Mikel lucky as Joe Cole puts Chelsea second
By Patrick Barclay
Sport.Telegraph, 2nd December 2007
Was this just an off-day for a good referee or yet another symptom of a more
general malaise? The question arises because Howard Webb, who was understandably
hailed as England's top official both before and after his exemplary handing
of the recent draw between Arsenal and Manchester United, did little here but
enhance the view that leniency, in the Premier League, is going mad.
Webb finished up showing the yellow card to eight players, five from the home
side, but took too long to stamp proper authority on those who appeared willing
to do anything - with the possible exception of taking part in a move of
sustained elegance -to secure a result.
Although the excesses were principally their fault, Webb was responsible for
the most appalling miscarriage of justice when John Obi Mikel stayed on the
field in the 37th minute despite having scissor-tackled Scott Parker from
behind. A double red card it merited, yet Webb contented himself with yellow:
the punishment he had just meted out, correctly, to Matthew Etherington for
tugging a shirt and Nobby Solano, also correctly, for a trip.
No wonder feuds continued. No wonder Parker, before being withdrawn towards
the end, launched a quite ridiculous challenge on his former clubmate Wayne
Bridge which missed; this time Webb chose to issue no sanction at all. Coming
on top of last weekend's eyebrow-raisers - or, in the case of the knee-high
assault by Reading's Steve Hunt at Manchester City, stomach-turners - it was
enough to make a visitor ask what you have to do to incur a red card in this
country (dive twice, I suppose).
Avram Grant, savouring the extension of his unbeaten run since becoming
Chelsea manager to 14 matches in all competitions, observed only that West
Ham were lucky not to have more cards against their names. Less predictably,
West Ham's Alan Curbishley neglected to dwell on the Mikel issue and
Chelsea's luck in having a full complement of men with which to secure
victory that keeps them up with the League's pacemakers. And so you will
have to take my word for it that such gladiatorial rubbish as characterised
the first half was no substitute for football.
In fairness to Grant and Chelsea, West Ham did defend very well - it was not
just a matter of vigour - for 75 minutes until a foray down Route One broke
their resistance. A long clearance by Carlo Cudicini was headed on, first by
Didier Drogba and then by Salomon Kalou, leaving the increasingly influential
Joe Cole to survive a suspicion of offside, veer wide of the outrushing
Robert Green, and smash a rising drive inside the near post. Grant's team
had been threatening, however, only since the resumption, which saw Frank
Lampard shoot off target and Green bravely deny both Drogba and John Terry.
Once ahead, Chelsea relaxed and, after Drogba had nodded wide from a cross by
the substitute Shaun Wright-Phillips, Joe Cole fed Mikel, who instantly
contrived a delightful flip over the defence for Kalou, who failed to bring
it down with only Green to beat, enabling the goalkeeper to collect. Nothing
in the match sent the spirits soaring like this piece of Mikel class: such
beauty, after that beast of a tackle earlier. There was, of course, no
explanation from Webb of why the young Nigerian was allowed to play on. Maybe
the referee was temporarily blinded by the laser pointer some nitwit of a fan
had been shining in Drogba's eyes; the Ivorian complained about it halfway
through the first half and stewards appeared to intervene successfully.
It was, all in all, a particularly ugly 45 minutes and Terry did not
distinguish himself at the conclusion of a week in which Chelsea had been
charged with failing to control their players (for the second time this
season). After Cudicini, in trying to grasp a fine through pass from the
excellent Hayden Mullins, had let the ball slip, Luis Boa Morte swung a
boot quite legitimately yet was barged by the Chelsea and England captain
as if he had done something dangerous. Terry deserved a yellow card for
that. Then came Mikel's outrageous intervention with a worse tackle than
that which prompted his dismissal against Manchester United in September.
You could imagine the consternation in Chelsea's PR department, even before
Terry was belatedly cautioned for dissent in the closing stages. We are
led to believe they spent last week compiling a DVD of other teams' behaviour
which suggested they, Chelsea, were more sinned against than sinning. They
will not be updating it on this evidence.
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