The penultimate round: Chelsea aim to keep up pressure on Liverpool

The Blues will go top of the Premier League table with a win against Norwich City.

KARACHI:

After being knocked out of the Champions League in the semi-final for the fourth consecutive year, Jose Mourinho will now be looking towards the Premier League for an improbable chance to salvage the season.

Given a hero’s welcome at the Stamford Bridge after being fired unceremoniously by Real Madrid, Mourinho was touted as the man who would take Chelsea to new heights.

Hungry to gain back his reputation that had taken a beating as fans, players, media and management all turned against him at the Santiago Bernabeu, Mourinho was trusted with the task of delivering trophies while playing attractive football.

However, that has not been the case as his second coming at Chelsea has been far from smooth and is now taking the ominous pattern of his final year at Madrid.

His decision to sell fan favourite Juan Mata in January raised a few eyebrows and with the focus on defence, flair players Oscar and Eden Hazard look more and more alienated by the week as the unrest within the squad reaches boiling point.

Hazard was recently criticised by Mourinho, who said that the Belgian is ‘unwilling to sacrifice himself’ and the manager has also openly criticised his trio of strikers.

After coming in for some stick from the media for his defensive approach, Mourinho cannot afford to have his players turn on him, especially since he relies on his players giving their all on the field.

With league leaders Liverpool playing on Monday, a win against Norwich City will take Chelsea top of the table, albeit temporarily. Being top may restore the feel good factor to the Chelsea dressing room that is especially low on morale after two consecutive home defeats.

And Mourinho is aware that the remaining two matches mean more than just the six points.

“More than the points, we need to win both matches,” he said.

The win at Anfield in their last league outing means Chelsea still have an outside chance of claiming the title and the Blues will be hoping that Crystal Palace can achieve yet another upset and beat Liverpool.

A bit further north

Arsenal will be hosting West Bromwich Albion in a bid to secure the final Champions League spot.

Having secured fourth place on the final day of the season in the previous two campaigns, Arsene Wenger will be hoping to have the spot guaranteed before they travel to Norwich City for the final match of the season.

Despite blaming injuries for Arsenal’s drop in form towards the latter part of the season, Wenger was unable to hide his disappointment at his team’s league position.

“When we came out of Christmas, we were in a strong position and what you want then is to have your strong players available in March and April, but we had too many injuries,” said Wenger, referring to the injuries suffered by Theo Walcott, Aaron Ramsey, Jack Wilshere and Mesut Ozil among others.

London derby

In the second-last London derby of the season, North London side Tottenham made the short journey to Upton Park, where they faced off in an inconsequential match yesterday.

Despite mid-table safety, Sam Allardyce went into the game hoping to stop a run of four consecutive defeats to silence the critics and his players delivered.

A straight red to Younes Kaboul for a last-man challenge on Stewart Downing in the 25th minute meant Tottenham were up against it and a Kane own goal and Downing freekick saw them 2-0 before half time. The second half was more of the same as Hugo Lloris’ heroics in the second half kept the scoreline respectable.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 4^th, 2014.

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