Feb 09

Carlo Ancelotti delighted as Petr Cech forgets faults and rediscovers old solidity

• He is very solid, says Chelsea manager
• Ancelotti praises mental attitude of his team

Carlo Ancelotti has welcomed the consistent form of Petr Cech ahead of this evening’s pivotal Premier League visit to Everton. Manchester United also travel to Aston Villa and, ahead of what the Italian describes as an “important day” for the destiny of the title, he pronounced himself pleased with Cech’s recent displays after the goalkeeper produced an uneven performance during the reverse fixture in December.

That afternoon was notable as Chelsea conceded three goals at home and the team twice allowed a one-goal lead to be levelled. Cech might have been more decisive from Leighton Baines’s corner, which led to Everton’s opener, and ended the game with his confidence dented after Louis Saha’s 63rd-minute equaliser looped over the keeper. But Cech’s display in Chelsea’s 2-0 win over Arsenal on Sunday delighted his manager, who believes he is now offering consistent reliability.

“He is very solid,” said Ancelotti. “Maybe he made a mistake against Everton but when a player has a problem I want him close to me and the club. This is football. Everybody can make mistakes. You must forget them and move forward.

“I have a very solid team because we have experience, strength, players who are unselfish, who like to play for their colleagues so I’m very happy about the mental attitude of this team.”

Arsenal host Liverpool tonight at the Emirates, knowing victory is imperative if they have any chance of clawing back the nine-point deficit to Chelsea at the summit. While Ancelotti refused to rule out Arsène Wenger’s team he discussed the title race in terms of it being between Chelsea and Manchester United.

“This is very good thing to have this race against Manchester United,” he said of Sir Alex Ferguson’s team who are two points behind. “They are a fantastic team. They’re involved in the Champions League like us. It will be a fantastic thing for English football to have two teams battling to the end of the season. It will be a race for details. We have our characteristics, they have theirs. Some different. It’s about the details, like the Champions League. If you stay fit in this period, don’t have injuries, if you can be lucky also because that’s important in football.”

Asked if Chelsea and United have now moved up a level, leaving Arsenal behind, Ancelotti responded: “Both teams are in good condition now. They have a lot of confidence. I saw Manchester United against Arsenal and [they] played very well. They are a very dangerous team to be against us.”

John Terry, who should play against Everton following the dead leg he suffered against Arsenal, is considering whether to ask for compassionate leave so that he can miss Saturday’s fifth-round FA Cup tie against Cardiff City and meet his wife, Toni Poole, in Dubai following allegations regarding his personal life.

Ancelotti refused to say whether he would prefer Terry to play at the weekend. “If I say yes and he doesn’t come you can say … if he needs a rest I will let him.

“I think that Terry is one of the most important players in this team. But we have other fantastic defenders so he is not indispensable.”

Ancelotti also supported Michael ­Ballack, who said that Wenger’s team is too predictable. The Italian added: “Ballack explained his position about it. I think ­Ballack said good things because we prepared very well for the game and did what we wanted to do on the pitch, nothing else.

“I heard that Wenger said about our fouls in the game but we did the same fouls as Arsenal.”

ChelseaCarlo AncelottiPremier LeagueJamie Jacksonguardian.co.uk

No Comments | Tags: , , , ,
Feb 07

John Terry proves undaunted at the head of Chelsea’s marauders

Fabio Capello must hope John Terry performs in South Africa for England as he did against Arsenal

John Terry took a personal lap of honour at the final whistle, throwing his shirt to the fans, but the newly deposed England captain’s presence had long since ceased to be anything more than a sideshow in one of the few utterly predictable contests between the Premier League’s top four sides this season. Didier Drogba won the individual accolades for coming within an inch of a hat-trick but it was Chelsea’s overall strength that determined the course of the match, just as it had when the two teams met in north London at the end of November.

There was an ovation for Terry when he emerged for the pre-match warm-up. From the Arsenal fans in the old Shed end, a chant arose: “You’re not captain any more.” It was soon drowned by an antiphonal response aimed at the entire visiting team: “You’re not English any more.” And that was about the extent of the personalised hostilities. Terry played, as he always does, with a sort of controlled fury. Against Arsenal’s lightweight threat his defending was so impeccable that the eye was drawn to his occasional interventions at the other end of the pitch. When Florent Malouda took a corner from the left in the seventh minute, Terry’s delayed run produced a powerful header from a deep position, perfectly angled towards the far post for Drogba to turn the ball past Manuel Almunia from point-blank range.

Chelsea’s dominance was never more clearly expressed than on the stroke of half-time, when most sides with a 2-0 lead would be content to hold on to their advantage until the interval. Instead of playing it safe and running down the clock, Terry took the opportunity to lead a counter-attack up the left, playing the perfect diagonal ball to Nicolas Anelka, who found that he had Ricardo Carvalho making ground in support. At that moment Chelsea’s two central defenders were marauding on the edge of the Arsenal area – an astonishing initiative in open play at such a delicate moment.

With 25 minutes of the second half gone, Terry took control of a difficult moment in his own goalmouth and cleared an awkward ball with a sideways header, stumbling and falling as he attempted to chase it out towards the touchline. His left thigh was heavily strapped to counteract the effect of a dead leg but he completed the match with only the merest hint of a limp, evoking memories of the day in April 2006 when he played through virtually the whole of a vital home victory against Manchester United with blood seeping through his sock from a deep gash on his ankle. The injury will be assessed today.

