ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE Chelsea 8 Wigan Athletic 0:CHELSEA'S TRIUMPHANT season has been a spectacle of glittering devastation. Those who professed to dislike the club for the chilly calculation of Jose Mourinho's time will now have to be affronted instead by a totally different sort of ruthlessness.
The return of the Premier League title to Stamford Bridge has been accomplished with an unstinting panache from players with so much hunger and verve that an hour-and-a-half hardly appears sufficient for them.
The left-back Ashley Cole certainly did not know when to stop – he knocked in the last of the eight goals. Wigan would have been in agony even if their centre-half Gary Caldwell had not been sent off when conceding the penalty that put his team 2-0 down. His absence might have been a small element, all the same, in the largest win by Chelsea in the top flight.
Carlo Ancelotti’s insatiable line-up have reduced the Premier League scoring record to dust. Their tally 0f 103 is half-a-dozen better that Manchester United’s total in 1999-2000. Statistics do get tiresome but Chelsea cannot get enough for the time being. It took a hat-trick to sate Didier Drogba, whose 29 goals made him the League’s top scorer. The numbers, ultimately, are only the palest representation of Chelsea’s vigour.
Ancelotti has performed an act of liberation. Talent ran riot at this club as it never has before. There is no parallel for this in the manager’s career, where, for instance, some 10 seasons at Juventus and Milan contained a single title. An unanticipated chemistry has been at work in London to cause a conflagration that will still be warming the hearts of Chelsea fans in decades to come.
In terms of the points total, the club did better under Mourinho and the line-up then was more reliable, but the irrepressibility flaunted now would virtually have been against the principles of the Portuguese. The present manager is practical, too, in his own fashion. The forwards and attacking midfielders were the better part of the squad he inherited and they have had his constant encouragement.
Just about everyone with a wish to bring the ball forward has come to look a better footballer under Ancelotti. It is scarcely the time to dwell on niggles, but from an ENglish point of view it is regrettable that Joe Cole, who played the last half-hour, has been supplanted by Florent Malouda. That development will have exasperated Fabio Capello, who attended this Chelsea spectacle.
The side took back the title after a four-year wait and this rout is a monument to the elan that has distinguished them. It is tempting to call this a grand finale. How Portsmouth must wish that really was the case. Despite coming last in the Premier League, they had the satisfaction of getting to the FA Cup final. That is an appointment they might now keep with trepidation. Portsmouth may have to hope that Chelsea have now gorged themselves.
It is likelier that the mood will be unaltered. In the closing league match Wigan were sure to be in torment, although the margin was beyond anyone’s guess. Those hoping for one last twist in the tale would have pointed to Chelsea’s 3-1 defeat at the DW stadium in September.
That ignored the fact Wigan often suffer greatly when they have to leave home. Roberto Martinez’ side arrived at Stamford Bridge with the Premier League’s second-worst defensive record in away matches, with 47 goals conceded already. Things deteriorated and by the close they had, by that measure, become the feeblest club of all in the top division.
Wigan were bright on the ball and vulnerable as soon as possession was lost. Romantics yearning for a cliffhanger abandoned hope in the sixth minute. Drogba’s free-kick came off the wall, Florent Malouda headed the ball down neatly and Nicolas Anelka shot home at the near post.
Chelsea were still circumspect immediately after that as they concentrated on neutralising Wigan but they knew that further goals awaited them.
Wigan’s fragility was glaring when Caldwell pulled down Lampard inside the area. His absurd decision to commit the foul brought a red card as well as the penalty, after 32 minutes, that the Chelsea midfielder converted as efficiently as ever.
There was a semblance of tension, with Drogba aggrieved to have been denied the opportunity to take the kick. Eventually, he was to cut loose. The Ivorian’s overhead kick was saved well by Mike Pollitt after 53 minutes but Lampard crossed and Drogba rose at the far post to head home.
He had thus put Chelsea 5-0 in front and was allowed to take the penalty that brought the next goal after Mario Melchiot had brought down Ashley Cole. The kick was converted with panache and the hat-trick recorded 10 minutes from the end when Drogba tucked home a loose ball after yet another Pollitt save. Scoring had started to seem elementary long before that. The third had come from Salomon Kalou, after a one-two with Lampard, and Anelka scored the fourth with a volley from a pass by the same provider.
The world is accustomed now to this exuberant and lethal Chelsea line-up. It is going to be quite a task to maintain the standard let alone make improvements, but Ancelotti will not be fretting about anything at all after such a triumph.
Guardian Service
