One of the big talking points of the weekend though was surely Chelsea’s hard earned point against Arsenal at The Emirates, something that caused much disconcertion among certain folk in the footballing world.
Indeed, following the contest, Arsenal fans serenaded Chelsea with chants about how boring they were. Biting satire, I’m sure you will agree. I can’t surely be the only one who was a bit perturbed with the churlish attitudes of the assorted Gooners in attendance?
Let us not forget, that when Arsenal won the title in 1989 and 1991 under the stewardship of George Graham, they were known as a deeply negative team. Graham’s famed offside trap tactics won many a close game for Arsenal.
Did the Gooners chant “Boring, boring Arsenal” at the time? Of course not! They were loving it! They would chant, with indefatigable glee, “1-0 to The Arsenal!” as Graham and his sides squeezed blood from a stone to secure silverware.
Long before Arsene Wenger was winning titles playing lovely football with the likes of Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp, Arsenal were loathed for being a dire defensive outfit.
And it’s not even like that’s a bad thing. Graham did what he had to do to win trophies, just as Jose Mourinho is doing now. What I can’t stand is the barefaced hypocrisy from the Arsenal support. Even if they weren’t supporting the club at that time, they should be aware enough of their own history enough to realise the irony of mugging off another team for negative tactics.
The further irony is that Chelsea in the past were renowned for a being an exciting flair team. From the Osgoods to the Zola’s, Chelsea were a good cup team who put on exciting footballing exhibitions. Back in the early 90’s the roles of Arsenal and Chelsea were very much reversed. It’s refreshing to see so many Chelsea fans admit that they don’t mind this reverse as they’re happy to have the silverware. Such honesty is hard to come by in the modern game.
And therein lies the rub. Supporters of Arsenal and the football "purist" supporters of other clubs, including my own, wouldn't be half as bothered with the tactics on show if our clubs were using them and winning trophies.
Considering some of the Arsenal support like to taunt Chelsea for their supposed lack of history (which ignores all the FA Cups the team won prior to Abramovich’s millions) some of them seem to be very unclear about their own clubs history.
What it all boils down to is sour grapes.
John Terry, despicable though he is at times, was celebrating wildly after the 0-0 draw because his side had essentially sown up the title. The fact that they’d been overly defensive to secure the point didn’t matter to him or his manager in the slightest.
Football, is a results business and Jose Mourinho got the result he needed.
Even when Arsenal were winning things playing nice football under Wenger, they still had Adams, Viera and Keown providing defensive grit when necessary.
I hate the antiseptic and covertly cynical approach of "Tikki Takka", but if Everton started doing it and won the Premier League, you wouldn't hear me complaining. It would be the same if they used the defensive approach of Mourinho.
Basically, for any Arsenal supporter to complain about Chelsea’s tactics is just another example of their entrenched entitlement. Mourinho’s tactics worked while Wenger’s didn’t. Take your lack of winning the title with some good grace and have a think about your own clubs history before insulting Chelsea on their supposed lack of one.
