Concerns about Chelsea’s ability to win a third straight Premiership title run to the very heart of Stamford Bridge, with fears expressed by Jose Mourinho about the strength of his team’s credentials being replicated in the boardroom after the 2-2 draw at home to Fulham and a goalless draw away to Aston Villa.
Chelsea’s board are genuinely worried that awful defending will cost a championship the club desperately desire to match Manchester United’s title hat-trick of 1999 to 2001 and to continue on a path aimed at making Chelsea England’s strongest team and the world’s number one club by 2014.
Four points have been dropped at home to Reading and Fulham in five days, two more at Villa Park, and directors want the problems remedied swiftly with a victory. They have noted that Mourinho has been unable to prevent the team conceding twice in the past five league matches and fear the title will slip away unless things tighten.
Chelsea led by 11 points this time last year but went to Aston Villa seven points off the top after United drew at Newcastle. Mourinho’s employers are sympathetic about the impact of injuries to John Terry and Petr Cech, but they invested last summer in Andriy Shevchenko, Michael Ballack, Ashley Cole, Khalid Boulahrouz, Mikel John Obi and Salomon Kalou with a view to dominating at home and in Europe.
Mourinho retains the backing of his directors but comments he made after Saturday’s game against Fulham have been greeted with interest in the boardroom.
In an honest and sometimes brutal assessment, Mourinho cast doubt for the first time on his own managerial qualities, criticised players and intimated it may not have been his choice to sell William Gallas and Robert Huth last summer. He left no doubt he feels his team would be better off with at least one of those two defenders in the squad.
Mourinho’s remarks risk damaging his relationship with his squad and directors.
The manager, having complained at having no centre-half strong in the air without Terry, was asked why Huth and Gallas were allowed to leave. ”Good question, that’s a good question,” he said.
Asked what a good answer was, he replied: ”There is no answer. They are not here any more. They are injured at the moment so if they are here and they are injured we have the same problem.”
It was reported when Gallas left that Mourinho was furious he had been allowed to join Arsenal, though this appeared the only way of getting Ashley Cole.
Gallas was determined to go, after falling out with Chelsea’s board, and Huth, who went to Middlesbrough, wanted to play more regularly. Mourinho is not thought to have tried to block the German’s move.
Boulahrouz, the one central defender signed last summer, has failed to impress.
Mourinho has had an occasionally difficult relationship with Chelsea’s hierarchy and has privately threatened to quit in the past.
The club’s owner, Roman Abramovich, said last month he and Mourinho ”do not have friendly relations but they are warm enough”. The chief executive, Peter Kenyon, insisted in November Mourinho would be in charge next season.
Most pertinent in the short term will be whether Mourinho’s rapport with his players is affected by unusually sharp criticisms of them. He said Chelsea ”cannot defend” now without Terry and Cech, claimed ”you can find four or five players performing nothing for the team”, and singled out Shevchenko, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Kalou for poor contributions.
Mourinho said a six-point gap on United would not usually concern him, with the teams still to meet at Stamford Bridge, but said he was ”worried” by current weaknesses.
”For me the drama is the situation we live,” he said. ”We cannot defend, we concede incredible goals and in attack we have one player.
”Joe Cole, I think, is an injury forever, or at least for the season.
”[Arjen] Robben is out. Didier [Drogba] is the only one. Sheva is not performing, Shaun is not performing, Kalou is not performing.”
Mourinho is not used to being off the top and sounded far from the Special One when asked why he had been unable to solve defensive problems in training.
”Maybe I am not such a good manager, maybe the players are not such good players,” he said, before turning his attention to Chelsea’s problems in dealing with tall, strong strikers.
He suggested some grumbling players should ”close the mouth and don’t speak too much. Sometimes in a quiet way, sometimes in a more noisy way, they complain when they are not playing. And when they do [play], they don’t play at the level they should.” — Â