The Warm-Up: Chelsea entertain us after winning the title
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Published 16/05/2017 at 07:18 GMT
Plus: Pep Guardiola admits he would've been sacked 'at a big club', while Arsene Wenger has a moan.
Chelsea manager Antonio Conte celebrates at the end of the Premier League match between Chelsea and Watford
Image credit: Getty Images
TUESDAY’S BIG STORIES
The title won, Chelsea entertain us
With the title all wrapped up, relegation sorted, and only a slight chance of any movement in the Champions League spots, this Premier League season isn’t exactly finishing with a dramatic flourish, more a slight shrug of the shoulders. All we have left is the prospect that these last few remaining games can bring us some loose entertainment, the sort of games that happen when demob happy teams stop really caring and provide us with some chaos.
That’s more or less what happened at Stamford Bridge on Monday night, as Chelsea and Watford laid on seven goals as Antonio Conte’s much-changed champions ran out 4-3 winners.
John Terry, in what might be his final appearance at Stamford Bridge, opened the scoring, but then gifted Watford an equaliser. Cesar Azpilicueta and newly-appointed goal machine Michy Batshuayi made it 3-1, before Daryl Janmaat and Stefano Okaka levelled things, but then with two minutes remaining Cesc Fabregas grabbed the winner.
Oh, and apparently Diego Costa nipped into the press room at half-time to nick some of the lavish buffet laid on for the media. The little scamp.
Guardiola admits he would’ve been sacked ‘at a big club’
We’re not entirely sure if Pep Guardiola has displayed admirable honesty or just a little too much honesty here. Ahead of Manchester City’s final games of the season, in which they can salvage something from a disappointing campaign by qualifying for the Champions League, Guardiola admitted that at one of his previous clubs, he would have been shown the door for this season’s efforts.
Here they gave me a second chance and we will try to do it. In my situation at a big club I’m sacked. I’m out. Sure. Definitely. At the clubs I worked at before I am not here [for the following season], but here we have a second chance and we will try to do it better than this season.
It’s the phrase ‘at a big club’ that we’re interested in. Here is a team powered by new money, who have two league titles and a Champions League semi to show for all that spending, with the inevitable inferiority complex and doubts that they are indeed a big club, and their manager admits that they are in fact not a big club.
Well, we thought it was interesting…
Wenger questions teams who ‘take a breather’
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Arsene Wenger, Manager of Arsenal looks on prior to the Premier League match between Southampton and Arsenal at St Mary's Stadium on May 10, 2017 in Southampton, England.
Image credit: Getty Images
Arsene Wenger might be facing up to the possibility of missing out on the Champions League for the first time since he arrived in England, and it’s possible he’s not taking it well.
Wenger appeared to question the upstanding morals of some teams in the Premier League who perhaps aren’t going all-out for the points, having secured their safety some time ago. Teams like, for example, Stoke City, who have little to play for and lost to a Champions League-chasing side 4-1 at the weekend.
“It will be frustrating,” the Arsenal manager said. “I still think we just have to give our best to get to 75 points and, if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. At least we have done our job well to the end.
“We have two leagues. For example we had to fight very hard at Stoke and Southampton but some teams once they are safe just have a breather, which didn’t happen 10 years ago. The league has changed mentally. Morally it has changed a lot.”
We’re not convinced.
IN OTHER NEWS
Benfica celebrate with a doughnut
Benfica wrapped up the Portuguese title at the weekend, and they celebrated this success in a unique way, after defender Eliseu procured a small moped from somewhere and proceeded to jazz around the dressing room on it.
Your move, Diego Costa.
HEROES AND ZEROS
Hero: John Terry
A goal in possibly his last start at home, what better way to bow out as a Chelsea pl…oh, hang on…
Zero: John Terry
Who would’ve thought he would be the man to donate a goal to the opposition by being too tentative with a clearance…
HAT TIP
On a cool February afternoon, one of Syria’s greatest soccer players sits outside a mall on the Persian Gulf, paralyzed by a decision that he fears could kill him. For five years, Firas al-Khatib has boycotted the Syrian national team to protest dictator Bashar al-Assad, who bombed and starved Khatib’s hometown. Now, suddenly, Khatib seems to be having a change of heart. He is thinking about rejoining Syria for its final push to qualify for next year’s World Cup. His reasons are complicated, and he’s reluctant to express them. “I’m afraid, I’m afraid,” he says in stilted English. “In Syria now, if you talk, somebody will kill you — for what you talk, for what you think. Not for what you do. They will kill you for what you think.”
Set aside a little time, because this is a long one, but have a read of this quite remarkable tale of the Syrian football team on ESPN, by Steve Fainaru.
RETRO CORNER
For no real reason, here’s the 1996/97 goal of the season competition. It may well be a surprise that the first one didn’t win it.
COMING UP
There’s still a vague interest in who qualifies for the Champions League, but even that could be over tonight. Should Manchester City beat West Brom and Arsenal slip up against Sunderland, then it’ll all be done, and there will be absolutely nothing to play for on the final day. A shrug of an ending to the season, and no mistake.
Tomorrow’s Warm-Up is brought to you by Alex Chick, who never takes a breather.
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