Second Favouritism? It’s A Poor Substitute For Anything

[Dorset]

 

Ah, the process we have all come to know and love - the winning of football matches! The Jose Mourinho Way, that’s what I like to call it, and Chelsea fans the world over have long since realised that nobody does it better. Makes you feel sad for the rest, really. Except, of course, when the rest start whinging on about bus-parking and anti-football, but I suppose it is only then you realise that your boss is someone special, the ‘real deal’ and not merely an impostor masquerading in the role of manager of the club owned by Roman Abramovich - a role tainted by winner at all cost association, with cost being an operative word and the expectant Russian reportedly never getting enough, by way of satisfaction, for it. Still, no matter if this trite observation be first or last on the litany of whinge that always accompanies a Jose victory like the one against the Scousers, it is a cold, hard, factual light shed on perceived daylight robbery that is needed in its aftermath, so let’s begin by shining the beam full tilt on a few of the undeniable truths, shall we…

 

Firstly, Jose went to Anfield with [ostensibly] an eagerly-awaited and much-derided B team that many pundits were not only anxious to see in print on the team sheet, but also doubtless eager to lay into once defeat had been administered. Yet the much-heralded, neutrally-supported opposition, despite being on an eleven game-winning streak, were destined to be restricted to speculative shots from outside the box, failing to score and conceding two goals that enabled those awful bus-parkers par excellence to come away with all three points. Not bad for a defence with no Petr Cech, an entire back-four reshuffled, both the regular central defenders missing and a rookie planted slap-bang into the middle of it all. Remove our captain, leader and legend as well, and surely I can’t be the only one justifiably critical of a certain Brendan Rodgers for his failure to come up with up with enough answers to pass Jose’s [limited] question paper and to salvage, at the very least, one precious point.

 

Secondly, and I think there would be universal agreement on this from all those neutrals that he is not one of, Jose is paid a shed load of cash to analyse the opposition, weigh up his options and pick a team to beat what is in front of him, whether they be the Premiership’s top scorers or their best defenders of a goalmouth - and that is exactly what he did on Sunday. To argue that this job specification, being part and parcel of every Premiership mandate that ever existed, must also be adhered to by the playing of entertaining, attractive football each and every time you take to the pitch, in all circumstances, before you can warrant praise of any sort, is bizarre and bordering on elitism of the highest order. Indeed, some Merseyside fans and ex-players are so over-entitled it’s embarrassing and their constant ‘anti-football’ bleating borders on being both tiresome and disrespectful to a tactician worthy of respect, if for no other reason than in this instance he had to start the whole process at Anfield, sending his team out into the ultimate in bear pit prejudice. Little wonder he reacted as he did at the end.

 

And finally, reference has to be made to the backdrop for this game and the nauseating press coverage Steven Gerrard has had over the last few weeks. His mistake goes down as poetic justice in my book, but I waited in vain for Sky’s Jeff Shreeves, or anybody else for that matter, to ask Jose to express a few words of sympathy for the lad because they would, for want of a better description, be ’deserved’, what with him being the One, the Only, Stevie G and therefore the most deserving guy on Planet Football at the moment. After all is said and done, he is everyone’s second favourite footballer, you know, just as Liverpool is everyone’s second favourite football team, or so we are told by those who purport to have a finger on the pulse of these things. Personally, I can’t buy into the concept of any game being about other supporters having to like opposing teams as part of some sort of second-favourite-syndrome, presumably coming into play when your side doesn‘t quite come up to scratch for a year or nine, or hasn’t won a Premiership title yet. Or have I missed something here?

 

But face this conceptual c**p we must, on Wednesday night against everybody’s second favourite Spanish team, or is it third favourite behind a top-top- tiki-taka Barca and that Gareth and Ronnie roadshow known as the Real deal, currently performing spasmodically over in the other half of the Champions League draw? Whatever, it will be what it will be on Sky tomorrow - orchestrated by a studio panel that’s bound to include Jamie Redknapp, no doubt champing at the bit after being well and truly bitten by our champ. Can’t wait, personally, and I’m sure the same goes for every Chelsea fan anxious to see just how far a Madrid team can be integrated into and admired when it comes face-to-face with the Media’s very own black sheep of the Premiership family. 

 

My guess? It matters not one jot which team has already reached the final when we take to the pitch, because if Carlo’s lot have done the business, the air of media expectancy will favour our getting our eventual comeuppance against a team that reputedly attacks the most, whereas, if Bayern are through, the prospect of a Special One pounding by Pep will be equally mouth-watering for those commentary boxers and studio experts alike. 

 

Either way, if we do end up as the opposition, after doing what we do best, one thing is certain - we are Chelsea, we don’t profess to be anyone’s second favourites and the very best we can ever hope for in any match, against any side, from any country, is neutrality.       

 

 

[MJB]

Great post for a change Dorset

[Englishman]

Sunday's result was a two fingered salute to the football establishment in this country. We showed them up. Of course there's going to be a lot of animosity. The Liverpool fans, their legions of ex-player pundits and all their media sycophants thought it was in the bag already. It was going to be a procession, the dawn of a new era, destiny, justice, Stevie Me getting what he deserved (that last one came true, at least). They were all there for the after-match party. Just to rub Mourinho's nose in it, they even wheeled out Luis Garcia.

 

Perhaps a sign of the lack of respect that Mourinho was talking about the other day. Even weakened, we still fielded a team full of seasoned battlers with full trophy cabinets, led by someone with an even fuller trophy cabinet, in contrast to Rodgers and most of their players. Re-watching the match, that was exactly what the two teams looked like. That our win was greeted with all the undignified ill-grace and sour grapes you'd expect from a bunch who never stop reminding us how classy and sporting they are was not a surprise.

 

In hindsight, I think the most satisfying moment on Sunday came late on when a Sky cameraman with a sense of humour panned across the crowd, showing a sour faced Carragher, Hansen, Rush and Dalglish watching on grimly. If Carlsberg did Chelsea wins over Liverpool...

 

Whatever biased pundits and out of touch hacks may tell you, I suspect a Chelsea win has never been so popular with the "neutrals".