Chelsea legend Gianfranco Zola has spoken on Chelsea’s struggles.

Zola believes Chelsea struggled at the start of last season because some key players were sold by the club.

For Zola, the departures of Jorginho, Kai Havertz and Mateo Kovacic disrupted the balance of the Chelsea team.

“Chelsea have had a hard season, especially at the beginning, but they changed a lot,” Zola told Ladbrokes.

“They put a lot of young players in place, and lost a lot of experienced ones like Jorginho, Havertz, and Kovacic. They lost many players who were the soul of the team, the leaders, so it took time to get going.

“But finally Pochettino got it working and it was working quite well. It was very surprising to see him leaving and I don’t know the full reasons but obviously from a supporter point of view I am disappointed.”