CHELSEA HUMBLED IN PARIS AMIDST GAZE OF THE "PREMFACE" BRIGADE

CHELSEA HUMBLED IN PARIS AMIDST GAZE OF THE "PREMFACE" BRIGADE

D. Ray Morton, 3rd April 2014.

Substitute Javier Pastore reels away in celebration after making it 3-1 in late injury time

José Mourinho and Chelsea were dealt a tough night in Paris last evening thanks to goals from Ezequiel Lavezzi, Javier Pastore and an own goal from David Luiz to cancel out Eden Hazard's penalty for the visitors.

It was a game that lulled at times but this suited Paris St. Germain as a tired-looking Chelsea were not able to play at full intensity. Nemanja Matić was cup-tied after his involvement with Benfica earlier on in this Champions League season, and his calming defensive midfield presence was sorely missed.

The Parisians stunned Mourinho's side early on when Lavezzi was able to pounce on a loose ball in the penalty area and volleyed home beautifully with his left foot. Zlatan Ibrahimović had received all the attention before kick-off but it was his supporting cast of Lavezzi and Edinson Cavani that stole the spotlight on this occasion. The wide attacking duo tormented Chelsea not only with their offensive movement but also by covering back and preventing the visitors from exploiting the flanks.

Ramires diligently covered ground in midfield, pressing Thiago Motta and Marco Verratti with regularity but picked up a yellow card in process which will see him out of the second leg in London next week. PSG have a worry of their own in that Ibrahimović was hauled off with what looked like a hamstring injury. Such strains don't heal that rapidly and there's a good chance he'll miss next week's encounter also. Such as the strength of their squad however, they should be able to cope. Brazilian starlet Lucas Moura came on during the second half and troubled Chelsea with his elusive dribbling skills.

Chelsea's equaliser was somewhat fortuitous. Oscar went down in the penalty area under an awkward challenge from compatriot Thiago Silva. Such was the centre half's positioning that the referee cannot be blamed for awarding the spot-kick although replays seemed to indicate that Silva had at least gotten a bit of the ball. Hazard buried the penalty and that was Chelsea's last shot on target for the evening. After only 28 minutes.

Chelsea had opted for a "strikerless" formation with André Schürrle up front on his own, a tactic only used twice this season, once against Bayern Munich in the European Super Cup and again against Manchester United early on in the campaign where a 0-0 result seemed solid at the time. Here, it worked to an extent. With Schürrle dropping into the midfield, Motta and Verratti found themselves pressured more often than they would in an average Ligue 1 match. It was Mourinho's decision to replace the German with Fernando Torres in the second half where things began to unravel.

Sky Sports' panel came up with the ludicrous conclusion that Chelsea were in complete control by half-time. Perhaps they were, if control means aimlessly pressing to the point of exhaustion and playing into the hands of a highly technical home side with many individuals capable of coming up with a match-winning moment of flair. The lead goal didn't require any flair, however. The ticking defensive time bomb that is David Luiz couldn't get the ball out of his feet from Lavezzi's whipped free-kick and ended up putting it in his own net. It became a calamitous night for Luiz after being one of Chelsea's better players in the first half.

The visitors looked tired but seemed content to take a 2-1 defeat back home. That was until substitute Javier Pastore came up with a bit of magic late on in injury time. Picking the ball up on the right flank, he managed to slip into the Chelsea penalty area near the by-line, skimmed Frank Lampard and smashed home past Petr Čech from a narrow angle. That little bit of magic made it 3-1 and makes next week's proposition much harder for an infuriated Mourinho.

Mourinho described PSG's third goal as "ridiculous"

He dubbed the third goal as "ridiculous" and didn't write off their second leg prospects but described it as "a difficult job, not impossible". Clearly dissatisfied at Fernando Torres' contribution he thought the substitution would give them more depth: "a bit more". The Spanish club record signing is clearly in the doghouse and there's very little chance he'll remain in Mourinho's first-team squad next season.

The Sky trio of Jamie Redknapp, Jamie Carragher and Glenn Hoddle seemed perplexed at what they had just seen. In unison, thinking Chelsea were "in control" at half-time, they didn't offer any real explanation as to how Chelsea had just been outclassed. Hoddle even went as far as suggesting that PSG were weak at the back despite having Brazil's captain and arguably the world's best defender in Thiago Silva. Classic "premface" opinion again on display.

The second leg should remain a decent spectacle and Chelsea are not necessarily out. Lavezzi and Cavani will remember from their time at Napoli that Chelsea are capable of overturning a 3-1 first leg defeat but considering PSG's overall quality, it's a much bigger ask this time.

SHERWOOD RIGHT TO LAMBAST ABJECT SPURS

SHERWOOD RIGHT TO LAMBAST ABJECT SPURS

D. Ray Morton, 9th March 2013.

Chelsea proved they were the cream of the London crop yesterday evening with a comfortable 4-0 win that keeps fueling their Premier League title effort. Mourinho's men won convincingly thanks to goals from Samuel Eto'o, a penalty from Eden Hazard and a brace from substitute striker Demba Ba. Chelsea look as likely as anyone to top the table at the end of the season now but the focus here will be on the hopelessness of Tottenham Hotspur, manager Tim Sherwood's reaction to it and how a certain other in the media sees it.

Any 4-0 defeat makes for bad reading but, as mentioned several times this season about Spurs, the manner in which they lost was most disappointing. This wasn't Chelsea at their best. They didn't need to be. Each of the four goals could be classified as gifts. Though Spurs made themselves compact in the first half, giving away few clear cut chances and even looking like they might create a few of their own, their second half capitulation was abysmal.

