Beauty and the Boast

February 2007 begins with deep disappointment at Stamford Bridge. Despite a comfortable home victory over Blackburn Rovers, Chelsea remain six points behind leaders Manchester United and only five ahead of Liverpool and on top of that they have lost the services of Ashley Cole, possibly for a considerable time.

As the prospect of a third consecutive Premiership title slips further away with every passing game, the significance of other competitions grows and in the short term at least, that brings even more disappointment. Chelsea now know that they must face Arsenal in the Carling Cup final and the entire nation knows that they would have much preferred to play Spurs.

It leaves Mourinho with a special dilemma. Assuming that he is still there of course, does he select his strongest squad against Arsene Wenger’s exciting young team, knowing that even then it may not be enough? Or does he attempt to match them like for like?

The nation knows the answer to that one too. Mourinho will most certainly select his strongest team because for all their wealth Chelsea simply do not have young players of sufficient quality to compete with Arsenal. Worse still, whatever team they put out and whether or not they win the game, it is absolutely certain that Arsenal will play the better football.

And since Roman Abramovic is not a fool, he will be only too painfully aware that for all the hundreds of millions of pounds he has poured into Chelsea there is a club in North London with a far better squad, assembled for a fraction of the cost by a true genius.