Liverpool-Chelsea 2-0 : Same new Chelsea, Spineless and Clueless

Okay, the red card to Lampard was plain scandalous but this was a match we would not have won even with 12 players. Actually, I’m at a loss for words. There’s nothing I need to say now. Everything I have to say has been said. In fact, it would be perfectly in order, if I copy and paste from the articles of any of our earlier defeats this season.

This match was not any different from matches like Liverpool (home), Man Utd (away), and Arsenal (home). We created nothing. We were not in it from the kick off. In fact, this was a very well deserved defeat.

Let the red-card incident not blind this fact. Let’s not hide behind that ridiculous decision by Riley. Of course, the referee was a moron there but even with Scolari as the referee, we would not have won this match. We had ONE shot (to Liverpool’s 15) on goal. That’s it.

We have been talking all season about Scolari’s obsession with playing his 11 first-choice players, every single match. After the Man Utd disaster, we had four matches—three from lower leagues and one premier league relegation battler.

He still played his first-choice lot, including a match in the mid week. The result—Liverpool out-ran, out-thought, out-muscled, out-tackled, and out-shot Chelsea.

Well, even if we had 11 fully fit and zero-fatigue first choice players, there would be no assurances because we seem to have no plan at all. There was simply no attacking plan as such. Everything was left to chance.

Players were not moving to spaces or weren’t sure whether to run or not to run. They were unsure of themselves. There was lack of self-confidence of tragic proportions. I’m not planning to go to the details of the match. It pointless and painful.

We are not going to win this league. And I don’t think we deserve to win either. It would be daylight robbery if Chelsea were to nick this title because we have not played like champions. We are not even playing like champions league contenders. Especially against top teams, we are running around like a mid-table team at best.

Defence is nervous and error-prone. Midfield is clueless with possession and devoid of ideas. Attack lacks the killer instinct and cutting edge. Overall, the team is slow, plays unintelligent football, and lacks heart. When we began this season, we were the No. 1-rated team in Europe. We can’t become so bad so soon.

I’ve not called for Scolari’s sacking so far. Here I am. Hoping for a change. With this Chelsea team, I’m all for giving time for Scolari. I’d give that time only for winning titles. You simply don’t have to give time to a world cup winning coach for making the No. 1 team in Europe to play well.

Scolari has overstayed his welcome. He’s proved too many times now that he is not good enough. He has made mistakes, he has repeated, never learnt from them, repeated them again and in this process, lost the home league record, lost to each of the big four teams, two of them at home. Chelsea have become weaker and poorer under Scolari. That’s an undeniable truth.

This is no longer just an opinion. This is the truth. Scolari is a very nice, well-mannered guy but I have to say Chelsea are going downhill with Scolari in charge.

So Liverpool does the double against Chelsea. Now that’s another record under Scolari. He’s had too many warnings, alarms and signals and all that we see is that the list is growing. Some of them have earned the tag of "firsts" under Roman. Here is a quick look:

Home league record ended: Chelsea 0-1 Liverpool. The famous home league run of Chelsea FC, that spanned over four and a half seasons, ended in a very, very meek fashion. Granted, Liverpool scored from a deflection but they should have scored more.

They hit the bar a couple of times and they played like they wanted to win. On the other hand, Chelsea did not create one decent chance all match. When such records end, either it would be unfortunate or controversial. Our record ended in a very pathetic manner due to a pathetic performance.

Heaviest champions league defeat: AS Roma 3-1 Chelsea. This was the match, upon winning would have almost won the group for us. Roma were in disarray when they played us. We let three horrendously defended goals to mark the heaviest European defeat. Not even Barcelona could score three goals against us in their six matches against us, while we scored four against them in one match.

Heaviest premier league defeat to a rival: Man Utd 3-0 Chelsea. The last time Chelsea lost with a three-goal margin was in Feb 2006 against Middlesbrough away.

That result was a freak one, not in a key match, not against a title rival and we had a healthy lead as cushion. We won the title in April that season. This time around, a very key match, against a title rival and the defeat was in unbelievably humiliating fashion.

Elimination from League Cup by Burnley: No way this could have been a defeat. Dominated possession, created chances but scored only one goal. And then typical of this new Chelsea, let the lead slip late in the second half.

Another penalty shoot out and another sudden death. While I don’t understand why we can’t win shootouts, the real problem was our inability to finish off Burnley inside of 90 minutes.

Defeat to Arsenal at Stamford Bridge: For many seasons, we had Arsenal’s number. Take this for a record. Arsene Wenger has never been able to beat Jose Mourinho. Last season under Grant, when we lost at Emirates, that was Wenger’s first win against Chelsea in many seasons.

And this time, we lost to them at Stamford Bridge. We were lucky to get a lead from an own goal. And then once again, we let the lead slip. We allowed Arsenal to score twice in the second half at Stamford Bridge. One of them was offside but we created no decent chance at all.

Last day drama for champions league progress: For the first time, Roman had to wait until the last match day to see if Chelsea progresses to the knock out stages of the champions league. Our performance in the champions league group stages has been terrible despite the fact that we got a kind draw.

Actually, we should have had a stroll to the first place. Even the last day win against Cluj was not without any drama. There were only 20 minutes left when we scored the winner.

I’ve not even talked about Southend forcing a replay, needing a stoppage time double to beat Stoke at home, our set piece woes, etc. I have written two lengthy pieces on Scolari at Chelsea. One was how Chelsea have become weaker under Scolari and the other one the detailed analysis on the impact of Scolari on Chelsea.

I still had a wee bit of hope that Scolari would still turn it around. Now I’m convinced that he is not the right man for Chelsea. I’m not saying that he should be sacked tomorrow morning. I’m just saying that he is not the right man for Chelsea. Period.