A Helping Hand

Chelsea’s manager Avram Grant can feel grateful to the FA, who have managed to conjure up a fixture list which allows him to recover easily after some dreadful performances.

Since becoming manager, Grant has been busy fighting his critics, even after some excellent results that Chelsea have achieved on the pitch. Unfortunately an attractive style of football is nowhere to be seen. Chelsea have remained the same boring side they were under the leadership of the charismatic Mourinho, and they are still playing out dull 1-0 wins over much weaker teams.

The tide began to turn with the humiliating defeat to Tottenham in the Carling Cup final. This gave most of the leading newspapers the opportunity to criticize Grant once again, questioning his ability to manage a side such as Chelsea. They should have noticed that Chelsea’s next match was at West Ham. Alan Curbishly’s side is the perfect choice to allow any team to recover, since they lack any backbone, and indeed, an easy 4-0 victory over The Hammers allowed Grant to prove his critics wrong, and give him some much needed breathing space.

Just when things started to quieten down, Chelsea travelled up north to Barnsley in the 6th round of the FA Cup. Once more Chelsea suffered a disgraceful defeat, this time at the hands of a Championship team. These highly paid superstars were no match for the grit and determination of an inspired Barnsley team, a side placed 34 places below Chelsea, and fighting for survival in the Championship.

As expected, knives were drawn, but luckily enough for Grant, the under-achieving Derby County await his team. It is almost a certainty that Chelsea will get the convincing win they need to move even closer to Arsenal, with Grant dreaming of the prospect of winning the Premiership title. This will wipe out any bad nightmares of the defeat at Oakwell. He can dream, until of course, Chelsea contrive to lose once more…