Tag: Chelsea

Chelsea attempt to trick Arsenal into keeping Arsene Wenger by letting them win another FA Cup

With the Premier League title already in hand, Antonio Conte plays the long game

(Chelsea/Twitter)

After Arsenal beat Chelsea 3–0 way back in September, their seasons have taken drastically different trajectories. Chelsea went on to methodically reclaim the Premier League title while Arsenal finished outside the top four for the first time in nearly two decades, had calls for their manager to be sacked become the hottest meme both on Earth and in its skies, and were once again booted out of the Champions League by the club (Bayern Munich) rumored to be taking their best and most disgruntled player (Alexis Sanchez).

Given all this, it seemed like a foregone conclusion that Chelsea would complete their double in the FA Cup final and Arsenal would complete their unravelling. But when the two teams took the pitch at Wembley, it quickly became evident that they had both reverted to their September form.

Alexis Sanchez gave Arsenal the lead in just the fourth minute with a goal that should’ve been disallowed for both a handball and offside. But instead of battling back, Chelsea let Arsenal outmuscle them and nearly score several more times before the half. Something was off. (And it wasn’t just Aaron Ramsey.)

In the second half, it became more clear what was happening: Chelsea were purposefully letting a side that has been dramatically inferior for the last eight months win a bit of silverware to try and mask the deep stench of failure with a spritz of success in order to trick them into perpetuating that dramatic inferiority. It’s been rumored for a while now that Arsenal’s board wants to extend Arsene Wenger’s contract, but just haven’t had an opportunity to make that known without starting a meme-riot. A trophy would celebration would be that opportunity, though. And Antonio Conte knew this.

Chelsea’s efforts grew brazen. Victor Moses, already on a yellow card, earned a second for diving and was sent off. For diving. Down to 10 men, it appeared Chelsea’s plan was guaranteed to work. But Wenger’s powers of self-sabotage proved strong. His decision to start David Ospino in goal rather than Petr Cech resulted in Ospino buggling in a Diego Costa shot in the 76th minute to let 10-man Chelsea equalize. This forced the Blues to again risk accusations of blatant match fixing by immediately letting Arsenal score again. This proved to finally be enough for Arsenal and they won 2–1.

The result gives Arsene Wenger a record seven FA Cups—as many as Chelsea have won in their entire history—and a record 13 for Arsenal. Now it could be asked how you could force out a manager who has won the third most important trophy available to him so many times. Conte mission: Accomplished.


Wenger (circled) celebrates his great success alone in the back

But after the match, Wenger cast doubt as to whether he would stay. Before he match, he said he never keeps his medals and trophies, always giving them away to others at the club. After the match, he said he would keep this one.

Of course, this could just be an attempt to trick the “Wenger Out” campaigners into momentarily abandoning their crusade to celebrate this accomplishment before he smites them by signing a lifetime contract.

Deception: The true magic of the FA Cup.

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John Terry gets fittingly controversial send-off before lifting Premier League trophy

A perfect end to the Chelsea captain’s time with the club


(Chelsea FC)

Chelsea’s final match of the Premier League season meant absolutely nothing. They had already wrapped up the title for the second time in three years, rebounding from a shocking 10th-place finish last season, and their opponents, Sunderland, were bottom of the table and couldn’t have been more relegated.

So, in the 26th minute of this completely meaningless preamble to Chelsea being presented with the trophy, Sunderland played the ball out and №26 John Terry, the most successful captain in Chelsea’s history, exited his final match with the club as his teammates lined up to give him a guard of honor before he was replaced by new captain Gary Cahill.

It was later revealed that Terry himself came up with this choreography and Sunderland manager David Moyes agreed to it before the match, but a little more planning probably should’ve gone into it since it took until the 28th minute for the substitution to actually take place. Chelsea went on to win 5–1 and, for them, the day couldn’t have been more perfect. They became the first top-flight club to get 30 wins in a 38-game season, Spurs finished with a club record 86 points and still finished seven points behind the Blues with Hugo Lloris conceding a goal in a 7–1 win to give the Golden Glove award to Thibaut Courtois, and Arsenal finished fifth—outside of Champions League qualification for the first time in 19 years.

But the Terry moment was what everyone fixated on. To Chelsea fans, it was a deserved and emotional send-off, and to everyone else, it was an insult to the game and an affront on common decency.

This made it the perfect way for John Terry to end his Chelsea career, over which he has endeared himself to supporters and repulsed everyone else in equal measure. An understated and conventional farewell would’ve been totally wrong for someone who has lifted more trophies over his 19 seasons than his club had in 93 years of existence before he joined the team and been stripped of the England captaincy not once, but twice.

To fixate on whether it was right or wrong is to miss the transcendence of this ending to one of the Premier League’s most enduring one-man morality plays. In John Terry’s final moments on the pitch at Stamford Bridge, he reminded supporters why they love him and everyone else why they hate him. He even managed to squeeze in one last FA investigation. Incredible.

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