Arsenal’s fate is in RVP’s hands , clearly . THAT is a story no one needs to tell . It’s going to play itself out in a rather bland way . RVP’s going to ,at some point, lose that lovely form to a certain extent and Arsenal will book a hotel in london and probably help with preparations for the olympics . I mean , what else will they have to do next year if they don’t make it through to a champion’s league spot ? And the premier league . Well they seem to like turning up late for that too so they might as well finish with the olympics and comeback !
Chelsea , on the other hand , don’t look like they’ll have such a simple storyline . The twists and turns hardly look like they are finished . Hopefully the twists remaining are good ones and we’ll all have a happy ending .
Frankly , Chelsea can turn around their fortunes pretty easily . You just need the attackers in sync with the midfielders and scoring lots of goals and the defenders supporting the midfielders and at the same time blocking off opposition strikers and Cech keeping cleansheets and carrying on the batman act (complete with an intimidating ,yet good looking face mask ! ) !
Yes . I have mastered the art of stating the obvious !
The reason for chelsea’s slump last year was tired legs . Most players returning from the worldcup with injuries and the rest who survived that were too tired to hold the ship steady . That chelsea finished a very close second last year was no surprise for once the players were back to full fitness , there was hardly any opposition good enough to stop them .
This year’s “excuse” is somewhat mysterious . The Age factor keeps popping up but I don’t really feel that chelsea , with it’s current squad , is being held back by the seniors . The overall pace of passing is slow and that has been a trait that has crept in in recent years not neccessarily because of the seniors.
AVB’s tactics have not been at fault either . The one thing you could blame has been , in AVB’s words , the finer details . Composure in both the penalty boxes , concentration in the last 5-6 minutes of either half , communication gaps and stuff like that .
The number of penalties and red cards we have conceded this year is shocking to say the least . And the number of occassions when possession has been lost on the edge of the penalty area at the other end has been equally shocking .
In the last 5 games , goals conceded in the last 5 minutes of the game has cost us dearly . Keeping a cool head , standing your ground for those last 5 minutes , things that the chelsea defence has done so well ,so effortlessly in recent times , suddenly seems to be a herculean task .
This premiership race is only 12 games old so don’t make the mistake of writing anyone off . Not even arsenal and specifically not chelsea . Should the transfer window make useful additions , that’ll just be great but even without that , this is a race that chelsea can still win without breaking sweat . But that , only if AVB drills those small details into everyone’s heads . Only if the crowd keeps the support going and gives the team confidence ( which they are lacking severely now ) .
Talk of RA firing AVB this early in the season is absurd . The man might change managers more often than they raise petrol prices here in India , but he has given every manager atleast one season to prove their worth. I doubt if he’ll change that policy here . The man’s strict but he’s not dumb .
The chelsea vs Wolves game is about to begin and hopefully , this will be the begining of the turnaround !
I’ll take your leave now and go settle in front of the TV for the next hour and a half ! Ciao !
