Once upon a time far in the year 2014 Ghana's most hilarious boxers Braima Kamoko (Bukom Banku ) and Aryitey Powers were billed for a bout at the Ohene Djan Sports Stadium in Accra. It was a sell out and the anticipation was high despite the fact that everybody, except for Aryitey's family, knew that it was going to be a handicap win for Bukom Banku if there was such a thing in boxing.
Aryitey Powers, in a funny twist to the story, asked for a change of date because his pastor T.B. Joshua has warned him not to fight on that day or he'l lose. The date was changed to a further date and guess what. He still lost.
Moral of the story? You can't stop the inevitable.
Fast forward to present time and Liverpool are only beginning to understand this basic concept.
Brendan Rodgers as inexperienced as he is rested 7 players against Real Madrid in the CL on Wednesday to play Chelsea because that was his priority. As to it being a misplaced priority, I dont even want to go there but now it sure looks to have been his worst managerial decisions after losing both matches albeit it being narrow defeats.
There was no way Liverpool were going to win on Sunday against the league leaders. This wasn't exactly a David and Goliath fight but it wasn’t a battle of 2 equals either. Chelsea are in their best and bullish form at the moment and with the dip in form of Liverpool, their goal-shy strikers and also seriously lacking confidence this Chelsea will never let you off in that state.
Chelsea played a half-fit Diego Costa and Ramires and a humstrung Fabregas with only 2 days rest after travelling to play Maribor but still proved too much for them so it wasn’t a matter of rest and rotation for the players. Chelsea were just totally superior to their opponents. They had the best team, the best bench, the better coach and even the best plastic supporters who were still behind their teams when they went behind.
Lets pick them one by one.
Courtois is keeping Mignolet out of the Belgium national team and widely considered to be the best young goalkeeper so no argument there.
Southampton has conceded the fewest goals in the division but Chelsea is perceived to have the most composed but fierce defence. They are all warriors at the back led by the battle hardened John Terry and completed by Azpilicueta who provided the assist for the winning goal at Enfield. Cahill and Ivanovic completes the back four and this defence can hold any attack at bay.
Liverpool started with Johnson-Skrtel-Lovren-Moreno. A back four that has looked shaky all season. Glen Johnson is not at his best and Lovren was a better defender for Southampton. Skrtel only has more match experience than Chelsea's Kurt Zouma.
In Chelsea's midfield with Matic and Fabregas its easy to boss games like they did. Ramires provides some steel on the right and Oscar and Hazard are unplayable at the moment.
Gerrard has been a fantastic player for Liverpool and one of the finest Midfielders this game has seen. Emre Can is now improving for Liverpool and Henderson has yet to hit the heights of last season. Raheem Sterling has been a breeze for them this season but Coutinho on the other hand seems to have hit a pause on his development.
Should I talk about the strikers Mario? Well to put it simply one is battling Sergio Aguero for the golden boot and the other seems comfortable at the defence and competing with Gary Cahill for most goals and losing.
So this was really not a contest at all. Chelsea only had to show up for the 3 points and that is what they did.
Brendan Rodgers could have rested the whole team and he would have still lost because Chelsea would still have been the better team.
What more can say about Nemanja Matic? Guy is a rock. Mourinho says he's a giant by the way he plays. On a day when Fabregas was clearly not at his best the Serbian took it upon himself to sort out the midfield and boy what a fantastic job he did. After Emre Can's goal there was no room for their attacking players to move. Talk of a destroyer.
So Arsene Wenger has ruled his team out of the race, Dzeko believe Chelsea are just pretenders, Mourinho believes his team will definitely lose a game or more over the season and Southampton boss Koeman believes they can overtake Chelsea.
What I believe is that if any team has the know-how, the resource and the experience to maintain a lead at the top its Chelsea managed by Jose Mourinho. So if I were the rest I'll fight for the other Champions league slots left.
A word to a wise.
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