Just another day in the Stamford Bridge circus

Bayern Munich have often been referred to as FC Hollywood while David Beckham, with his Los Angeles tan still intact, continues to act as leading man since moving to France; but the events of the last 24 hours have proved that nobody in European football can put on a show quite like the Moscow State Circus of Stamford Bridge.

Just when it seemed the Premier League’s most headline-hungry club were set to complete two weeks without a crisis, Rafa Benitez’s remarkable rhetoric following an FA Cup victory at Middlesbrough has set up possibly the biggest spectacular of all against West Bro this weekend — if you don’t count today’s pre-match press conference at Cobham.

Most onlookers at The Riverside on Wednesday surmised that Benitez wouldn’t last that long after his unprompted if not unprovoked attack on the behaviour of supporters, who have continued to boo and berate him even when the team win, and more tellingly on decisions made by the Blues board who foisted on him the title of ‘interim manager’ which, he said, made an already difficult job even tougher.