The old football adage says there are three teams in a football match. Chelsea had to vanquish both to advance in the FA Cup, as the officials opposed the Blues more sturdily than Norwich in the late stages of the game.
And to think the Football Association thought introducing video assistant referees would improve the accuracy of officiating or tamp down on controversy. Antonio Conte cut to the core issue with VAR after Chelsea’s FA Cup tie against Norwich: if you are going to implement the system, you have to use it and you have to use it consistently.
Match official Graham Scott had other ideas. Scott wanted to be the centre of attention and the final word on all rulings. Much like players who attempt clever trickery thinking they are Fernandinho but come off looking like Joey Barton, referees like Scott think they are Mark Clattenburg but come off looking like Mike Dean. Never go full Mike Dean.
Despite two double-yellows and a yellow against Willian that should have been a penalty kick against Norwich, Chelsea prevailed and advance to the next round. In the dying minutes of the game playing 11-v-9, and then in the penalty kick shootout, Chelsea looked more like a team than they have in months. Perhaps more than they have at any point this season.
The entire squad was on the pitch for the shoot-out. They greeted Willy Caballero’s save as if it clinched the victory rather than giving them an early advantage. And each penalty kick-taker poured his unique emotions of the moment and sense of self into his kick: the tense simplicity of Willian, the insanity of David Luiz, the barely-restrained volcano of Cesar Azpilicueta, the deceptive power of N’Golo Kante, the lovable arrogance of Eden Hazard.
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These are the kind of games and moments that can bind a squad better than any comfortable victory over Stoke City or psychologist-led cohesion exercise at Cobham. For all of Jose Mourinho’s dalliances with the dark arts, his one constant is building a siege mentality. Wherever he goes he manages to convince his club – players and fans alike -that they are the underdogs arrayed against the world. No matter how ridiculous it seems to a neutral or objective observer to cast Chelsea, Real Madrid or Inter Milan as the besieged downcast victim, it works. Every time.
Mourinho can never maintain this mentality. He tries to instill it on day one and keep it going after his usual array of trophies and record-setting transfers. He pushes beyond any level of credulity. Plus, it becomes an exhausting source of negativity among the men.
A siege mentality is unsustainable as a chronic condition. The shelf life is a maximum of three years, as Mourinho shows. But as an acute motivator it can be very powerful. And Antonio Conte has the opportunity to harness it now to put his team back on track as a unified fighting force.
The Football Association has many details to iron out in its implementation of VAR. The FA and the Professional Game Match Officials, Limited, have some serious work ahead to restore consistency, integrity and competence to officiating. That is a much higher priority than introducing VAR to the Premier League.
In the meantime, Chelsea can take their measure of good fortune from the victory over Norwich to build a bit of a siege mentality around the club. Many forces arrayed against the Blues at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday. Willy Caballero prevailed. Michy Batshuayi prevailed. Chelsea defeated both teams on the pitch and some guy in a booth near Heathrow to emerge victorious. The Blues came together and, perhaps with a bit of Providence, they won.
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They will need more to overcome Arsenal in the League Cup and Barcelona in the Champions League. But if they can come together around their victory over Norwich City, Graham Scott and VAR they will be in a much better place to do battle in a mere game of football.