Chelsea and Manchester United head into the first international break of the season having both tasted defeat twice in as many as four games, with the results after the international break not any better either.

The abovementioned results proved to be subpar for the two clubs considering the massive transfer windows they had. With that said, should their fans be worried as of yet? And what could also be the cause of their club’s demise?

As we dive deeper into what could be the cause of Man U and Chelsea’s subpar performances, a stat by TransferMarkt reveal that Manchester United and Chelsea both rank as the bottom two when we compare the difference in market value and purchase value for all the current Premier League teams.

Both these teams overcompensate for players and in most cases don’t buy players that are value for money, thus contributing to their downfall.

It isn’t surprising really that most of these players that they sign often go on to have a negative market value change after joining them. They weren’t exactly world class to start with.

Of Manchester United’s 10 most expensive signings, only Bruno Fernandes and Romelu Lukaku have had a positive market value change after joining the Red Devils.

And for every position in the Chelsea and Manchester United team, there is two to three backups who are relatively new to the squad, with more still being discussed to be signed.

That right there in my opinion creates a false sense of competition which is rather toxic to team-building, and more often than not could lead to players playing for themselves and not the club, as they feel the need to impress the manager in order to get more minutes in the following gameweek.

Well, while the answer to what might be the most probable cause to Chelsea and Manchester United’s poor form seems easy, it is rather hard to say whether or not the fans of the two teams should be worried.

Both clubs were never in the running for the title in my opinion, and they still aren’t. But judging by the perimeters of success I had placed for them, they’re still underperforming and badly so, but we are still in the early days of the season, and although I believe that the first few games of the season are integral to make or break your season, we have seen time-and-time-again that a team can always bounce back to life (Eddie Howe’s Newcastle comes to mind). And in Chelsea’s case, an injury-free starting XI might just do the trick to turn their fortunes around.

It remains to be seen how both these teams will fair, and it’s going to be interesting watching this from a neutral’s point of view.