Scolari cannot afford to let drift become a slide

SOCCER ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE:THE GAME is up neither for Chelsea's title challenge nor Luiz Felipe Scolari's reign at Stamford Bridge, but a downbeat tone may have been set for the rest of the season. Defeat at Liverpool on Sunday left Chelsea three points adrift of the Merseysiders and five from the summit, the hint of a gap having opened up between the top two and the chasing pack.

There will be opportunities to regain ground in the weeks to come, but the Brazilian’s side lack the aura of champions-elect. They were understandably aggrieved that the dismissal of Frank Lampard had contrived to undermine their challenge at Anfield.

“We do one little tackle and we seem to be getting yellow and red cards,” bemoaned Ashley Cole. Yet the reality was that the visitors had been toothless and disjointed in attack well before they were stripped of their England midfielder.

They may have defended stoutly enough, but there appeared little prospect of their own challenge being maintained with a win.

In the end Scolari would have taken a draw – the world would have appeared rosier from second, albeit four points behind Manchester United who still boast a game in hand – though, even with 10 men, citing a point as a triumph would have been a measure of how the sense of ambition is shifting at Stamford Bridge.

Scolari breezed into west London last summer threatening to deliver the slick football craved by Roman Abramovich, their swashbuckling form through the autumn that of a team capable of emulating Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal at their creative best.

This was apparently the antidote to the mechanical and relentless grinding style that had frustrated through the last months of Jose Mourinho’s reign and that of his successor, Avram Grant. The memory of life under the Israeli is rather grey, coloured only when the occasional tale of discontent flared up from behind the scenes. In hindsight life under the Israeli might not appear so uninspiring.

Grant’s greatest complaint while at Chelsea was that he was never granted the opportunity to work with his own side. He bought Nicolas Anelka last January but, other than the striker, the squad he hoisted to second place, the League Cup final and the European Cup showpiece in Moscow had been constructed largely by Mourinho.

Scolari, too, has been denied the chance to build his own team – Jose Bosingwa was signed as one manager left and another arrived, leaving Deco (€9 million) and Mineiro (free) as his two budget signings – but a comparison of the results gleaned by each manager with the squad at their disposal proves intriguing. After 24 games in charge Grant had squeezed 54 points from a team whose confidence had initially been shattered by Mourinho’s abrupt departure.

The charismatic Scolari has managed six fewer. Furthermore the functional football produced by the Israeli had actually plundered 46 goals in those games to Scolari’s 44. The chief criticism of Grant was that his team choked, or went uninspired from the dug-out, on the big occasions.

Balance that with Scolari’s record against the other members of the elite quartet to date: played five, drawn one, lost four.

There are holes to be picked in the statistics. Grant, for example, had the opportunity to unleash his team on a hapless Derby County, beaten 6-1, and there is no side so out of their depth in the Premier League now to distort the “goals for” column.

Scolari is working in a more competitive environment. There is the argument, too, that a side constructed by Mourinho merely maintained the work ethic and approach instigated by the Portuguese, and therefore a measure of momentum, with Grant always carrying the air of a temporary appointment.

Yet, in terms of results, the Israeli competed efficiently despite being saddled with similar injury problems to the incumbent. Scolari can point to the prolonged absence of John Terry, Michael Essien, Joe Cole and Ricardo Carvalho this season, but Terry missed 15 league games last term, Carvalho 17 and Didier Drogba 19, and no Chelsea player started more than Joe Cole’s 28 Premier League matches. The Brazilian is not encountering a new problem, though he may be struggling to address an old one.

This squad is, of course, a year older and the summer will surely see a clear-out. There can be no more tolerance of Drogba’s traditional post-season posturing, while the likes of Florent Malouda, Paulo Ferreira and Branislav Ivanovic rarely deliver.

Even the recently arrived Deco, who has hardly consistently illuminated the division, may not escape the cull, while it remains to be seen whether Michael Ballack and the club decide to take up an option of a further year on his contract, which expires on July 1st.

Scolari is working to new budgets and financial restrictions where Mourinho had none, and there is no suggestion that patience is running out at Chelsea. But there has always been an understanding that qualification for the Champions League and a coherent challenge on all fronts were expected at the very least.

Across the capital a pair of Chelsea icons in Gianfranco Zola and Steve Clarke are excelling at Upton Park and their progress will not go unnoticed for long. Scolari, back in the snow at Cobham, cannot afford to let disappointment see his Premier League season drift.

Guardian Service