Chelsea/Totterham - points concede in 8 goals thriller
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Seem to me that grant cannot live up to big and crucial matches, points conceded always. When is the last time he won a big match? Blame it on the luck or his tactics?
3-1 up and still don't know how to contain it, IMO he had been given enough luck but just to throw it away to many times.Tottenham 4 Chelsea 4: Chelsea hopes fade as Grant's tactics are exposed in thriller
By Sam Wallace
Thursday, 20 March 2008
While Avram Grant fiddled, Chelsea's title ambitions burned. It was, quite simply, the most extraordinary game of the season so far - a conflagration of eight goals, three Tottenham comebacks and another set of bizarre tactical decisions from a Chelsea manager who just cannot get it right in the big games.
When the dust had settled after Robbie Keane's brilliant 88th-minute equaliser, Grant was left to wonder whether this was the moment that his club's title ambitions died. Manchester United are five points ahead, Chelsea's opportunity to draw level with Arsenal in second place has gone. Roman Abramovich cannot grumble about the entertainment value but he must take issue at the way Grant’s team are blowing their chances of a trophy.
This was the game that had everything. There was a sublime performance from Joe Cole, whose two goals made him the outstanding performer before Grant's decision to substitute him with Chelsea 4-3 up. And on the dark side there was an horrendous studs-up challenge from Ashley Cole before half-time that could have broke Alan Hutton's leg and was met with a terrible decision from Mike Riley who booked Cole instead of sending him off.
Against Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool and, in the last two games against Spurs, Grant has failed to beat the big beasts of English football. Juande Ramos picked the same XI that beat Chelsea in last month's Carling Cup final and, by the skin of his teeth, has again frustrated Grant. At 1-0, 3-1 and 4-3 up his Chelsea team should have won this game, yet by the end even Grant's own players seemed baffled by his substitutions.
With his team 3-2 in the lead, having led 3-1, the Chelsea manager tried to close out the game in Jose Mourinho-fashion by bolstering his defence. He sent on the Brazilian defender Alex da Costa as sweeper in what seemed like a counter-move to Ramos's decision to bring on Darren Bent, a third striker. But on the pitch, Chelsea lost their shape, Didier Drogba looked to the bench in despair and Tom Huddlestone equalised. The game was in the balance again.
Then, after Joe Cole had seemingly got Grant off the hook with a brilliant second goal to put his team 4-3 in the lead, the Chelsea manager struck again. Off came Cole this time for Michael Ballack and Chelsea were caught cold once again. After a clearance struck Ricardo Carvalho's back, Keane hit a 20-yard equaliser past Carlo Cudicini and Grant must have felt the cold sweat break out on his forehead. Ramos had out-thought him.
Tiny margins for error; huge consequences. The basis of the five trophies won by Mourinho was a sure-footedness in pressurised situations. It is the hallmark of all great managers and, once again, Ramos showed he has that judgement in abundance. Grant seems to lack it. The Spurs manager made two substitutions – his key call was Bent coming on for Ledley King on 68 minutes – and he got it right.
It was telling that, at 4-4 in the very last moments of the match, Grant was lucky that Spurs did not take all three points. The excellent Dimitar Berbatov twisted into space and had a clear shot at goal that only Cudicini's desperate save stopped. Sunday at Stamford Bridge provides Grant with his shot at redemption against Arsenal, but on this evidence there is no doubt which team will win if it comes down to the manager's decisions.
Take a deep breath and go back to the start. Four minutes into the game and Drogba met John Terry's peach of a cross with a downward header past Paul Robinson. It was the Ivorian's first Premier League goal since 11 September, his first goal in any competition since the Carling Cup final.
1-1: on 12 minutes Jonathan Woodgate, who had lost Drogba for the first goal, headed home Jermaine Jenas' free-kick for the equaliser. 2-1 to Chelsea: on 19 minutes Joe Cole's throughball took a touch off Drogba before Michael Essien lifted a brilliant chip over Robinson. Then it started to get nasty.
