Shearer, Scholes and Gullit´s woes – the last time Chelsea suffered back-to-back Premier League thumpings

Chelsea slumped to a humbling 4-1 loss at Watford on Monday to heighten speculation over the future of head coach Antonio Conte.

The Premier League champions were also thumped 3-0 at home to Bournemouth last week and are certainly not used to such back-to-back humiliations.

The reverse at Vicarage Road marked the first time Chelsea have lost consecutive Premier League matches by a margin of three goals since October 1995.

Plenty has changed at Stamford Bridge since those heavy losses to Manchester United and Blackburn Rovers and here we look at some of the personnel involved.

3 – Chelsea have lost consecutive Premier League games by a margin of 3+ goals for the first time since October 1995 (1-4 vs Man Utd and 0-3 vs Blackburn). Humbled.

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) February 5, 2018

Chelsea 1 Manchester United 4 (October 21, 1995)

Chelsea’s days of challenging for top-flight glory were still to come, but Glenn Hoddle’s men headed into a daunting pair of fixtures on the back of consecutive 1-0 wins over Arsenal and Aston Villa.

Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United were gunning to take the English title back from Blackburn and a pair of Paul Scholes goals inside 10 minutes at the Bridge – the second crowning a majestic team move – quickly took the game away from Chelsea.

Ruud Gullit lined up that day, the Netherlands great the first of the Blues’ superstar overseas arrivals to wow in west London. Gianluca Vialli, Dan Petrescu and Gianfranco Zola were yet to arrive, but against United there was certainly a more workmanlike look to the Chelsea side.

Sporting his trademark mullet and tracksuit bottoms combo, Russian goalkeeper Dmitri Kharine was protected – somewhat dubiously – by a defence of Steve Clarke, Erland Johnsen, Frank Sinclair and Andy Myers.

An all-English midfield base of Dennis Wise, Eddie Newton and Gavin Peacock found themselves overmatched against Scholes, Roy Keane, Nicky Butt and Ryan Giggs.

Former United favourite Mark Hughes reduced the arrears for Chelsea as he played up front with target man Paul Furlong, but Giggs converted at the end of a fine solo run and substitute Brian McClair put the result beyond doubt before Sinclair was sent off.

Chelsea’s defeat to Watford on Monday saw them concede 3+ goals in back-to-back Premier League matches for the first time since 1995.

21/10/95: Chelsea 1 Manchester United 4
28/10/95: Blackburn Rovers 3 Chelsea 0

Here’s how the Blues lined up for those matches.#CFC #PL pic.twitter.com/xGXSK92Gp9

— Omnisport (@OmnisportNews) February 6, 2018

Blackburn Rovers 3 Chelsea 0 (October 28, 1995)

Blackburn endured a forgettable title defence, eventually salvaging a seventh-placed finish. But, in sealing only their fourth top-flight win of the campaign at that stage, they were far too strong for Chelsea.

Tim Sherwood had famously hoisted the Premier League trophy at Anfield earlier that year and the future Tottenham manager opened the scoring with a deflected drive before strike partners Alan Shearer and Mike Newell helped themselves to a goal apiece.

Hoddle shuffled his team from the United defeat to little avail, with the late David Rocastle and Scotland international Craig Burley unable to effectively stem the Rovers tide.

Chelsea ended the season in 11th place, with Hoddle then departing to take charge of England. Gullit stepped up into the role of player-manager, increased the foreign legion and collected the FA Cup in 1996-97.

The Dutchman then became something of a trailblazer in modern Chelsea history by being sacked the season after winning a major honour.