Soccer

BENITEZ TRUE TO FORM AT CHELSEA

Since Rafa Benitez has returned to the EPL he has shown the same sort of form he showed at Liverpool. After much success in his first few years at Liverpool failings began to show. Ever the tinkerer he would switch players from the team with predictable regularity, changing the way the team played and removing much of the consistency. Impressive wins were followed by shocking defeats.

Substitutions were another sore point. When chasing victories he would fail to strengthen the attack, either by bringing players on too late to affect the game, or making senseless changes such as replacing a defender with another defender instead of bolstering the attack.

His form at Chelsea indicates he has learned little since his time away and Chelsea are poised to make the same mistakes as Liverpool under Benitez’ reign. He is supposed to remain until the end of the season and has done just enough so far to avoid the sack so far (he showed this flair at Liverpool as well). He may also be helped by the poisoned chalice of Abramovich – managers have been fired so regularly at Chelsea since the chairman took over that they are running out of top managers that would want to handle the expectations. Either way it seems unlikely Benitez will hold on to the post next season.

SWANSEA GO FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH

Sunday’s 5-0 win against second division team Bradford in the League cup final deservedly brought major silverware back to Liberty Stadium for the first time in over 100 years. Whilst the result was expected against a team 72 places below them, Bradford had already beaten 3 premier league teams to get there (Wigan, Arsenal, and Aston Villa) so complacency could not be an option. Swansea’s path to victory was arguably better, defeating last year’s winner Liverpool and Champions League winner’s Chelsea.

The victory is a reward for the way the club has been managed for the last 10 years which has seen them rise from the third division to the premiership. The Chairman Huw Jenkins has spent extremely wisely, eschewing the fashion for getting into debt to win success. A small team like Swansea will always struggle to retain talent as teams with much deeper pockets will always swoop in to get the best players and managers. Their success is in stark contrast to fellow promotion team QPR, a team that has spent big yet languishes at the bottom of the EPL. Swansea’s rise has been punctuated by an ever changing manager – Martinez, Sousa, Rodgers and currently Laudrup. Each time a manager has left the team has improved by the next canny appointment. Can this carry on? Who knows but whatever happens in the future the ride has been worth it.