AVRAM GRANT last night claimed Chelsea have only played well in
ONE game this season!
The new Blues boss took a swipe at Jose Mourinho by insisting that
the style of football now had to improve under his
leadership.
Mourinho left Chelsea last week after his failing relations with
Roman Abramovich and rows over the team made his position
untenable.
Grant has endured a rough time since his move from director of
football but chose yesterday to answer some of his critics with
some points of his own.
The Israeli said: This season we havent played well. Except for
the match against Birmingham City and for 20 minutes against
Reading.
The football has not always been good and now we want to make it
better.
That is difficult to do when there are games every three days but
we want to change the style that Chelsea play.
I am not being disrespectful to what has happened before.
The first two years under Jose were successful and the team did
well but after that Im not sure.
The base which is there is very good and that is what we will
build on.
We are not talking about taking it from one extreme to another.
Just to change the style 20 to 25 per cent.
Grant is hopeful Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard and Ricardo Carvalho
might all be back within two weeks.
And he insisted that no demands have been made of him by Abramovich
but insisted that winning everything is not beyond the
Blues.
Grant added: Everything has happened so quickly that I havent
spoken to the owner so much. But I dont see why Chelsea cannot win
in every competition this season.
The base of Chelsea is very good and the team is not in a bad
position in sixth place in the league.
Its only the beginning of the season and sometimes we start very
well and other times not but it is better to change now.
You can see that things have not gone well in the last month but
things happen and we need to get better.
We have a game every three days so it is not the ideal time to try
and change things but we have to try.
Mourinho has decided to go into hiding until he gets another job in
management.
The former Chelsea chief said: At this time at which I find I have
a break in my professional career, it is my wish to guarantee
absolute calm, whether for myself or for the people who are closest
to me.
Because I do not want, under whatever pretext, to be a source of
destabilisation for anyone who wants me to be, from this moment on
I am not going to make any more comments about any subject related
to my professional activity.
I ask for the understanding of the mass media organisations for
the decision that I have taken.
The next interview that I give will be in my role as technical
manager in my next club.
Meanwhile, Blues skipper John Terry is set to escape any
disciplinary action for attempting to grab ref Mike Deans red card
at Manchester United on Sunday. But Chelsea could be in hot water
for their players collective response to Mikel John Obis sending
off.
The England captain tried to grab the card while protesting to Dean
and there have been suggestions the FA could take retrospective
action.
However, the onus would be on Dean to have responded by giving
Terry a yellow or red card at the time and the FA are very unlikely
to pursue any action against the centre-back.
Dean did, though, state in his match report that he was unhappy
about the reaction of at least four Chelsea players who surrounded
him after the sending off.
Although the incident is not detailed as a mass confrontation, the
fact Dean has reported both that incident and another that took
place shortly afterwards means the FA will be forced to consider
disciplinary action.
If they do proceed, then Chelsea are likely to be fined for the
disorderly conduct of their players, though given the nature of the
offence the fine will be towards the lower end of the scale. The FA
have refused to comment, saying they do not divulge the contents of
a referees report.
Mikels appeal against his red card for a foul on Patrice Evra has
been rejected by the FA.
The midfielder will now have to serve a three-match ban for serious
foul play.
Chelseas case was not helped by the fact FIFA do not permit the
downgrading of cards from red to yellow. To have succeeded in their
disciplinary appeal, the Premier League champions would have had to
prove that there should not have been any form of sanction taken
against the player for his tackle on United defender Evra.
Chelsea boss Grant said after his sides 2-0 defeat: It was the
wrong decision and it changed the whole game.
