Carlo Ancelotti is to be applauded for instilling a new creed of scoring goals, not stopping them
At the age of 50 Carlo Ancelotti has taken his compatriots by surprise. Italians had to think hard to come up with any precedent in his career to this free-scoring Chelsea team. Someone with a sharp memory pointed to Fabio Capello’s Milan side completing an unbeaten Serie A campaign with an 8-2 victory at Foggia in May 1992, when Ancelotti was in the midfield. The imperfect analogy simply underlines the fact that the Chelsea manager is not normally associated with such sprees.
That is no slight on the knowledgeable and successful Ancelotti. In Serie A, like most other leagues, goals tend to peter out when one side is virtually certain of victory. Chelsea, however, no longer know when to stop. Stoke City have followed Sunderland and Aston Villa as the latest team to concede seven goals to them.
Six of the 21 have come in the last 10 minutes. Ancelotti encourages his players to keep going, but other managers would do likewise and still watch the momentum dwindle. Chelsea were in ever more of a frenzy on Sunday as time passed. The expansiveness is almost sacrilegious at a club still living in the shadows of José Mourinho’s time, when the Premier League was won twice in a row.
The first of those titles, with just 15 goals permitted to the opposition, amounted to a declaration that his organisational and tactical acumen counted for more than any notions that could occur to the men actually playing the game.
It was his smart scheme, too, that counted most when Internazionale prevailed at Stamford Bridge in the Champions League last month.
Mourinho’s Chelsea won the league with ease in 2004-05 as they gathered 95 points, a dozen clear of Arsenal. It is stress, by contrast, that will keep supporters engrossed this year in the bid to keep Manchester United at bay. A pair of victories in the remaining matches would lift Ancelotti’s side to 86 points, well short of the totals reached by Mourinho in 2005 or 2006. The Italian, of course, lives in an altered era, when the level of funding available to Mourinho is no longer on offer.
It has been a boon to everyone seeking entertainment that Ancelotti has chosen to trust in attack. That was sensible since the means at his disposal nudged him in that direction. The names of the back four no longer tripped off the tongue when there was some doubt, for instance, as to who should be paired with John Terry. By a combination of accident and intention, Alex is preferred at centre-half to Ricardo Carvalho, whose effectiveness has been curbed by injuries.
Branislav Ivanovic, in a similar manner, fetched up to good effect at right-back, although he is more likely to be seen at the core of the defence for Serbia. Despite the merits of the players involved in the alterations, rapport has been lost and Ashley Cole’s absence for over two months with a broken ankle was another hindrance. Guarding the back four has been one more dilemma, with at least five different men tried in the holding role.
Chelsea’s defensive record is the worst since 2002-03, the season before Roman Abramovich bought the club. And yet delight has emerged from difficulty. Ancelotti may have been indignant when sloppiness at set pieces cost Chelsea goals in consecutive away defeats at Wigan Athletic and Aston Villa in the autumn, but the real answer to the fallibility has been to overwhelm opponents. It is a tribute to the Italian’s preparation, too, that the side attack so incisively.
Ancelotti has overseen the development of Florent Malouda into one of the most influential figures now that he is more orchestrator than winger. In the chain reaction of this Chelsea campaign, attackers are galvanised by the enterprising approach. Didier Drogba was elated when his beautiful control of a Malouda pass paved the way for the first goal of Salomon Kalou’s hat-trick against Stoke. The provider has 25 league goals of his own in a season where Frank Lampard, too, is a regular scorer.
The paradox now may lie in Chelsea’s need to be a throwback to their former selves at Anfield on Sunday, when they will probably require the sturdiness that eluded them in the loss at Tottenham. Whatever the outcome, Ancelotti’s side are within four goals of the record Premier League total set by United while winning the title in 1999-00 and the season should be cherished for the verve of Chelsea.
ChelseaCarlo AncelottiPremier LeagueJosé MourinhoKevin McCarraguardian.co.uk