None of this is to question Fabio Capello’s decision to deprive Terry of the England captain’s armband. It is merely to emphasise that, whatever his social defects, Terry is a remarkable footballer whose leadership has been fundamental to Chelsea’s success over the past half-dozen seasons. Capello must be hoping that, despite the unpleasantness of the past week, his former captain chooses to give the kind of performance in South Africa that we saw in West London yesterday.

“I believe he wants to win every time he plays football,” Arsène Wenger responded when asked if he had been impressed by Terry’s display. “Sometimes for people to play football can be a kind of diversion from what’s happening in their life off the pitch. I’ve had players who had problems in their personal lives and it made them stronger on the pitch.”

His opposite number praised Terry’s “fantastic attitude”. “For the team it’s very important to have this leadership,” Carlo Ancelotti said. “He’s always in control of the game. He has a very strong mentality.”

Ancelotti said he was not disappointed by the outcome of the meeting between Terry and Capello. “It’s not my decision,” he said. Nor did he feel that it would serve to increase Terry’s motivation in his games for Chelsea. Their ambition to win the Premier League, he said, was motivation enough.

Since the 22 players who started the match included no fewer than nine Francophones, it may not be inappropriate to point out that it is a French phrase without an exact English equivalent which most precisely sums up the current difference between these two teams. Peser sur le jeu, literally to weigh on the game, is what Chelsea do and what Arsenal are so incapable of exerting in an encounter such as this.

For Wenger to emphasise the difference between the teams’ average ages – Chelsea’s 29 years to his side’s 23 – is simply not good enough. Weight – in the sense of size, strength and power – is the quality that he has decided to do without and yesterday the consequences could hardly have been made more damagingly explicit.

John TerryChelseaArsenalPremier LeagueRichard Williamsguardian.co.uk

No Comments | Tags: , , , , ,
Feb 02

John Terry feels the heat, on and off the pitch | Jamie Jackson

Chelsea’s captain is starting to feel the pressure and his form is beginning to dip

As the nation’s pubs and parlours continue to agonise over the John Terry affair England’s most talked-about footballer had a rather patchy second public examination of his on-field abilities.

Terry had passed the first test calmly enough, when scoring the winning goal at Burnley on Saturday. However, Terry’s footballing cojones have never been in doubt and his late header at Turf Moor prepared us for another evening where the expectation was he would breeze through.

But he stepped out against Hull knowing he was only a potential two days away from the showdown with the England manager, Fabio Capello, which will decide if the captain’s armband continues to be worn by the boy from Barking. His potential demotion from that position, and the gaping hole it will punch in his pride, might just be starting to get through to him as the Chelsea captain had an evening he would rather forget.

The defence, which it is his primary job to shepherd, was shaky, while his own contribution, one that included a yellow card early in the second half for a clumsy challenge on Jozy Altidore, was hardly rock solid.

Capello has yet to air his views on the effect of Terry’s alleged affair with Vanessa Perroncel, the former girlfriend of England’s reserve left-back Wayne Bridge. But it is understood that the manager is still undecided and wishes to speak first with Terry so that he can gauge his captain’s state of mind.

The Italian will also wish to establish if the very worst of this, or any future Terry scandal, is now out, following the cumulative effect of other notorious episodes, the latest of which featured Terry taking £10,000 for a tour of the Chelsea training ground – he claims the cash was given to charity.

If further revelations are to be revealed in the near future then Capello will wish to be told in advance, so he can make a fully informed judgment.

Terry, too, is thought to be undecided over his next move and is keen to know what Capello is thinking before he makes any decision. Credulity is stretched, though, when trying to imagine a man who loves leading deciding he is happy to fall on his sword.

The night in Hull began with Terry receiving the first of many regulation boos he would surely have expected as he led his team out for the warm-up. These were followed by an opening verse of Same Old Terry, Always Cheating, which was repeated throughout. Then Chelsea conceded an early corner and the defender also had to listen to Terry, Terry Where’s Your Wife?

The answer to that poser is that Toni Terry is in Dubai to escape the furore and, reportedly, considering the future of her marriage.

Apparently Terry wants to follow her to the Gulf state for crisis talks. This, though, depends on his being given permission by Chelsea, although the club are currently keeping their own counsel.

Of more concern to Mr Chelsea as he left the field would have been the flat performance of his team – who would have gone four points clear with a win last night – just as Manchester United are beginning their familiar new year challenge for the title. And Arsenal are next up at Stamford Bridge, on Sunday.

This was not a bad performance from Terry but a wobbly one, and you could sense how he needs to have his England future sorted out sooner rather than later.

Terry had been in the frame for the sloppy goal they conceded after 30 minutes. His man at corners was Anthony Gardner, and though Terry again shadowed him, when Stephen Hunt’s delivery landed between him and Michael Ballack, Steven Mouyokolo moved in to head beyond Petr Cech.

At least the first half ended with Terry, having again been asked the location of his spouse, seeing Didier Drogba equalise. That caused him to salute the travelling Chelsea support before he appeared to offer a stare and a shush at the singing Hull fans on his way back for the restart.

After Burnley on Saturday Carlo Ancelotti had dismissed questions of Terry’s leadership. “There is no discussion about this. I don’t know why you ask me this. I do not want to talk about his personal life.”

A hunch says that Capello may broadly share the same views as Ancelotti having been reared in the same country, one whose privacy laws can be described as draconian when compared to Britain’s.

On Friday we will discover how far away Capello feels he is from his Italian homeland.

John TerryChelseaHull CityPremier LeagueJamie Jacksonguardian.co.uk

No Comments | Tags: , , ,
« Previous Page