Now Terry has really started to turn ugly
It was a PR triumph of sorts that the clip replayed most times ultimately turned out not to be the one of him shouting “fucking black c***” in the match against QPR, but the one of him sprawling face first on the Stamford Bridge turf to let Robin van Persie dance through for Arsenal’s decisive goal.
Fans of all persuasions could enjoy the footage of Terry’s as a marvellous piece of slapstick, but the apparently inexplicable nature of the slip demanded closer study.
It looked almost like a forward trying to win a penalty with an unconvincing dive. Was it purely an accident, or something more calculated? Psychologists tell us that at moments of crisis, time seems to slow down and more thoughts than seem possible can be crammed into an instant. Could it be possible that Terry realised he was about to get burned for pace by Van Persie, a forward who cannot count speed among his many exceptional attributes, and manufactured a fall to save face?
Reviewing the footage in slow motion, we see Terry rolls the ball to Ashley Cole, then walks to his left as Cole knocks it back to Florent Malouda. Malouda comes under immediate pressure from Alexandre Song as he receives the pass. Raul Meireles is dawdling in midfield and it’s too risky for Malouda to try to find him, so he turns sharply and dinks the ball back towards Terry.
Unfortunately for Chelsea, Terry, who isn’t expecting to receive the ball, chooses that precise moment to glance right towards Van Persie, and Malouda’s pass catches him on the hop. The glance tells him that Van Persie is making a run to close him down, and maybe it is that knowledge that imbues his subsequent actions with such awful, groping desperation.
Terry spins around slightly off balance and tries to get up to sprinting speed, but it is already horribly apparent that he’s not going to reach the ball. Another glance, this time over his left shoulder, tells him that van Persie has got up to a full gallop and is going to beat him to it. That is when his legs buckle beneath him, and Van Persie has a clear run.
It looks almost as though Terry gave up the ghost, but the truth is that he didn’t dive. After many viewings you eventually notice the point of his left toe stubbing into the turf as he vainly tries to accelerate, disrupting his stride just enough to bring him down. On this video evidence at least, Terry is guilty of nothing more than incompetence.
Terry may yet be found not guilty by the FA’s investigation into the other, less amusing video clip in which he recently starred, but he’s still given Andre Villas-Boas his worst week since he took the Chelsea job: two league defeats and a race scandal.
Jose Mourinho did not lose two Chelsea league games in a row until the very end of the 2005-06 season, when his team had already won the title — and that was the only time it ever happened.
Remember though, that Mourinho won trophies in each of his three full seasons at Chelsea and Abramovich sacked him anyway, because he got bored.
As coaches like Mourinho and Trapattoni are always saying, winning and entertainment have nothing to do with each other.
Villas-Boas has already succeeded in making Chelsea entertaining. Their first 10 games this season have produced 14 more goals than their first 10 last season. Admittedly 12 of those goals have been for the opposition, but Chelsea are playing open, enterprising, positive football.
The fact that they’ve suffered for it shouldn’t obscure the fact that this is the right way to play the game.
Villas-Boas’ problem is that it will be difficult to win anything playing this way with these players.
Chelsea’s new style all depends on the defensive line pushing high up the pitch to compress the opponents’ space and force them into mistakes. Some defenders are comfortable knowing there is 40 metres’ worth of empty space behind them. John Terry is not one of those defenders.
Villas-Boas backed Terry over the incident at QPR but Chelsea will find clean sheets elusive as long as their coach keeps backing him on the pitch.
