Goals are everywhere as the standard of defending in the Premier League reaches a new low. What’s happened to the 1-0 win…
The weekend’s Premier League action was certainly entertaining. Goals, controversial decisions, comebacks – Saturday’s Match of the Day was a real cracker (aside from Alan Shearer’s analysis and some of the worst commentary imaginable during the Norwich-Blackburn game). Yet it brought up an interesting dilemma; as a fan, do you prefer a game full of goals, or a solid 1-0 victory?
It’s particularly poignant for the ever unpopular Chelsea supporters, which any reader of this blog will know I am one of. Saturday’s game against Arsenal was grim viewing as far as I was concerned. Of course, had Chelsea gone on to win 4-3 after Juan Mata’s equaliser, I would have been somewhat happier but, and I genuinely mean this, I still wouldn’t have been completely content. Football is obviously about scoring goals – that’s how you win games – but therefore, by default, defending is also crucial as you strive to keep out the goals at your end. In this country, we all seem to crave the “you score four, we’ll score five” approach as it makes for great viewing. Yet I believe there is much to be admired from a resolute defensive performance that yields a clean sheet. Defending is an art, albeit one that isn’t always that exciting.
Also, winning is normally the most important thing. Ask most fans what they would rather: bags of entertainment all season and a third place finish or, lots of hard fought 1-0 victories and first place, and I know which most would vote for. It’s so relevant at Chelsea because under Jose Mourinho the team won lots but didn’t always entertain. Suddenly there were calls for more attacking football, but it’s interesting to note that these calls mainly emerged when Mourinho left and the team was not actually winning trophies anymore. After back-to-back league titles, I didn’t come across many Chelsea fans who were demanding better football. What most of us wanted was more success.
There is of course a balance. With match day tickets so expensive now, you want some entertainment and attacking football for your £50. But surely you also crave three points? I used to take so much pride in the Mourinho Chelsea. I loved how the team battled away for victories, ground out wins and mercilessly steamrollered through opposition. There was something to be admired about this. And obviously I particularly enjoyed those moment where trophies were lifted.
Chelsea under Andre Villas-Boas are a different type of team and only time will tell how successful they will be. If they end the season with a league title after a series of high scoring victories, then clearly no one will be complaining. But if there is no success, and this is primarily down to a lack of defensive ability, I’m not sure how content Chelsea fans will be. Part of the problem is clearly that key players have departed. Funnily enough, no one can perform the “Makelele role” quite like Claude Makelele. The Frenchman was such a fine player. Likewise, Ricardo Carvalho wasn’t widely praised, but he was a superb centre back who worked so well with John Terry. These players were key to the Mourinho defensive unit.
Saturday’s Chelsea-Arsenal game was full of incident and great attacking play, but the defending really was horrific from both sides. It wasn’t pretty to watch. Chelsea and Arsenal will struggle to win anything this season playing like that. For Arsenal, Andre Santos looked good going forward but was all over the place at the back, and the less said about Per Mertesacker the better. From the Chelsea viewpoint, Jose Bosingwa simply can’t defend, Branislav Ivanovic didn’t convince and looks better at right back then in the middle and Petr Cech had a terrible game. Three of Arsenal’s goals were directly his fault and the Santos goal in particular was a truly horrendous piece of goalkeeping. For all the entertainment, I’m sure both sets of fans would rather see some solid 1-0 victories if that means trophies when it comes to May.
Undoubtedly all this dreadful defending does make for a thrilling watch, and I’m sure the neutrals enjoyed the game at Stamford Bridge. And it does make the Premier League an exciting place at the moment. Yet the quality of defending is alarming. Am I the only one who wants to see a commanding display from a back four? Maybe I’m just getting old.
An excellent piece that echoes so many of my own thoughts. The defending this season in the Premiership has been absolutely terrible but then I do feel that sometimes I am in the minority when I complain about that. I mean, as is pointed out in the post, who wants to watch 0-0’s every week? (although goals by themselves do not a good game make) The art of defending though is another part of the game that can have beauty in itself. Sometimes the best games are the ones that are full of mistakes as this can make a thrilling game, however when a team is able to break down resolute defending through slick approach play or a moment of individual brilliance rather than an a collection of errors then it is something that can really be applauded. With so many of the ‘top teams’ (and the bottom teams for that matter) being as water tight as a colander getting it right at the back and organised in defence in the Premier League this season could mean a team with less resources really pushing on. See United, Newcastle.
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