Praise for Cole, who came off the bench to score from a well-worked free kick by Frank Lampard, quickly turned to criticism from Mourinho of the midfield player’s tactical sloppiness. Opinion is often divided about the England international but rarely are both sides of the argument expressed by the same voice.
Mourinho was on a roll and reacted tartly when someone pointed out that Arsenal’s goal difference was plus 19 (26 scored, seven conceded) to Chelsea’s plus seven (8 for, 1 against). For good measure, he had a little dig at Sir Alex Ferguson’s team after the 1-1 draw at home to Middlesbrough which has left them nine points adrift of Arsenal, the Premiership leaders. Why not? “I think one of these days when we go top of the league, you will stop asking this type of question,” Mourinho said. “The difference between Arsenal and us is what, 18 goals scored, but they are just two points ahead of us, just two points. And in one weekend, that can change.
“We are unbeatable in ten matches and I think the teams that are playing against us should receive more criticism than us. They play defensive football, we are dominating opponents and try to score. I would accept the criticism that we do not score as many goals as we should but, this week, Manchester United scored seven and took only one point (in the Premiership). Maybe they should have scored five against Fenerbahçe (instead of six) and kept two for this afternoon.”
One suspects that this will not be the last time that Mourinho is brushing off accusations of dull football by pointing to a winning record. At least he had reasons to be positive, with Paulo Ferreira, Damien Duff and Cole impressing. Rafael Benítez had nothing at all to say to cheer up the Liverpool supporters. This was another dreadful away performance, the fourth in a row not to produce a point. Winner of the Spanish championship and Uefa Cup with Valencia last season, Benítez is clearly a very capable manager but he has yet to develop the pattern at Liverpool which Mourinho, who won the Portuguese league and European Cup with FC Porto, has quickly instilled at Stamford Bridge.
Benítez made five changes to the team that lost at Olympiakos in the Champions League in midweek but improvements were hard to detect. Jamie Carragher excelled at centre half, which was just as well given the frailty of many of his team-mates. Luis García and Harry Kewell were so lightweight they were in danger of being blown away in the wind. Xabi Alonso, a fine player enduring an awful afternoon, was so embarrassed by his free kick delivery that, after hitting his fourth straight into touch, he pulled his shirt over his head and longed to disappear.
One header and a deflected shot from outside the area by Djibril Cissé were all that Liverpool could muster by way of goalscoring opportunities in a performance that cried out for the return of Steven Gerrard’s dynamism. A goalless draw seemed to be the limit of their ambitions and that was beyond them from the 64th minute, when, after a clever Cole backheel, Alexei Smertin was upended by Alonso. Initially, Lampard’s free kick appeared to have been scuffed but there was a clever move afoot which fooled Liverpool. The ball was destined for Cole, who met it with a first time glance past Chris Kirkland. Despite the goal and defeat, Kirkland will have been delighted to last 90 minutes in his first game since March. Even that appeared beyond the injury-prone goalkeeper when he collided with Carragher in the second minute. Despite great pain, he was determined not to come off and will hope for a good run with Liverpool and, possibly, England.
He might have been beaten more than once but Lampard miscued a header and Kewell cleared off the line from Cole’s shot. It hardly amounted to a bombardment from Chelsea but given that Didier Drogba had been forced to withdraw before half-time with a groin injury and Adrian Mutu and Mateja Kezman were both unavailable through injury, Cole was Mourinho’s only attacking option from the bench.
Considering his impact in attack, the England player might have felt aggrieved to have been criticised but he did fail to track back in the last few minutes to Mourinho’s obvious fury. “The boss has no axe to grind with me,” he said. “He just wants to make me a better player. I will sit down and talk to him and listen to whatever he has to say.” But will he learn?