Why always me? Because you are Chelsea

Posted Friday, January 25, 2013 by thesun.co.uk

Why always me? Because you are Chelsea
WHY DOES NO ONE LIKE US ... Eden Hazard receives a red card from referee Chris Foy

LIKE Mario Balotelli, Chelsea will be asking themselves: Why always me?

Yes, the 17-year-old ballboy son of a Swansea director who bragged on Twitter about time-
wasting before Wednesday night’s game hardly comes out of the latest incident involving
Chelsea as an unblemished innocent.

Perhaps he just reverted to type — most young men brought up in rugby-mad South Wales are taught to throw themselves on top of a loose ball.

Joking aside, Eden Hazard’s reaction was pretty dumb in an age when footballers — especially
Chelsea footballers — have their every move scrutinised.

Hazard’s defenders claim he merely wanted to get on with a game that was rapidly running away from them.

Yet another 10 seconds was hardly likely to alter the outcome of a match in which Chelsea, usually so mentally and physically psyched-up for a cup semi-final, were woefully subdued.

Hazard’s frustration simply got the better of him.

But that won’t stop the FA making an example of him — as they should.

Yet the bottom line is that the Belgian might well have received more sympathy had he not been wearing a Chelsea shirt. Because the simple donning of a blue jersey brings with it enormous baggage.

First, the whole attitude towards Chelsea shifted when Roman Abramovich arrived with his vast wealth.

Jealousy replaced admiration for a club that under Tommy Docherty, Dave Sexton and, later, Ruud Gullit and Luca Vialli, played some wonderful, free-flowing football without winning as many trophies as they should.

Then came Jose Mourinho, huge spending and the remorseless trophy-winning machine. And cynicism and bitching and the abandoning of sportsmanship.

And, after events in Barcelona that saw referee Anders Frisk hurried into retirement, UEFA branding Mourinho “the enemy of football”.

Another referee not nearly as good — the Norwegian Tom Henning Ovrebo — was then harangued and vilified after Chelsea crashed out of the Champions League against Barcelona in May 2009. Yes, Ovrebo’s performance was inept but the reaction of the Chelsea players, however furious they may have been, went way over the top.

Why always me?

And then John Terry and the Anton Ferdinand saga.

And Ashley Cole accidentally wounding a work-placement student with an air rifle at the training ground.

And, as bad as anything, the scandalous labelling of the blameless Mark Clattenburg as a “racist” after both John Obi Mikel and Ramires got totally the wrong end of the stick. The
Chelsea administration’s absurd formal complaint that drew in the Met Police and the bandwagon-chasing, opportunistic Society of Black Lawyers further dragged Chelsea’s name into the gutter.

And now the unsavoury Hazard business.

Not to mention destabilising decisions by the club not to offer Frank Lampard a new contract
and the appointment as interim manager of the unpopular Rafa Benitez.

Why always me?

At the same time, we must look at Benitez’s involvement in Chelsea’s performance at Swansea, only the second time in nine domestic semi-finals in the Abramovich era the club have failed to reach the final.

A display, with everything coming down the left, that one Chelsea fan since the ’60s told talkSPORT was “the weakest, limpest semi-final performance” he had ever seen.

Surely, this was the night when they needed an inspirational leader like Terry.

Surely, this was NOT the night to play Oscar, fine and dandy when the sun’s on his back but not up for it on a bitterly cold night down on the Gower.

And why wait until the 68th minute to make any changes when the game was slipping away?

And why was that change to bring on David Luiz for Branislav Ivanovic at centre-half? How was that going to hurt Swansea?

On the morning of the match, Benitez had claimed Abramovich was “really pleased” with the passing and commitment that accompanied Chelsea’s 2-1 win over Arsenal.

You somehow doubt the owner will be quite so delirious with Chelsea following up their key defeats in the Champions League, the European Super Cup and the Club World Cup with yet another big-match disaster.

Lamb's stew

CONFLICTING noises are coming out of Villa Park regarding Paul Lambert.

One says the Scot stays even if Villa are relegated as he showed at Norwich that he can get teams out of the Championship.

The other suggests defeat at home to fellow strugglers Newcastle next Tuesday could cause a re-assessment.

There is also a certain FA Cup tie at Millwall (of all places) tonight.

Defeat there — after the League Cup semi-final debacle against Bradford — and Lambert really will be up against it when Newcastle arrive in the Midlands.

In Lambert’s favour is that Villa, on their fourth manager in three years, have been in freefall following the rash appointments of both Gerard Houllier and Alex McLeish.

And that the Villa bosses — even the absent chairman Randy Lerner — know it’s a three-year job.

But that won’t necessarily stop them hitting the panic button if it all goes pear-shaped in the next two games.

Chance to be greatest

ANDY MURRAY — one-hit wonder or true great? We’ll find out in Melbourne where he has a titanic fight to win successive Grand Slams.

To do it he must score a first Major win over Roger Federer in today’s semi-final — and then beat world No 1 Novak Djokovic.

A second Major and Murray surpasses Fred Perry’s 106 Grand Slam singles wins and surely becomes Britain’s best tennis player ever.

Sven not cash-driven

QUOTE of the week was Sven Goran Eriksson saying he had not gone to Al Nasr in Dubai “for the money”.

No doubt, the Swede has gone for the challenge — as he has Mexico, Notts County, Ivory Coast, Leicester and Tero Sasana (Bangkok) all since 2008.
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