Chelsea FC Can Defy The Odds After Burnley FC Draw
By Ellis Lasher
Fifty percent. That is the percentage of matches won by Chelsea FC and Jose Mourinho since the new year started : 5 wins, 3 draws and 2 losses. Three months ago, we were still talking about going the entire season unbeaten until Newcastle brought us down to earth and then Tottenham exposed us as mere mortals.
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Two months ago. we were talking about winning the quadruple but that was before Bradford City did the impossible by forcing four goals in at Stamford Bridge after going down 2-0.
I was talking to me colleague who is an Arsenal fan and I told him that Arsenal can beat Crystal Palace but that it wasn’t nearly as easy as our task of beating Burnley at home. Woops then. We did the unthinkable, we drew, at Stamford Bridge, against a team that is not the current Premier League champion.
Such form of late is alarming, so what or who should we blame? Jose Mourinho? The players? Or is there an actual campaign against Chelsea?
Credit: Flickr user CFCUnofficial
https://www.flickr.com/photos/cfcunofficial/16558454966/
As Mourinho pointed out after the game “30, 33, 43, 69”. These numbers refer to the four events that went against Chelsea and had a significant impact on the game. That’s two red cards not given and two penalties not awarded. That’s also our best (arguably) player suspended for the League Cup final and two other crucial games.
The media and the neutral fans have gotten tired of hearing Mourinho moan about the refereeing after every game but he has a point. Although it may not be intentional, the way the situation has unfolded over the past two months has backed up his claims. The succession of bad refereeing going against the London side is worth noting, players being wrongly booked for diving, unawarded penalties in close games, and the suspension of Diego Costa.
Sure some of the events happen to every team, but they don’t happen quite as often. Sure Diego Costa was acting violently, but did he really deserve a three game ban? In comparison, Ashley Barnes deserves to be banned for at least the same length of time, but he isn’t going to get banned for that long.
Why won’t he be banned for that long? Because Diego Costa’s reputation has come before him when he was being juidged by the FA board. Because of his history of being a “bad guy”, he was judged unfairly, while a Burnley player who was fully committed in a potential career-ending-bone-breaking tackle, will likely get out of this with a one-game ban.
“I am happy that I am not stupid. I understood everything a couple of months ago.” José Mourinho
What surely makes Mourinho sleepless, and what makes the Chelsea fans most upset is the circumstances of these punishments. When Costa was suspended, he missed a potential title decider against Manchester City and an important game against Everton. When he returned to the pitch, he was understandably rusty and was not at his best against PSG. Now Matic is suspended for a cup final and such a player is irreplaceable.
Let’s not forget that, bad decision or not, the Blues were playing pretty poorly. Gone are the days of putting 6 past Maribor, 5 past Schalke, and Costa scoring at will. The scoresheets tell a lot, our entire strikeforce is Hazard making runs and Ivanovic scoring (and apparently Terry crossing and Cahill air-flicking the ball Brazilian-style).
We played Burnley this past Saturday only deserving a small 1-0 victory, nothing more, nothing less. The passes were so wasteful, it was like Oscar and Fabregas weren’t even trying. In contrast, Manchester City beat Newcastle United 5-0 and they could not care less about two penalties not being awarded. The team is a mess and players leaving and others coming in seem to have disturbed an equilibrium that took a long time to establish. If we can’t beat Burnley at the Bridge should we give up on hopes of beating PSG here?
Credit: Flickr user CFCUnofficial https://www.flickr.com/photos/cfcunofficial/16484956596/
Chelsea FC are doomed, us fans should consider ourselves lucky to finish the season with only one trophy and no big injury.
Except we won’t have to go through that.
Chelsea never give up, the club has a history of defying all odds. As a Chelsea FC fan, every time I see my team losing, I hear Gary Neville voice in my head saying the famous “they never die, something is happening, they defy all odds” during that night at Munich. THAT night where everything was against us and we won it all.
Defying the odds, never giving up, that’s the stuff of real champions.
Chelsea fans, do not worry, I am sure somewhere in your heart you feel like Mourinho has given up trying to fight in a league where the refereeing always goes against his players. You may be upset that we lost ground to the rest of the pack or that we will lose all our games without Matic. I can guarantee you that none of that will happen.
José Mourinho is a tactical genius and he will get the best of our players come next Sunday at Wembley. He did the impossible by winning the Champions League with Porto and he can surely do the impossible again by stopping Harry Kane from scoring (that actually sounds very feasible in my head).
Let’s not forget, we have a 5-point lead, we have an away goal advantage over PSG, everything is possible in a cup final, we have Hazard, and finally let’s not forget that blue is and will always be the color. Keep the Blue Flag Flying High.
Photos by @cfcunoffical. On Twitter and at CFCUnofficial.com