24th September - All Eyes on Chelsea

It’s been quite some week in football over the past seven days, we’ve seen Chelsea’s ‘special one’ Jose Mourinho depart from a fraught clash of egos at Stamford Bridge, Arsenal returned to their scintillating, free scoring form of 3 years ago and Man City’s Stephen Ireland has taught us a valuable moral lesson. Outside the Premiership, the UEFA Champions League and Cup competitions have begun with notable peaks and troughs for the British clubs involved.

This week at the Bridge…
So Jose Mourinho’s imperious reign at Chelsea FC is over, much to the disbelief of Chelsea fans and players alike (Didier Drogba is reported to have burst into tears upon receiving the news). In keeping with the style of the enigmatic coach, he left in typically controversial and emphatic manner. A sudden announcement was made early Thursday morning, ‘Chelsea and Jose Mourinho have reached an agreement to part company today by mutual consent.’ And with that (and a £25 million handshake) he was gone. Chelsea fans despair. Over the last few weeks there had been signs that a storm was brewing within the club, as the team began to lose points on the field and the Portuguese’ his patience off it. Exasperated, anguished pitch-side reactions (notably against Blackburn) followed by a subsequent failure to publicly back Roman Abramovich favourite Andreiy Shevchenko may have fast-tracked the manager’s exit and proved the final insult his Russian boss. Moruniho’s self-belief and sizeable ego clearly grated on Abramovich, who will now take a more active role in team affairs with new coach Avram Grant, a source close to Abramovich confirmed, ‘It is the Russian way: they like to be the boss when they are paying for things.’

Israeli Avram Grant, whose previous managerial C.V. includes very little outside his homeland, faces a tough battle to hold onto his newly found job as manager of one the richest clubs in the world. He will have to win over the support of both fans and players, who at present, appear to be firmly in Mourinho’s camp. Mourinho bought in a lot of the current squad, nurtured and mentored them and a strong bond was forged, particularly with Lampard and Drogba, who he showed unquestionable faith towards when heavily criticised. The January transfer window might prove a busy one for Chelsea in both directions and Grant will have to win the favour of Terry, Carvalho, Lampard and Drogba in order to keep the spine and morale of the team intact over the next few months. When Grant arrived at Old Trafford on Sunday, looking sleepless and dishevelled, his forlorn expression was that of a man who knew he was on borrowed time already. The result seemed inevitable and from the movement Jon Obi Mikel was harshly sent off after half an hour there was only ever going to be one winner. Carlos Tevez’ first goal was also hard on Chelsea, coming well over the designated stoppage time at the end of the first half and the late penalty for a soft foul on scorer Louis Saha summed up Chelsea’s luck and conveyed the broken will at the club right now. It is difficult not to feel sympathy for Avram Grant, thrown in at the deepest of deep ends, where he will clearly be little more than a lap dog for his Russian boss.

Love or hate Moruinho, he will nevertheless be a big loss to the English game. The confident, fashionable and cocky style rejuvenated and revolutionised how a modern day manager should interact with the media, leaving them enthralled and hanging on his every word for much of his time at Chelsea. Mourinho also forced other clubs to reassess the commitment and level of consistency required for top level success and undoubtedly improved the quality within the Premiership. In his first season he left the chasing pack in his wake and while Man Utd managed to come back stronger as a result, it has taken other teams such as Arsenal and Liverpool a few seasons to engrain the necessary quality to challenge at this higher intensity.

For all those sad to see Mourinho go, there will be a Spaniard and a Scot up north who will be gleefully raising a glass to the Portuguese’ safe journey home, while back in London a Frenchman and a certain Ukrainian will not lose any sleep over Chelsea’s loss.


