Chelsea are suffering their worst start to the season in the Premier League era. Roman Abramovich has never seen his side involved in such a woeful start, with Chelsea winning just two of of their first eight league games, and it is surely only a matter of time before he pulls the trigger on Jose Mourinho for a second time, should results not pick up promptly.
Mourinho’s side have already suffered four defeats this season, against Manchester City, Crystal Palace, Everton and Southampton – already more defeats than they suffered in the whole of last season’s title winning campaign. With the club sitting in a lowly 16th place, and already 10 points off of table-toppers Manchester City, their chance of clinching back-to-back Premier League titles appears to be all but over.
Star players such as John Terry, Branislav Ivanovic, Nemanja Matic and Cesc Fabregas have all struggled to keep up the brilliant form that secured the title last season, and the previously impenetrable defence has fallen to tatters.
Likewise, the club have also suffered a stuttering start in Europe. Despite a 4-0 victory over Maccabi Tel-Aviv in the club’s opening Champions League game last month, they then fell to a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Mourinho’s old club, Porto. Far from the calibre of European heavyweights such as Barcelona or Bayern Munich, alarm bells will be ringing at Stamford Bridge.
While Chelsea continue to struggle in the league, and will have to work extremely hard to secure their place in the knock-out stages of the Champions League, the club’s fans will be buoyed by the memories of the 2011/12 season, when the Blues experienced some similar early season struggles, only to have one of the greatest seasons in their history.
Early expectations
The end of the 2010/11 season saw Carlo Ancelotti sacked from his role as manager after failing to secure a trophy, despite winning the Premier League and FA Cup double for the first time in the club’s history just 12 months earlier.
The man brought in to replace him was one Andre Villas-Boas, fresh from securing a treble victory with Porto, having won the Primeira Liga, Portuguese Cup and Europa League. The young manager had previously worked at Chelsea, as a scout under prestigious boss Jose Mourinho, but it was the fact that he guided Porto through an entire league campaign without suffering defeat which really caught the eye of those at Stamford Bridge.
Abramovich clearly felt he was ready to make the step up to the big league, and paid out a whopping £13 million – a world record fee for a manager – in compensation to free him from his contract at Porto, in order to land the man who he hoped would finally deliver him the Champions League trophy.
Villas-Boas started his life in the Premier League poorly, as his Chelsea side played out a 0-0 bore draw at Stoke City. They looked sharp, but Stoke, a side well known for shutting out opposition at home, defended well. Despite the result, Villas-Boas insisted the result was ‘not bad’.
In the grand scheme of things, the result wasn’t bad, as Chelsea went on to claim victory in their next three fixtures. A 2-1 victory over West Brom, a 3-1 result against Norwich and a 2-1 win against Sunderland propelled Chelsea up the table into third place. An unlucky 3-1 defeat against a rampant Manchester United side was then followed by three more consecutive victories over Swansea City, Bolton Wanderers and Everton.
The results kept pressure on United at the top of the table, and Villas-Boas seemed to be performing well at a higher level. Although, it wasn’t long before it all started to fall to pieces.
Winter Blues
While Chelsea’s blip this season appears to have come early, the Blues always seem to suffer a slump in form somewhere between October and January. Despite their excellent form last season, November and December saw the club surrender an eight point lead over Manchester City, culminating in a 5-3 defeat at the hands of Tottenham and breakthrough act Harry Kane.
2011/12 was no different, with a controversial 1-0 defeat against Queens Park Rangers sparking a chain reaction of negative results. The defeat to their bitter London rivals saw Chelsea reduced to nine men, with José Bosingwa and Didier Drogba both receiving straight reds in the first-half, while it also hosted the infamous John Terry race case, in which the Chelsea skipper was alleged to have directed racial abuse at former-QPR defender Anton Ferdinand.
