Chelsea’s starting lineup for success over narcissism

Fernando Torres has been Chelsea’s most impressive striker so far.

On the other hand, Swindon Town, Chelsea’s second opponent in those two wins, was the perfect confidence bust for a team struggling to get rhythm. Beyond isolated long distant shots, there wasn’t much to worry about for Cech. With Azpilicueta playing exactly where he should be, as a starting right-back, Chelsea’s forward movement was more fluid. The Spanish right-back was very solid both in defence and attack, even finding Torres on the edge of the box with his first cross. That constant threat down the sidelines is absent every time he is relegated to the bench. His connection with Mata, which expertly extends plays through the flanks thanks to his heritage from La Furia Roja, was very productive.

Moreover, Mata made a constant effort to contribute more in defence as requested by the coach, and his lack of timing in some instances of the game, both defensively and offensively, are just the reflection of being benched for Mourinho’s absurd reasons. Also, it was a night for the Spanish contingent to shine, Torres played very well, scoring once and assisting Ramirez with a defence splitting pass for the second goal.

If anything, Torres confirmed that he is a level above Eto’o and Ba for the starting striker role, with his only flaw, on both this and the sub appearance vs. Fulham, being that he was too unselfish passing the ball to a better positioned teammate instead of taking the shot himself. Besides, while the attack functioned better after the inclusion of Torres (in both games), it is also worth mentioning that due to Ramirez’ injury during the first half, John Terry played the second half, forcing David Luiz to the midfield; that move worked just as I advertised.

In the midfield, Luiz, always comfortable going forward, redeemed himself after playing poorly on defence. He made some good connections in forward plays, and made his presence felt in the middle of the pitch. All that, after he almost cost Chelsea a goal while playing as a central defender when he had the brilliant idea of performing a back-heel pass on the edge of Chelsea’s box with Swindon’s striker on top of him. Luckily for Chelsea, the ball bounced back Luiz’ way. Therefore, a great game for the Spaniards, and once again, Ivanovic should be Terry or Cahill’s partner in the centre, not Luiz.

So, after four out of the seven matches before the International break (October 7th) already played, and the two wins coming only from the “easy” games, it is clear that the visit to Tottenham is the deciding test about Mourinho’s starting line up choices for the last month. If he decides to play the usual suspects – Ivanovic, Luiz out of position plus Eto’o as a striker – and does not play the pieces that are performing better, Chelsea will suffer to get a result. Thus, it may be time to realize that Mourinho is only pleasing himself at the expense of the team.

PS: Yes, we all know that he is a megalomaniac that cares only about him looking good, but when that doesn’t translate into winning football and blurs his better coaching judgement, Chelsea needs to start looking for a different kind of dictator.