Chelsea - "We know what we are"

"We know what we are" is a chant that reverberates from Chelsea supporters mouth's following their Munich penalty shoot-out triumph in May after being heavily written off throughout their Champions League campaign. They came back from the dead to down Barcelona at the Nou Camp and Bayern awaited them in their home stadium - the rest as they say, is history.

The Champions League victory which came against all the odds followed an FA Cup victory which Chelsea seemed relatively comfortable in, downing Tottenham in a controversial semi-final and then beating Liverpool in the final. These victories cemented Roberto Di Matteo his job as full-time Chelsea manager after an initial spell as interim manager, in June after his trophy-winning exploits, Di Matteo signed a 2-year contract and the future looked seemingly hunky-dorey for the Italian and Chelsea, with Di Matteo being labelled the 'greatest caretaker of all-time', guiding Chelsea to the trophy which Roman Abramovich has spent over a billion pounds in investment trying to win. Chelsea then went on a typical summer spending spree, spending over £75million on the likes of Eden Hazard, Oscar, Victor Moses, Cesar Azpilicueta, Marko Marin & Thorgan Hazard. The season started off well, with Chelsea's attacking midfield trio of Oscar, Hazard and Juan Mata inter-linking like they'd been playing together for years and the season started off well for the usually mis-firing Fernando Torres, it looked like Chelsea had well and truly moved on from the loss of Didier Drogba and the twilight years of John Terry & Frank Lampard, the future was being looked at with rose-tinted spectacles.

But where did it all go wrong? John Terry's court charge with racism after last season's spat with Anton Ferdinand provided what seemed to be the launchpad for a Chelsea downfall, Ashley Cole added his unwanted two cents by calling the FA a "bunch of twats" and then the Clattenburg-Mikel incident took place, making Chelsea probably the most unfavourable club in England. The media negativity seems to have thrown Chelsea into disrepute, they haven't won in their last four Premiership games and their only win in the last six was a last-gasp victory of Shakhtar. Another catalyst in their turn in form was no doubt the contoversial 3 - 2 defeat at the hands of Manchester United, the game which famously turned referee Mark Clattenburg into the most hated man in Stamford Bridge. Chelsea's decency has been questioned in the media, with the club refusing to apologize to Clattenburg and personally I think it was a claim made purely out of Chelsea's discontent at Clattenburg's (and the officials as a whole) decision after sending off two Chelsea players and allowing a blatent off-side goal to stand.

Di Matteo's controlling of his players (similar to AVB) was questioned, with top names being lost in the dressing room and his man-management skills being tested, which managed to run parallel with the loss of form. What of the future now for Chelsea? As we've seen, after Abramovich dishes out a cheque to get rid of a manager and a new one has been brought in it has bred success. Even though he has spent £86million on paying-off sacked managers it has led him to three Premiership titles, three FA cups, two league cups and the most coveted of all - the Champions League it seems it is almost impossible to satisfy Abramovich's unquenchable thirst for glory. He has invested over £1billion on making Chelsea a football juggernaut and their achievements since his arrival have been nothing short of incredible, taking them from the doldrums of near administration to European champions in just under a decade was surely something that even Chelsea fans (both old and new) couldn't imagine in their wildest dreams. It is also common knowledge that if you double-cross Abramovich you won't last long in the job, Jose Mourinho discovered this when an argument over big-money flop Andrey Shevchenko's place in the team added fuel to a burning fire of power struggles and rifts, it managed to result in 'The Special One' seemingly losing his job overnight - despite being Chelsea's most successful manager ever.

This leaves Rafa Benitez in a worrying position while he is interim manager, Chelsea have swung from one extreme to another - the most popular caretaker of all-time to the most unpopular are two quite different sides of the spectrum and it is clear that his entrance into the Chelsea hotseat isn't the one a lot of fans would have chosen. Liverpool fans have every right to feel a bit aggrieved but he did give the Merseysiders their best team in about a decade and also their most successful spell since the turn of the century. But for Chelsea, they are getting a manager with a strong pedigree, he is not their first-choice, but that isn't his fault. The only way Benitez can win over the Chelsea fans is proving his commitment to the cause and breeding further success, but the Chelsea guillotine will forever be hanging over his head because in the Chelsea managerial position it seems that no-one is safe.