Blues resolve to play the patience game

THINK of Chelsea in the Roman Abramovich era, and the image that springs to mind is less conveyor belt and more revolving door.

Russian oligarchs are not renowned for their readiness to wait for their dividends and the emphasis since Abramovich’s arrival at Stamford Bridge in 2003 has been on instant success, hence the flurry of managerial comings and goings.

It also helps explain Chelsea’s eagerness to harvest big-name signings courtesy of their owner’s over-sized chequebook, rather than wait for their own academy to yield fruit. Until now, that is.

With Abramovich determined to make his one-time personal play-thing financially self-sustaining, Chelsea have shifted their emphasis onto a productive youth policy and the results were laid bare at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, when three greenhorns – Fabio Borini, Nemanja Matic and Gael Kakuta – were all given a rare taste of life in English football’s fast lane.

This being the Premier League, none of Chelsea’s trio of tyros could be classed as youth products in the traditional sense.

Borini, an Italy U19 striker, was swiped from Bologna two years ago; Matic, a Serb, arrived from FC Kosice for a €1.75m fee that could rise significantly depending on appearances, while the legitimacy of Kakuta’s purchase from Lens in 2007 is currently the subject of a courtroom squabble with FIFA that could yet see the club banned from making new signings for 12 months.

Chelsea are hardly the only top flight outfit to turn away from their traditional catchment areas. Buying locally sourced produce might be de rigeur at the supermarket these days, but in football importing from foreign fields is a faster track to success, a theory that has been set in stone ever since Arsene Wenger first began plundering the previously untapped reserves of talent in Africa.

On Saturday’s evidence at least, it is easy to see why Chelsea – whose last academy graduate of note was John Terry – have gone global, with Kakuta, in particular, showing the sort of deft touch and self-confident swagger which suggested the turmoil endured in prising him from France might just have been worth it.

Carlo Ancelotti, the manager, will lean heavily on the likes of Kakuta in the new year, when his squad will be stripped of four key players – Didier Drogba, Michael Essien, John Obi Mikel and Salomon Kalou – by the African Cup of Nations but, on this evidence, they will revel in the added responsibility.

“The young players were not emotional and they showed their quality,” Ancelotti said. “These three players, they are ready to play in the Premier League with us. They are not ready at this moment to play a physically strong game but they are ready to play.

“It is important for Chelsea at this moment. The academy is looking very, very strong and not only for these three players – we have five or six. I don’t know if they can stay in the team this year but next year they can stay in the first team. It depends on them, it doesn’t depend on me.”

That said, Chelsea’s bright young things should realise that life will not always be as straightforward as it was on Saturday.

By the time they trotted onto the field, this match had already expired as a meaningful contest; indeed, no signs of life were discernible after the 23rd minute, by which time Wolves were already three goals down, their defence ripped asunder by a hyperactive display from Florent Malouda.

The Frenchman has enjoyed a fitful career at Stamford Bridge, with long stretches of grey mediocrity illuminated by the odd flash of brilliance. This was one of his bright days, the tone set in the fifth minute when he took advantage of hesitant Wolves defending to advance 20 yards and plant a spectacular rising drive into the top corner from just outside the area.

Seven minutes later, he swung over a corner which Essien, rising unmarked at the near post, headed into the roof of the net and when the Ghanaian’s scuffed low shot somehow squirmed under the body of Wayne Hennessey, the game was up. Chelsea duly eased up in the second half, with Joe Cole’s first goal since October 2008 – another long-range drive that embarrassed Hennessey – the only addition to the scoreline.

Victory tightened Ancelotti’s grip on the rest of the Premier League. His side remain five points clear of Manchester United with a vastly superior goal difference and eight points ahead of Arsenal, who could be virtually bundled out of the title race if they become Chelsea’s next victims at the Emirates on Sunday.

“It is important to be that far ahead because it gives us more confidence ahead of that game against Arsenal,” Ancelotti added. “But I would like to repeat the season is very long and we have to maintain a good preparation.”

Taking the long-term view is clearly the new black on the King’s Road this season.

REFEREE: Lee Mason (Lancashire) 8: The game flowed freely and Mason delivered a performance of authority and common sense – very refreshing.

MATCH RATING: *** Too lop-sided to be a classic but Chelsea are impressing more with each passing week. Their rivals must already fear the worst.