The Chelsea Pensioners
By Giant_Causeway



We come to the penultimate part of the series in the shape of the megabucks West Londoners in Chelsea. Last season, they finished third behind their North West rivals after enduring a turbulent season with the ill-fated appointment of Big Phil Scolari to the appointment of Guus Hiddink who can be considered unfortunate not to have led Chelsea to a Champions League final appearance.

The big story of last season was the behaviour of Didier Drogba who refused to “apply” his normal game under the leadership of Phil Scolari

Chelsea's New Manager Carlo Ancelotti

preferring to deride the leadership and management skills of his manager and only came alive with the appointment of Guus Hiddink culminating into the infamous tantrum he threw at the end of the Champions League semi-final against Barcelona. Since then he has reportedly signed on for another three more years.

In the off-season, they have been much more reserved then recent years with just the low profile signings of Daniel Sturridge, Yuri Zhirkov and Ross Turnbull to bolster a squad that is best described as functional and experienced but aging. They continue to be linked with the likes of Ribery, Pato and amazingly, if true they considered paying £20m for a 31 yr old in Andrea Pirlo but it remains to be seen whether they will actually bring in any more players for the season.

But the big change in West London was the appointment of Carlo Ancelotti who has the task of replacing Hiddink. But he is different from Scolari who proved similarly to Kevin Keegan in that both have never really managed an elite club, never achieved domestic and European glory that the likes of Capello, Lippi, Hiddink, Ferguson, Wenger and Mourinho did, both are charismatic and passionate but unfortunately both have had their tactical awareness brutally exposed at the highest level. Ancelotti was a top class player and proved himself a top class manager with Milan having served his apprenticeship with Reggiana, Parma and Juventus. He is just one of six coaches to win the Champions League as a player and coach/manager.

In his first job with Reggiana he gained promotion to Serie A in his only season before leaving to charge of Parma where he achieved perennial contender status with a smaller club relative to the might of the Milanese giants, Juventus, the Roman giants of Roma and Lazio and the romanticism of Fiorentina. He then took over Juventus succeeding Marcello Lippi who was always going to be a hard act to follow and had to content himself with a pair of second place finishes. But like so many things in life, he then had the correct timing to succeed Terim at Milan when they were down and has just been through four managers in as many seasons. He promptly set about achieving all he could in the Italian game winning the World Club Championship as well as the European Supercup to go with his domestic achievements.

Now he heads to England where a new challenge awaits. At Chelsea he’ll command the respect of the entire dressing room and the only question mark is how he measures up in the heat of the Premier League race. He’s shown he can adopt a defensive stance, he’s shown he can create an attractive style of play, he’s shown he can handle a dressing room full of egos but can he handle Roman Abramovich? Berlusconi is no shrinking violet as he had influence over the media and has been known to use the media as a forum for his criticism. Ancelotti has also handled the continental way of transfer policy which Abramovich allegedly implements by forcing signings without the consultation of his managers preferring a close network of advisors. Overall his experience will have prepared him for the daunting task of delivering the trophies to yet, another demanding owner in Abramomvich.

An analysis of Chelsea’s squad yields nothing but confidence. The star names are littered across the squad in all areas. They start with Cech as their no.1 and despite doubts about his performances since that sickening collision with Reading’s Stephen Hunt; he remains an excellent shot stopper. His problem is the intangible quality of assurance: the projection of confidence to his defenders and unflappability. Whilst he is more then capable of excellent performances, he is vulnerable to games when he looks ordinary due to mistakes or unassured handling for crosses. But the bottom line: he is as good a goalkeeper you’ll find in the world and he is just 27 yrs old.

In front of Cech is the indomitable presence of captain John Terry. Terry

Anchor Man John Terry

anchors a defence that boasts Carvalho and Alex as his central defensive options, Cole and Zhirkov on the left side and Ivanovic and Bosingwa on the right side. All are established internationals and vastly experienced. Not to mention peripheral fringe players in Ferreira and Belletti who are both versatile and vastly experienced players. Man for man, they possess among the best defences in the world never mind the Premier League and does not look to have many weaknesses.

In midfield, Lampard and Essien headline a strong looking cast of midfielders at the club. The likes of Ballack, Deco, Mikel, Cole, Malouda plus strong versatile options in Zhirkov and Belletti are all vastly experienced and established internationals at the highest level. There’s variety, brute force, technical ability, industry and leaders in that midfield. The key is how they readjust to Ancelotti’s preferred diamond formation but they are all intelligent and talented enough to adapt.

Up front, Drogba, Kalou and Anelka provide the primary options with Pizzaro, Shevchenko and Sturridge as the backups. Again, there’s plenty of experience and variety in their options not to mention the likes of Cole, Malouda can often be found in the wide areas of the front three.

In general they have the best squad in the Premier League in terms of quality and depth. The wild card is the appointment of Ancelotti. Can he exorcise the ghost of Scolari? Can he deal with the inevitable mind games from Ferguson, Benitez and Wenger? In the goldfish bowl of Serie A, Mourinho had injected some brashness and controversy but Ancelotti had handled himself well but without winning anything. So far, he’s shown humour and sarcasm in his charismatic conferences. But then again, so did Scolari.

There is another negative about the squad and that is the fact that the majority of the first team bar Cech are either approaching 30 or on the wrong side of 30. They are not quite as old as the Milan side Ancelotti managed after they won the CL trophy in 2007. I still remember watching the 2008 edition and could not believe the difference. Milan were noticeably slower and devoid of energy despite the Brazilian duo of Pato and Kaka. What a difference a year makes. The core of the Milan side simply aged overnight and it is also worth bearing in mind, they made the Champions League their number one priority giving their Serie A campaign lip service.

To Win the Premier League

Chelsea	3.25  @
Manchester United FC	3.50  @
Liverpool	5.00  @
Arsenal	10.00  @
Manchester City	15.00  @
Tottenham Hotspur	126.00  @
Everton	201.00  @
Aston Villa	250.00  @
Fulham	1,001.00  @

I am finding negatives when they are not there and given the departures of Ronaldo and Tevez from last season’s Champions, Chelsea are the favourites to win the title as Manchester City has also weakened the entire top six bar Chelsea and Liverpool. As for threat of fellow megabucks Manchester City? Not a problem. I just cannot see the other big three finishing above Chelsea and they are the pick for the Premier League obviously securing their Champions League place.

Even in the unlikely event they do struggle, can we really see Abramovich not buying his way out of trouble come January?? They have the financial clout to avoid being the weakest link of the big four. They have the squad, depth, experience and quite possibly, a manager to finally exorcise the ghost of the “Special One”.

Oscar Wilde once said, “Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes”. They dodged a mistake in not signing Pirlo, they learnt from the Scolari appointment that reputation counts for nothing without substance, they’ve haven’t made any blockbuster signings preferring to get younger and sign complementary pieces. Yes, Chelsea may be getting older but unfortunately for the rest of the Premier League, Roman Abramovich is proving wiser.