Chelsea Football Club has finished the Premier League season with 85 points and in second place. I think this is just about what we deserved given United's pure dominance throughout the season.
You could argue that it was a poetic-justice that we conceded the late goal to Bolton to take us off level with the champions, Manchester United. The fact is simple: we weren’t the best team over 38 games. We had our ups and downs and our inconsistency was our undoing.
When we were at our best, we were the best. Manchester United, Arsenal, and Liverpool would struggle to match us. This was confirmed by the defeats of all these sides in the end of the season. Had we been able to mimic these performances in even the majority of our games we might be flying the blue flag and calling ourselves champions, but that is not the case.
This season we have been surprisingly inconsistent at the back and we have been leaking goals all over the place. To add insult to injury, we have been struggling in front of goal too.
To be honest, the lack of goals wouldn't be a problem if we had the strength to hold on to slender leads. If the team is set out to score ONE goal and defend that 1-0 lead, then they damn well better do it.
There have been far too many instances, where we've thrown away games from winning positions. E.g. Tottenham (twice), Aston Villa, Wigan, Portsmouth, Everton, Bolton. We've failed to score against Aston Villa, Manchester United, Arsenal, Fulham, Blackburn, Liverpool in the league. Too add to that just to prove a point, Barnsley, Schalke, Valencia, and Olympiakos in the FA Cup and Champions league respectively.
Even more damaging was our ever growing injury/international duties list that only solved itself in late January/early February.
If you took out the likes of the players we missed for some amount of time (Carvalho, Terry, Lampard, Ballack, Essien, Mikel, Drogba, Kalou, Shevchenko, Malouda, Cech, Cudicini) in the other big clubs, they would have drowned very early. Arsenal’s injury list at its peak was minuscule compared to ours and they collapsed after some were sidelined.
We have our huge squad to thank for keeping us in the race through these troubled times.
I can't help but feel, if we just had clinged on to those 1-0 leads, the title might have been ours. That's not taking anything away from United, who played a great season themselves and deservedly won the league.
If we want to win back the title we need to become offensively smooth. If we continue to be satisfied with 1-0's, 2-0's, 2-1's, good defensive display, some odd attacking performances with 6-0 wins then we are not going anywhere.
We have to admit that Sir Alex Ferguson has raised the bar and this young United side is only going to get better and they are already looking to spend more cash which will further improve their ranks
We should take a leaf from SAF that when we were enjoying our back-to-back titles he came back with sheer determination and broke our stronghold. We need to do the same to them now.
In the FA CUP, we've been rather lucky in the sense that we drew lower league teams in each round apart from 4th round. We started out beating QPR in a lacklustre 1-0 win in the 3rd round. In the 4th round we played our only premiership opposition , Wigan. It was here Anelka scored his first goal in a Chelsea shirt. We ran out 2-1 winners. In the 5th round we drew Huddersfield and we comfortably disposed of them 3-1 and made our way to the quater finals. This was the round Liverpool and Arsenal were eliminated and we had our sights firmly on the final now, hoping we wouldn't meet United before it.
Again, we were lucky enough to draw another lower league team. This time it was Barnsley, who had conquered Liverpool in the previous round. Having seen United get knocked out by Portsmouth earlier in the day, The FA CUP was surely there for the taking. But No, we suffered the same humiliation Liverpool did in the round before and Barnsley disposed of us 1-0. To add to our woes, Barnsley were eliminated in the following round by championship team, Cardiff.
I sound all negative but it werent. From the position we left ourselves in by sacking Jose, its a damn proud achievement what the boys have done.
Here's to a great Champions League final and fruitful summer...
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2 months ago
Excellent article. Chelsea were unlucky this season, league wise, but like you said, from the position you's left yourself in, its a damn proud achievement. At least it is forword Chelsea are heading. Im looking forword to a great final, and an even greater challenge next season from the blues.
from 2 months ago
Thanks for the pick Keith. I forgot to include our FA Cup and CL runs, I will do that in due time...
2 months ago
'the title might have been ours'......teeheehee.
2 months ago
`When we were at our best, we were the best. Manchester United, Arsenal, and Liverpool would struggle to match us. This was confirmed by the defeats of all these sides in the end of the season.`
Of course. I'll believe you, apart from the penalty against United. It wasn't handball, simple as.
Good article though. It showed the difference this season when United actually lost twice to City, once to Chelsea, drew against Arsenal and Midlesbrough (to name a few), lost to bolton and west ham, and still won the title by two points. Amazing season.
from 2 months ago
Naa Michael, Sorry mate. Carrick was a good 10 yards away when Essien crossed the ball. He had more than enough time to get out of the way. But hey, I could still sit here and argue that Saha's penalty back at OT wasnt a penalty and Mikel shouldnt have seen red, but in the end United won and we didnt..
You won the league, why you still complaining? Every Chelsea fans and MOST United fans know it was a penalty, so what you think dont really matter...
2 months ago
I`ve ordered my Chelsea jersey for the 21st.
I think they are the most compact and complete club in the world currently.
There have been rumours that Drugbar might not play......is that true?
from 2 months ago
Drogba will play next week. Whether he'll stay in the summer is a different matter and I have no clue. I have no preferrence really, whether he stays or goes, I'll be happy..
2 months ago
Why should Jose come out of this article, smelling of roses? He is not blameless for the fiasco we had to endure shortly after the season started. The fiasco that eventually left us to play catchup to United.
Don't forget either that on the pitch, Jose was doing very very badly. Just don't assume that Jose was the innocent party in events that led to his departure.
Anyhow, we eventually had a very tense but enjoyable season all in all. Thanks to our great squad of players, who were heroic at times, and to Avram Grant the much maligned manager of our Club, who's results and achievement (We still have our FIRST CL Final to come of course), deserve recognition and respect. Neither of which you managed to show him in your article.
Are you one of the disloyal few who actually like to boo our own manager? Just curious.
from 2 months ago
Naa mate, I actually dont live in London no more, so I rarely get to go to the home matches. I do my best to go when they playing teams in my region. I know we were playing very poorly towards the end of Jose reign and thats whats left in a catch up position. Your right about that. I have praised Grant many a times in previous articles but I still stand by my opinion, that he isnt the right man to lead Chelsea forward...
Does that mean Im disloyal?
2 months ago
No, not at all. You are as entitled to an opinion as I am my friend, and I respect that opinion. Sorry I'm new here, and have not read any of your previous articles. I will remedy that.
I have been pretty ashamed of some behaviour from some of our fans this season towards Grant. I have seen players heads drop during a game, because of it too. Everyone is entitled to an opinion about the guy, but a real fan just would not and should not, humiliate Chelsea Football Club, it's players, it's fans, and in full view of the Chelsea hating public and the media, the Chelsea manager. There is a way to show displeasure towards the club, but that isn't it.
It's a bit of a sore point with me at the moment, so I hope you'll forgive that. Keep writing mate. I can't read enough about all things Chelsea.:)
from 2 months ago
Yeah as if said countless times on various websites, those boo boys are people who are after easy and immediate success. We got that with Jose and they now want the same from Grant. Things wont always be easy and if we stick with Grant, I pray to God that he keeps up the good work because in the last 10 games or so, he has really surprised with great substitutions at the right times and the right formations. The way he has dealt with the press recently is also impressive. Having said that, I cant help but question if our success is down To HIS strengths or the SQUADS strength..
Either way, it shows we have a strong team and Im proud to be Chelsea fan.....
Btw Pete, Arent you sick of being mistaken for "Glory Hunter"? Because people nowadays, have no way of telling us apart from the so-called glory hunters....
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