October ended with 5-3 defeat against Arsenal, with Robin van Persie grabbing a hat-trick. Although, things seemed to get better in November, with a 2-1 defeat against Liverpool softened by wins over Blackburn Rovers and Wolverhampton Wanderers. December started much the same, until three straight draws, followed by a shock 3-1 defeat to Aston Villa, finally saw pressure begin to mount of Villas-Boas, as a trigger-happy Abramovich waited menacingly in the background.
Road to Munich
While Chelsea’s title challenge was slowly falling apart, things weren’t looking much better in Europe, either. A mediocre start in an average group consisting of Bayer Leverkusen, Valencia and Belgian side Genk, left it wide open going into the fifth match. A win against Bayer Leverkusen would have seen Chelsea safely through with a game to spare, but a last minute header from Manuel Friedrich handed Leverkusen a 2-1 victory, and with it Chelsea’s Champions League hopes in the balance with just a game remaining.
The defeat meant that anything other than victory or a 0-0 draw with Valencia in their final group game would have seen the Blues exit the tournament prematurely, and having lost four of their last five games, such a result would have seen Villas-Boas thrown out of the club too.
Blues fans would have been nervous going into the game, given that Valencia had recorded a 7-0 victory over Genk in their previous continental match. However, luckily for Villas-Boas, Chelsea legend Didier Drogba was on hand to save the day.
The Ivorian goalscorer struck after just three minutes and continued to terrorise the La Liga side throughout. Ramires added a second midway through the first-half, before Drogba struck again late on. They left it late, but the 3-0 victory saw Chelsea progress to the knock-out rounds – a feat that is now expected of them every season.
Round of 16
Champions League qualification was followed by a string of woeful December performances from the Blues, who found themselves fifth in the Premier League table at the turn of the year. However, the new year started brightly for Andre Villas-Boas and his Chelsea team, with back-to-back victories over Wolves and Sunderland returning the club to the top four.
Although, their performances were far from dominant, and these lucky wins soon dried up. Three consecutive draws in the Premier League, against Norwich, Swansea and Manchester United, was followed by a 2-0 away defeat to Everton, and it was clear that Villas-Boas was collapsing underneath the pressure placed upon him by the Chelsea hierarchy.
The Portuguese boss cancelled the players’ day off in order to hold a unscheduled meeting in a feeble attempt to solve the club’s problems. This seemingly did very little to improve their moods, and a handful of key players went to Abramovich to grass on their struggling boss.
The £13 million manager lasted less than 12 months in the Chelsea hotseat.
The Blues were drawn to face Napoli in the Round of 16, and they hoped that a return to the Champions League would reinvigorate the side. A goal from Juan Mata within the first half an hour gave them hope, but it wasn’t long before a rampant attacking trio of Ezequiel Lavezzi, Marek Hamsik and Edinson Cavani tore Chelsea limb from limb.
Lavezzi and Cavani both struck before half-time, and lavezzi added another in the second-half, which seemingly put Chelsea on their way out of the competition.
Another Premier League defeat, this time against West Brom, proved to be one defeat too many. With Chelsea out of the League Cup, sitting in fifth place in the Premier League table and with it all to do in the Champions League, Villas-Boas’ time as Chelsea manager was brought to an end the next morning.
Former player and former assistant manager Roberto Di Matteo, a favourite among both the fans and the players, was handed the reigns on an interim basis, until the club could find a suitable replacement.
After claiming a 1-0 victory over Stoke in his first match in charge, it was time for the second leg against Napoli, and things didn’t look good for the London side, who had to overturn a 3-1 aggregate score. Chelsea started strong, and by the 29th minute Drogba broke the deadlock with a bullet header.
Both sides had plenty of chances, but it appeared to be Chelsea’s night. John Terry netted shortly after half-time, and Frank Lampard cancelled out a goal from Gokhan Inler to send the game to extra-time. It was none other than this season’s key struggler, Branislav Ivanovic, who claimed the winning goal.
This was the fist in a series of nail-biting games during Chelsea’s 2011/12 campaign, but it certainly raised the question of whether it was simply Chelsea’s year in the European competition.
