The demise of fortress Stamford Bridge

With the appointment of Luiz Felipe Scolari as Chelsea’s manager back in the summer, Chelsea fans were awaiting good results and beautiful football, something few teams offer especially Chelsea under the reign of Jose Mourinho. The opening day of the season boded well with a high pace, classy thrashing of Portsmouth that Chelsea fans hoped set the bar for the rest of the season.

I personally have only seen one team play scintillating football and dominate their domestic league in recent years, and that has been Barcelona. Arsenal supposedly play the best football in Britain (which, although I’m biased, I’ve never understood if I’m honest… it always seems frustrating to watch for me as there is very little power and the passing can be too intricate with no pay off, ie, shots on goal). Manchester United have come closest to playing quality attacking football, while getting the results week in, week out.

Chelsea had lost their long unbeaten home record to Liverpool only a few weeks ago and following todays loss to Arsenal have dropped 12 points at home this season, something that was unthinkable even half way through the season under Jose Mourinho. The team has lost its mettle and some of the heavyweight players just don’t seem bothered. Apparently Michael Ballack was on the pitch during the Arsenal game, but I didn’t see him anywhere. If he was playing, it was only to watch everyone else as he was completely disinterested and lacking in any kind of skill or creativity which sums up most of his time at Chelsea. No one put in a terrible performance, but we just didn’t look like scoring and desperately need Drogba back Everyone has been singing Nicholas Anelka’s praises recently, but take a look at the teams he scores against. He doesn’t get the goals in the big games and specialises in tap ins against teams like Sunderland, who with all due respect Chelsea should be beating. I’ve got a lot of time for Anelka, and he was one of my favourite strikers in the league when at Bolton, but he’s completely unconvincing for me at Chelsea, not matter how many goals he gets.

The second big problem is our injuries which include two absolutely vital players. The sooner Michael Essien gets back the better, although it’s not likely to be the case until much later in the season.

We also seemed to have lost our grit and ability to shut a game down at 1 or 2 nil up from sixty or seventy minutes on. This is a vital aspect of winning the Premier League and holding on to slender leads against tough opposition, which comes in the form of most teams in the league. Again, it seems everyone but me think Obi Mikel is the best thing since sliced bred, but I just don’t see it. When we had Makele playing in his position we didn’t concede goals, now we do. If rumour is correct, Roman isn’t looking to buy in the January transfer window, but if he changes his mind, I’d get rid of Michael Ballack who has done practically nothing in his time at Chelsea and bring in a rock like Marcus Senna of Villareal who showed during the European Championships he can take the mantle of best holding player in Europe from Makelele. If Drogba goes, and I doubt he will as Inter Milan haven’t got the kind of cash to buy a £20+ million player, then we need to bring in someone with his qualities who can disrupt defences and completely dominate the oppositions penalty area, even when off the ball.

Scolari needs to bring some blood and guts attitude we had under Jose back to the team before its too late and before we know it we’re sitting in third behind United and Liverpool.