Manchester United are the champions again and still Mourinho contrived to
steal centre stage. As Sir Alex Ferguson made a mess of opening the
champagne live on Sky Sports, the Chelsea manager was poker-faced in front
of the Arsenal fans while his assistant, Steve Clarke, gave them the "
zero" sign with his fingers to denote the amount of trophies Arsenal
have won. You can imagine how well that went down at the Emirates.
The home crowd had come here hoping to witness the final humiliation of
their rivals from west London but what they got was another Chelsea
performance of courage, even when they were down to 10 men and with their
Premiership trophy slipping from their grasp.
With Khalid Boulahrouz sent off and Arsenal in the lead from Gilberto
Silva’s penalty this had the potential to be a humiliation for Mourinho, but
by the end it was the Chelsea manager who could say he regretted not winning.
Boulahrouz is a footballer in danger of becoming a bad joke at Chelsea. The
Dutchman was not a Mourinho signing last summer and he has been treated
accordingly. A centre-back played at full-back by his manager and then,
during the injury crisis, ignored altogether in favour of makeshift central
defenders like Michael Essien and Paulo Ferreira. When the chance came for
the man they call "the Cannibal" he made a true mess of it; a
clumsy sending off that will eat away at him all summer.
That was Chelsea’s darkest moment, but they fought back and could have
stolen a win to keep the title race alive after Essien’s equaliser.
Then, at the end, a coded message from Mourinho to the absentees, Michael
Ballack and Andrei Shevchenko who have risked their manager’s fury by
refusing to play through injuries in the past week. This was a game, he
said, that would help certain individuals to understand "why some
people have success at Chelsea and other people have no success",
Mourinho said.
The Chelsea manager was not prepared to expand on that point but it will be
interesting to see what becomes of Shevchenko and Ballack, previously his
manager’s golden boy but now very much out of favour for choosing to have an
ankle operation at a crucial stage of the season. Mourinho’s words suggest
that those two are now in serious trouble with their manager. Their
long-term futures at Stamford Bridge must surely be in doubt.
Mourinho has an FA Cup final to think about in 12 days’ time, Arsène Wenger
has a summer in which to rebuild. Yesterday the Arsenal manager picked four
central midfielders in a midfield that lacked any width and a team that
lacked any bite until the closing stages of the first half.
The post-match lap of honour at the Emirates was a reminder that in the
likes of Thierry Henry and Robin van Persie there are a lot of key players
missing from Wenger’s side.
Still, the XI on the pitch had 45 minutes to beat a 10-man Chelsea and they
could not make the advantage count.
There was no Didier Drogba in the Chelsea side, Mourinho’s decision to rest
him ahead of the FA Cup final a clear indication that he considered the
Premiership all but lost. But while they missed their top goalscorer, his
absence did at least force Chelsea to play in a different way. Wayne Bridge
scurried down the left wing, while Joe Cole was the playmaker behind Shaun
Wright-Phillips and Salomon Kalou. Not so many long balls this time.
Three minutes to half-time and a mistake by Boulahrouz that may be his last
for Chelsea, if Mourinho has his way.
A gentle throughball was looped into Julio Baptista’s path and he muscled
past Boulahrouz with ease. The Chelsea man had no real option but to drag
the Brazilian to the ground and it was as clear a red card as any this
season. Gilberto dispatched the penalty past the goalkeeper Petr Cech, the
ninth penalty of Arsenal’s season at the Emirates and they have scored them
all.
There was not so much as a glance for Boulahrouz from Mourinho as he sloped
off the pitch. At the start of the second half it threatened to be an
ignoble end to Chelsea’s defence of their title as Wenger’s team at last
found the urgency to take the game to the 10 visitors in blue.
A two-footed challenge from Paulo Ferreira on Denilson was unpleasant and it
meant the young Brazilian was taken off on a stretcher.
With 20 minutes left, Mourinho’s side drew level. Wright-Phillips, another
impressive performer, picked the ball up on the right and angled a fabulous
ball into the six-yard area which required just the slightest touch from
Essien to direct past the Arsenal goalkeeper Jens Lehmann.
There was an absorbing finish. The German Lehmann saved brilliantly from
Kalou after Joe Cole’s cut-back, then Alexander Hleb went up the opposing
end and crossed the ball across an empty goalmouth. The efforts of Cole and
Essien were impressive coming in the despair of losing the title race. With
seconds to go, and Chelsea at breaking point, Fabregas spread the ball right
to Emmanuel Eboué and he struck Cech’s crossbar.
Chelsea did not take leave of the place without causing their usual
commotion they always do. There were shirts flung into the crowd, there
was some provocative applause to a rowdy home support: Mourinho has an art
for covering up the bad days with a bit of drama. This was his first season
in five that he has not won the league title in the country he is managing
Portugal and England but as usual you could be forgiven for thinking he
had won it.
Goals: Gilberto (pen, 42) 1-0; Essien (70) 1-1.
Arsenal (4-4-2): Lehmann; Eboué, Touré, Gallas, Clichy; Fabregas, Denilson
(Hleb, 59), Gilberto, Diaby (Hoyte, 79); Baptista, Adebayor. Substitutes not
used: Senderos, Djourou, Almunia (gk).
Chelsea (4-1-3-2): Cech; Ferreira, Boulahrouz, Terry, Bridge; Mikel (Diarra,
74); Essien, Lampard, J Cole; Kalou, Wright-Phillips (Sinclair, 79).
Substitutes not used: Makelele, Cudicini (gk), Sahar.
Referee: A Wiley (Staffordshire).
Booked: Arsenal Adebayor; Chelsea Mikel, Essien.
Sent off: Boulahrouz.
Man of the match: J Cole.
Attendance: 60,102.
