking talent, they have a lot of young forwards but they are not scorers. Mason Mount, Hakim Ziyech, Kai Havertz, Christian Pulisic, and other attacking talent on Chelsea's roster are there to help set up both Werner and Lukaku, not to actually finish their chances. This has all resulted in an underwhelming attacking season for Chelsea.

It is only due to a good season for Mason Mount, who has seven goals in the Premier League, that Chelsea is even close to the top of the Premier League. Obviously, it is also their good defense, which is tied with Manchester City for the best in the league, with just 12 goals conceded. However, Chelsea has scored only 39 goals, which is far behind both Manchester City and Liverpool, both of whom have 50 goals scored. If Chelsea's attack does not wake up, it will be difficult for them to even hold on to a top-four spot, let alone challenge for the title.

As mentioned above, it is hard to discard teams from title races at Christmas time. Liverpool fans in 2014-15 were incredibly hopeful about winning the title after leading the pack around Christmas, but a late collapse cost them the title. However, with two amazing teams in front of them, it does not seem far-fetched to say that Chelsea is already out of the race. If they are able to still compete, that is great, but it does not look good for the Blues.