Pardew’s Black and White army break Chelsea’s ‘BA’rrier

One broken Senegalese nose, one bloody pitch, one penalty denied, one cracking Frank Lampard goal (197!), one stunningly curling Juan Mata goal and still NO points to show for it all....

Here is a quote from my last post:

“Let us hope we don’t end up a casualty of the French Revolution at St. James’ Park on Saturday afternoon.”

Well sadly that is exactly what did happen... Was it a fluke that the magpies beat us? Reluctantly I have to answer ‘no’ and even more reluctantly I have to admit they probably deserved the three points.  Alan Pardew’s men and their newly signed French reinforcements seemed hungrier, stronger and faster. 

During half time, I turned from my stream to Chelsea TV just in time to witness a heated and lengthy discussion between Jason Cundy and Kerry Dixon about the blue’s performance in the first half.  Jason Cundy was arguing the team had played very badly before half time and Kerry Dixon was saying that even though they hadn’t played well, he couldn’t say it was a really bad performance especially when comparing it to some of our other recent displays.  Things must be pretty desperate to warrant such a discussion. 

Although it looked like the game was turning round in the second half when we took the lead 2-1, our poor defending and the superior power and fast pace of the newly signed Yoan Gouffran and Moussa Sissoko handed Newcastle United a second and desperately needed consecutive win.

I don’t know who is having a worse week, Rafa Benitez or Peter Odemwingie!  Will Rafa get the sack?  I was watching Sunday Supplement this morning and the Daily Mail sport columnist Martin Samuel tried to answer the same question.  He thought sacking Benitez would be an act of insanity and he rightly questioned the replacement of an interim manager with an ‘interim interim manager’.  I don’t want to take away from all the positive things Roman Abramovich has done for Chelsea but without realising it he is slowly turning the club into the laughing stock of the Premier League.  The chant of opposition supporters singing “Champion’s of Europe, you’re ‘aving a laugh” is ringing in my ears as I write this. 

“Who will manage Chelsea?” seems to be the six million Dollar question.  My cousin has been pestering me to address this quandary in one of my posts.  I think the reason I have been stalling is that as things stand I don’t think the answer will make any difference to the performance of the team – even if the manager happens to be highly respected.  Mr. A in his wisdom has hired and fired most of the great and the good (excluding Pepe Gaurdiola, who has demonstrated his true greatness by avoiding the Chelsea job and signing a three year deal with Bayern Munich).

 

What Chelsea needs is continuity and a culture of respect and trust.  How can anyone perform with a gun held to their head?  One of the reasons I think Roberto Di Matteo was so effective in his run up to the end of last season is because he had no pressure, he assumed a new manager was coming in to replace AVB at the end of the season and he had nothing to lose.  As soon as he was actually given a contract things started to go wrong.  The pressure on these managers is too much. Is it coincidence that Roberto Martinez has managed to save Wigan from relegation season after season or does it have something to do with the faith the owner, Dave Whelan, has put in him. If you had a class of children and changed their teacher every few months, I would guarantee you would see a general decline in the performance and behaviour of the children.  Every ship needs a captain – change the captain often enough and they will end up being as effective as a sailor on their first voyage.

Apart from being unsupportive of managers, there is little loyalty to the players in the club – look at how Frank Lampard is being treated. 

I don’t want to go on but in my view it is a terrible shame.  I urge Roman Abramovich to admit his mistakes in mismanaging the club’s affairs and to try and make amends.  (He could start by giving Frank Lampard a new contract; yes I really am that sad and transparent.)

At the end of my last post I desperately pleaded with Manchester United to stop winning.  I watched the match yesterday evening hoping they were going to oblige.  Fulham tried throwing everything at them including their Iranian winger and a black out (except they didn’t capitalise on the failing flood lights by sneaking a goal in the dark!) Although Van Perfect was having a not so perfect day, Rooney compensated and scored.  Annoyingly David De Gae made some great saves – I think the visit to Spec savers has paid off! The point is even though Man U were not great, they did enough to get their three points and have maintained a nine point lead in the table thanks to Liverpool holding Manchester City to a draw this afternoon.

Even Daniel Sturridge has started to shine now that he has emerged from the black cloud that is Chelsea Football Club....