Away-day Blues after ugly victory
He had halitosis bad enough to melt the paint off the pitch-side hoardings, but talking to him face to face was preferable to watching the garbage that we were being served up — under the banner of “positive, attractive football” no less — indeed Grant once again mumbled post match, how, even better than the three points, was the way we played.
Exactly who is he trying to kid? As we left the ground, despite the win, the mood was one of despondency amongst the majority of the Chelsea support. Most have taken a fatalistic stance on this season — whatever will be, will be.
I wonder what Roman is making of it all? Bruce Buck once again reiterated on Chelsea TV (otherwise known as Pravda to the Chelsea faithful) that Grant is here to stay.
Peter Kenyon too in his very uncomfortable press conference when Grant was unveiled also talked of a new direction — of the playing style which must be delivered.
If Grant and the committee aren’t providing the sexy football, then what? How long does he have before he has to deliver anyway? Common sense tells us that he should be given time to buy his own players and bed them in. So we are looking at least until the end of the season. But will the players bought in be of his choosing?
Many column inches were written during his tenure about the efficiency of Jose’s football which sacrificed style and excitement. What was never compromised though was technical excellence and the instructions given to the players. Every player was told exactly what his role in the team was. The players on Saturday didn’t seem to have a clue what they were meant to be doing. !
As for Shevchenko’s performance . . . where do I start? How can this once-majestic player be at the point where Chelsea supporters wince at his efforts to make an impact against the worst team in the division and where Derby fans can just laugh at him? Again I wonder what Abramovich is thinking. Many would say the whole Shevchenko episode was the beginning of the end for the relationship between manager and owner. Was it worth the grief and bad publicity it has caused? The pressure on Shevchenko will only increase when Drogba and Kalou go off to the African Nations Cup — it will truly be make or break.
Derby fans demonstrated short-bloke syndrome by booing our England players. I will not be sorry to seem them drop back down and it made me smile to hear that Billy Davies became the third manager to be sacked this season after losing to us.
As you read this I will probably be throwing snowballs at my fellow supporters (in the absence of any Scousers) in preparation of this evening’s game with Rosenborg. We need one point from the group’s surprise package to qualify for the next stage of the Champions League. It will be interesting to see what kind of tactics we deploy — one of Mourinho’s main faults was his approach to European away games; always too conservative.
Reading’s Irish star Stephen Hunt once again endangered the livelihood of a fellow professional during a game of football and once again protested his innocence following his assault on Gelson Fernandes — and once again managed to avoid a sending off. Hardly surprising that his name is now commonly used in Chelsea circles as Cockney rhyming slang. And even more predictable, Michael Essien received a red card for a yellow card offence. Some things never change eh?
This weekend we “entertain” West Ham. We have to play 500% better than we played last week or we could surrender our proud home record.
The team need to take some responsibility here as well as the manager, and play with a bit of passion and determination. If Frank Lampard thinks he had it tough in front of the England crowd and the Derby morons, then I imagine he has heard nothing yet compared to the treatment he will get from the eastern hordes. A nice hat-trick should shut them up Frank.
