Gianfranco Zola believes that Chelsea's struggles at the start of last season were mainly due to the departures of three players.

Zola says that the three players who left the club 'were the soul of the team'.

Chelsea legend Zola played for the Blues between 1996 and 2003 and made over 300 appearances for the club.

Last season Chelsea ended up finishing in sixth place in the Premier League after showing signs of improvement in the second half of the campaign.

However, Mauricio Pochettino's team endured some difficult moments at the start of the season.

Gianfranco Zola says Chelsea struggled at start of last season after selling three key players

According to Zola, the sales of Kai Havertz and Mateo Kovacic, who joined Arsenal and Manchester City respectively, hit Chelsea hard.

Zola also believes that the departure of Jorginho to Arsenal in January 2023 deprived Chelsea of an important leader.  

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

'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.' 

Despite the improvement that Chelsea showed, Pochettino departed the club last month. 

There were many changes at Chelsea last summer, with a host of players arriving at Stamford Bridge.

It inevitably took time for some of those players to settle but there were some success stories with Cole Palmer for instance scoring 22 goals in the Premier League.

Enzo Maresca has now taken charge of Chelsea on a five-year deal, while there has already been one new arrival at the club this summer in Tosin Adarabioyo, who will join on a free transfer following his departure from Fulham.