Oh dear, oh dear. There seems to be a little bit of discontent at Stamford Bridge after our defeat to Wigan.

John Terry’s reaction is to say “The least we expect from every player is that we work hard and fight – and we did not do that.   We didn’t win our headers and we didn’t win our tackles – and that’s simply not good enough.  You can go anywhere and not play well. But when you come to places like this, you’ve got to match their work-rate.   We didn’t do that, the whole team. That’s the most disappointing thing.”

Whilst Didier Drogba says “We didn’t play very well. We lost all the battles, all the duels.   We didn’t win anything and were very poor.   This is the worst game I have played in since I have been at Chelsea. We need to think about it, correct what was wrong and try to go again.   We equalised just after half-time and we were trying to improve our game.  Then there was the penalty and a red card, which I think was a bit harsh.  Still with 10 players we had the chance to make it 2-2 but we didn’t do it.  There was a lot of space and they used the pitch very well — they deserved to win.”

Now far be it from me to get into the habit of agreeing with Didier Drogba, for a start, having had to sit through our embarrassing defeat at Old Trafford last season whilst he had the cheek to laugh every time he mis-kicked the ball, I’d have to argue I’ve seen him play a lot worse than he did Saturday. I certainly can’t argue with the rest of his sentiments though.

The way I see it, we have John Terry on a right downer, going on about how ‘disappointing’ it was and even going on to say “All the other big sides had emphatic wins, so it’s even more disappointing we’ve thrown away three points”, and yet, I’m not sure he’s considering his team while he’s saying it.  Do they really need their captain spelling the negatives out for them? Surely they’re smart enough to have sussed them out for themselves by now?

Or do they need a more subtle reminder of why up until Saturday they’d gone unbeaten? I don’t know, maybe it’s just my perception but in our first few games of the season, whilst not scintillating Brazilian style football, I remember thinking we were seeing a return to the side that didn’t know when it was beat, the side you’d never write off because they’d throw whatever they had to at the game to get a win. That was missing Saturday and just reading Terry and Drogba’s take on events, I can’t help seeing Drogba’s as words spoken with the team in mind – I know, I know, bizarre isn’t it?!

Whilst the Chelsea captain is having a moan about not winning ‘headers’ and ‘tackles’, which makes me think there’s a lot of disappointment focused on his own game, the Chelsea striker is talking in terms of ‘battles’ and ‘duels’.  Ok, all a bit too deep maybe, but just humour me here. Because ultimately, how constructive is what John Terry’s saying? Will it gee the lads up to repeatedly hear how ‘disappointing’ they were and how ‘disappointing’ everyone else’s results were? I’ve never known negativity be a great motivator personally.

Look at it this way, Wigan had so much space at times on Saturday they could have been forgiven for thinking we’d put out our 5-aside team. But a subtle acknowledgement of how the opposition used the space they were given really well – (and ultimately won by doing this) – for me, is much more effective than slating them in the press for not matching Wigan’s ‘work-rate’. And fair enough, we can all say we were shite – because we were – but do they need to hear that from their captain? How about hearing that ok, it was a bad game but what they can do about it now is focus on getting it right next time round?

For me, Drogba’s attitude is spot on this time – shit happens, get over it and get on with it!

Filed under: Current Players, Rants