Oh, Get a Grip!
I’m not surprised that normal service has resumed in the press over Chelsea as Roman Abramovich’s public show of disaffection with the Villa Park result has seemingly given the rowdy rotters something to bleat about. The muted whispers that greeted the match-day Guardian report that there’s trouble at the club (because Abramovich reportedly chased after Ronaldinho without José Mourinho’s consent) have now ballooned into loud celebratory guffaws. And the bookmakers, no slouches in reading the tell-tale signs, have shortened the odds against Mourinho facing the chop.
While I do not begrudge the frothing commentariat what is after all their usual dose of fleeting happiness over Chelsea’s momentary misfortune, I really sometimes wonder about the quality of some of our fans who joyfully hitch-hike on their bandwagon each time they ride through town. Time was when we as Chelsea fans used to take defeat with the equanimity of the rejected stone. But two league titles, three Champions League semi-finals, two Carling Cups and one FA Cup later, any sign of defeat is now a signal for mass suicide. Everywhere you look now, the overreaction is suffocating - an angry nation of knee-jerkers, fickle fans and fantasists falling over themselves to pick the team for the next game while calling for the manager’s head. The pessimists have won the bragging rights, but I just wonder for how long.
Frankly, there is no use telling anyone foolish enough to think Chelsea are out of the title race in the first week of September that they wouldn’t have long to wait to wolf down their wacky words, but it’s important to let them know that Abramovich is no fool. The man has a right, like every lover of his team and hater of defeat, to feel bad about the result; but to begin to read into his demeanour at the time a brooding cloud over Chelsea must be just plain silly. Abramovich did not storm out of the ground as some would have us believe. He actually went down to the away dressing room to console Mourinho and his men. Oh yes, he wasn’t happy; but he didn’t blank Mourinho or the players because they lost a game they dominated and should have won on another day. He was just being a fan – he was sitting there and watching his beloved team being beaten and he, like every true blue, found defeat hard to take.
Of course, we can come up with all sorts of excuses for this loss - Frank Lampard’s near-sudden absence disrupting our original game plan; the clear penalty against Shaun Wright-Phillips, which, if it had been given, would have most possibly changed the direction and outcome of the game; two new defenders coming into the side in such a historically difficult away tie; Mourinho’s new hairstyle and mellow mood being harbingers of bad luck. But when all is said and done, games like this where the underdogs perform as if on pills and the favourites unproductively batter their heads against the wall is standard fare every season. That’s why it’s football - essentially unpredictable and once in a while to be enjoyed by neutrals and those who root for the underdogs. Liverpool, Arsenal and any other team dreaming of the title know they will come up against their Villas sometime before the end of the campaign; but their prayers would be for such stumbles not to be at a decisive point during the season.
I think our own prayer has been answered, because our stumble (like that of Manchester United at Manchester City) has come early. Thus, we need not adorn our sackcloth. Rather, the coaching crew and players should be as clear-eyed and unsparing as possible in dissecting what went wrong. I believe this defeat has its benefits, not least the fact that it brings the team down to earth and makes everyone concentrate hard on the task at hand, instead of assuming they just have to turn up on a pitch anywhere and claim the points. But while I do not underrate the threat posed by Liverpool and Arsenal, I still cannot see beyond Chelsea and Manchester United for the title. So, as far as we’re still above United after five games, I don’t think we should be calling in the undertakers.
It’s Blackburn next at the Bridge. I look forward to seeing a proper reaction from the boys to this defeat.
- Posted at 12:04 AM · Permalink · Print · 1663 views · Last indexed by Google on the 13th May 2008
- Tags: Arsenal, Aston Villa, Chelsea, Frank Lampard, Jose Mourinho, Juliano Belletti, Liverpool, Manchester United, Premier League, Roman Abramovich, Ronaldinho, Shaun Wright-Phillips
Absolutely Kenn!! I struggled at first when the whole Chelsea-hater phenomenon appeared, fired off indignant emails and comments on stories I read, but like accepting that defeats will happen now and again, I’ve accepted that unbiased objective journalism is as regular as those defeats. So now I don’t bother with certain sites, as I know what to expect. It’s a back-handed compliment in some ways that so much is written about the club, and I realise it won’t change, we could win everything this year, and there would still be reports with snide comments. Jealousy is so last century.
Of course Roman would be pissed off with losing, he looked like I felt. Disappointed. But we are being encouraged to believe that a few weeks after a clear-the-air meeting he is tossing up whether to sack Jose because we lost an away match. Get a grip! …absolutely.