Double-decker vs Tika Taka
The Blues’ Premier League woes continued, and the club had slipped further down the table into sixth place, but Di Matteo steered the club through a quarter-final clash against Benfica with ease. A 1-0 away win followed by a 2-1 home victory set up a quarter-final clash with Champions League holders Barcelona.
The club were desperate to get one over on the La Liga side, given the way in which they were knocked out at the semi-final stage by a stoppage-time Andres Iniesta strike three years earlier – a game which led to Drogba launching a verbal attack on the referee following the final whistle.
The first leg gave Drogba the perfect platform to get his own back, and he did just that with a swift finish past Victor Valdes. The game ended 1-0, and put Chelsea in a prime position to reach only the second Champions League final in their history. Although, with 90 minutes still to play against Lionel Messi and co., the Munich final was still a long way away.
Barcelona went all out to overturn the first leg deficit in the second leg, and after 35 minutes of non-stop defending, Chelsea finally caved in to the pressure, allowing Sergio Busquets to net. A few minutes later, Chelsea skipper Terry seemingly lost his cool, kneeing Alexis Sanchez in the back of the leg to earn himself a straight red. Soon after, Andres Iniesta put Barcelona two goals in front, and well on their way to the Champions League final.
Although, Chelsea weren’t willing to go down without a fight, and as Barcelona continued to pile pressure on the Blues, Ramires broke away, sprinting up the field before chipping the ball past Victor Valdes, who appeared shocked at actually having something to do.
Chelsea’s dreams appeared to crumble once again, when Drogba handed Barcelona a penalty early on in the second-half, only for a frustrated Lionel Messi to smash the shot against the crossbar. The onslaught continued, but it was Chelsea who found the back of the net, as a Fernando Torres breakaway levelled the score late on, with what many described as a ‘£50 million goal’.
Di Matteo’s side had once again come back from the death, and next up with a final clash with Bayern Munich, hosted in Munich.
Fernando Torres makes it 2-2, securing Chelsea’s place in the 2012 Champions League final.
The final
There was plenty of talk prior to the final, due to the large number of players that had picked up suspensions for earlier offences. Bayern were without David Alaba, Holger Badstuber and Luiz Gustavo, while Chelsea were missing Branislav Ivanovic, Raul Meireles, Ramires and John Terry, which prompted talk of a potential suspension lift for the final.
That never occurred, and Chelsea were forced to play with a significantly weakened side, with left-back Ryan Bertrand starting on the left-wing. Unsurprisingly, Bayern dominated throughout the match, but they were unable to make their chances count until the 83rd minute, when Thomas Muller headed home.
Chelsea appeared to be down and out, but an inspired Didier Drogba, in what was supposed to be his final game in a Chelsea shirt, equalised with minutes of normal time remaining to send the game to extra-time. While undoubtedly the hero, Drogba almost became the villain when he gave away a penalty, which was subsequently saved by a fantastic Petr Cech.
The sides remained level at the end of extra-time, and a penalty shoot-out was set to decide the victors. Given the way Chelsea’s previous Champions League final had ended, with John Terry smashing the ball against the post to hand Manchester United the trophy, the Blues fans waited nervously.
Juan Mata missed his, which allowed Bayern to pull ahead by three goals to two. However, Cech had guessed the right way each time, and he appeared to be getting closer and closer to stopping one. Ivica Olic stepped up, only for Cech to get his gloves to the shot, which Ashley Cole took full advantage of by placing the ball into the far right of the net. Next up was Bastian Schweinsteiger, who had looked nervous and shaky throughout extra-time. The pressure ultimately proved too much, and he hammered his shot against the post. Schweinsteiger’s miss meant that it was down to Chelsea’s hero, Didier Drogba, to claim them their first Champions League title.
He stepped up confidently, before sending Manuel Neuer the wrong way and smashing it into the bottom left corner, turning what had started as Chelsea’s worst ever season into the most iconic Champions League campaign in the tournament’s history.