With six matches left to play in the Barclays Premier League, Chelsea are sitting on a 10-point cushion vis-à-vis the next best team – fellow-London foes Arsenal whom they will clash with on Sunday.
Fans of both teams are waiting expectantly for a mouth-watering clash. But football experts are talking of a different story. One in which the result of this high profile encounter is almost a foregone conclusion. And most of them are predicting a 1-0 victory for Chelsea in an encounter not dissimilar to the one last week against United. It’s dashed cold water on the pre-match hype, but it may not be too far off the mark.
In the last 11 meetings between Wenger’s boys and Mourinho’s 11, Arsenal has not won a single match – with five draws and the rest, losses. The stats are galling as Arsenal has played quite well in the League this season. But the bigger reason to my mind is the man himself – José Mourinho, who stands so tall over this fixture that fans and experts are loath to put their money on Arsenal in spite of whatever the form books might suggest.
It takes a lot of patience and nurturing to lead a team to League victory – but to have a team lead the points table right through the season, week after week, is a special feat indeed, if not surreal. Mourinho, since his Premier League, has transformed a good team into a League Champion – and by a wide margin at that. While the jury might still be out on Chelsea’s standing in Europe, specially compared to the likes of Barca, Real and Bayern, it is now clear that in English football, they are in a league of their own.
Building the team
Mourinho took one season to fix his squad and imprint his style of play on the Chelsea system. Eyebrows were raised when Juan Mata was sold to United, when David Luis went off to PSG – but Mourinho knew what he was doing. In his playing eleven, everyone has multiple roles, a larger workload to share. In addition to their normal duty as a striker, midfielder or defender he carefully slotted in players who could seamlessly switch between these positions if the need arose.
His defence is hard and rarely gives anything away – led by the inspirational Terry and firmly supported by the likes of Cahill, Ivanovic and Azpilicueta. In Thibault Courtois, he has one of the best young goalkeepers in the world. His midfield shines strongly in every match – Eden Hazard is hard-working, talented and a proven goal scorer and he has the likes of Fabregas and Oscar to combine beautifully with him whenever the situation demands.
In Matic, Mourinho has a strong playmaker-enforcer who is not averse to taking up defensive duties and is like a rock between the midfield and the defence. The forward line-up perhaps looks a shade undercooked especially when injuries hit some players – but the veteran Drogba has been used exceptionally in key matches when Costa and Remy have not been available. This is probably one area where next season you will definitely see a few additions.
But the real star remains Mourinho himself.
Creating pressure, managing pressure
Before every match, he takes the pressure totally upon himself, carefully deflecting media attention from the team and their foibles. As a manager, he has taken this ability to put himself on the firing line into an art form. He will push his team relentlessly in every match, to the point of playing boring and unspectacular football at times – which sometimes reminds me of the famous Italian Catenaccio strategy of the 1970s and '80s where victory in a match was considered more important than the margin.
And Mourinho has drilled that into each member of his team. Which is why, time and time again, in matches where the opposition has dominated possession, Chelsea has won by scoring through one or maybe two scoring chances at best. This ability to win in an ugly fashion has been making all the difference. And probably that’s the reason why the experts are predicting a dreary 1-0 once again on Sunday against Arsenal.
Make no mistake – the Gunners will be no pushovers and will come hard at Chelsea from the first minute. But whether they can make inroads into the master plan of the uber tactician, Mourinho, will decide their fate. As Wenger prepares to take on Mourinho once again, all eyes will be on whether his Gunners can finally do what Chelsea has done so well all season – win ugly!
Rathindra Basu lives, breathes, sleeps sports and is forever waiting for the next Indian sporting triumph. Since this usually takes much time and infinite patience he also listens to music, reads voraciously and eats almost anything that moves!
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Fans of both teams are waiting expectantly for a mouth-watering clash. But football experts are talking of a different story. One in which the result of this high profile encounter is almost a foregone conclusion. And most of them are predicting a 1-0 victory for Chelsea in an encounter not dissimilar to the one last week against United. It’s dashed cold water on the pre-match hype, but it may not be too far off the mark.
In the last 11 meetings between Wenger’s boys and Mourinho’s 11, Arsenal has not won a single match – with five draws and the rest, losses. The stats are galling as Arsenal has played quite well in the League this season. But the bigger reason to my mind is the man himself – José Mourinho, who stands so tall over this fixture that fans and experts are loath to put their money on Arsenal in spite of whatever the form books might suggest.
It takes a lot of patience and nurturing to lead a team to League victory – but to have a team lead the points table right through the season, week after week, is a special feat indeed, if not surreal. Mourinho, since his Premier League, has transformed a good team into a League Champion – and by a wide margin at that. While the jury might still be out on Chelsea’s standing in Europe, specially compared to the likes of Barca, Real and Bayern, it is now clear that in English football, they are in a league of their own.
Building the team
Mourinho took one season to fix his squad and imprint his style of play on the Chelsea system. Eyebrows were raised when Juan Mata was sold to United, when David Luis went off to PSG – but Mourinho knew what he was doing. In his playing eleven, everyone has multiple roles, a larger workload to share. In addition to their normal duty as a striker, midfielder or defender he carefully slotted in players who could seamlessly switch between these positions if the need arose.
His defence is hard and rarely gives anything away – led by the inspirational Terry and firmly supported by the likes of Cahill, Ivanovic and Azpilicueta. In Thibault Courtois, he has one of the best young goalkeepers in the world. His midfield shines strongly in every match – Eden Hazard is hard-working, talented and a proven goal scorer and he has the likes of Fabregas and Oscar to combine beautifully with him whenever the situation demands.
In Matic, Mourinho has a strong playmaker-enforcer who is not averse to taking up defensive duties and is like a rock between the midfield and the defence. The forward line-up perhaps looks a shade undercooked especially when injuries hit some players – but the veteran Drogba has been used exceptionally in key matches when Costa and Remy have not been available. This is probably one area where next season you will definitely see a few additions.
But the real star remains Mourinho himself.
Creating pressure, managing pressure
Before every match, he takes the pressure totally upon himself, carefully deflecting media attention from the team and their foibles. As a manager, he has taken this ability to put himself on the firing line into an art form. He will push his team relentlessly in every match, to the point of playing boring and unspectacular football at times – which sometimes reminds me of the famous Italian Catenaccio strategy of the 1970s and '80s where victory in a match was considered more important than the margin.
And Mourinho has drilled that into each member of his team. Which is why, time and time again, in matches where the opposition has dominated possession, Chelsea has won by scoring through one or maybe two scoring chances at best. This ability to win in an ugly fashion has been making all the difference. And probably that’s the reason why the experts are predicting a dreary 1-0 once again on Sunday against Arsenal.
Make no mistake – the Gunners will be no pushovers and will come hard at Chelsea from the first minute. But whether they can make inroads into the master plan of the uber tactician, Mourinho, will decide their fate. As Wenger prepares to take on Mourinho once again, all eyes will be on whether his Gunners can finally do what Chelsea has done so well all season – win ugly!
Rathindra Basu lives, breathes, sleeps sports and is forever waiting for the next Indian sporting triumph. Since this usually takes much time and infinite patience he also listens to music, reads voraciously and eats almost anything that moves!
