The Chelsea Way: The only way Chelsea can play?

This is a trend that’s been around ever since after the first leg match Chelsea won against Barcelona in the Champions league semi-finals and much was emphasized since our Champions League glory. It’s a trend where people everywhere say, that Chelsea can only play the boring and defensive football style. If what they’re saying were just to highlight that we can play well defensively, I’d have no problems with that. But in this case, the majority of people are saying this to degrade the qualities we possess as a football club.

This has spread everywhere, every social media and every news media. I have read so many times in social medias where people say, well basically, Chelsea is a team that can only play defensively. Here’s a conclusion I made on all the tweets and comments that are having a say on this:

Both Marin and Hazard were signed to bolster our attacking qualities

“Chelsea have signed Hazard and Marin, and now are going after Hulk, Ben Arfa, Schurrle etc. Why are they trying to sign all these attacking players when they’re just going to turn them into defenders?”

Now this is insulting. By my understanding, what all these tweets and comments are trying to say is 

this: Chelsea can and only knows how to play defensively. Before I start rumbling on how this nonsense is outrageous; now that the Euros are under way, a new term has emerged, The Chelsea way or some say, “doing the Chelsea”. Oh how thoughtful. The Chelsea way is basically a term used for a team using the similar tactic Chelsea used in the Champions League Semis and Final. Here’s an example; as we all know, Trapattoni, the Irish national team manager said they were going to use “the Chelsea way” to face Spain, and we all saw how that ended. Another example is France. They are to face Europe and World Champion, Spain. Reports from Bleacher report and other medias are suggesting that Laurent Blanc’s men will play “the Chelsea way” to face Spain.

Now some are complimenting Chelsea as they mean Chelsea exceeds others in defending, whilst others are just sore fans that for many reasons dislike Chelsea’s success last season. And for whatever reasons they’re saying all this, I finally feel irritated. How is it a team that played using a certain tactic for three matches considered that they could only play that way? So, what people everywhere out there are trying to say is that a team can only play one certain style of play in every match? Heck no. I’m not trying to say that playing defensively is a crime; we’ve had an article before about the beautiful attacking style vs. the boring defensive style, my main point is a team can’t be labeled a defensive team just because they played that way for a few matches. And that also includes Chelsea. We aren’t a defensive team, we exceed in defending, yes. But that’s not the only style we know how. Here’s my answer to those who keep on claiming we are a team that can only play boring defensive football-

1. It was a Tactic that Di Matteo used to perfection

Spot on tactics used against Barcelona and Munich

The three matches that got us the “boring” defensive team was the three matches we played against Barcelona and Bayern Munich. Yes we played defensively. But we did that because we had too. Last season saw us possess the worst attacking quality since the Roman era. Our only quality attackers were Mata, Torres and Drogba. While Malouda, Kalou and Sturridge were under performers. And Lukaku is still to young and inexperienced to be played in these important matches. Compare our atackers to rivals City, United and Arsenal? And we looked ordinary. Heck I sometimes thought Tottenham and Newcastle had better options upfront than us. So what Di Matteo had to do was to apply the best tactic he could. First, I’ll give a definition to what tactic means. Tactic has a definition of a procedure or set of maneuvers engaged in to achieve an end, an aim, or a goal/purpose. In football, I would put tactical aim is to get the best by calculating what you got and your opponents weaknesses and strength. And that’s exactly what Di Matteo did; he got the best out of our quality and took advantage of it. At that time our primary strength was clear: defense. Hence the defensive play against both Barcelona and Munich. Did we play defensively in the Premier League? NO. Did we play defensively against both Tottenham and Liverpool in the FA semis and final? NO. Fact is, Chelsea scored 19 goals since Di Matteo took over on March 4^th. And Chelsea also beat Tottenham with a staggering 5-1 win and a 2-1 win over Liverpool.

Who could forget that season when we broke all kinds of goal scoring records....

2. Stats say otherwise

Here are some stats to back me up. Chelsea until now holds the most goals scored in a season with 103 in 2009-2010 in the Premier League era. Another fact is that Chelsea is placed third among all teams that has participated in the Premier League since 1992-1993 with 1282 goals, only beaten by United and Arsenal with 1541 and 1345 respectively. Chelsea also scored 112 goals in all competitions last season, only 6 below United and 11 below City.

3. Other teams also played defensively

Yes, other teams also played defensively last season. To all Manchester United fans, remember the trip to Etihad? You basically parked the bus too, and worse, you had 0 shots on goal. And to top that, you still lost. Manchester City also played defensively at some occasions. They played defensively when they visited Stamford Bridge, and also when they played Arsenal at both Etihad and Emirates. And to top that, before this season, City was the most defense oriented team. We all know that as a fact.

So with all these, how is it just by playing those three matches, we are labeled defensive and boring? We can play fantastic attacking football and we showed it before. I know this article won’t instantly wipe all the nonsense people are saying out there, but I for one am certainly irritated and sick of all those talks. Roman certainly is showing he means business with all the transfers going on, so with all the signing that has already come, and the signings that will, I hope Chelsea next season will shut the mouths of those degrading and insulting our attack force once and for all.

How do you fellow Blues see it? Well, till then, Keep The Blue Flag Flying High as always....

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