Chelsea... Must Try Harder
Posted by Zeno in Chelsea | 28 February 2006
It was, we hoped, an opportunity for the team to demonstrate, as much to itself as to anyone else, that a series of unconvincing performances culminating in the fireworks of the Barcelona game hadn’t begun a process that might affect the race to the League title.
Instead, it merely underlined that the “blip”, which Chelsea’s supposed rivals have been awaiting for well over a year, is upon us.
Doom and gloom? Well, perhaps. But until Eidur Gudjohnsen appeared on the pitch against Portsmouth, Chelsea had looked disjointed and weary. Even Frank Lampard’s usual easy loping gait had given way to a semi-resigned trudge as his passes were overhit or Didier Drogba miscontrolled another ball. Michael Essien laboured in midfield in a way that belied his incredible dynamism earlier in the season.
The bright points were the committed and industrious performances of Paulo Ferreira, Robert Huth and, to a lesser extent, Arjen Robben. Robben was clearly our best attacker until the Icelander’s introduction, bringing a spark and menace to the play that his attacking colleagues simply couldn’t muster.
Then there was del Horno. Casual, ineffective and accident-prone, he has started to encapsulate the sloppy side of Chelsea’s play. The sort of sloppiness, of inattention to detail, that would have been unthinkable a year ago. If his substitution was tactical, in was in the tactical sense of not wanting a substandard player on the pitch in a blue shirt.
And then Eidur appeared, and in less than 20 minutes had produced two goals of such elegant simplicity and beauty that, watching Match of the Day later that night, I realised that I hadn’t truly appreciated their quality from the Matthew Harding Upper. That I had, perhaps, been guilty of sinking into the slough of despond from which my neighbours watch the game every week. That I’d forgotten what football sometimes requires: a gesture of faith from the crowd. An advance of passion and heart, even while the team are playing mediocre football and making an inept Portsmouth side look half-decent. A willingness to shout and scream and sing your team into some sort of form, rather than the dull apathy of slumping there and waiting for them to entertain you. The sort of attitude, in fact, that I swore I’d never have about Chelsea.
So Eidur and Robben proved me wrong, and made me feel chastened into the process. Watch that stepover again, and tell me it’s not a goal of superlative class, created out of a very average Drogba pass. Then look at the weight and bounce on his lob, cutting out three members of the Pompey defence, and the quicksilver shift from right to left foot that Robben takes before he slips it past Kiely. Utterly composed… complete economy of movement.
So I hold my hands up – on Saturday, I was a poor fan. And so were all those people that headed for the exits the moment that Robben’s goal went in. The team can do better. So can we.
Today's interesting non-Chelsea links:
Remember Flash-Mobbing? This guy, apparently, invented it.
Chris Milk makes interesting music videos.
