The Times

Five steps in Chelsea’s season of success

The champions scored 103 goals on their march to the title but they also showed an ability to win the important games

Matt Hughes, Deputy Football Correspondent

Just before breaking into a primeval scream as he serenaded an ecstatic stadium yesterday evening Carlo Ancelotti praised his players for their efforts during a fantastic season, an understandable claim that tells only half the story. As the final league table indicates Chelsea have won the Premier League title by both an inch and a mile.

The eventual winning margin over Manchester United was only a point, but a glimpse at the sides’ respective goal differences reveals Chelsea’s overall superiority. In addition to reclaiming a trophy they last lifted three years ago Ancelotti’s players seemed intent on rewriting the record books, registering the highest goals tally in Premier League history of 103 and smashing their own record of 140 goals in all competitions over a season. “Boring, boring Chelsea,” as the home fans sang sarcastically in admiration.

If Chelsea had been more boring, more functional, the title race may not have extended until the season’s final day, but what would have been the fun in that? Chelsea may not have been the most consistent of recent champions, but they won the most important matches when it mattered, demonstrating an impressive big-game mentality.

Ancelotti highlighted last month’s victory at Old Trafford, but Chelsea also did the double over Arsenal and Liverpool, some of several key staging posts on the way to the title.

1: Chelsea 2 Liverpool 0, October 4

Ancelotti enjoyed a perfect start to his life at Stamford Bridge by leading Chelsea to comfortable victories in their first six matches, but this impressive beginning came to a juddering halt at the end of September. A shock defeat away to Wigan Athletic characterised by some sloppy defending was followed by a scrappy 1-0 win over Apoel, the minnows from Cyprus, in the Champions League, after which an angry Ancelotti warned his players that they needed to raise their standards.

Liverpool’s visit to a ground where they had won a significant victory

12 months earlier presented Chelsea with their first real test of the campaign, which they passed in a convincing fashion. Nicolas Anelka scored the first goal of an attritional contest that provided the first evidence of the lack of creativity that would prove Liverpool’s undoing, before Florent Malouda added a late second, his first significant contribution of what would develop into a magnificent season.

2: Arsenal 0 Chelsea 3, November 29

If the victory over Liverpool revealed more about Chelsea’s resilience at grinding out results and performing under pressure, their visit to the Emirates Stadium showed the first signs of the other quality that would come to define their title triumph: the ability to destroy almost every opponent when the mood took them. A promising Arsenal side were not just beaten, but beaten up before half-time, with Didier Drogba at his rampaging best on his way to winning the Premier League Golden Boot with 29 goals.

The Ivory Coast striker scored twice and intimidated the otherwise impressive Thomas Vermaelen into scoring an embarrassing own goal, making it all the more bizarre that a bitter Arsène Wenger claimed after the match that Drogba had “not done a lot” except for his goals.

3 Portsmouth 0 Chelsea 5, March 24

For the eventual champions to thrash the Premier League’s bottom club would not ordinarily merit a mention, but in the circumstances this victory was one of Chelsea’s most significant victories of the year.

Of all the intermittent depressions that hovered over an occasionally turbulent season the one most likely to harden into permanence came after the Champions League exit to Inter Milan. A dismal draw away to Blackburn Rovers that allowed United to regain the lead followed, so Chelsea arrived at Fratton Park on a stormy night under considerable pressure. Ancelotti’s side began badly, but dug in to demonstrate their character and scored five goals before beating Aston Villa 7-1 the next Saturday. Chelsea’s final eight Premier League fixtures yielded a staggering 33 goals as they took the title in style.

4: Man United 1 Chelsea 2, April 3

If any of their 38 matches can be said decisively to have swung a compelling title race back in their direction, this was it. Chelsea’s victory at the home of the champions extended their lead at the top and ensured that their fate would remain in their own hands during the run-in.

“This was the key as our confidence went up and United’s went down a little,” Ancelotti said.

Chelsea enjoyed some fortune in the shape of Wayne Rooney’s ankle injury and the fact that Drogba was in an offside position before scoring their second goal, but thoroughly deserved to win nonetheless.

Malouda was outstanding, Joe Cole produced his one significant performance of a disappointing season by scoring the opening goal and Ancelotti’s gamble of leaving the half-fit Drogba on the bench paid off.

5: Liverpool 0 Chelsea 2, May 2

John Terry did not get his hands on the Premier League trophy until 6.15pm yesterday, although this was the victory that made it possible.

