Luiz Felipe Scolari and Chelsea were completely outplayed by Man Utd, losing 3 – 0 yesterday at Old Trafford.
After an exquisite performance in their opening fixture against Portsmouth it looks like Scolari & Chelsea’s dream of winning the Premiership by playing exciting, attacking football like Manchester United & Barcelona has finally run out of steam.
The wheels first came off when Roma humiliated Chelsea in the group stage of the Champions League in Rome back in October. A stunned Chelsea lost 3-1 and were completely outplayed that night. Heads dropped and fans shook their heads while Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan were qualifying for the next round and leading Serie A.
Then came Chelsea’s disappointment of losing their amazing unbeaten Premer League home record to Liverpool. And now Chelsea’s unbeaten away record has come to a crashing end with an humiliating thrashing by their arch rivals.
Luiz Felipe Scolari’s blues honeymoon has finally ended; and it probably didn’t help to know that Jose Mourinho was at Old trafford yesterday watching the match!
Manchester United are now just one point behind Chelsea and five behind the leaders, Liverpool, with two games in hand. This week Man Utd play Wigan at Old Trafford and Bolton away. By 5pm this Saturday Man Utd could be top of the Premiership for the first time this season.
Watching Chelsea play this season I think the main problem is that Scolari doesn’t appear to be able to change tactics during a game. His substitutions appear methodical rather than switching from plan a to b; and since he has been faced with a fit Drogba, doesn’t appear to be able to change to a 4-4-2 when he needs to chase a game. Instead he plays top scorer Anelka out of position to compensate two strikers that don’t appear to be able to, or wish to, play together.
Furthermore, he continues to play Deco, Ballack & Lampard in midfield which unbalances the team shape.
Last year critics were slating Avram Grant for being tactically naive but now the total football has stopped, Scolari is under severe pressure as Chelsea appear to be losing the race for the Premier League for the first time this season.
Scolari has been known to have a short temper and has even physically assaulted a journalist in the past when faced with awkward questions. As the pressure mounts it will be interesting to see how he copes with the British press. It will also be interesting to see what happens if Chelsea’s trophy cabinet is still empty come the end of the season.
Do you think Chelsea can still win the Premiership? Vote in our poll (see right).
4 comments so far
1 Martyn Regan // Jan 12, 2009 at 2:39 pm
I’m not an expert on the great game, just a regular fan of chelsea who watches each game with the hope that we can win that game and hopefully raise some silverware at the end of the season.
I have a working knowledge of tactics, players form, managerial decisions etc, etc but that all seems to be too much speculation and “monday morning hindsight” for me.
As an ordinary Fan the one thing that seems to stick out is that everyone wants instant gratification without having to put in the groundwork.
A bit like my other half who always thinks that spending money on something will solve the problem.
Myself, I believe that you should plant seeds, nurture them and reap the rewards of a bumper harvest by becoming an excellent farmer.
As a regular fan with not to many views I would like to see a more sensible approach to staying at the top
2 john // Jan 12, 2009 at 3:39 pm
Chelsea are so predictable on the pitch that I feel I could coach a team to beat them! But seriously you are right, there is no plan b. Reminds me of Portugal really.
3 Richard Fuller // Jan 12, 2009 at 8:50 pm
The match on sunday wasn’t the great of chelsea’s season by a long stretch. I dont think we kept enough possession or provided the killer pass in the last third of the pitch where it really mattered. Things just don’t seem to be in balance the last couple of games, at first at home and now it seems away from home.
At least what’s good about this weekend is i get to go back down to Chelsea bar at the world’s end and have a few pints with the shed end lot. Hopefully that’ll i’ll have a cheerier pint this saturday after the Stoke match.
4 Dave Stopher // Jan 14, 2009 at 9:30 am
Everyone is complaining saying that Chelsea are not the team they once were. That is correct!!
I think they play better football!!!