What happened to Chelsea the Invulnerable?
Posted by Zeno in Chelsea, West Brom | 6 March 2006
It was while watching West Brom versus Chelsea on Saturday that I looked around, and suddenly realised that I was, to all intents and purposes, alone. In a place where, you would expect, the vast majority of the audience would be neutral (or Blue-biased) I was the only person shouting for the champions. The others, it seemed to me, were anti-Blue not because of the quality of Drogba’s goal (outstanding, even if it did require some pretty iffy defending to make it what it was) or the effervescence of Joe Cole, but because of the perceived way in which Chelsea played the game.
Then again, I was in my living room with a pair of friends watching the ludicrously-priced Premiership Plus.
Such vitriol Chelsea are inspiring. What hatred for their methods, scorn for their manager, bile for several of the first team.
Part of this, doubtless, comes from the pragmatism of the team’s approach. Chelsea may not regularly achieve the heights of their 20-minute destruction of Barcelona at the Bridge last year, or the comprehensive outplaying of Arsenal at Highbury this season, or the demolition of Man United at Old Trafford at the end of last term. The glut of attacking wingers at Chelsea make unreasonable demands of commentators and fans alike. In a team that boasts Cole, Robben, Duff and Wright-Phillips, why don’t we see more effortless pinging of the ball across the pitch… more arrogant exposure of their opponents sluggishness… more 60 yard passes onto the instep of Drogba, leaving the big man only to twitch his ankle to flick the ball into the net?
The rest is disciplinary. We all remember the regular – if muted – accusations toward Arsene Wenger. How a team which - when it felt like it - scaled such heights of adventurousness could allow itself to be drawn into dogfights, on-pitch slanging matches, red cards galore (we miss you, Mr Viera, even if Arsene doesn’t) was beyond some of this country’s exemplary fourth estate to explain. And Chelsea don’t play with that sort of wild abandon. So, let’s get this straight. You’re saying they spent all that money, they don’t thrill neutrals as often as they should, AND they get up to a few alleged on-pitch shenanigans? This, surely, is what those FA panels are made for.
Look at Bryan Robson in the West Brom technical area. For a large portion of the game (not merely the few moments the camera chose to focus on him) his face was contorted with hate and anger, spitting opprobrium at his opposite number. You certainly didn’t need a lip-reader to decode the vast majority of his comments, which riffed on that football ground staple “Fuck”.
So then we move on to the suggestions coming from the Bridge hierarchy that Chelsea are to launch some sort of “charm offensive” to offset this cornucopia of bad PR. I learned this from this weekend’s Observer, in which professional show pony and part-time club chairman Simon Jordan badmouthed Simon Greenberg, the club’s current communications director. Jordan revealed that Greenberg, while the Standard’s sports editor, had threatened Jordan with negative publicity and even contacted Palace’s shirt sponsor after Jordan had refused to allow Standard journalists access to Palace players. Jordan clearly has a personal axe to grind with Greenberg, so this gave him a nice little segue into having a pop at Chelsea by association.
However laughable we may find Jordan and his posturing (I particularly enjoyed the sentence “the last three women I've been involved with have all had glossy media profiles, but I don't go looking for that for myself”) he makes a valid point about the tabloid establishment’s joyful fabrication of news. Chelsea have been victims several times this season, notably when Mourinho’s off-hand comment about Chelsea requiring 8 more wins to seal the title was written up as “Arrogant Mourinho claims title will be won at West Ham”. The club may not do itself many favours, particularly with Jose becoming more and more irascible and less and less entertaining, but the crap cuts both ways.
Watch Jose as he leaves the tunnel for the second half. Robson, incensed, stands at the tunnel entrance holding up his watch like a PE teacher awaiting a recalcitrant cross country runner. His anger is laughed off by the Portuguese, who seems to be saying Yes, we were 5 minutes late coming out of the dressing room. I had a long team talk to give. Grow up.
Now look at Mourinho 20 minutes later, having to be restrained by match officials after Greening’s contact with Drogba. The Chelsea manager understands drama quite as much as Lionel Messi does, but he rarely loses his cool.
I guess what we’re really all worrying about are the implications for tomorrow’s crunch tie with the Catalonians. Can the manager use this? Is it possible that the siege mentality, so successful engendered last season, could carry the team through in what will inevitably be a bitter tie at the Camp Nou?
What is essential – essential – is that the players keep their cool. It’s to Drogba and Robben, in particular, that I’m talking. Both are guilty of regular conversations with referees, pleading a case or arguing a decision. The sights we had on Saturday, of half a dozen players surrounding Mark Halsey, are unacceptable: even Chelsea fans can’t be so blinkered as to miss that. None of us would mind if we won by another disputed Terry header tomorrow - all the better, in fact – but the club, and the manager, need to do something about the indiscipline that is sneaking into Chelsea’s performances. We’ve conceded regularly, lately, and not only does this augur ill for the Barca tie, but it smacks of hairline fractures appearing in the shell of merciless invulnerability that the club has fostered since Mourinho’s arrival.
Comments
I have a quandary. I have huge respect for the skill, tactics and flair of Chelsea, I think they thoroughly deserve to be top of the league and probably will be next year as well.
I don't care that they've spent more money than the rest of the league put together or that Mourinho thinks he's the son of God.
However, winning games is only half the battle - Chelsea aim to be operationally profitable and to do that they need to grow their fan base.
And that's where I have a problem with them. The West Brom game was a microcosm of the things that are wrong with Chelsea. Mourinho's arrogance at keeping the opposition waiting then laughing at Robson as if he's insignificant, Robben's 2-footed challenge and then the wonderful theatrical performance by Drogba - I'm surprised they let him play in a strong wind he's so likely to fall over.
The comments about 'cheating even more than usual' to beat Barcelona, the Chelsea morons who make threats against referees, the accusations against European oppoments last year - all these give support to a view of Chelsea as an arrogant, underhand, thuggish club.
It's that image that will harm them in the long run, which is a shame, because for the football alone this season they deserve every plaudit there is.
Zeno: Hmmm. A fair point, on the one hand... it's absolutely true that the issues around the Chelsea victories, particularly in recent weeks, have taken the shine off what has been (and will be) another successful season.
But surely you, as so many others have, can see that the portrayal of Chelsea by the media is a huge factor in this? After all, Mourinho isn't exactly known for his disrespect to opposition managers. Chris Coleman, Stuart Pearce and Paul Jewell have all had positive, friendly things to say about him.
As for the thugs who make threats to referees, perhaps we've all forgotten about the Sun's campaign against Urs Meier after Euro 2004. The George cross they put on his lawn and the death threats he received after disallowing Sol Campbell's goal against portugal... well, that was different, wasn't it? That was the super Soaraway Sun, England's newspaper, battling for our boys. What piffle. And if you honestly believe that Carvalho said the words "we'll cheat more than usual" in reference to the Barca game, I'm sorry to say that you're not as familiar as you should be with how British journalism works.
Then, there was the playacting by Greening (after Robben's poor-looking but, let's be honest, pretty inocuous challenge, the dive in the Chelsea area late on, and the players from both sides who jumped all over the ref every time he blew his whistle.
I don't put it all down to others. I'm not Jose... I believe we have a case to answer. But the attitude in the country is becoming hysterical. Part of it, and you'll laugh here, is my suspicion that Jose takes football far less seriously than those around him.