Chelsea star: The Premier League is one long marathon, not a sprint of one month or two months.
We are only two games into the new season and people are already getting carried away with themselves over certain teams opening perfo...
https://www.chelseadaft.org/2017/08/chelsea-star-premier-league-is-one-long.html
We've all waited what seemed like an eternity for the Premier League to be back and literally after only two games, teams are being written off and managers questioned. After a single game against Burnley, Chelsea's season was reportedly about to implode putting Antonio Conte under pressure as the press were waiting in the wings to report on our supposed downfall from Champions to nothing for the second time in three seasons.
I cannot understate this enough but our performance, attitude, hard work, tactics and the end result on Sunday against Tottenham at Wembley was huge and could turn out to already be our performance of the season. Coming off the back of what happened in the first half against Burnley, with pressure put on Conte by the media and the apparent sale of Nemanja Matic against his wishes leaving us with what many describe as a threadbare squad, another defeat against Tottenham would have added fuel to the fire and we would be reading very different headlines in the last 24 hours. You could imagine the odds against Chelsea at bettinglounge.co.uk being huge for the next few games.
Thibault Courtois has spoken after the game about what happened against Burnley and how it was important to put things right this past week in training. He said:
"We just started badly against Burnley. Maybe we needed as a group a little wake-up call to say ‘look, we need to give 150 per cent this year and not 100 per cent’.
That’s what we gave against Tottenham and I think we did very well. You see that in the end we can win those difficult games. I remember two years ago we had to go to Manchester City and lost there, and it was a difficult start for us. Now, this victory is good.
Next we play at home against Everton, who are doing well. We don’t have the easiest start, but this victory is good for the confidence, to continue the hard work we are doing in training.
I think we are doing very well, we worked very hard in pre-season and it was just a bit unfortunate that we had suspended and injured players, some players left, so it’s not easy for us.
This victory for us is good to show as a team we are working very well and in the next weeks we can continue in this way.
The Premier League is very long. Last year we didn’t start very well, we won the first games then we had a difficult September. Then a lot of people said we couldn’t win the League and we did it.
The Premier League is one long marathon, not a sprint of one month or two months. Let’s see, game by game, and then in May, hopefully, we are there to win the League. If not, we will try to be as close as possible.
We will try to work hard and maybe after the international break we know what our full squad is, and we can build on that, play an amazing year and win trophies by the end of the season.” - Source: The Telegraph.
He is spot on and it's important to remember that with everyone fit, we still have a team that is up with the very best in the Premier League. He is right, the League is a marathon not a sprint and we only have to look back 12 months to understand how things can change in the game. We had a bad September and then the manager took over, changed the formation and if anything now has changed the way everyone looks to approach the game over here playing three at the back.
With Antonio Conte, Chelsea are already one step ahead in my book. Plenty of teams have their trusted formations that they stick to and rely on throughout the season with a possible plan B. With Conte (and Sunday is a perfect example) he works his players hard into two or three different formations and to manage an upcoming game. The switch to 3-5-2 won us the game against Tottenham and stopped the likes of Eriksen and Alli from influencing the game in dangerous areas as they had done last season.
Everyone knows that you cannot judge where teams are at in the Premier League until after the busy Christmas and New Year periods. Once we get passed that stage in the season, we will have an idea who is there or thereabouts to challenge for the title.
People are foolish to write Chelsea off and to make extravagant claims about teams that have won both games so far. As TC says, it's a marathon not a sprint.
So, United haven't won the title yet then?
ReplyDeleteMaybe I would half-believe this if anyone but T C had said it,to me he,s another one who would - jump ship - in a heartbeat if Real/Barca said they were interested,how many of us fans are there who must be sick/tired of players spouting ;pr press releases; next thing they will want us to 'believe' is the kissing-of-the badge.but only when the cameras are on them.I would much prefer they all kept quiet and just did what they are paid ;; well ;; to do..do I sound ;grumpy; most probably yes,but this whole ;; media ;; thing in all sports now just goes way ott.
ReplyDeleteAs you're feeling a little tetchy I won't mention the two Red cards Spurs didn't get at the weekend - oh.
DeleteI agree Norman. It was fantastic to see premier league referees finally showing consistency when he sent off Dier and Vertonghen! Oh wait ...
DeleteIf you're still grumpy regarding the media how do you feel about todays latest in the Telegraph? According to the article, pretty much stolen from the German newspaper Bild, Thomas Tuchal (ex Dortmond manager, now unemployed) has been lined up to take over from Conte whose fallen out with the Chelsea hierarchy (as if...).
DeleteA quote taken from the Bild:
"Marina Granovskaia, the Chelsea director, has personally sought out Tuchel and decided he is the man to take the club in the required direction".
I can just imagine Emanalo proudly announcing that when it comes to Chelsea managers "We have ways of making you walk!". Is that border line racist on my part? If so, apologies to all those I've offended - unless you work in the media.
Absolutely ridiculous. I am by now used to the fact that many fans and pundits dislike us, because we broke up the old dominance in the premier league of united and arsenal. However this constant media campaign which is nothing more than a spiteful attempt to destabilise the club has really pissed me off. This report seems to have been written by reporters who are angry that their 'chelsea in crisis' headlines got ruined by our win on the weekend. Have never known the press to be so set on destabilising one club before!!
DeleteAlmost sweet how desperate they are for us to fail. Also rather interesting how a German newspaper claims to know the goings on within a club based in London?
Feel I also needed a separate reply to rant about Emenalo. How in gods name is this guy still in charge of so many of the goings in within our club?! Him and this Marina Granovskaia are clearly totally inept at what they do. I love Roman and everything he has done for this club, but its about time he stepped up, got rid of these inept fools and hired some people WHO UNDERSTAND FOOTBALL!
DeleteEmanalo was brought in by Avram Grant when he was Director of Football, which is when the trouble started with Mourinhos first reign as manager. Mourinho departed and we've had no managerial stability since, despite employing some of the best in the world (pure coincidence I'm sure). Emanalo tendered his resignation when Mourinho was about to return but Abramovich refused to accept it and insisted they work together (doomed from the start?). We now have Conte.......
DeleteGranovskaia was the equivalent of finance director at one of Abramovichs' companies in Russia before he brought her to Chelsea. She is a long standing colleague who he trusts and obviously rates highly.
I'm afraid it would seem unlikely that we'll achieve managerial stability any time soon (even without the aid of the press propaganda) and, worse still, we will have board stability for both the short and longer term. Happy days!
Reff,s and consistency now that would be great to see,I think most on here said as much after the Cahill/Fab reds,and as you both rightly say,when/where will we see it? even more so after last/nights man/city game.the standard in general is pretty/good,but has to be better and more consistent,I,m not a fan of bringing in video/replays in games so I guess [[ for me ]] we are stuck with what we have,and lets be fair to the reff,s,who in their right mind would want to do it anyway,right/wrong they can,t win either way.
ReplyDelete