English Premier Championship Goes to Chelsea FC

Chelsea Football Club won the English Premiership for the second year running with a 3-0 win over Manchester United on Saturday. Needing only a draw in any of the final three games, Chelsea could have sat back and waited for tomorrow’s game against Blackburn or Sunday’s against Newcastle to wrap things up. However, with Liverpool likely to take the FA Cup and Arsenal playing for the Champions’ League title, Chelsea wanted to drive home a message: Manchester's golden years are over.

The game got off to a brilliant start for Chelsea’s fans in the fifth minute as Frank Lampard took a corner that Didier Drogba moved forward, and William Gallas put a head on it. Manchester’s goalkeeper, Edwin Van der Sar, simply couldn’t get to it. An hour into the game, Joe Cole, who had curled a shot wide minutes earlier, found the back of the net, and one could sense the wind going out of the MU sails. Sir Alex Ferguson, Manchester’s manager (and a man who won hearts and minds in this corner as Aberdeen’s general a while back), replaced a disappointing Cristiano Ronaldo with Ruud van Nistelrooy, but it didn’t help. Ricardo Carvalho put the champagne on ice in the 73rd minute with Chelsea’s third goal.

Jose Mourinho was the man of the season for Chelsea, and frankly, this journal has very mixed feelings about the manager. He is a brilliant soccer coach as proved by his four titles in a row (two with Chelsea and two with Porto in Portugal before that). But his arrogance prevents the warm fuzzy feelings one would like to have. After the match, he replaced his trademark black scarf, not with Chelsea’s colors, but Portugal’s. He threw his medal up into the stands and did the same with a replacement medal he was given, saying he already had one from last year. Arrogance or fan friendly PR? One would like to think the latter but success is elusive.

As for Manchester United, Sir Alex said, “I don't think 3-0 was a fair reflection of our performance.” Unless the wizened Scot meant the score should have been 4-0 or 5-0, he was watching a different game. The only chance his side had was Wayne Rooney’s point blank shot that went wide of Petr Cech’s goal in the 22nd minute. Had that gone in, the rhythm of the game would have radically changed, and anything could have happened. However, Manchester United failed to score.

The victory for Chelsea was the way they wanted to finished the campaign, at home, against the second place team, in top form. Mr. Mourinho will be back next year to defend the title again, and Russian billionaire owner Roman Abramovich will no doubt spend more money in the summer for more Chelski talent. Until then, the World Cup beckons, and every true Chelsea fan wishes Wayne Rooney a speedy recovery from his broken metatarsal suffered in Saturday’s match. Germany won’t be the same if he isn’t there.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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