Rivals relish everyday worries while strife stalks Chelsea
If Chelsea aren't careful their disagreements off the pitch could allow
Arsenal and Liverpool to overtake them.
Kevin McCarra
January 23, 2007 12:02 AM
"For so much of Sunday afternoon it felt as if the season had shrunk,
putting Manchester United face to face with the title. Then, in the span of
a few minutes against Arsenal, they were left wondering instead how far they
still had to go and whether they had the resources to get there. The weekend
ended with all four leading clubs in a reflective mood, and one in
particular was given over to melancholia.
While other managers may be thinking about the transfer market, Jose
Mourinho has all but concluded that he is banned from it. Anyone suggesting
that relationships have been healed at Chelsea is flayed by the lash of the
manager's candid tongue. Defeat at Anfield was not surprising and if the
disagreements among the hierarchy remain unresolved there will be more
possibility of losing the runners-up position than of overhauling United.
The current debacle was once inconceivable for supporters who pine for the
recent days when Chelsea were hated for the pitiless capitalism that made
them unassailable. It has been superseded by a fractiousness that would have
been unimaginable until the past few weeks. Those who believe that Roman
Abramovich avoided Merseyside out of annoyance with Mourinho, rather than
because of business commitments in Moscow, must come to terms with the
concept of dissident owner.
How far could the trend go? Surreal visions swim to mind of the billionaire
picketing Stamford Bridge with a "Mourinho Out" placard or calling for fans
to abandon this despotic manager in favour of a new breakaway club of the
common people, AFC Chelsea. In truth the desire for success must lead to an
accommodation robust enough to last until at least the summer. Grievances
have to be resolved because Andriy Shevchenko cannot be left as the
emotional punchbag on which Mourinho takes out any antagonism towards
Abramovich.
The situation at the champions is a mighty consolation for the other teams.
They at least have only orthodox issues before them as they limber up for
the home stretch. United looked set to beat Arsenal and did not appear to
have fundamental failings despite conceding two goals at the very end. It
would have been better, however, not to retreat in such numbers that they
isolated their lone centre-forward, either Henrik Larsson or, later, Louis
Saha.
Sir Alex Ferguson's craving to winkle Owen Hargreaves out of Bayern Munich
seemed all the more logical then. Who better than the hyperactive midfielder
to stop United from being pinned back so easily? Paul Scholes, 32, was never
cut out for that even when he was a youngster and Michael Carrick is too
laconic to drive the side onwards.
Arsenal did drum up plenty of gusto as the clock ran down, yet the many
difficulties that preceded the recovery showed this to be a line-up still
under development. They did not flow as Arsène Wenger's great line-ups of
the past have.
There is not yet any counterpart to the slick partnerships the manager once
had on the left, when Robert Pires would come into the middle while Thierry
Henry slipped away to menace from that wing, aided sometimes by Ashley
Cole's overlapping. Wenger may envisage the right flank of the present
line-up operating with some of that smoothness, but the project is at an
early stage. For all his talent, Alexander Hleb does not link up in the
manner of a Pires. Although the manager has ruled out any acquisitions this
month it becomes easier to understand his interest in Franck Ribéry, the
France right-winger who was, by all accounts, close to leaving Marseille in
the summer.
Despite having beaten Chelsea, Rafael Benítez would surely not distance
himself from the January transfer market by choice, but major transactions
look unlikely while two interested parties are pursuing a takeover of
Liverpool. Eleven clean sheets in the past 12 Premiership games speak of the
side's solidity in league football, but such was the collapse of Saturday's
visitors that it was hard to tell how incisive Benítez's attack really is.
Worthwhile as Dirk Kuyt, Peter Crouch and Craig Bellamy can be, there is no
one to compare with, say, Didier Drogba or Thierry Henry. Only a highly
expensive individual, such as Valencia's David Villa, could fit the bill,
but Benítez may have to employ the remainder of January doing no more than
rehearsing the plea for a major signing that he will make to the club's new
proprietors this summer."