FanPost

The Chelsea FC way

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Chelsea is a big club. Big clubs are big because they win or have won trophies. Some clubs are bigger than others. How big a club is often down to the number of trophies won or the size of fan base or the size of a stadium or opinion. Opinions can be influenced by many factors: personal preference, pressure, environment or the way the clubs won their trophies. The last factor shouldn't be a factor but it is and it affects the best of us.

Barcelona is universally loved by the masses and the neutrals because of the "beautiful" football that they play. The great Barca side that dominated the world, in the years of 07-11 where, for a while, everyone's second favourite team and where never begrudged any trophy that they won. On the other end of love spectrum is us. The club everyone loves to hate, Chelsea Football Club. Big daddy Roman took over the club and through many transfers and managerial casualties, turned us into the enemies of football.

To be honest, I don't really care about that title. It suites us rather well don't you think?

However, one contributing factor to why we are despised by many is the way we play our football. "You spend so much on attacking players but you play like a League 2 side", "You only won because you parked the bus!", is what I constantly hear all time. Fans and pundits alike. The memories of the beautiful play of a team led by Gianfranco Zola, Ruud Gullit and the powerful yet efficient side lead by Robben, Lampard, Drogba, J Cole are often forgotten and replaced by the "Bus parkings". The 4-2 domination of Barcelona in the 04-05 Champions League put Chelsea in the limelight as a team that played nice football with a blend of steel and ruthlessness. What happened to that?

Our desperation to win the Champions League, the only competition we had left to win, eventually led to our owner's patience wearing thin which reflected on the tactics of Robbie Di Matteo who led to us being as defensive as defensive can be. Instead of trying to play football ourselves, we tried to stop Barca and Bayern from playing football. The emotion and thrills of a truly wonderful tournament capped of with a wonderful final (for Chelsea fans) temporarily disguised the ugliness of how we won. Instead of being brave, we submitted. We accepted our inferiority even before a ball was kicked. The following two summers featured lavish spending on many attacking midfielders to help us progress to a more attacking style which briefly worked under Di Matteo with the birth of Mazacar but it wouldn't last long. Two Super Cups later and, with Mourinho back, Chelsea reverted to Champions League Final mode with more of a threat going forward. The Bus parkings at many big Premier League clubs around the grounds haven't really helped either.

What am I getting at, you may ask?

Well, basically, Chelsea should play better footie. Am I saying play like Barcelona? No. Chelsea should be aiming for complete football, as good in attack as they are in defence. Power and skill. Steel and flair because in my opinion, that's the best way to play. If you don't believe me, re-watch Bayern Munich's 7-0 aggregate thrashing of Barcelona or perhaps some games of Borussia Dortmund over the past 3 years. Total football at its best. Finally, I do believe that this is a style Mourinho is pursing and his signings since he has taken over have reflected this. Will we see it this season? Most likely as we saw glimpses of it last season against that game at the Etihad and the 6-0 demolition of Arsenal. Total football is the right way to play. It was, will and should be the Chelsea FC way*.

*Cheesy ending achievement unlocked

This post was inspired by Chaos Zero with his comprehensive comment on this article (28th July 2014) which is rightfully blue.

This FanPost was contributed by a member of the community and was not subject to any sort of approval process. It does not necessarily reflect the opinions held by the editors of this site.

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