Chelsea started poorly at Anfield, but grabbed an early goal as they have done repeatedly in recent weeks and ran out comfortable winners, to leave United praying for a miracle. For all their off-field problems and blips on the pitch Chelsea’s peaks have been higher and their troughs much shorter than those of their rivals, making them worthy champions.

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Tantrums and tiaras as Didier Drogba says sorry

Matt Dickinson

Didier Drogba is as bright and generous as he is melodramatic and tempestuous. He is the striker you want on your team, and the player you love to hate.

He is a walking mass of contradictions and that was never more apparent than yesterday when his Chelsea team-mates thought about throttling him, but ended up giving him a hug. “That’s what Didier’s like,” Frank Lampard said afterwards.

Hugely talented and utterly infuriating.

Each year Chelsea have decided that Drogba’s strengths outweigh the downsides but there is always a moment when they question their own judgment; his red card in the Champions League final in 2008, his wild-eyed rant at a Norwegian referee last year.

This season it came yesterday when, with the title yet to be secured, Drogba effectively went on strike for 15 minutes.

His tantrum, when Lampard refused to let him take the penalty that put Chelsea 2-0 up, and saw Gary Caldwell dismissed, had to be seen in its full 15-minute meltdown to be to believed.

Outraged that he might miss the Golden Boot for top Premier League scorer — he and Wayne Rooney were tied on 26 each at kick-off — Drogba removed himself from the action despite the exhortations from team-mates and the bench. When someone gave him the ball, he shot disinterestedly from about 40 yards. Both teams were playing with ten men.

At half-time he was still complaining, so much so that Carlo Ancelotti had to tell him to shut up and start playing football.

A second half hat-trick duly followed, allowing Drogba to depart with the match ball and the Golden Boot as well as his championship medal.

Through his joy, there was also a sheepish apology.

“I wasn’t happy at first,” Drogba admitted of the penalty incident, “but I realised on the pitch that I was making a big mistake.” Quite where the petulant streak comes from perhaps Drogba himself does not know. It is contradicted by his behaviour off the pitch, where he sets an example that should be followed by more of his fellow professionals.

He is a UN ambassador but it is not only his time that he gives generously — he is pouring millions of pounds of his own money into a new hospital in Abidjan, the largest city of Ivory Coast.

“When the doors of this hospital open for the first time, it will be the greatest achievement of my life,” he has said.

He will be the big African star of the first World Cup in that continent and has made it on to the cover of Time as one of “the 100 most influential people in the world”, which may be pushing it but reflects his soaring off-field status.

Drogba certainly remains a hugely influential member of this Chelsea team, even given the advance of Nicolas Anelka.

The fans whom Drogba sprayed with champagne at the final whistle voted him their player of this championship-winning season and, while Chelsea are looking to spend big money on a striker this summer — with Alexandre Pato top of the list if Fernando Torres is priced out of the market — they are not looking forward to the day when Drogba has to be replaced.

Chelsea have been hugely dependent on him ever since José Mourinho signed him, never more so than this season. Lampard has been superb once more, but it was Drogba who most regarded as the only real challenger to Rooney for individual honours.

Clearly those accolades matter hugely to him, but one could not help wondering yesterday whether the Golden Boot crossed Rooney’s mind, or whether he was too preoccupied with the fate of his team.

Drogba cared — boy, he cared — about that Golden Boot and he finishes the season with 29 strikes, the deadliest forward in the Premier League.

But when the trophy presentation at Stamford Bridge was delayed yesterday so that a pram could be pushed out of the tunnel, one had to wonder whether Drogba was inside. Goals and tantrums — no one does them better.

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Are Chelsea really building for the future?

Oliver Kay, Football Correspondent

The most tantalising thought amid the celebrations at Stamford Bridge last night was that this time Chelsea may be building something enduring. The Premier League trophy shimmered as it was paraded by John Terry, but so, five minutes earlier, had the FA Youth Cup, a trophy that, in supporters’ minds, represents a dazzlingly bright future.

Chelsea won the FA Youth Cup last week with an impressive 3-2 aggregate win over Aston Villa, their first such success since back-to-back victories in the early 1960s when talents such as Peter Bonetti, Ron Harris, Terry Venables and Bobby Tambling were emerging.