Thierry Who?
Meanwhile, as the seams start to come apart at Chelsea, London rivals Arsenal look back to their best as a Cesc Fabregas inspired team head both the Premiership table and scoring charts. The imaginative, visionary and now combative midfielder Fabregas has orchestrated Arsenal to 3 wins in the last week, with the team scoring goals. The Spaniard himself has bagged 6 goals in his last 6 games for the Gunners, a feat last matched by the now departed Thierry Henry back in April 2000. Arsenal have dropped only two points this campaign, thanks to a howler from Jens Lehmann to draw 1-1 at Blackburn. With Lehmann now on the bench, cursing his goalkeeping adversary Manuel Almunia ‘he has never won us any important matches’, Arsenal have taken to rediscovering the form that not long ago made them unstoppable.

The team have finally stepped out of the awe-inspiring shadow of leading goal scorer Thierry Henry and the much-hyped potential of their young stars is being realised with devastating results. Emanuelle Adebayor, who for all his work-rate last season looked incapable of ever finding the net consistently now has 5 in 3 games after 2 against Spurs (including a Drogba-esque long range volley) and 3 against Derby County on Saturday. Boss Arsene Wenger revealed he had spoken to Adebayor at the start of the season, saying simply, ‘At 23, its time to play.’

Arsenal have been highly praised of late and are undoubtedly the form side in England, however their recent opposition has been weak (Pompey at home, troubled Spurs, and Derby at home), the true test of their title credentials will come in a month’s time when they face Liverpool and Man Utd in quick succession. For the moment, Arsenal fans will just enjoy their good run and will rightly say that they can only beat the side’s put out against them. Incidentally, they did comfortably defeat a highly capable Sevilla side 3-0 in the Champions League on Wednesday. Fabregas is writing a new chapter in Arsenal’s history, enabling the club to stop pining and put to bed the ghost of Thierry Henry. Comparisons in the media with France legend Michelle Platinit are mounting and if he and Arsenal continue in this form he may just turn out to be one of the finest midfield players of his generation.


Brief News
Man City’s Stephen Ireland was left red-faced and rightly humiliated after falsely pronouncing three of his family members dead in an attempt to secure compassionate leave so he could miss an Ireland EURO qualifier. Ireland asked manager Steve Staunton and the Irish FA time to grieve for his grandmother who had passed away. They agreed but soon found out that she alive and well, Ireland responded by stating that it was his grandmother on the other side of the family and was allowed time away from the team. However, this was found to be false after the woman in question threatened legal action when she read about her death in a local newspaper. Ever the resilient Ireland then claimed it was his grandfather’s separated partner who had died. When the IFA found this too was a lie Ireland decided to come clean, ‘I decided at that stage that I must tell the truth and admit I told lies.’ With David Beckham far a-field and protected by vigilant mediators, farces such as this are a welcome reminder of the fantasy world and molly coddled way in which footballer players mind’s work. In fact, the real reason Ireland had wanted time away was sadly due to his girlfriend having a miscarriage – easily reason enough to grant such leave.

Pressure is mounting on Martin Jol at Spurs with many feeling his position as manager is becoming untenable. The beleaguered Dutchman has seen several high profile names been touted as his successor (Juande Ramos, Jose Mourniho) despite the fact that he still holds the reigns at the North London club. Tottenham ended the week still in the relegation zone on just 5 points after a 1-1 draw with fellow strugglers Bolton after a brief return to winning ways in UEFA Cup on Thursday, a 6-1 thrashing of A Famagusta.

Following several shock deaths of professional footballers, cabinet minister Andy Burnham will look into the sudden, worrying rise. Heart failure has caused the death, in the last month, of Sevilla’s rising star Antonio Puerta and Clive Clarke of Sunderland was lucky to survive a similar incident. Burnham said, ‘To lose young, apparently healthy people suddenly to heart failure is devastating for their families, and I hope we can look at ways the threat can be reduced through more research.’

Uzbek billionaire Alisher Usmanov has been steadily increasing his stake in Arsenal FC as her attempts to takeover the club. Last Monday Usmanov raised his stake to 21%, although large shareholders Danny Fiszman and Stan Kroenke are reluctant to sell and the club is unsurprisingly opposed to a hostile takeover. Usmanov owns Red and White Holdings, whose chairman is David Dein and if his bid for ownership of the club is successful, Dein is likely to return to Arsenal in some capacity.