Matches M. voices his opinions on Chelsea FC
Jose did not reach the Champions League semi-final. If there is a God of Football, he is finally listening to our prayers. Mourinho’s team of oil-money craving, glory-hunting, violent thugs have been knocked out of Europe’s elite competition by team of oil-money cra…never mind.
At least it wasn’t Mourinho who won. That is all the comfort that can be taken from the 3-3 aggregate Champions League round of sixteen clashes between Paris Saint Germain and Chelsea that saw the French team go through on away goals.
Even though the blue team from London has already won the Capital One Cup and have a five point lead at the top of the English Premier League, fans of stylish football built on righteous philosophies can be happy. The self proclaimed Special One’s dirty tactics of mind games, bus parking and lucky match-winners from defenders, who appear as though they are the missing links in the evolutionary chain, will not be diminishing the entertainment value of the prestigious European Cup. Jose is an expert at these so called “mind games.” From calling Arsene Wenger a voyeur when Arsenal was competing with them for the league title, to saying West Ham plays 19th century football, to poking the late Tito Vilanova in the eye during El Clásico – there is no level too low for Mourinho to stoop to as far as irritating his opponents is concerned. He himself sets his teams out to play boring but efficient football all the time but when someone does it against him, he labels them as haters of the sport. One needs to simply look at Chelsea’s results during Jose’s first season there to see that most of his games were won by a one goal margin.
Although Manchester City’s success is based on similar “spend big, win big” principles, I’d much rather see them doing it in style than watch Jose’s overpaid squads winning silverware with tactics that Big Sam and Tony Pulis would be proud of. Pellegrini is a gentleman who will not take a giant number two on your chest as he beats your team like Jose usually does. Pellegrini rarely has provocative things to say about his opponents and usually comments on flaws within his own team during post-match interviews instead of blaming everyone but his players. Plus, his talismanic player is not a player who steps, spits and swears at his opponents.
Saying Diego Costa is uncultured would be an understatement. Arguably the vilest player to tarnish the Premier League since Joey Barton, Costa is no doubt a talented athlete. However, it is unfortunate that he is a terrible human being. Chelsea fans may interject that stating so is a low blow, but is it really? We have seen countless talented South Americans who have had difficult childhoods grace the beautiful game, but none of them were quite as vicious as Costa.
Chelsea fans like it this way. A hostile fan base who did not allow a dark skinned fan to get on a train in Paris after their away game against PSG this season, who wave plastic flags given to them at their stadium by the club staff, a manager who does not respect anyone but himself and a goal scorer whose performances are directly proportionate with how angry he is able to make his opponents is an unholy trinity that was made in hell. Even fans of City, PSG, Monaco or other such clubs that are funded by oil have the level of class to admit that they started watching football recently and decided to support a team that they figured was likely to win. Chelsea’s supporters are completely different though. They have the audacity to act like cultured football fans who started supporting their team during the pre-Abramovich era of not winning the league for half a century. “Back when Zola used to play for us…” they’ll sometimes start to say before realising they don’t know much about those days.
After Jose’s terrible trophy winning first spell at Chelsea, we all thought that mind games, long-ball tactics and undeserved victories died with Ferguson, but true evil never dies. It comes back stronger. Not that I am trying to take anything away from Ferguson, but Mourinho is following the same path to becoming football’s public enemy number one. At least now we can rejoice knowing that we can watch the rest of the season’s late-night Champions League games without falling asleep.