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Over the weekend Chelsea fell to a shocking defeat at the hands of minnows, Birmingham. Now I’m not one to dissect every kick of the match, nor do I believe in the false god of play statistics as they both seek to reduce the world to terms no one can understand. In my view, Chelsea lost for three reasons:
First of all, Birmingham gave an inspired performance particularly at the back as Ben Foster parried shot after shot from the likes of Drogba, Malouda, and Alex. There formation was near perfect as they held on for the majority of the match despite being outplayed across most of the pitch. Overall, it was a fantastic rearguard, edge of your seat action by the bluenoses.
Second, Chelsea defensive play allows for hole that you could drive a bus through. This simple mistake made by the Chelsea defense during there 3-0 hammering by Sunderland two weeks ago once again bared their ugly head as Lee Bowyer ran on to a header put over the head of the Chelsea defense and stuck in the back of the net. After all, Bowyer, 33, only played as Craig Gardner had injured his ankle, normally has no business scoring against Chelsea. they need to tighten up there lines in the back, Alex can steady the ship, but someone else will have to take the wheel if they are to be competitive with top flight teams.
Third, Roman Abromovic is meddling with the managerial staff and allowing the players to dictate to the manager. As for the fallout from Ray Wlikins’ sacking continues to dog the misguided tenure of Carlo Ancelotti its has become clear that two groups of people control the destiny of, the players, and peopled named Abromovic. The fact that an assistant manager seems to have been sacked as some of the first team player weren’t confident in his abilities to hold his job is both shocking and bizarre at the same time. What’s even more bizarre is that Ancelotti didn’t stand in the way, and tacitly gave control to the players to sack their manager.
Now Ancelotti may have wanted to see the back of Wilkins as much as the players, we’ll probably never know, but I can’t understand why he would allow himself to be undermined in this way, then gripe about ti the morning papers. Of course he’s lost control, and its his own fault for not standing by his own staff. As for Abromovic, it seems likely that the first team players who were dissenting took their concerns to him directly, and the order came down from the top to put Wilkins out on the curb like so much rubbish, but this is also a bizarre turn of events. While few managers have the imperial control over the fate of the club Alex Ferguson does at Manchester United, I think this is the first time that a managers staff has been sacked instead of him by the owner.
It may be my own personal conceptions getting the better of me, but it seems Abromovic is the only one who acted entirely according to character in this comedy of errors. Following the great tradition of all Russians in positions of power, Abromovic has decided to engage in purge of his own ranks on the dubious advice of trusted underlings, in this case the first team players. The result has been predictably disastrous as it now looks like he will lose the manager in a case of putting the baby out with the bathwater. But, if he can stop channeling his inner Stalin; leave the team and staff alone to recover from their recent results, then perhaps there is still a chance they can win it all this season. Any more purges, and I think the Chelsea jersey will be the only piece of the organization that still functions properly.
Written by: Matthew Wall, editor, soccerprose.com