Eto'o opened the scoring in the 56th minute after an error by Jan Vertonghen in what was probably his worst performance as a Spurs player. Barcelona have been sniffing around for his signature due to their need for a ball-playing defender and after such a miserable performance, Daniel Levy should consider cashing in.

The second goal came only four minutes later. Eto'o was picked out inside the penalty area, took a heavy touch and fell under the momentum of Younes Kaboul's covering run. There was very little contact and there were plenty of players around but referee Michael Oliver still felt the need to issue a red card and a penalty. I have examined the penalty/dismissal laws before but in this incident, there was nothing cynical about Kaboul's approach and the referee seemed to get it completely wrong as agreed with by Gary Neville in his Sky Sports commentary. Hazard slotted home the spot-kick and the game was over as a contest effectively.

Half an hour of Jose Mourinho smiles followed until Demba Ba, this time, was given a present by the continually struggling Vertonghen. Slipping in possession inside his own third, rather than knocking the ball out of play, he attempted a desperate pass back which Hugo Lloris couldn't reach. The Senegalese took the chance with aplomb. About a minute later, more madness from Spurs at the back. Lloris cleared away with his feet only to receive a header back from Nabil Bentaleb who must not have seen Demba Ba standing way beyond what would be the offside line. Ba competed with the French goalkeeper and slipped it past him to score the easiest of tap-ins. Tim Sherwood looked on furiously as Jose Mourinho made an early escape for the dressing room barely able to disguise his elation.

Tactically, there wasn't a whole lot that Sherwood did wrong. Jokingly nicknamed "Tactics Tim" for the perception that he doesn't like to bog down his side with the instructions that made Andre Villas Boas so unpopular with the playing staff, Spurs were set up quite well yesterday. He had fielded Kyle Walker at right midfield in order to double up on Eden Hazard and, removing individuals errors and some dodgy refereeing, it might have worked.

Sherwood went on the offensive in his post-match interview: "You can't legislate for the capitulation - you can't have that" he stated. "Lack of characters, too many of them too nice to each other and you need to show a bit more guts and not want to be someone's mate all the time. They need to drag it out of each other."

Sherwood was right. It wasn't strategies that cost them such a heavy thrashing. It was attitude. This is the same poisonous attitude that has persisted all season and resulted in two heavy defeats to Manchester City, another from Liverpool and an utterly humiliating 3-0 defeat to West Ham at home.

Glenn Hoddle, whenever there is speculation over a manager's future, again took the opportunity to criticise whilst subtly flying his kite for the Spurs job which might not necessarily go to Louis van Gaal, as expected, in the summer. In response to Sherwood's post-match views, he interjected: "I agree he was very honest but personally that's something you say in the dressing room to the players. You might come out and disguise what your feelings are." Words of wisdom from a man who lost the England job for suggesting that disabled people were being punished from "past lives".

Tottenham do deserve to be criticised publicly and Sherwood would only have been untrue to himself if he had stated otherwise. No-one expects Tottenham to get into the top four now and no-one expects Sherwood to stay on as their boss. His honesty was refreshing however and it's a shame that he's now caught between a rock and a hard place when it comes to landing his next job. Primarily a coach, will he want to take that step back after being in the main hot seat? Will Spurs even want to keep him on as a coach? Regardless, the message has been clear. Tottenham have not been good enough this season and don't deserve any credit after what was a grim performance at Stamford Bridge yesterday.

REPREHENSIBLE HODDLE IN HUNT FOR SWANSEA JOB

Swansea City did away with Michael Laudrup during the week after a run of Premier League games that saw them win only one in ten. Garry Monk has stepped in for now but this will surely be no more than a temporary arrangement. The bookies have thrown up some interesting names in terms of who eventually gets to fill Laudrup's boots. Graeme Jones, the Everton assistant manager, was initially tipped to take the role and even former Athletic Blibao and Argentina manager Marco Bielsa has also been mentioned. Oscar Garcia of Brighton could also be in on the running. The favourite, however, is ex-Tottenham and England gaffer Glenn Hoddle.

Kites had been flown for Hoddle to take over at Tottenham earlier in the season when Andre Villas Boas got the axe though Daniel Levy went with Tim Sherwood instead. Perhaps the speculation has given Hoddle the managerial bug, the need to get back into the game after sitting in TV studios for nearly eight years now. His last managerial role had been at Wolves with was preceded by two short spells at Tottenham and Southampton. Between 1996 and 1999, Hoddle managed to take reins of the English national team, leading them in the France '98 World Cup where they were eliminated by Argentina after David Beckham's infamous sending off. Hoddle's win percentage for England was 60% which has only been topped by Fabio Capello and the legendary Sir Alf Ramsey. Why he was let go by the Football Association can be explained with the following quote from an interview with The Times in January 1999:

"You and I have been physically given two hands and two legs and half-decent brains. Some people have not been born like that for a reason. The karma is working from another lifetime. I have nothing to hide about that. It is not only people with disabilities. What you sow, you have to reap."

Such superstitious, insulting views should never have been aired and granted, many years have passed but this remains the defining moment of Hoddle's public image as a football manager. In terms of what he brings to the table as an actual head coach, we can't be sure. He's been out of the game for a long while and there could be quite a lot of rust there considering how quickly the modern game is evolving. That is not the main point however. Hoddle's views on disabled people come from a man who is either extremely misguided or completed bigoted. He makes delusional ex-France manager Raymond Domenech seem harmless fiddling around with his astrology. Perhaps he has reviewed his opinions after the embarrassment of losing the England job but if Swansea do appoint him, they will have to deal with that dark cloud hanging over them. Swansea City, such a progressive club of the people, deserve better.

D. Ray Morton, 7th Febuary 2014.

@D_Ray_Morton