Chelsea
Chelsea One Sunderland Two!
A Decisive Penalty
By Gary Watton
April 20 2014
Oh well. If the opposition contrive to produce a brilliant defensive shift and the referee performs very well on their behalf too, then one can only hold one's hands up and resign oneself to cruel fate. Others, especially of a Shamfield persuasion, will scoff at this apparent humiliation, but Sunderland did not play like a team that is bottom of the league, and Chelsea have played worse and won!
So congratulations must be extended to our former player, Gustavo Poyet, for masterminding this triumph. As a Chelsea follower, it is clearly hard to swallow the bitter pill of a home reverse. It is also difficult to know whether we want Sunderland to escape the relegation trap door, as they have peculiarly become something of a bogey club. Not content with defeating Chelsea in a League Cup semi final in the mid-1980s, the Mackems also evicted the Blues from the FA Cup sixth round in 1992 and stuffed us 3-0 at the Bridge in 2010 when we were top of the Premiership. More recently, the Wearsiders defeated our hapless bunch in the quarter finals of the Capital One Cup back in December. Of course, Chelsea have not been without our successes against Sunderland too, including a seven-two thrashing of them in January 2010. Even Gus Poyet has scored one or two goals for Chelsea against Sunderland in past times.
Anyhow, the question has to be asked as to why Chelsea excel against the hallowed opposition of Arsenic and Tottensham while struggling against the apparent mediocrities of Newcastle, Palace, Sunderland, and Villa. Until Mourinho and his brains trust solve this conundrum, Chelsea will continue to come up short in English domestic football. Throwing silly money at Diego Costa and a few other acquisitions this summer is a dubious solution. Unless we invest in players with outstanding pace, then our laboured, possession football will remain predictable and containable. Furthermore, I hope that the club reins in its policy of buying lots of players and sending them out on loan. Half these players never progress to our first team, so it is merely a business ploy rather than a genuine desire to blood future Chelsea players.
Finally, I must concur with Jose. His team did actually play quite well. We were unlucky. It can and does happen. We cannot really blame our centre forwards for Saturday's setback, as our goal was scored by a striker. In fact, Azpilicueta's fatal slip totally typified our own season which itself has slipped terribly since early March. After we trounced Rottenham, we were seven points ahead of the Scouse Wannabes. Could it be that our current squad are emulating Chelsea teams from yesteryear? How? Well, Chelsea have a knack of allowing their league campaigns to be derailed when we've had a prolonged cup run. Similarly in 2014, our pursuit of the Premiership prize has crumbled since the start of the knockout stages of the Champions League. Was it a mere coincidence that our best run in the Premiership from Christmas to mid-March occurred whilst the team had few European commitments. Does this mean that the extra fixtures have taken their toll upon the team's fitness? The answer is no. The club has become accustomed to a heavy workload of matches each spring. Have the players become distracted by dreams of European glory? This is still not a likely explanation. Instead, while José has faithfully retained the same defence from one encounter to the next, he has felt the need to freshen up our attack and midfield from one engagement to the next. Consequently Lampard, Oscar, Ramires, and Schurrle have all been rotated, with the result that none of this quartet has been able to build any momentum to their form when they have been constantly rotated. Whilst at Chelsea a player is 'rested' if he produces an average performance, at Shamfield Brendan Rodgers has persevered with the same forwards and midfielders. Maybe when a manager has the luxury of choice from a big squad, this can prove to be a curse as much as it ought to be a blessing.
Now Chelsea need snookers and the team can only hope to ruin Liverpoo's anticipated Premiership glory by winning at Anne's field next Sunday, thereby allowing Manchester Mercenaries to snatch the Premiership from the cocky Liverfools. Stranger things have happened. Just ask Sunderland.
CHELSEA'S LEADING SCORERS:
Hazard 16
Eto'o 12
Oscar 11
Lampard, Schurrle, and Torres 8
Demba Ba 7
Ramires 4
Ivanovic and Willian 3
CHELSEA'S LEADING PREMIERSHIP SCORERS:
Hazard 14
Eto'o 9
Oscar 8
Schurrle 7
Lampard 6
Demba Ba and Torres 4
Ivanovic, and Willian 3
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20/04/2014 09:56
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