Chelsea
Further Misery
Carol's winner!
By Gary Watton
October 24 2015
In the heart of the east end, the champions continued to implode with a script that would be at home in Eastenders - such is the unfolding drama surrounding the manager and his equally clueless team. Yes it's true that Chelsea actually played quite well in losing narrowly to a team that enjoyed a one-man advantage, and yes it's true that we were on the receiving end again of harsh refereeing. If an official can see a chance to damn the champions, he jolly well seizes it. Any Chelsea player fouled in the penalty area is obviously diving and any opponent who suffers the same is clearly deserving of a penalty. Mind you, the consensus of opinion is that the erratic Matic was a just recipient of two yellow cards.
However, whatever luck we are entitled to has not yet surfaced in any shape or form, or else previous good fortune has now expired. On Saturday Fabregas had a goal chalked off. It was a close call - but close calls are not going our way. Zouma had an effort which many officials would have awarded as a goal, but hey it's Chelsea and they must not receive the benefit of the doubt. Unfortunately, I do blame the manager to an extent for our rough justice. The truth is that the more he exhorts the officials to give us "a break" (a pathetic request), the less likely that they will provide one. The public outpourings from Mourinho designed to heap pressure on referees by highlighting their bad decisions only results in them digging their heels in and refusing to grant us anything. It's as if they are united in seeking to show everyone that they won't be influenced by Jose's Ferguson-type mind games. If Mourinho thinks that criticising a referee for not awarding us a penalty will mean that the next man in black will be keen to give us one in order to escape his post-match wrath, well that clever strategy has well and truly backfired. As I have stated before, the Chelsea management need to stop fixating themselves about the referees. If we can score two or three goals from open play (and clearly we can't) then we take the dubious performance of the match officials out of the equation. Only desperate teams rely on referees. We should be so in command that we need not worry about bad decisions. Furthermore, it's my guess that the Chelsea manager pays too much attention to which match official is appointed for the next match and asks an assistant to research the referee's past record in Chelsea matches. Our obsession with referees is doing us no favours. If we can run rings around the opposition (and evidently we can't) then the referee becomes a supreme irrelevance.
Chelsea are the authors of their own misfortune, and let me explain why. We are not grabbing matches by the scruff of the neck in the early stages. If we could score an early goal and hold our lead, then our opponents are forced out of their comfort zone. They have to change tactics, change formation, and eventually change personnel. As they strive to equalise or pull a goal back, they play without composure and get stressed. Instead of which, it is our Muppets who are guilty of playing with anxiety - a fact underlined by the sending off of Matic, someone who was desperate to win the ball back, but in his anxiety he perpetrated fouls. I recall last year when we were two-nil up inside five minutes at Badison Park and won easily. Obviously that scenario can't happen too often, but I don't agree with the bull that you can score too early in a match. Regrettably, our players want to coast through the first quarter of the match. They have probably been told to be patient and that chances will eventually come their way. Well, that approach is proving to be a recipe for a disaster. Without starting with any urgency, we find ourselves behind, then we lose composure in front of goal, and worse still we lose composure full stop. As a consequence, players get booked and the manager gets sent off. Maybe if his team hit the ground running, instead of trying to cruise in the early stages, the outcome would be considerably much better. We've only got ninety minutes to score two or three goals, but if we dilly-dally in the first quarter of the match, we are simply running the clock down, to no good purpose, and surprise surprise it's ourselves that end up chasing the match in the last ten minutes, running around like headless chickens. We don't have a good track record in recent times of coming from behind, so surely the onus has to be on getting our noses in front, instead of a laid-back start to matches which does not pay dividends.
Oh and I really do not buy into this ludicrous nonsense that Mourinho is entitled to a poor season - as if it's some kind of right that he has accrued. When you're sitting just above the relegation zone at the end of October, with the resources that we possess, then that is shocking and inexcusable. Mourinho already had a mediocre first season back with Chelsea. We won no silverware and finished third in the Premiership below Liverfools. This season looks infinitely worse. We have to hope that Stoke City take pity on us, don't prioritise the Capital One Cup and field a much-changed team against us on Tuesday night. We should have greater strength in depth and be able to deal with their second string. However, if Mark Hughes chooses a strong first team, then Chelsea will have an uphill task to escape with a victory. (I fear a penalty shootout from a two-hour stalemate....if we're lucky!)
I for one will not be acting as an apologist for Mourinho. He has presided over a series of catastrophic personnel changes and must take responsibility for that. He offloaded Mata, kept Oscar who has not developed one jot in the last few years, he insists on keeping Mikel but Chalobah would be as effective and lower the wage bill. Similarly he offloaded Lukaku and brought in Falcao. Again Bamford would do no worse than Falcao and be less of a strain on the wage bill. Mourinho also banished De Bruyne and Bertrand. He couldn't find room for Schurrle, but replaced him with the dud Cuadrado, while Salah completely underperformed too, and by the look of things, Pedro is doing likewise. Perhaps, Chelsea are just not very good. Our Premiership was well-earned, but since the new year we have grown steadily worse. We were average in the last few months of last season and we are just even worse now. Jose is keeping the seat warm until someone comes along who knows how to 'manage'. When I was a wine shop manager, I complained about various circumstances to my area manager. He replied that I was a manager and I was being paid to 'manage' the situations, in other words 'cope'. There is evaporating evidence that Mourinho is able to 'cope'. A person who can cope can manage. A person who cannot cope cannot manage.
West Ham United 2 CHELSEA 1; half time: 1-0.
Chelsea scorer: Cahill
CHELSEA team: Begovic; Cahill; Azpilicueta; Terry; Zouma; Matic; Fabregas; Ramires; Costa; Willian; Hazard. Used substitutes: Mikel; Falcao; Rahman.
CHELSEA LEADING SCORERS:
Willian four goals
Costa three goals
Oscar two goals
Pedro two goals
Ramires two goals
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24/10/2015 14:47
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