An opinion piece on football.

Title:

Champions Chelsea: Great, not Boring by Chinedu Nnarh

On Sunday afternoon, Chelsea Football Club of England clenched the 2014-2015 English Premier League title with the highest point difference in Premier League history, underlining both their unquestionable superiority over the chasing pack and the overall poor quality of most teams this season. A tense and hardfought 1-0 victory over Crystal Palace on Sunday afternoon was all that was needed to seal their first league title since 2010, with three games to spare in the most difficult and competitive league in the world.

While other top teams, including erstwhile defending champions Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal and last season's surprise package Liverpool, capitulated at various points in the season, Chelsea have continued to grind out victories week in, week out. For the first time since records began, a team has consecutively led from the first month of the season to its last.

Whilst some have criticised Jose Mourinho's pragmatic and defensive approach in the second half of the season after an astonishing start, few – not even his most ardent critics and detractors – can argue against its effectiveness.

In the nascent stages of the season, the Blues blew away opponents at will, employed an expansive and attractive style of football and cemented their place at the summit of the table, much to the adulation of fans and neutrals alike. However, towards the second half of the season, they ran out of steam – just like other top teams in the country – following a combination of injuries and fatigue occasioned by grueling fixtures and continental engagements . But, unlike the other perennial top teams in the league, they didn't stop winning; they merely expanded the distance between them and the ones below.

Yes, the intensity dropped along the line and the goals decreased, but the only thing that matters in football, the Three Points, didn't stop coming.

While some unrepentant detractors have criticized his team for this perceived lack of flair, Jose Mourinho last week reacted in a whimsical manner typical of him: " People talk about style and flair but what is that? Sometimes I ask myself about the future, and maybe the future of football is a beautiful, green grass carpet without goals, where the team with more ball possession wins the game.

"Maybe, when my grandsons play, football will be a game without goals and we’ll just enjoy people passing the ball. But when football is played without goals, you will say it’s boring. You will say bring the goals back. For me, it’s still about putting the ball in your opponents’ net, and keeping it out of your own."

True that. There's only one thing that matters in football: victory. And there are just two ways of doing that: putting the ball in your opponent's net, and keeping it out of your own net. This was especially proven in April's home showdown with Manchester United where the Red Devils had 71% of the possession, but lost 1-0 to the Blues.

When the flair deserted them, focus, teamwork and discipline didn't. No-one in England apart from City have scored more goals than Chelsea this season and no club in the league has kept as many cleansheats and conceded fewer goals. Consequently, no team has lost a fewer number of matches and won as many games as the Blues.

Manchester City and Arsenal play the most expansive and attractive football in England, but they are both languishing 13 and 16 points respectively behind a "defensive" and "boring" Chelsea, the crowned champions and next season's defending champions.

As Alan Pardew, the manager of Chelsea's Sunday beaten opponents Crystal Palace, succinctly put it, "They thoroughly deserve to win it and they're a credit to football. This Chelsea team were flamboyant in the first half of the season and did the job in the second half of the campaign. They have all the tools you need to win it."

Contact Chinedu Nnarh through email via ChineduNnarh@gmail.com

Twitter: @ChineduNnarh

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absolutely great writeup from the OP. My sentiments exactly. But sports threads rarely make the FP here on NL if they are not live matches or a celebrity gossip with Mikel Obi in it, lets hope this one does.

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