Was Chelsea's 2014/15 Premier League Triumph a Lie?

Watching Chelsea's wretched start to the current season, it's difficult to fathom that Jose Mourinho's side are the reigning champions of England.

Since August, we've seen Mourinho's men bullied into submission at times. They've lacked any real inspiration and have been easily beaten by opponents in four of their opening eight games.

It's been brutal.

In their latest outing at home to Southampton, so abject was their display that Chelsea were fortunate to keep the scoreline at 3-1 come the final whistle.

But Premier League champions they are, at least by name.

Not since Blackburn Rovers in 1995 have the reigning English champions been so woeful in their defence of the title.

And just like 20 years ago, Chelsea's poor form now is close to a mirror image of how things went for Ray Harford's side.

By the first weekend of October, Rovers had shipped 13 goals, lost five games and had just seven points on the board. In that run of defeats they lost to Manchester United, the team they pipped to the title a few months earlier, and were 10 points behind them in the table.

Chelsea have a one-point advantage on Rovers but have been equally weak at the back—they've conceded an average of two goals every game in the league—while they've also been well beaten by their title rivals from 2014/15, Manchester City, whom they incidentally also trail by 10 points.

Blackburn's solitary title win stands out as an anomaly in the Premier League era. Given how poor Chelsea have been in the defence of their own league crown this term, has last year's success also seen us hoodwinked?

Possibly, says ex-Chelsea winger-cum-pundit Pat Nevin.

Nevin sees weaknesses in the current Chelsea squad and believes that in winning the title last season, they revealed more about their under-fire manager than the condition of the squad.

"I see a difficulty with the team, one that Mourinho covered up fantastically last year," responds Nevin when Bleacher Report puts it to him that Chelsea overachieved last season.

"The team wasn't sparkling in any particular way at all after New Year's, but they ground out results rather brilliantly. I think it's astonishing that they won the league and Jose managed to get them home.

"So it may be that what's now seen as a malaise has actually been there for a while, and this summer needed a bit more surgery to the squad than was actually done. We may be seeing that now, and I suspect that some of that surgery will be done in January and definitely by next season."

The defensive weakness has been clear since Chelsea rode their luck against Swansea City on the opening day of the season. Then came that 3-0 humbling at the hands of Manchester City, and Chelsea haven't quite recovered.

It's been an inability to respond that seems to have held Chelsea back at times this season.

Indeed, in that Southampton defeat on Saturday, Mourinho's side struggled with the pace of the Saints' attacks. Sadio Mane cut through the back line with alarming ease, and the manager looked powerless to remedy it from the sidelines.

Chelsea's only answer was to throw on more attackers, which in turn left them even more open at the back.

Aside from Baba Rahman, no other defensive reinforcements have been made at Stamford Bridge this season. And even then, Rahman was only signed as a replacement for Filipe Luis, who returned to Atletico Madrid.

"I think it was not a good plan in letting him go, as he is an excellent defender and would have given Chelsea plenty of cover," Nevin continues.

"He almost gives you two players, as he can play at left-back, which then allows Cesar Azpilicueta to move to the right as cover."

Given the struggles of Branislav Ivanovic this season—not to mention Mourinho's recent assertions that Rahman is not quite ready for regular Premier League action—it's a valid observation.

Due to a lack of personnel, Chelsea have been unable to arrest the rapid decline of Ivanovic this season, which has led to all sorts of issues across the back four.

From there, problems in midfield have spiralled, leaving Nemanja Matic to be exposed more than ever defensively, and the team has suffered.

There are more problems, however.

"If there was just one thing wrong, I reckon Mourinho would have worked it out by now," says Nevin. "He's got a hard job; I don't think it's going to be fixed by tomorrow morning, and it's going to carry on a little while.

"I don't think Jose thought this team was the finished article. Look at in the wider terms: That group that has always been together—so John Terry, Frank Lampard, Petr Cech and Didier Drogba—it's all but gone now, and there's a rebuild away from that structure.

"A part of that has been done, but this season they needed a little more depth. That's not me saying it, but it's clear by what they tried to do in the summer. They tried to sign John Stones, for instance, so it was clear that Jose and the club felt they needed more strength in defence.

"So when you look at it, yes there are problems at Chelsea, but if a couple more players had been brought [in], then I'd suspect they would fine right now."

Vitally for Mourinho, the Chelsea hierarchy seems to have acknowledged the points Nevin makes after giving the manager their backing this week with a statement published on the club website.

What's telling is that the Chelsea dressing room appears a closed group, too. Normally in times of strife, tales of discontent among the players are leaked to the media, putting pressure on the manager.

We're not seeing that, though. We can point to some inept displays as evidence on the contrary, but in terms of making concrete assertions, there isn't much else that suggests the players aren't behind each other.

Indeed, with just two league wins to their name, the nature of the most recent defeat against Southampton can be equally pointed to as influenced by a lack of confidence as much as the players having little faith in the manager.

And like Nevin's belief that Mourinho got more from this team than he perhaps should have last season when he took them to the Premier League title, Roman Abramovich has acknowledged that fact by publicly supporting him.

But have we judged this team too early? Did their dominance last season inflate the reality of where Chelsea currently find themselves? Does the club remain in the same period of transition that Mourinho found it in when he returned in 2013?

"Absolutely, 100 per cent," concludes Nevin. "I would expect that between now and next September, four huge changes, four big, big signings. They desperately need another defender and full-back, another player to bolster midfield and someone to properly support Diego Costa.

"It sounds easy, but it's going to be expensive. Changes will be made, but it will be a bigger evolution, and it may even start in January."

Garry Hayes is Bleacher Report's lead Chelsea correspondent. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Follow him on Twitter @garryhayes