The Curious Case of Chelsea’s European Credentials

After another failure in Europe, Chelsea’s wherewithal to win the European club football’s major prize came under the spotlight yet again. Over the last four seasons they were beaten out by Liverpool at the semi final stage on two successive occasions, lost the final against Manchester United and lost the semi final to Barcelona last season. Two of those defeats were on controversial circumstances; with Liverpool’s winner in 2005 not crossing the line and in last season’s debacle they had three seemingly genuine penalty claims against a Barcelona team that went on to beat Manchester Unite to lift the trophy.
But there was no iota of controversy on Tuesday night when Jose Mourinho came back to his old stumping ground, outclassed and outwitted Carlo Ancelotti to dump his old club out of Europe for the umpteenth time. In the build up to the second leg round of 16 clash, Mourinho insisted he would still be ‘The Special One’ whether Internazionale emerges victorious or not. Mourinho’s tactical savoir-faire left his counterpart Ancelotti looking like a high school coach. He spooked Ancelotti’s plan by fielding an attacking line-up, he shed the cloak of conservatism to use a three-pronged attack-Diego MIlito, Samuel Eto’o and Goran Pandev were supported by the reinvigorated Real Madrid reject, Wesley Sneijder.
In direct contrast, Ancelotti’s abysmal decision to use the pair of Didier Drogba and Nicholas Anelka upfront proved to be Chelsea’s Achilles’ heel. I don’t see Alex Ferguson or Arsene Wenger making that strategic blunder against a team like Inter Milan, they could have used Drogba as a lone striker while deploying two flying wingers, like Joe Cole and Florent malouda, to support him. Drogba, destite his recent form, was handled well; he is used to pummeling relatively inferior defenders in the Premier League. But he was shackled with ease by the pair of Lucio and Walter Samuel, who showed themselves as one of the most effective double acts since Laurel and Hardy, leaving Drogba and Anelka to feed on scrap.
Poor reaction to refereeing decisions afflicted Chelsea last season against Barcelona, as Tom Henning Ovrebo’s reluctance to award penalties they felt they deserved riled them up and distracted them from the task at hand. The same scenario occurred again this season, as Drogba found himself snarling at the referee during the first half at Stamford Bridge, and John Terry once again left the pitch at the end of the game fuming at the perceived slights against his side. Chelsea are certainly at the verge of developing a refereeing complex on big European nights, and rather than channel that into an improved performance it appears to deplete them of all quality and make defeat almost inevitable.
Champions’ League success is Roman Abromavich’s long-held dream, but how much longer can this familiar and time-served expensively-assembled Chelsea team keep on going to the well and coming back empty-handed? How many more blows of this sort can they take? They still have the Premier League and FA Cup to aspire at, but this, as in other seasons, has been an unfulfilling and ultimately chastening European campaign.

ARSENAL MEANS BUSINESS

Whether we like it or not Arsenal are hotly in pursuit of two title-The Premier and the European Champions' Leagues. Ironically this is a team we all wrote-off midway into the season, but the rather erratic run of form by Chelsea and man United has given Arsenal the leeway to have a strong claim at the Premier League title. The walloping of Porto in the 2nd leg round of 16 play-off at the Emirates, even without the influence of Cesc Fabregas, has gone a long way to substatially prove Arsenal, if they can keep on the consistency, are in the verge of ending their 5-year trophy drought.
I must admit, however, that the Porto team that got mesmerised on that overcast London night are poor and highly ineffective. Certainly not in the mold of the team which out of the blues won the European Cup in 2004 under a certain Jose Mourinho, and of course they were a shadow of the team that were narrowly beaten by Man United last season. The highly-rated central defensive pair of Rolando and Bruno Alves played like characters in Last Man Standing and allowed the much-criticised Nicklas Bendtner to have a rump and claimed his first ever hat trick. Whether Arsenal can beat all-comers to reach the final, as they did in 2005, and whether they can go on the clinch their very first European Cup, is entirely a different ball game. It still bedevils Arsene Wenger that upon all his is pedigree he has never led a team, or Arsenal for that matter, to a Europen Cup glory.
Wenger's braggadoccio is well known since taking over the London team in 1997, he now boast that Arsenal can win this season's Premier League title due to the fact that thier remaining fixtures is devoid of any of the so-called Big Four. He has all the moral right to make that boast, and we live to see if the team can roll over the likes of Hull City, West Ham, Man City and Spurs to leapfrog Man United and Chelsea in May to win the title. Whatever the outcome of such encounters, my submission is they CAN do it.
The triumph of Arsenal and Man United in the round of 16 of the Champions' League has sent more signals to the footballing world that the predicted supremacy of English teams in European competitions is becoming real by the day. Who could imagined that giant of European football, AC Milan can be pummelled 7-2 on aggregate by Man United? That night at Old Trafford, marred only by protestations directed at Glazer family by United fans, was one to remember. Prior to this season United have never beaten Milan in any competition over two legs. Revenge was the key word as Rooney went on to score 4 goals over the two legs, they got their revenge and await, together with Arsenal, Bayern Munich and Lyon, the draws for the quarter finals.

Owen's Jeopardy

Micheal Owen is back to the treatment room, where I must say he has been more than the field of play. Latest reports has it that he will missed the rest of the season, as would Anderson.
The debate currently going on is whether he will form Sir Alex Ferguson's plan for next season when he is expected to be back. My own submission is that he will not, and that the Gaffer will begin to look for a replacement.
On the other hand, I feel his long lay off will give Mame Biram Diouf the chance to show the stuff he is made of. With Macheda about to begin training, Diouf will also have another competitor for the 3rd berth in the United striker pecking order, behind Dimitar Berbatov and of course Wayne Rooney