What’s good for Guus is good for the gander

SO Goose has passed his first test and will be facing the next this evening; win tonight and the feelgood factor will be well and truly back for the blue faithful, although I wasn’t one of those singing “Chelsea are back” at the final whistle up at Villa Park. Premature crowing often leaves egg on one’s face — doesn’t it Rafa?

Villa was the clichéd “must-win game” for a whole host of reasons and although the nerves were jangling a bit pre-match, I was quietly confident, although not as confident as the Villa fans it has to be said. They have of course had a great season by their recent standards, but a lot can happen in three months — and indeed in 90 minutes — and you would have thought they would have been a little more reticent beforehand considering the footballing lesson we gave them at the Bridge.

Villa fans are fast overtaking Geordies for the title of most deluded in the Premiership. One can’t switch on the radio without hearing Villa fans waxing lyrical about what a huge club they are, how Champions League football is guaranteed and how great their support is — yet they constantly fail to sell their full away allocations almost everywhere they go and their “support” at Villa Park on Saturday was almost totally absent — apart when appealing for non-existent hand-balls.

As far as we were concerned, there were no tactical revelations, no genius substitutions, no complicated set plays — just common sense in putting players in their right positions and in a formation they are comfortable in. Instantly the team looked happier, more comfortable on the ball, more confident and more like the team that were once feared the country over.

There was evidence of the lack of fitness in the second half, but that was only to be expected after the dilatory Brazilian regime.

One thing from Villa which hopefully wasn’t a sign of things to come was the time-wasting that started half way through the second half. I abhor this tactic in other teams and would hate it to become a part of Chelsea’s game. I am hoping it was a temporary measure employed to cover for their aforementioned fitness issues, but if Villa had equalised in that added four minutes we would have had no one to blame but ourselves.

It’s been good to see that the owner has put new girlfriends, art galleries, rock’n’roll bands and big business to one side and is back and involved with Chelsea again. He flew in to deal with Scolari, he was obviously involved in the selection and negotiations with Hiddink, he has attended matches, spoken to the senior players, been present at training in the past week at Cobham and even accompanied Hiddink to Brentford to watch the reserves.

He will want a good showing tonight as the Champions League is still something he craves, but he will also want to “prove” that the decision at the time was correct in getting rid of Ranieri. The nine-point gap at the top of Serie A tells you everything you need to know about having a good team with a good manager, and having a good team with a great manager, so it will be interesting to see how Chelsea in their present state measure up to Ranieri’s team.

The blame culture that had allegedly developed under Scolari has hopefully left with him, and what we saw against Villa and Watford was a team united again, although it did have a slightly forced air about it. Despite that, we saw players giving their all which was of course a good thing, but probably left a bad taste in the mouth of a certain World Cup-winning manager.

As a fan, I too thought the players could have done more during our dip in form, despite what was or was not going on at the training ground. I suppose all of that is water under the bridge now, but I’ll be expecting this level of commitment to continue to the end of the season and beyond — no excuses.

Second is the very best we can hope for as United seem to have a remit to win by whatever means necessary this season. Ronaldo’s petulance is perceived as an accepted part of his genius and Rooney’s foul mouth is tolerated as youthful exuberance.

I just hope that when the Premiership medals are being handed out to the Red “untouchables” that they ensure there are enough for every one of the referees that have aided them this season — Howard Webb should get a go at celebrating with the trophy too.

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