Former Chelsea defender Frank Leboeuf says the Blues are now a ‘mid-table club’ and have no chance of finishing in the top four.
The Blues currently sit 11th in the Premier League table having lost three out of their opening seven top-flight games.
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Chelsea have suffered defeats to West Ham and Nottingham Forest, while their home loss against Aston Villa saw the west Londoners booed off the Stamford Bridge pitch.
However, Mauricio Pochettino‘s side have won their last two matches – against Brighton in the Carabao Cup and away to Fulham at Craven Cottage on Monday night.
But 1998 World Cup winner Leboeuf, who played over 200 times for Chelsea between 1996-2001, has stated that the Blues will once again miss out on Champions League football come the end of the campaign.
Speaking on The Sports Breakfast, the two-time FA Cup champion said: “Right now, Chelsea is a mid-table club.
“You have to be realistic, you have to stop dreaming, compared to any other club, it’s getting better right now.
“They’ve had two good results in the Carabao Cup and in the Premier League but we’re going to see against Arsenal very soon, how it works.
“Some fans are predicting Chelsea to finish in the top four, well I would be very surprised, for me they look like dreamers.”
Leboeuf also stated he knew the Chelsea project under Pochettino would take time with the club for the future with their summer signings.
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He remarked: “I didn’t expect anything much at the beginning of the season because we know it was a real mess with all the players that they had.
“And because of the type of players that they decided to get, mostly inexperienced players, they’re definitely talented, but they have to grow.
“It takes some time to get the results that you want sometimes, and for those players, it’s going to take a long time to see them being the best of themselves.
“And this season, I saw so many experienced players leaving, [Mateo] Kovacic and [N’Golo] Kante for example, and they haven’t been replaced in the middle of the park.
“I already said in July that it was going to be very difficult for them to get results because you don’t play in the present, you play in the future with those players.
“So it’s complicated, and Chelsea still didn’t resolve the main problem getting a striker.”
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