WILL IT BE ANOTHER BRIDGE TOO FAR?
Hearing Todd Boehly talk as he emerged from the pre-match lunch hosted by Real Madrid dignitaries for their Chelsea counterparts in the Spanish capital on Wednesday, you could have been forgiven for thinking the American billionaire had enjoyed one glass of sangria too many. Asked by a loitering reporter what he thought the score would be, Boehly bullishly announced: “Chelsea’s going to win 3-0.” It was a bold prediction and one he appeared to make without first consulting waiter-baiter and TV funnyman James Corden, before a game in which a team bottomed out on confidence and without a goal in four were due to take on the defending champions in their own Bernabéu building site. Madrid duly strolled to a comfortable 2-0 victory without really breaking sweat and the only consolation Frank Lampard and his players (all 58 of them) can take from yet another bruising experience is that their margin of victory was not so wide as to render the tie completely unsalvageable.
“The door is open, it’s up to us if we want to kick it open further,” declared Lamps, whose spell in interim charge since the Stamford Bridge door marked “Do One” hit the backside of their third manager already this season, has not got off to the most auspicious of beginnings. “Mixed emotions about the game. For a period [before Ben Chilwell’s red card], we were in the game, we had some chances. I think we could do better. We can utilise our strengths better, especially with the wing-backs, we can be more urgent. Those are things for myself and the staff and the players to work on.”
Lampard has less than a week to whip his troops into shape and could endure more misery before the return leg. His side welcome high-flying Brighton to Stamford Bridge on Saturday and given Chelsea’s form in the field of recruitment under the current regime, the visitors would be advised to count their coaching staff, players and technical directors as they board the bus following what could be a comfortable win for the Seagulls. Well run at a huge profit with a clear vision of where they want to go and how to get there, Brighton are everything Chelsea currently aren’t, despite Boehly’s purchase of their blueprint and many of those in charge of seeing it to fruition. A club legend he may be but there’s only so much Lampard can do with young players who don’t care who he used to be, along with more seasoned lags who have previously played under him and are probably unconvinced by his methods.
“The feeling is that we are not at our level, we look at ourselves and the players are the first to be responsible,” sniffed goalkeeping’s Kepa Arrizabalaga in the wake of this latest defeat, before pointing a big foam finger on one of his gloves elsewhere. “There have been three changes of coach, there have been changes in the squad during the season and it is costing us.” Indeed. More than £600m so far on recruitment alone and counting.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Ibrahim Bayesh mocked the referee as he was shown a second yellow and, after that, a red card. As a result, [the player] ran towards the referee and tried to attack him, and he threatened and insulted the referee” – the Iraqi FA bans Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya midfielder Ibrahim Bayesh for two years after he tried to attack the match official during their last-gasp, 3-2 home league defeat to Al-Kahraba.
FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS
Of course it is all too easy to mock Chelsea, albeit that is no reason not to, but can we not give them some credit for their innovative tactics? I’m sure we are all thoroughly enjoying their strategy of paying lots of money for attacking midfielders that look nice, drift past opposition defenders into very promising positions and then constantly kick the ball straight to the goalkeeper. The great Italian journalist Gianni Brera stated that the perfect game of football would finish 0-0 and Chelsea are almost there. They just need to convince the rest of the footballing world to start doing the same” – Noble Francis.
The Polish match officials are aggrieved by a bizarre call that led to their expulsion from a match (yesterday’s Football Daily)? If we only had some sort of sensible, video-based system that could objectively overturn such clear and obvious errors. Some day, perhaps” – Mike Wilner.
Send your letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s winner of our prizeless letter o’ the day is … Mike Wilner.
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