There is an excited buzz coming out of Chelsea about the Class of 2010 — Jeffrey Bruma, an assured Dutch central defender, Josh McEachran, a skilful Oxford-born midfield player, and Jacob Mellis, a midfield player from Nottingham, not to mention Gaël Kakuta, who missed the final through injury. With Roman Abramovich eager to trim the wage bill this summer, the expectation at Stamford Bridge is that some of the youngsters will start to break into the first-team squad next season.

The challenge, though, is in turning a theoretical "golden generation"

into a reality. As Frank Arnesen, the club’s sporting director, said:

"It’s not easy for the coach to bring players into the first team. A club like Chelsea is all about winning. You can’t have young players in the team and not be winning."

It is true. Football seems to be a young man’s game these days — the two players touted as the best in the world, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, are 22 and 25 respectively — yet to play regular first-team football as a teenager for a top club, you have to be exceptional. Jack Hobbs, the Leicester City defender, reflected yesterday on his time at Liverpool by saying he would have had to be "world-class" to make the grade.

Abramovich has spent countless millions on improving the facilities at Chelsea’s youth academy and on recruiting dozens of players identified by Arnesen. Yet there is an almighty difference in having an "academy that is second to none" — as Sven-Göran Eriksson said of Chelsea’s last September, having no doubt been impressed by the sauna facilities — and having a culture in which young talent is allowed and encouraged to thrive, as it does at Arsenal, albeit not quite as successfully as Arsène Wenger would wish.

Much of it will come down to Carlo Ancelotti’s willingness to play the youngsters and, beyond that, to whether Abramovich is prepared to give his coach the time to plan for the long term.

Otherwise yesterday might be the closest the Youth Cup winners come to the Premier League.

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John Terry draws delight from Manchester United’s woe

Chelsea captain rubs salt into Manchester United’s wounds by revealing his enjoyment at their misery at relinquishing the title

Matt Hughes, Deputy Football Correspondent

John Terry rubbed salt into Manchester United’s wounds last night by revealing his enjoyment at their misery at losing possession of the Barclays Premier League title.

The Chelsea captain claimed everyone at the club had been hurting since 2007 as Sir Alex Ferguson’s side won three championships in a row and he relished the fact that it is now United’s turn to experience the pain of defeat.

Terry’s achievement at lifting a third title brings a glorious end to a turbulent domestic season, in which he has lost the England captaincy, but his next aim is to emulate United by establishing a longstanding dynasty.

“This feels magnificent,” Terry said. “It’s been a hard three years not winning the Premier League, but it’s ours today and we deserve it.

We’ve got it back now and we need to do what United have done and maintain it for a few years.

“Nothing could have made me more determined to win the trophy. I’ve been hurting inside for three years seeing United lift it — and I promise you every one of us has sat there and watched it. It’s their turn to sit there and watch today.”

Terry praised Carlo Ancelotti, the manager, for soothing an occasionally troubled squad. “Carlo has brought great calmness and a great atmosphere,” Terry said. “He gives us free spirit to go out and play as we want to. Tactically we know what we’ve got to do, but he leaves it down to us to play our own game.”

Ancelotti deserves considerable credit for becoming only the second foreign manager after José Mourinho to win the title in his first season in England, and hopes it will be the first of many trophies he brings to Stamford Bridge. Chelsea are favourites to win the Double for the first time in their history by beating Portsmouth in the FA Cup Final on Saturday, and will be confident of challenging on all fronts next season.

“After the first year I hope to stay here a long time and win a lot of titles,” Ancelotti said. “I think that this club will have a good future because these players are not so old and we have a very good squad, for next year and the years after.

“We had a fantastic season, not only by winning the Premier League but because we showed a good style on the pitch. We found the right way to win, playing good football and maintaining good fair play on the pitch, and giving joy to the fans that saw our team. Our aim was to play good football. We [were] able to do this a lot of times this season.”

The only blemish for Chelsea on an afternoon of celebration was the extraordinary behaviour of Didier Drogba, who indulged in a repeated show of dissent after Frank Lampard insisted on taking the first penalty of the game. Lampard allowed Drogba to take the second and the Ivory Coast striker finished with a hat-trick to end the season as the Premier League’s top-scorer with 29 goals, after which he issued a half-hearted apology.

“We were 1-0 up and I wanted to score, but I had to get over this frustration in the second half and come back,” Drogba said. “We played so well [that] I knew I’d have some chances to score. I wasn’t happy at first, but I know I was making a big mistake. Frank was right. For a team that’s supposed to be too old, we can be proud of what we have achieved today.”