We’ve Done It Before
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Loading ...Chelsea’s victory against PSG was not merely about progression, it was a defining performance for this crop of players. I take a look at Tuesday night and the implications it could have on the future of the club. Ramblings on my personal twitter account can be found here and the POA account itself here.
With a feral swipe of Demba Ba’s boot the season finally started to make sense. This group of Chelsea players needed their own moment. They had been building towards something monumental all year: the performance at City, the destruction of Tottenham and the humiliation of Arsenal. However, that definitive Chelsea moment had eluded them. Mourinho, likewise, needed a performance that would win the hearts and minds of his players; something he could reference time and time again. Tuesday night was mission accomplished.
André Schürrle described the moment the players celebrated Demba Ba’s goal as the greatest feeling he has experienced in his career. This was echoed in the words of every player after the game. Chelsea had delivered a stellar performance on and off the pitch. The noise within the stadium prompted Niall Quinn to opine that he had “never heard a roar quite like it”.
From the moment Ruud Gullit casually tied his shoelaces against Liverpool some intangible quality became embedded in Chelsea’s DNA. From that miraculous comeback stemmed what we enjoy today. While others bemoan their sides lack of character, we seem to perpetually build towards the big occasion. Are we now entering the Champions League semi-finals as the team nobody wants to play?
The night said everything about the club that words can never quite capture. It spoke volumes about the leadership of Terry and Lampard, the quality of the squad and the belief to fight until the very last second. This was more than a 2-0 victory. It was a statement. The bitterness the result generated left QPR fans “wanting to put [their] foot through the television screen” as they looked on in disbelief. I am certain others felt the same.
This was a performance to match up with any great night at Stamford Bridge. If there is a better thing in football than a last minute goal it escapes me right now. Even better was that for all the flair players on display the goal was every bit as Sunday League as a twenty-stone goalkeeper. It was grit, it was scrappy and it was so incredibly Chelsea. Bodies everywhere. Limbs poking above seats. Even the bundle involving Ba was terrible.
Watching Mourinho dart down the touchline, booting a water bottle and then instructing his players was pure theatre. There are people out there who genuinely want you to think he has lost his hunger and his spark. While Madrid appeared to have taken a lot out of him, unquestionably we are seeing the Mourinho we love return. He is where he belongs and where he is treasured. More importantly things are falling into place. Players now seem to want to run themselves into the ground for him. Some actually did.
Rightly or wrongly Mourinho was seen as a panacea upon his return in the summer. The man to restore balance to the squad and blaze towards a new horizon. Nevertheless, the Special One consistently maintained that this season was going to be one of transition. The infamous ‘T’ word that is often thrown out to mask the disappointment of an underwhelming year. We had heard this before under André Villas-Boas and our experience was hardly a memorable one.
Our squad is blessed with phenomenal individual talent, but forging that into a formidable team was going to take time. Juxtapose the early season performances with those seen against City, Liverpool, Arsenal and PSG et al. They are proof of the burgeoning confidence Mourinho has in his players. There is no way that the early season incarnation of Chelsea could have played with such indefatigable character.
To cement this change in mentality Chelsea now need to go on a run of victories domestically. The team must take the positivity from the Paris Saint-Germain game and learn to harness it on a consistent basis. David Luiz, described by José Mourinho as a “monster” after his exuberant display, is the personification of this team mentality. He was a one-man midfield during the second half and mixed aggression, passion, desire and drive with technique impeccably. His move to playing as a destroyer within midfield helps the team immeasurably. The team, like Luiz, clicked into a gear on Tuesday that few can match: it needs to continue.
Detractors will undoubtedly suggest this to be another stroke of luck to go along with the 1,000 strokes en route to Munich in 2012. However, there comes a point where the ability to repeatedly defy incalculable odds is not so much luck but something much deeper. This club is defined by its inexorable will to win and this is a quality known throughout Europe. While it has taken many ups and downs during this season the type of reaction Mourinho coaxed from his players bodes well for the future.
The question now remains can Chelsea feasibly go all the way in Europe this season? With potential draws against arguably Europe’s three best teams it will certainly be difficult. Nevertheless, if Tuesday is a standard this Chelsea side can maintain adding a second European Cup is doable.
Mourinho spoke about adding “balls” to this Chelsea team in the summer. Johan Cruyff then chimed in with his two cents, claiming Mourinho is in the midst of losing the dressing room at Chelsea. Everything pointed to the contrary on the pitch. The scenes, the celebration, the madness of One Step Beyond and the cacophony of noise generated by the crowd all melded together to form a potent cocktail.
We are still well in contention in the title race and the European Cup remains in the realms of possibility. Either would be a superb achievement but ultimately Mourinho now knows what and more importantly who he wants going forward. Transitioning from a quasi tiki-taka style of play to one with a more dynamic philosophy has taken almost an entire season to implement. It will not take long to be up to this level next year and that should worry other teams.
Mentally the PSG game was huge as it shows the players exactly what they can achieve. Bringing consistency to the table, particularly against lesser sides, is now what we require the most. Find that and we may well be looking at the best period in the club’s history. The end of the season is definitely going to be interesting.
#DareToDemba
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As always Joe, putting into words what each truly passionate Chelsea supporter feels. There is some intrinsic strength of character which permeates a Chelsea team and that PSG match brought it to the fore again.