Last weekend’s Chelsea 1-2 loss at home to Liverpool was their first consecutive home loss in Roman Abramovic era and their fourth loss this season. The loss has put a serious dent on their title ambition and top four finish this season. Chelsea owner, Roman Abramovic, is known for his penchant for sacking managers since he took over at Chelsea in 2004. He has sacked six managers and paid a compensation fee to the tune of 69million pounds. For him to sack Villa Boas this early, he has to pay a compensation fee of 20million pounds.
After Carlo Ancelotti’s disastrous performances last season, where Chelsea finished without a trophy, he was sacked at the end of the season and Andre Villa Boas was brought in to reverse Chelsea’s misfortunes. Villa Boas came to Chelsea with a proud record of winning the Europa Cup and the Portuguese League last season. And like his mentor, Jose Mourinho, who Villa Boas worked under at Chelsea, he made the big money move to Chelsea. He was given the mandate to take Chelsea back to the pinnacle of English Football and to win Abramovic’s Holy Grail –the Champions League – while playing attractive football at the same time. At 34, he was the youngest manager in the history of Chelsea and questions were asked of his ability to handle the squad that has players like Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba who were age mates with him.
He started the season slowly with a goalless draw against Stoke City in his first competitive game as Chelsea Coach. Chelsea has already lost to their potential title challengers this season:3-1 against Man United, 5 -3 home loss to Arsenal, 1-0 loss to QPR? and the 2-1 loss to Liverpool last week; leaving them 12 points off league leaders, Man City. Chelsea have the worst defensive record among the big teams this season. They are known for their defensive abilities in the past but this season, they have been poor. The performances of the likes of John Terry, Ashley Cole, Jose Bosingwa and David Liuz have been below average.
Chelsea’s defence is a clear shadow of itself and disorganised, Captain John Terry, is not the defender he was three years ago. If Chelsea defence has been woeful, the attack has been worse. Fernando Torres has refused to justify his price tag and after scoring just three goals in 23 appearances for Chelsea, he is fast turning into one of the most expensive flops of all time. Didier Drogba is way past his best and has been hampered by injuries this season, while Nicholas Anelka has been spending more time on the bench this season.
For Villa Boas to succeed, he has to be ruthless. He should drop underperforming players: the likes of Terry, Torres, Mikel, Cole and Bosingwa should be dropped from the team. He needs to work on the defence and make reinforcement in the January transfer window. The man in the eye of the storm, Villa Boas, said he is not scared of being sacked. “When results like this happen, the head of the manager is called for execution.”I’m not worried by the comments. I want to get my team winning. “He didn’t pay 15m [Euros] to get me out of Porto and doesn’t want to pay another fortune to get me out of here,” said Villas-Boas, addressing the issue of Abramovich head-on. “It is not a question of the owner losing patience. We have set out to build something new at this club and the club is committed to what we are building for the future,” he stressed further.