By Qasim Elegbede
SUNDERLAND boss and former Chelsea legend Gus Poyet might have unwittingly unfurled the formular to tame Jose Mourinho and his rampaging Blues after the Black Cats frustrated and forced the league leaders to a goalless draw at the Stadium of Light.
Poyet set up his team to sit just in front of their penalty box, 10 men behind the ball. And it worked wonders as their resolute descipline and organisation stifled the Blues redoutable forward line of Diego Costa, Edin Hazard, Willian, and Oscar in the goalless encounter.
An obviously elated Poyet observed, post-match, that the Blues wouldn’t have scored had the match went on for another three hours, and it was no exaggeration! Even Mourinho paid Sunderland a begrudged compliment, though not before observing that his team were the only side which tried to win the contest.
The result means Chelsea failed to score an away goal in the league for the first time since that 1-0 reverse at Crystal Palace in March. It also means the Blues failed to score for the first time in 19 matches in all competitions this season.
Interestingly Poyet had employed similar catennacio to hand Mourinho his only home league defeat in his two-stint Chelsea managerial career last season. And given that the current Blues have generally humbled all before them this term, a fact which underlines Poyet’s tactical genius which I won’t be surprised if copied by other so-called lesser lights in the league.
Mou, himself renowned for parking the bus against supposedly better oppositions, obviously doesn’t enjoy it when same negative tactics is employed against his boys. And given his wards inability to breakdown Sunderland, it seems sensible to give the Special One a taste of his own medicine especially as this appears the best way many teams would get anything against Mourinho’s juggernauts. What do you say guys?
COSTA ESCAPES AGAIN!
CHELSEA’S Diego Costa emerged as the chief beneficiary of lenient refereeing in a weekend that saw Liverpool and Arsenal profit from poor officiating as well.
Costa bizarrely escaped with only a verbal warning from ref Kevin Friend after a petulant retaliation via a low karate kick on Sunderland’s John O’Shea who had fouled him.
The only explanation is that Friend didn’t spot the striker’s kick or he would have produced the mandatory red. Costa’s case was also helped by the Sunderland centre-half’s commendable honesty as O’Shea quickly scampered away from the scene instead of making a meal of the striker’s ill-informed kick-out.
The Blues hitman also got a crucial benefit of doubt when he swung his elbow into the face of Wes Brown as the two challenged for an aerial ball. The foul only fetched a yellow card as deemed by Friend, and ruled the burly striker out of their next match against Spurs, having accumulated five cautions. But on another day it could have been a straight red.
Arsenal also benefitted big time from ref error in their 1-0 road success against West Brom. With scores still goalless, Baggies dangerman Saido Berahino sprung Gunners offside trap only to be erroneously halted by Chris Foy’s whistle as he raced home one-on-one with the visitors stand-in goalkeeper. In fairness, it was one of Foy’s assistants who made the erroneous call.
Liverpool also got a rare rub of the green this season as Glen Johnson’s last minute winner was allowed to stand even though the defender benefitted from a Ricky Lambert header which came off the cross piece. Crucially, Lambert appeared to be marginally offside before crashing his header into the cross bar.
However, the worst refereeing performance of the weekend belonged to Mike Jones who handled Southampton’s 3-0 home defeat to champions Man City. Jones shockingly denied City and their striker Sergio Aguero a blatant penalty when the Argentine forward was whacked off his feet in the box by Soton’s captain Jose Fonte.
To rub salt upon injury, Aguero was booked for diving! What made the decision to be bizarrely shocking was that Jones was well positioned as he was only a few yards away from the incident which he watched clearly and the match was only 10 minutes old.
Jones shocking day started earlier when he incorrectly overruled his assistant who awarded the hosts a goalkick after a tussle between Samir Nasri and Ryan Bertrand. The tussle occured under the nose of the assistant but the ref who was about 40 yards away from the incident shut his assistant up and awarded City a free-kick near the corner flag!
The ref also denied Aguero a clear free-kick at the edge of the box when the pocket-size striker was sandwiched by two Saints right under the nose of the ref. But to the relief of all concerned, the right result was reached in the end in spite of the ref’s many gaffes. And in fairness to him, he was spot on to issue City’s clumsy defender Eliaquim Mangala his marching order for two cautions. That’s the only major decision Jones got right in the match.
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