First Chelsea defeat in the fifth match of a long season. I was disappointed that we didn’t get three points, yes three points, and for clarity I’m not talking about a draw here. But I was not disappointed with the way we played. We played some different kind of stuff, which for any other top 4 team is called as ‘beautiful football’. When we get the results, we are blasted for the way we play. When we play well, what’s being looked at is points lost and goals conceded. Now some of you would be asking, why don’t we play high tempo, one-touch and at the same time get three points and a clean sheet?

First two seasons under Mourinho, we played superb football, in my opinion, and there was widespread propaganda that we were boring and all that stuff. Third season we played intelligent and efficient football and very nearly made it. Being one of the earlier clubs in England to get a billionaire owner, anything attached to Chelsea was to be either bad or simply evil – the owner’s source of income, the manager’s arrogance, the way the team played their football, the football pitch of home ground, the fans, the transfers, the tackles, the free kicks – every freaking thing was seen with tinted glasses.

Arsenal’s possible new chairman is a criminal of murder, rape and every crime you’re heard of. Thaksin keeps getting arrest warrant after arrest warrant. Man Utd got Tevez in one of the most ugliest, shadiest deals in football history. Arsene Wenger nearly hit Alan Pardew (he too went off-target) and we’ve forgotten that. Liverpool played horribly boring all last season but it gets no mention. Time and again, there have been hooliganism, violence and bloodshed among football fans and all these involve Man Utd and Liverpool, but our fans are the most ridiculed ones for our money. What I mean to say is that everything Chelsea is accused of, other clubs have found it in themselves. So funny that Roman was called the Russian mafia by the Arsenal blogs during the Cole-Gallas swap and see what they’ve got – a complete real Russian mafia guy in charge of them – true in every sense of the word. AC Milan and Juventus were involved in the most ugly match-fixing affair of the football history. Guess what would have happened if Chelsea was involved. This is the double standards I really hate. The double standards are adopted not only by the Chelsea-haters and neutrals but also by the so-called Chelsea fans, just to make it more painful.

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Just to re-focus on what I intend to talk about, we lost to Aston Villa at Villa park. How much of a disaster is this? Look at Man Utd, they dropped points early on and they are back. We started fine enough and we lost a match, so what? A regular Jose Mourinho team would have hardly let a goal by now. We have conceded 6 goals so far in 5 matches. Why is the defence leaking these goals? It’s because, we are changing the way we play. It’s a transformation and such things won’t happen overnight. It’s very obvious that Chelsea’s way of attacking has changed and as a result the movement of players and the space created are undergoing a change. We get a new back four every match and it’s not too easy. Were we completely outplayed and we lost 2-0? No freaking no. We were all over them. We were easily the most dominant team that afternoon. Another day, the same performances would have seen us win 2-0.

If you want to make a constructive criticism instead of the mindless “sack/hang/shoot Jose”, you should see that we were poor in set pieces – attacking/defending, we were a little too lethargic sometimes in the midfield, our decision making in the attack was not proper – it showed at least one or two players were not playing to the plan, and in defence we had four players from three leagues and there were some inconsistent way of defending. The fact is, you can see these points existing even in a match that we win 2-0 but the thing is we used to get the three points, no matter how we play. Jose is a master at this and this feature of the Chelsea’s game is everyone’s envy and that’s what made Chelsea a very tough opponent and rival. Now, it is clear that Jose is trying to change the philosophy and it is happening gradually and we are now in a period of transition. Jose, used to be happier with 1-0 than a 2-1 or 3-2, as it gives three points and a clean sheet (if anyone childish points out that Real won 5-0, damn I’m not wasting my time on them). Now the way we play we should score goals and should complain too much if we concede. But until we get to the right level of balance and understanding in the new system, these things will happen.

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If there is one thing you can really bet your life on, it is how Jose would give a kick in the back side to the players. Some of them did not show the real passion or determination. Some did not really chase the ball as they should have, some did not follow the plan and did things on their own and some forgot the basics at crunch times. But I’m sure that the team alongwith the coach will sit together and analyse what went wrong and how to improve from here on.

I don’t intend to publish a post for every such defeat as my estimate for this season is 5 defeats, 7 draws and 26 wins (how did I arrive at this: I just made it up!) and we should win the league with 85 points as it is a close fight this season and you can expect very good battles with the mid table teams too. It’s not going to be easy for the champion, whoever it is. Season has just started and so many things can happen – players going out with injuries, teams suddenly going out of form, derbies getting hotter and hotter with the underdogs showing more courage and determination than before, the results of the matches involving the big four is anyone’s guess and possibly more upsets for the big four.

It’s getting a little sick to see in the comments section that Jose Mourinho is the sole problem of our ‘poor’ situation now. I don’t say all of you feel so. That opinion poll I published still showed that more than 80% of you think he is a legend. For the ones looking for his head, get over it. Until he is sacked or until he resigns, he is our coach. As the Chelsea coach he deserves a lot of respect and support. Look at this defeat and try to provide some constructive criticism, for a change.

Update: Kenn Emetulu at Chelseablog says something in the same lines

[tags]Chelsea, Jose Mourinho, Roman Abramovich, Aston Villa, Premier League, Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger, Alisher Usmanov[/tags]