Thiago Silva's wife could have ENDED his Chelsea career

James Shearman

• Updated: 8 Feb 2024 22:23 GMT
• 3 min read

Belle Silva's recent comments could have effectively ended Thiago's Chelsea career.

In the aftermath of the Blues' 4-2 defeat to Wolves, in which Thiago scored a header, Belle tweeted: "It’s time to change. If you wait any longer it will be too late."

While there has been no conformation of this, the football world justifiably assumed that she was referring to Mauricio Pochettino's position as Chelsea manager.

Having lost 4-1 to Liverpool in the previous game, Pochettino certainly deserved to come under heavy scrutiny.

However, public scrutiny from the wife of one of his key players would not have gone down well with the Argentinian.

Perhaps consequently, the Brazilian was dropped for the west London club's FA Cup replay against Aston Villa on Wednesday.

Not only did Pochettino's side win, but they put in their best performance of the season by some distance.

Thiago Silva's wife could have ENDED his Chelsea career

Chelsea played so well against Villa that Pochettino would be crazy not to stick with the same lineup against Crystal Palace on Monday.

While there were several reasons for the team's improvement, one of them could be Silva's absence.

At 39 years of age, and having not been quick in his prime, Silva is now really slow at the elite level.

This means that the Blues backline has to drop deeper when he is in the team.

This creates a larger gap to Moises Caicedo in midfield, making his job of protecting the defence more difficult, and also invites more pressure from the opposition.

Silva makes up for it, on a personal level, with his remarkable reading of the game, but his presence now has a detrimental impact on the team overall.

Indeed, according to WhoScored.com, Chelsea's win rate this season when he starts is 36 per cent, compared to 86 per cent when he has been on the sidelines.

At this point, the only way he should return to the starting eleven is if Pochettino decides to rest players or switch to a back three, where he would have more cover.

Undoubtedly an icon at the club, Silva is unlikely to have the fairy tale ending to his time at Chelsea that he would surely love.