Misery for Mourinho

Misery for Mourinho

A turgid performance, a bench full of spurned superstars and the likelihood that the season will end without silverware.

You have to wonder how Chelsea fans would have reacted if this had been Rafael Benitez's work.

Chelsea's final home game of the season last night was a low-key, uneventful 0-0 draw that seemed to encapsulate the strange mood around the club.

Jose Mourinho, far from being "The Happy One" as he suggested in the summer, looks utterly miserable.

Oscar, who will star for Brazil in the World Cup, was left out of the matchday squad. Newly-crowned Young Player of the Year Eden Hazard was dropped to the bench.

Yesterday morning's newspapers carried stories of Petr Cech's impending exit. Captain John Terry, whose contract talks are floundering, scribbled programme notes that seemed almost like a note of farewell.

After defeat in midweek by Atletico Madrid and a humiliation last month by Sunderland, there was a chance that this would be an unprecedented third home defeat on the spin for Mourinho.

That chance lingered uncomfortably throughout the game.

It seemed from the start that everyone at Chelsea had swallowed Mourinho's line that the title challenge was over.

There was certainly no urgency about the hosts' play, or even a suggestion that there was a game-plan in mind.

DETERMINED

Every foray forward was snuffed out as Willian, Andre Schuerrle or Mohamed Salah was forced inside by Norwich's determined lines.

Only once in the first half did Chelsea suggest that they had the invention to break their guests down - Nemanja Matic finding Schuerrle with a perfectly-pitched through-ball, only to see the German bounce the ball off the far post from a narrow angle.

This time last season, the triumvirate of Juan Mata, Hazard and Oscar would have been charged with that task.

This season, one has been sold to Manchester United, one was dropped to the bench after failing to "sacrifice" himself for the team and the third was left out of the matchday squad altogether, amid suggestions that he was saving himself for the World Cup.

Mourinho moves in mysterious ways.

His programme notes were even stranger than his team selection - a bizarre and emotive message of thanks to his family and to the supporters.

Rumours of another acrimonious departure seem far fetched, but this no longer seems an entirely happy ship.

Norwich still seem doomed, but at least they showed some fight.

Neil Adams' side should certainly have had a penalty when Martin Olsson was clipped by Ashley Cole and then levelled by Terry.

Referee Neil Swarbrick was not impressed. Not that Swarbrick was impressed by much, having also turned down two penalty appeals from Chelsea. David Luiz's swirling shot from outside the area, which bounced off the bar, was as good as it got for the Blues.

Rather more will be expected of Mourinho next season.

 

This article was published on May 3 in The New Paper.

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