Chelsea
Chelsea's Defence Defies Monsieur Wenger
Celebration Time!
By Gary Watton
April 27 2015
Jose Mourinho yet again produced his party trick of masterminding a clean sheet against an otherwise rampant Arsenil. While the Gooners have been dismantling all and sundry, including putting four past Liverpoo, the cautious one showed silly little Brendan Rodgers et les autres how to cope with Arsenic. Yet again, the north Londoners were predictable, throwing lots of players forward and enjoying a lot of possession, but they managed a sum total of one effort on target, which was at least an improvement by one upon their toothless display in west London back in the autumn.
Since Mourinho has returned to London's big smoke, hapless Arsenil have failed five times to score a single goal against Chelsea. They simply never do themselves any favours by sticking to the same ideological nonsense about all-out attack, like they have some moral obligation to go on the offensive. They really ought to swallow their bloated pride and take a leaf out of Jose's book and box clever in these contests. Perhaps if Arsenic put more people behind the ball and defended deeply and invited Chelsea onto them, then they might profit more when hitting us on the break. The trouble for the Gonners is that Arsene does not trust his defence and therefore reckons that attack is his only form of defence. Well it ain't working against Chelsea. The pretenders from norf London are merely flat track bullies who can run rings round most other teams, but they always fall badly short against the champions-elect. They really ought to learn from their mistakes, but they are so intent on exemplifying Einstein's definition of madness which is to repeat the same error again and again, hoping for a different outcome each time. Or as Delboy once said to Rodney the plonker "The trouble with you Rodders is that you will always insist on thinking." To be fair to another plonker, Monsieur Wenger, he wasn't too condescending in his post-match interview. He conceded that Chelsea had come to defend and that they had done it very well. Tis fair comment.
The home support, as ever, were less generous as they cried "boring boring Chelsea." However, the Portuguese maestro is the modern expert at effective football, in other words getting the job done. The Blues did not have to play into Arsenil's hands by coming out all guns blazing, as naive Liverpoor would choose to do. Instead, the league leaders knew that a share of the points would almost leave the chasing pack needing snookers, so they played with a degree of restraint, and frankly I and the broadcasting media all agree that this approach was perfectly acceptable. If Arsenic followers choose to sneer about our defensive strategy, then why don't they play without a goalkeeper and any defenders, if defending is something to be frowned upon?
Meanwhile, Jose is correct in stating that it's Arsenic's failure to win a Premiership in eleven years which is boring, while their repeated failure to record even one goal, let alone register a win, against Chelsea is infinitely more tedious. The team that scores lots of goals has nothing to feel ashamed of, and as JM remarked, only Manchester Mercenaries have outscored us this season.
Well the Gooners do at least deserve some credit for becoming only the second team since the start of the season [the other being Sunderland] to deny Chelsea a goal. Mind you, they probably have the referee, Michael Oliver, to thank for that. Oliver dismissed an obvious penalty for a goalkeeping infringement [to put it mildly] upon Oscar. Clearly, away teams do not get awarded penalties at the Emirates. That would be discourteous to the assembled hordes [or hoods?].
Later in the day, Eden Hazard was deservedly nominated as the PFA Player Of The Season. Alan Shearer, a born-again Chelsea admirer, has predicted that Hazard can become the world's best footballer. I am inclined to agree with the Geordie legend.
Back at the derby, John Terry celebrated the draw at the end like nobody has ever celebrated a scoreless draw before! He was entitled to. He had just delivered one of the great defensive performances. How England must yearn for JT at the heart of their defence. Even Mourinho admitted that Terry's dsiplay was among the best that he had seen in their long and distinguished partnership as team boss and team captain. Funnily enough, the Radio Five Dead commentator, John Murray, had suggested that while he felt [erroneously] that Harry Kane was the best player of the season, he also reckoned that John Terry should have made the short list for Player Of The Season.
It won't matter much to John. He is on the cusp of lifting the Premiership silverware again. While the Foxes of Leicester are on a roll at present and Crystal Palace are no mugs, the Blues look poised to take English football's main prize within the next week if they can safely negotiate these two hurdles. With the master of effective football at the controls, this is a distinct possibility. Bring it on!
Arsenal 0 CHELSEA 0; half time: 0-0. Sunday 26th April 2015.
CHELSEA team: Courtois, Ivanovic, Terry, Cahill, Azpilicueta, Matic, Ramires, Fabregas, Oscar, Willian, Hazard. Used substitutes: Drogba; Zouma; Cuadrado.
CHELSEA LEADING SCORERS:
Costa - 20 goals
Hazard - 18 goals
Oscar and Remy - 7 goals
Drogba, Ivanovic, and Terry - 6 goals
Fabregas and Schurrle - 5 goals
Willian - 4 goals
Cahill, Matic and Ramires - 3 goals
Zouma - 2 goals
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27/04/2015 11:46
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