There wasn’t a single Chelsea fan leaving the ground with a smile on his face on Sunday afternoon, but rather than write that Roman has fallen so much in love with Chelsea that he feels the way the fans do, a much better story is to try and breathe new life into the one that they got completely wrong last year!
Spot on Kenn, he left after the second goal went in knowing that was the end of any possible come back.
I think what the press and opposition fans don’t realise is that Roman loves football and of course loves his team, not like the so called rich benefactors who want to own “Franchises”. They can call it his “toy” if they want but I’m sure it means much more to him than that.
He reacted like I would have reacted, hell… he reacted like most Chelsea fans would have!
So yes “Get a Grip”
Well said Kenn. I thought it was hilarious that the papers that reported Roman stormed away from his seat early in disgust. I’m not sure I’d call the 88th minute early!
The best bit was that they said he had a ‘look of disgust’ or ‘face like thunder’ when he had exactly the same dopey expression he always carries.
Leaving 2 minutes before the end? Bloody new fans etc…
my woman always get upset when i leave 2 minutes early..
having said that, i rarely (if ever) last 88 minutes…
give the man a break
the tabloids are run by brainless guys.
I’m not sure who said it, but it can be a (heavy)back handed complenment to have the tabloids talking crap about us all the time. Gelousy ane envy. We are an exciting club to report on due to our Russian Owner and as everyone loves to hate Chelsea, the anti-Chelsea stories sell papers.
I get really winds me up the cockney reds that take the tabloids as gospel;
1. for being so stupid as to believe everything that red in fish paper.
2. for not having any savy to look at the entire situation.
3. For not supporting their local team, if yo support Liverpoo or MU Rowdies, go up north, we don’t want you in London.
Alot of the time i find the stories amusing as there is never and direct quote, just pure imagination. I’ll give the journo’s one thing, they know how to turn someone/albeit a simpleton!!!
K/T/B/F/F/H
The reaction’s been depressingly predictable. The tabloids will say anything of course, but I’m disappointed that the Guardian (for example) is doing exactly the same thing it did last year — even making allowances for the fact that they have to think of *something* to write, you’d think they’d try something different. When we drew a few games on the trot around Xmas last year, and Sheva’s poor form got him dropped, they all decided that José would definitely be gone in the summer. Definitely. Now, we lost a game, we’re not playing particularly well, and once again it’s “Crisis at Chelsea.”
I don’t think anyone will stroll to the title this year. It’s going to be more exciting. Maybe it’ll remind some fans that we should be happy we’re in the mix at all (anyone else remember when finishing 14th felt great because it was far enough away from the drop zone?)
[...] Update: Kenn Emetulu at Chelseablog says something in the same lines [...]
I thought the comment from JM was very funny: “The other day I left early because I wanted to beat the traffic.” Did he suggest Roman too wanted to beat the traffic?… What traffic? Could there be a helicopter traffic jam in the sky? LOL
chelsea’s got so much haters and i think we have to do what we know how to do best which is winning matches and earning points….we have the strength to forge ahead and i need ballack back!!!!!!!!
Guys, I am the only in my work place who supports Chelsea. Everybody hates us at least in my work place :-) I feel very well with it.
NOW SCHUSTER CALLS LIVERPOOL UGLY AND UNATTRACTIVE CHECKOUT SPORTING LIFE .ITS COMMON TO HATE ON THE TEAMS TO BEAT!LET THE HATRED NOW SHIFT ON EM AND THEIR “BILLIONAIRES”
Cheers from a polish fan of CFC :)
That’s not it.
There’s no problem with us loosing a game. Two or tree games either.
The problem’s name is: the style.
Style of our game. I love/loved Chelsea for its defensive style, killing opponents in the end of the match, 1:0 wins, low number of goals against us. Now, we play like that: we loose lots of goals, we loose with reading-amators for 45mins, and we can do nothing. Then we loose TWO goals with a new-comer Birmingham. Yeap, we won, but… what about the style!
Portsmouth - 1:0, goal in 30th minute, didn’t see that match, but i think we controlled the game if we didn’t loose a goal.
AV - damn, what was that? Was that chelsea? We kept attacking, shot many times, and we lost goals fron counter-attacks… It’s the way i liked to see Chelsea play - i’m talking about aston villa. :|
Also the thing is, we didn’t bought anyone SPECIAL. We of course have more players, but.. Not first-squad ones. And now: Last season was great, but there were teams better than Chelsea. And during the summer, they get even better! And we? We get just… more sure.
For me, theese are the problems.
Please comment.
btw Sorry for my english :)
now i see i commitet a few mistakes (lose & loose, now i see the difference )