Chelsea Football Club axed a Champions League and Italian legend of a manager in Carlo Ancelloti over the summer for failing to bring them the English Premier League title.
As a result the Blues went after one of Europe’s hottest young talents in FC Porto’s Andre Villas-Boas. Having just lifted the Portuguese Liga title and the UEFA Europa League trophy the man tipped as the next Jose Mourinho was destined for a move to England as Chelsea owner Roman Abrahmovich spent big to land the star man.
His arrival was met with the usual pomp and circumstance of any new managerial arrival at a top club in England’s top flight but as the season has worn on the more and more his arrival looks like a mistake.
With the Blues spiraling out of the top four and luck to still be in the top five after what continues to be a frustrating time at the club with fans and players seemingly ready to turn on their manager.
The Blues were knocked out of the Carling Cup in November by Liverpool who also beat them in the league only a week previously, with both losses coming at home. While they remain in both the Champions League and the FA Cup at the moment the real problem will be that the club are not playing up to standards in the league.
That problem could translate over to their FA Cup tie this weekend and their Champions League opening tie with Italian club Napoli next week.
Currently the Blues have only three wins in their last ten EPL fixtures. Draws to Wigan Athletic, Fulham, Norwich City and Swansea are simply not acceptable no matter how well the other side played as the Blues have the talent to be head and shoulders above. Draws with Tottenham and Manchester United are acceptable finishes when they are earned, but Chelsea had a 3-0 lead on United before they gave the game away.
Losing to Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge after the Villains had been in terrible form was unacceptable as well and their loss to Everton last weekend only showed just how far they have fallen from form with no offense aimed at the Toffee’s excellent boss David Moyes.
At this point with only 15 points from their last 30 available that is not going to be a ratio that gets the Blues back to the Champions League or challenging anywhere near another run at the English Premier League title.
Veteran midfielder and fan favorite Frank Lampard came out with these comments in The Sun:
"We know we are in a bad way and we have to dig ourselves out of it. We have been fighting to win leagues. Now we are fighting for fourth and that hurts.
"When you go to Everton, the one thing you know they're going to do is fight you, press you and make things tough and we didn't react.
"We can only take that on the chin and apologies to the people who came up to watch because that's not good enough for Chelsea."
The Club’s goal keeper Petr Cech also came out with comments quoted by ESPNsoccernet.com that their performance at Everton was simply not good enough:
"When you lose a game 2-0 and you are Chelsea Football Club playing for the Champions League and with big expectations, losing is not good enough and the performance was not good enough, that's why we lost.
"We took so many passes side to side and we never really opened them up.
"In the second half, we tried to play more direct but they were fighting well and kept organized, and 1-0 up so early became so much more difficult to break."
Recent reports from the Daily Mirrorare claiming that there was a bust up between the players and their manager during training this week and that club owner Roman Abramovich was witness to it all.
The more and more that comes from the Chelsea the more it looks like AVB is about to see the last of his days on the Stamford Bridge touch line.
What could perhaps be the nail in the Portuguese manager’s coffin is the admission of his form club Chairman Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa from FC Porto that AVB’s move to Chelsea was a mistake in Talksport:
"He left thinking that Chelsea was a unique opportunity, but I believe that was a mistake because there would have been others."
"He needs time to mould his own team and he can't do that as long as there are players, as I've heard, who exchange text messages with Mourinho, and (Roman) Abramovich knows this.”
"The only thing that will topple Villas-Boas is if he fails to qualify for the Champions League.”
However, despite his belief that failing to qualify for the Champions League is the only thing that will topple him, it seems that if AVB gets ousted from the FA Cup and the Champions League to early this season he could be out the door before he even has a chance to try to get the club back to qualification for a European return.
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