Explaining the reason Paulinho's form has dropped off

Paulinho didn't play well against Chelsea and has become the focus of a debate, over whether his performance is good enough. However the dip in form of the Brazilian is explained by the fact he has played for one year without stopping.

He joined Barca from Guangzhou Evergrande, in the middle of the Chinese Suepr League season. Valverde integrated him into the team quickly and gave him a lot of minutes. He is also a fixture in the Brazilian national team. Paulinho has played 73 games and 5212 minutes this season. 35 with Barca, 29 with Guangzhou and 9 with Brazil. The World Cup is coming up too...

Paulinho started the season on February 22, 2017, when Guangzhou played Eastern in the Asian Champions League. Since then he has not stopped.

Furthermore he also suffered a tiny fracture in the fifth metatarsal of the right foot in the derby against Espanyol, which has not helped his performance either. Valverde has the problem now of getting him fit to play at 100 per cent again. Coutinho's arrival only partially solves the problem, as he's more attacking. And Andre Gomes has not been the dynamic presence Barcelona hoped for.