Chelsea’s Conquest Of Liverpool (by Gary Watton)
CHELSEA’S CONQUEST OF LIVERPOOL
Oh I really wish that Jose Mourinho would elbow the horrible strategy of clinging on to one-goal leads, as it is dangerous. Fortunately on Saturday, his seemingly unstoppable troops were able to successfully defend their 2-1 lead, assisted by a clueless Liverpoor team, although the latter could easily have been freed from jail if the referee had awarded a late penalty. In the event, Chelsea go marching on, and as the Premiership ‘challenge’ of everyone else, bar the admirable Southampton, melts away, this league campaign looks like a procession for West London’s finest.
It was good to see Diego Costa return to scoring ways, after his drought against QPR. It was also encouraging to find Loic Remy back amongst the reinforcements. However, aside from the awful policy of defending a one-goal advantage, I still have two other requests for Santa Claus. Firstly, although he has done little wrong between the sticks, Monsieur Courtois is emulating the considerably inferior Dave Beasant by almost always conceding a goal in each match. Thibaut and his defence really need to start accumulating more clean sheets. Secondly, TC’s Belgian compatriot Eden Hazard really should be scoring more goals. Yes he has got five in this campaign already, and he will end up with a dozen or more by May, but most of his recent goals have been penalties.
For someone who dances past opposing defenders as if they are shop window dummies, Eden really ought to be converting more of the chances that he frequently creates. EH can be compared favourably with the likes of Messi and Ronaldo in terms of pace and pure skill, but where Hazard doesn’t even begin to compare is in terms of accuracy in front of goal. It’s no use stating that he plays in a wide position because so too does Ronaldo, while the lethal Messi is by no means a centre forward. For Hazard to be fairly regarded as an equal of Messi and Ronaldo, the goal opportunities need to be taken. It might be that his pace which enables him to accelerate past opponents is his undoing, because he then lacks composure in front of goal too often for my satisfaction. Mo Salah is another culprit in this regard.
If Courtois can obtain more clean sheets and Hazard can share in the nice burden of scoring goals alongside the red-hot Costa, Chelsea just might sweep all before them. Only complacency against lesser teams can undermine the relentless progress. Somehow I think that this squad and its manager are way too focused and clinical to allow anyone to overtake them in the English Premiership grand prix. I would love to see Chelsea make history by becoming the first team to win England’s domestic treble. It’s there for the taking. With all the usual suspects imploding before our very eyes, Chelsea can comfortably achieve much glory in 2015.
Mourinho is correct in stating that his team are the autumn champions, but he will be especially keen that they go on to be winter and spring champions too. As for Europe, well it’s going to take a darn good team to stop the Blues’ juggernaut.
Next on the November agenda is West Bromwich Albion and Sunderland at the end of the month. These two clubs damaged our season last year. Hopefully we can mercilessly demonstrate our superiority this time around. Meanwhile the outstanding Matic has joked that Fabregas is the worst player that he has ever played alongside. I couldn’t agree more. Those numerous goal assists and precision passes are really shocking.
Well, that’s three consecutive wins on Merseyside and three wins inside a year against the one-year wonders of Liverpoo. Bravo.
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