A lot has been said and written about the fact that Mikel has not yet scored
a goal in the English Premier League. While Mikel can be partly blamed for that,
the bulk of the blame (if we can call it that) lies in Chelsea's system of play.
Most people don't know this but Mikel is usually under strict instructions from
the coaches not to leave his defensive midfield position.

For instance, if Chelsea is taking a free-kick or corner kick, everybody moves down
to the opponent's 18 yard box. But Mikel does not, even in dire situations. A perfect
example of this can be seen from what happened in the 88th minute of the Champions
League final match against Bayern Munich. As you may remember, Chelsea were down
1 - 0 at that point and had a corner kick. In such a desperate situation, you will
expect every Chelsea player to get down to Bayern's 18 yard box. And indeed Chelsea
did send 8 players to the box making the commentator wonder if Petr Cech the goalkeeper
will join the attack too. But surprisingly, Mikel was not there.

The picture below captures that very moment. As you can see, Chelsea had several
players inside the box but Mikel was nowhere near the box. Rather he was well
outside protecting Chelsea's midfield (see Mikel in the lower right portion of
the picture keeping an eye on Bayern danger man Franck Ribery).

Events such as this occur every day in Chelsea games. Non-Chelsea fans are
apparently not aware of it. So next time, don't blame Mikel for not scoring for
Chelsea, blame the system.

It appears that my original post previously hidden has now been published.
Moderator, please delete this if you can.