English football’s two best teams are from London and Manchester. On Sunday, they meet to decide this season’s Premier League title. Chelsea and Manchester United are not those clubs. Both have dropped from the local prominence they once commanded. If United have a top-four place nailed down, there is significant drop-off from Arsenal and Manchester City. Those two clubs’ gap to Chelsea becomes close to a chasm. Brentford, level on points, may soon enough surpass Chelsea as west London’s best team.
United are far closer to a renaissance, though there have been many false dawns since 2013. Both clubs share much in common in the betrayal of previous legends. Rebellion reigns among Chelsea fans. They staged a protest against their current ownership, joined this time by ultras from Strasbourg, both groups raging against the unwelcome changes BlueCo’s stewardship has brought, all for a debt mountain that makes little obvious sense.
If their team’s current revival lifts spirits, United fans maintain their revulsion for exiled landlords the Glazer family, though Sir Jim Ratcliffe – such a lifelong top Red he was a serious £4.25bn bidder to buy Chelsea in 2022 – is viewed with a disdain close to the levels of the Floridian family.
Chelsea’s ownership is a similar two-headed beast, Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali representing different takes on the investment capital asset class and by no means joined up in their thinking. That a ticketing company associated with Boehly is flogging FA Cup semi-final tickets at a buttock-clenching premium is just another way for rich men to fill their satchels.
This week came reports that Stamford Bridge attendances have not climbed above 40,000 all season; Saturday night’s crowd was 39,733. Nostalgia for Roman Abramovich is never far from supporters’ lips. Neither are chants of “we want our Chelsea back”. The Matthew Harding Stand told Eghbali in no uncertain terms he was unwanted in these parts. Frank Lampard got a chorus, too, after returning Coventry to the top tier, a level of romance long ago cashed out by his former club.
If their owners have found different means to make a mess of previously trophy-winning machines, of greying out the glory, both Chelsea and United’s chino-wearing overlords are finding new, unwelcome ways to make the paying public foot the bill. Paying ever more through the nose for a lower quality product in tough economic times can only bring resentment to the boil.
Michael Carrick, in his opening weeks in charge of United, seemed to have located the lost magic of the club. Against Leeds on Monday came a performance to place questions against his candidacy for a long-term contract. Names such as Julian Nagelsmann and Andoni Iraola, modern coaches happy to work within continental hierarchies, have been floated, though the Ruben Amorim experience has taken the sheen off such technocrats. Should Carrick return United to the Champions League, the job is surely his by right, though that does not take into account the ego of a billionaire wanting to make the big calls. At Stamford Bridge, United were scratchy but far more composed than an opponent whose ebbing of morale as the game ticked became striking.
Liam Rosenior’s defection to Chelsea led the reasons for the Strasbourg delegation crossing the Channel. Nobody likes their club to be an adjunct. Beating only Port Vale from Chelsea’s previous six games had brought great questions of Rosenior’s suitability. More is bound to follow as chances of returning to the Champions League dwindle. Not that Chelsea would have hopes of winning the European Cup a third time. Qualifying for the competiion is about the money, little more.
Chelsea’s first half was not unpromising, United’s unfamiliar defence put through plenty of discomfort. A lot was asked of Ayden Heaven, 19, the sole centre-back by profession, but he came through the challenge. A lack of legs in midfield was also problematic for United. Desiring quality in that area is near permanent. It will be again this summer when Casemiro departs. The old boy retains the habit of knowing where the ball will bounce and led the rearguard effort that heightened Chelsea’s frustrations.
United’s goal followed carelessness from Alejandro Garnacho, to the away fans’ delight. Not that Chelsea supporters have taken to Garnacho, either. He exemplifies the glut of players bought for little reason other than attempting to short the market, to profit from resale. Bruno Fernandes taking advantage of Garnacho and Jorrel Hato’s lack of application to supply Matheus Cunha had Rosenior shaking his head in now familiar fashion.
Rosenior’s permanent vigil on the sidelines follows the template of the modern coach but what does that transmit to players unresponsive to his claps and clamours? He is hardly alone in lacking credibility at Chelsea, the club losing its way almost as quickly as it loses money.