Terry's knee caught Berbatov's head as the two tumbled in the Chelsea area. Lampard went straight through Jenas and at half-time the Spurs man was substituted for Huddlestone. Riley did not even book Lampard but his worst decision was to come. Just before half-time, Hutton moved in to control a ball by the touchline and from out of the frame came Ashley Cole, lunging, stretching and with studs raised. Had Hutton's foot been grounded when Cole connected with his leg then the injury would have been disastrous. The card was yellow but should have been red.
3-1 to Chelsea: on 52 minutes, Joe Cole took the long route around Pascal Chimbonda in the right channel before striking a low shot that cannoned off Robinson's legs and in. 3-2: six minutes later the Tottenham comeback began. Huddlestone's corner found Berbatov who flighted a header into the corner. 3-3: on 75 minutes a loose corner fell to Huddlestone who drilled in the equaliser.
The finale. 4-3: another goal from Joe Cole who burst through and struck the ball into the roof of Robinson's goal on 80 minutes and was then substituted. 4-4: Keane's riposte, White Hart Lane in raptures. In the 90th minute, Grant sent on Andrei Shevchenko but it was a bit late then to be changing a team that had already been pulled apart by its own manager.
Goals: Drogba (3) 0-1; Woodgate (12) 1-1; Essien (20) 1-2; J Cole (52) 1-3; Berbatov (61) 2-3; Huddlestone (75) 3-3; J Cole (80) 3-4; Keane (8
4-4.
Tottenham Hotspur (4-4-2): Robinson; Hutton, Woodgate, King (Bent, 6,
Chimbonda; Lennon, Jenas (Huddlestone, h-t), Zokora, Malbranque; Keane,
Berbatov. Substitutes not used: Cerny (gk), Tainio, Dawson.
Chelsea (4-1-4-1): Cudicini; Ferreira (Shevchenko, 89), Carvalho, Terry, A Cole; Makelele; J Cole (Ballack, 82), Essien, Lampard, Kalou (Alex, 71); Drogba. Substitutes not used: Hilario (gk), Wright-Phillips.
Referee: M Riley (Yorkshire).
Booked: Tottenham Keane, Huddlestone; Chelsea J Cole, A Cole.
Man of the match: J Cole.
Attendance: 36,178 -
Grant is nothing but useless, he can't perform under pressure situations and he has gotten so many chances.
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Everytime i see Grant do subsitutions in a match, i want to cry!
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he can trash weaker teams, but defintely not teams like Arsenal/Man U/Tottenham.
how the F did cudicni conceded 3 goals in just 15mins? cannot believe it!!!!
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He's tactically naive and clueless..
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A repreat of the Aston Villa match...
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Guess Roman dunno wat to do now.
Lose Title cups - lose face.
Admit wrong to sack Jose - also lose face!
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And Grant post match comments are getting more ludicrous, he actually said that every match he loses is a big one and ever game he wins is a normal one. but its a fact that he hasn't won any of the top 7 teams yet and he actually dared to call the fa cup match against Barnsley a small one when we are the reigning champions.
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Don't blame Grant lah... I think if not for him Chelsea wouldn't be challenging at this stage already... Jose probably wonldn't be able to keep it going when a number of injuries plus the ACN during Jan kept out many of their players... Jose didn't have so many absentees last season and he still couldn't cope with it...
To be fair, Grant has done quite a good job already... And Chelsea seem to play nicer football as well since he took over... Not so much of the boring boring stuff nowadays...
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Jose could beat the top teams and doesn't make much untactical changes to the squad that even leaves the player questioning their role.
As a Man Utd fan you will be happy with Grant because he cannot win teams that have quality. And please, the matches that Grant won during the acon and injury period, it was all 1-0 and 2-0 which was basically the Jose's team. He didn't change anything. The only time he try to change, he failed emphatically.
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i just saw ashley cole's tackle on hutton.. yeah it wasnt malicious intent.. but its comparable to martin taylor's.. imagine if hutton's leg end up the same as eduardo.. everyone would probably start to call for ashley's ban.. was just wondering lols.. de tackle damn shag.. =( but kudos to cole for apologizing.. and some of grant's comments are like .....