AVB in peril as Blues’ top-four hopes fade fast
After all, former Liverpool striker Fernando Torres was just relieved to find himself on the pitch from the start on his return to Merseyside following seriously rotten form.
Torres last scored on the Premier League stage in the home defeat of Swansea back in September — a game he was later sent off in.
The problem for Andre Villas-Boas, Chelsea’s embattled manager, is the Spaniard’s poor form is spreading throughout his team like an illness that threatens Chelsea’s prospects of finishing in the top four, the minimum target Villas-Boas has set his players in his first season in charge at Stamford Bridge.
“We need Champions League qualification and that’s what we expect,” he said after goals by Steven Pienaar and Denis Stracqualursi saw Chelsea drop to fifth in the table.
“The objective is first place but first place is not a real objective any more — and neither is second. So Champions League qualification is the least you can ask for.
“How damaging would it be not to finish in the top four? Well at the moment it is not a possibility. There are still plenty of games to play. There is an objective and we have to reach the objective so I will respond to that question at the end of the season.”
The Chelsea manager had better get his excuses ready. With 13 games still remaining, his side look like a team that cannot wait for the campaign to finish.
They slinked away from Goodison after failing to put up a fight against a determined Everton side rejuvenated by Steven Pienaar’s return.
Pienaar, on loan from Tottenham — the team he joined from Everton in January 2011, marked his first home appearance in an Everton shirt for 13 months by inspiring the Toffees to a thoroughly deserved victory over lacklustre opponents.
It wasn’t just Torres who was guilty of failing to put in a decent shift for Chelsea. There were poor performances across the team, a worry as they struggle to keep their season alive in the FA Cup and Champions League.
But the questions over Torres and his future will not go away. And now frustrated Chelsea fans, who chanted ‘You don’t know what you’re doing’ at Villas-Boas at Goodison, are beginning to run out of patience with the manager.
“Fans have the right to demand from a manager and from the players,” added Villas-Boas. “If there are people who are always right, it is the fans.
“They have the right to demand. So maybe they were expecting a different kind of approach to the game.
“When we went 2-0 down the only way we felt we could continue to create problems was to try and bring more striking strength up front and that’s why we went for three up front.”
While Chelsea’s season goes from bad to worse, Everton’s is on the rise.
Having dispatched leaders Manchester City in their previous home game, they overcame Chelsea without moving out of third gear. Victory was even more impressive considering they were without two injured England internationals, Jack Rodwell and Phil Jagielka, and new £5 million striker Nikica Jelavic, who suffered an injury in training on the eve of the match.
Manager David Moyes was understandably upbeat after the match, but there could be problems ahead.
It was ironic that three of their best players against Chelsea — Pienaar, Stracqualursi and Landon Donovan — are on loan.
United States midfielder Donovan will return to LA Galaxy after next Saturday’s FA Cup fifth round tie with Blackpool. Pienaar is due back at Tottenham at the end of the season, the same time as Argentinia’s Stracqualursi is set to return to Buenos Aires-based Tigre.
“Although it sounds daft, we have probably got some of our better players still not in the team — two England players in Jags and Jack for a start,” said Moyes.
“And although we defeated Chelsea, we can play a lot better.
“I am expecting an improvement in our all round quality and play.”
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