Chelsea
Chelsea Clinch Fourth Premiership Trophy
Celebration Time!
By Gary Watton
May 5 2015
Premierships are like London buses for London's finest football club: none for ages and then four in quick succession. Mind you, although Chelsea have now secured a staggering fourth Premiership in only eleven years, I felt totally underwhelmed by the whole occasion. For me, Chelsea already were champions effectively because Arsenil [very exciting team] needed to win all of their remaining matches [including a trip to ManUre] while the runaway leaders had to drop points in every fixture. The mathematical permutations were all basically pie in the sky.
So it came to pass. Crystal Palace typically served up dogged resistance and tried their utmost to ruin the party, but this time Alan Pardew couldn't get the better of Jose Mourinho. It's funny how the underrated Pardew copes much better against Mourinho than the overrated Wenger and Pellegrini. Now there's food for thought.
Anyhow, I digress. Chelsea's performance was rather indicative of their post-Christmas efforts. They got the job done but they didn't exactly run rings around Crystal Palace. Even our goal best summed up the situation. It took a soft penalty award to break the deadlock, and even then the dazzling Hazard had to head home the rebound after his timid penalty had been saved by Speroni. Meanwhile, Mourinho gave a characteristic two fingers to all the haters and naysayers by bringing on three defensive players to reinforce the lead. Chelsea are nothing if not effective. Their defending in particular has perhaps hit new heights. There have been clean sheets at QPR, then at home to the wannabes of ManUre and Arsenic, followed by another Courtois shut-out in this potentially awkward London derby. In fact, extra kudos should be apportioned to the triumvirate of Costa, Courtois, and even Filipe Luis, as these three gents have now secured the distinction of back-to-back league winner's medals in Spain and now England. Bravo!
Chelsea have lost only three matches in all competitions so far and remain exceptionally hard to beat. Nobody personifies our bloody-minded refusal to concede goals more than John Terry. A number of commentators and experts have indeed expressed disappointment that JT wasn't short-listed for Player Of The Year, but the PFA can make amends for this apparent oversight by nominating John as the Player Of The Month for April. There really isn't anyone else in the Premiership within touching distance of the Chelsea legend for that consolation accolade.
Meanwhile, even the spiteful English FA simply has to grant Jose Mourinho the Manager Of The Year award. To pass him by for an inferior rival would be ludicrous and petty in the extreme. The world and his dog knows that Chelsea Football Club has the best manager in the English Premiership. Sure, Jose and his allegedly boring team will not win any popularity contests any time soon, but the English Premiership is not a popularity competition.
I can't help contrasting with the 8-0 final day extravaganza at home to Wigan Athletic in 2010 that denied ManUre the Premiership, but let's not be too harsh on the class of 2015. This Chelsea team have won the Premiership by a huge distance. Not even their worst enemies can begrudge the glaring fact that Chelsea have been head and shoulders above all the other teams in England's top league. Whether the Blues can translate domestic superiority in Europe next season is another matter entirely. I still maintain that Chelsea will not win the Champions League with Mourinho as manager. However, in a week when the UK goes to the polls to elect the next government, I seriously think that Jose Mourinho should be the next Prime Minister. Nobody possesses his knack of getting the job done, and he certainly doesn't suffer fools nor would compromise himself to be popular. For all of his po-faced posturing, Mourinho gets my vote.
CHELSEA 1 Crystal Palace 0; half time: 1-0. Sunday 3rd May 2015.
CHELSEA team: Courtois, Ivanovic, Terry, Cahill, Azpilicueta, Matic, Cuadrado, Fabregas, Drogba, Willian, Hazard. Used substitutes: Mikel; Zouma; Filipe Luis.
CHELSEA goal scorer: Hazard.
CHELSEA LEADING SCORERS:
Costa - 20 goals
Hazard - 19 goals
Drogba, Oscar, Remy, and Terry - 7 goals
Ivanovic - 6 goals
Fabregas and Schurrle - 5 goals
Ramires and Willian - 4 goals
Cahill and Matic - 3 goals
Zouma - 2 goals
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05/05/2015 14:47
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