10 Man Blues For Chelsea And Grant

Poor old Avram Grant, I swear he could hear Jose laughing on Sunday afternoon!

Chelsea’s troubled week didn’t get any better for them and it ended on a very low note as Grant lost his first game in charge of the Blues after taking over following the departure of the “Special One” and what made the defeat worse, it against Man Utd.

If Grant had come away from Old Trafford with some sort of positive result it may have softened, just a little, the blow of Mourinho’s somewhat shock departure after his three successful years in charge. Jose averaged 2 trophies a year in that time, pre-Mourinho you could count the trophies won in the previous 50 years on the fingers of one hand! Talk about the life of a Premiership manager being cut-throat and fickle!

But a Chelsea win never really looked on the cards, especially when the referee, Mike Dean, decided to flash a red card at John Obi Mikel on 32 minutes after the Nigerian caught Patrice Evra with his studs and secondly when Tevez struck seconds before the half-time whistle to record his first goal for Utd.

The victory was wrapped up late on by yet another dodgy penalty involving Chelsea, however, this time they were on the receiving end of it! Louis Saha converted the spot-kick, 2-0 game over and goodnight Mr. Grant! You kind of always felt this was going to be a “loose / loose” situation for Grant.

Tevez celebrates his first goal for Man Utd. I think he’s waving to Avram!

Grant, just in case you don’t know, is a former Israeli International manager. But with 10 men for the majority of the game Chelsea never looked like recovering from the hammer blow that was Tevez’s first goal, a header right on the stroke of half-time.

Chelsea are now in trouble, if you didn’t already realise. This was the second Premier League defeat in three match and the fourth game in a row without a win. And let’s be honest, they should have left Anfield with another defeat. Not good!

Plus Utd themselves have hardly enjoyed the most fluent of starts to the season. Despite enjoying a numerical advantage for almost an hour, they didn’t really fire on all cylinders and it looked as though they were perfecting their old Arsenal impersonation with yet another 1 - 0 win. It would have been their fifth in a row! Even though Saha converted the penalty it was a far from convincing performance which also goes to show how far Chelsea have fallen so quickly. Unless they do something very soon, their season is going to be over and full of misery.

One thing you can say about Sunday’s game was that it was another highly charged encounter between these two teams that have dominated the domestic scene over the last few years. I’m not sure what satisfaction Grant will take from the game but Alex Ferguson will certainly be happy at the result and that Tevez is finally off the mark in his sixth Premiership start.

The Argentine has still to reproduce the sort of form he showed at West Ham last season, the major factor that the Hammers are still in the Premiership actually, just ask any Sheffield Utd fan and they will tell you!

It is going to be very interesting to see which directions these two teams take. However, I’ve a pretty good feeling that they won’t be travelling the same way. I will bet you the mobiles of such players as Lampard and Drogba have been red-hot over the last few days with conversations to their agents. I bet they can’t wait until the January transfer window opens. I also can’t imagine that John Terry is too thrilled to signed a new long term contract recently that will basically keep him at Stamford Bridge for the best part of his professional career! Whoops!

Without Mourinho the whole air of the club has suddenly changed overnight and Chelsea look as if they are going to go backwards this season. Roman has, in my opinion, shot himself in the foot whilst Jose in £12m (approx $24m) richer!

Sunday’s Full Results:

Newcastle 3 - 1 West Ham
Aston Villa 2 - 0 Everton
Bolton 1 - 1 Tottenham
Blackburn 0 - 1 Portsmouth
Man Utd 2 - 0 Chelsea

The Soccer Blogger

Selected Best Posts From The Soccer Blog

• Silky Spain book final date
• Stoke close in on £5m Kitson deal
• Transfers - August 2008
• Boulahrouz available for Dutch
• Newcastle chairman Mort leaves
• Pulis ready to make new signings
• Rangers Thrash Hapoel Tel-Aviv

• Soccer Fitness, Soccer Training, Soccer Skills

If you enjoy The Soccer Blog, the please don't forget to Subscribe Here

Please feel free to copy this Trackback URL on your blog for this post:
http://thesoccer-blog.com/england-premiership/10-man-blues-for-chelsea-and-grant/trackback/

54 views this week (Brand New Feature, just introduced.)

Entering Comments

If you would like to see your photo (or gravatar) next to your comment, please simply sign up at Gravatar.com and add your picture to your email address. Our logo will appear by default next to your name should you not wish to add your photo or gravatar image to your comments.
Many thanks
Rik