Campeones Campeones Ole Ole Ole!! In what was a vintage win over Crystal Palace, Chelsea FC have captured their first Premier League title at home in 5 years as we finally took that trophy out of Manchester. Anyone who was watching the Premier League this year knows that Chelsea basically had it wrapped up since Christmas.
In that case, I was greedy and would’ve rather see us clinch the title at the Emirates a few weeks back. While they certainly didn’t coast home the rest of the way, they did just enough to keep opposing teams at arm’s length.
Along the way, Chelsea were accused of being boring, but there’s nothing boring about winning the Premier League title. Such a statement shouldn’t have come from a team that’s only had one shot on goal and hasn’t scored on us over two games. What is boring is the fact that nobody came close to challenging us all season long. It really is lonely at the top.
It was fitting that Hazard scored the only goal today, as he capped off a Player of the Year campaign that saw him rise to new heights. In fact, every player this season has shown considerable growth over last year, and the ones who came into the club for the first season no doubt exceeded their expectations. With the wealth of young players Chelsea have at their disposal, whether in the academy or out on loan, we’re only just getting started. Our goal now is to become the first team to repeat as Premier League champions since Man U.
However, the most important things that all Chelsea FC fans must remember is not to get too hung up on this. We won, great, but there’s still lots of work to be done. For one, we now have a target on our back – one that’s much bigger now than it was throughout the year. In addition to everything we won this year, we also got eliminated in the first knockout stage of the Champions League, and that was tremendously disappointing. Now that we’ve established that we’re by far the best team in England, we need to take the next step to prove that we can hang with Europe’s elite clubs.
Mourinho perhaps summed it up best when he said he would only celebrate for 5 minutes before focusing on the next task (via Goal). He stated, in what was a rather stoic moment,
"I have replicas of every cup I won and I don’t care about the replicas. Or the medals. They’re in my houses. I have some in Portugal, some here, some in my son’s room. I really don’t care.If you are in a championship, you want to win it. It doesn’t depend on the level you are. To be champions in the Premier League is not a different feeling to winning the championship in League One, League Two or the Conference. The happiness, also the frustrations … in terms of human feelings, they’re exactly the same.But the moment itself, it only lasts for a flash. For that moment a final finishes or the game that gives you the league ends, you have like a flash of the people you love most, the people who are with you, a little bit of the most important moments that lead to that trophy.The meaning is the important thing: the feeling, the emotion … that’s what stays with you forever."
While the Chelsea FC fans and players should undoubtedly savour this moment forever, they know that there must be considerable work done to improve the club’s chances next year. While teams around them will look to improve, Chelsea must continue spending wisely the way they did this year while overcoming the losses that we will experience. I’m sure the one thing Mourinho is taking away from this season above everything else is the club’s Champions League exit.
In that case, we as fans can take comfort in the fact that we have a manager who knows what can and should be done to take us to the next step and be considered Europe’s elite team. He’s won the trophy twice before, but never with Chelsea, and that will most certainly be the dream, as well as the team’s biggest goal for next season.
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