Chelsea handed brutal Premier League reality check as Joe Cole makes 'strange' claim

Former Chelseastar Joe Cole has predicted what he thinks will happen for his old club this season after a mixed run of results.

The Blueswere beaten by Sunderland in the Premier League just days after claiming an emphatic win over Ajax in the Champions League. Enzo Maresca's side beat Nottingham Forest 3-0 earlier in the month but the defeat to Sunderland has seen them fall to ninth place in the top-flight standings.

This week will see Chelsea face Wolves in the fourth round of the Carabao Cup before taking on Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League at the weekend.

• Enzo Maresca press conference: Chelsea boss on Delap return, injury news, Carabao Cup tie
• Roman Abramovich sets record straight as ex-Chelsea owner 'lines up stunning football return'

Cole made 282 appearances for Chelsea, winning three Premier League titles along the way and scored 39 goals. The former playmaker has since found a home at TNT Sports as a pundit and has provided his latest verdict on the Blues.

With 29 matches left to play in the Premier League this season, Cole has explained why he has mixed emotions about where his former club find themselves.

"It's strange," Cole told TNT Sports. "But they are where I expected them to be, competing to get back into the Champions League.

"Hopefully they'll qualify more comfortably than they did last year, when they scraped in. They won the Conference League, which, for a club the size of Chelsea, being in that competition, is a bit of an anomaly.

"It was fantastic for the young players, which we hope helps them kick on, and then the Club World Cup was another bit of an anomaly.

"Obviously, it was fantastic to win it, but we still don't really know where we're going to go with this trophy.

"The main goal this season has to be qualifying again for the Champions League, but with a bit more space to those beneath them.

"It could be a title challenge, but it's not looking likely if you don't win games like this against Sunderland at home.

"It looks great on paper that the squad is still very young, and you are a better player at 23–24 than you are at 20, but there are so many lessons you learn from having senior players around.

"They've invested in an experiment effectively by buying young, committing to young footballers, so we'll see where we are in two years.

"The amount of money that's been spent and with it being a five-year project, next year there should be a title challenge, and then the year after there needs to be silverware. I think that's fair, that's not me putting undue demands on them."