Raul Meireles’ protest proves Chelsea are no closer to a united squad

Midfielder refuses to celebrate goal and storms off at the final whistle to leave Roberto Di Matteo with a battle to broker a truce in Blues’ dressing room
Angry: midfielder Raul Meireles holds off Morgaro Gomis on a night when he had axed boss Andre Villas-Boas on his mind
7 March 2012

For a moment Chelsea fans were starting to believe the season could end on a positive note after all. Then Raul Meireles brought them back to reality by storming off the pitch at the final whistle.

In one instant, claims that the squad had unified after the dismissal of Andre Villas-Boas on Sunday to secure a hard-fought victory were crushed.

It is not as though Chelsea’s performance in this FA Cup fifth-round replay was anything to get excited about, although to win a game at all is cause for a party on the Fulham Road these days, especially as the club will now face another Championship side, Leicester, in the last eight.

But by snubbing the supporters and his team-mates, having also refused to celebrate after scoring the second goal on the hour, Meireles’s petulance reinforced the point that many of the problems which blighted Villas-Boas’s reign remain.

Team spirit has been lacking for weeks and the Portugal midfielder’s actions may have put any hope at risk of a truce between the various factions in the dressing room.

Caretaker manager Roberto Di Matteo complained of feeling “very tired” in his post-match press conference, which must be some sort of record considering he has been at the helm for just two days. Yet perhaps the size of the task he has inherited hit home at St Andrew’s after not only seeing Meireles’s protest over the treatment of Villas-Boas, who signed him from Liverpool for £12million last August, but the team’s display as a whole.

Granted there was a bit more effort from most players — no doubt the warning owner Roman Abramovich gave them at the training ground on Sunday was still ringing in their ears.

Senior players Frank Lampard, Michael Essien and Didier Drogba were on the bench, although they were surely being saved for Saturday’s game against Stoke, which is the priority with the club three points off fourth place.

It meant Fernando Torres had another chance to prove a point but the £50m striker looked a beaten man on his 50th appearance for the club.

As Chelsea again showed the lack of creativity and movement which was a hallmark of the last few months of

Villas-Boas’s reign, Torres was listless in front of goal. Just before half-time he fashioned a chance for himself, rolling defender Curtis Davies only to send a left-footed shot hopelessly wide.

Criminally, with the team leading 2-0 late in the second half and having done well to win a penalty after a clumsy challenge from Guirane N’Daw, the Spaniard refused to take the spot-kick and in doing so spurned the chance to end a five-month goal drought.

Juan Mata, who scored a 54th-minute opener, has the honour when Lampard is not on the pitch but offered the opportunity to Torres. Mata said: “I asked him if he wanted to take it because he provoked the penalty. He said, ‘I’m not first on the list to shoot’ so that’s what happened.”

One wonders how Torres expects to end his goal drought if he doesn’t have the belief to beat a keeper from 12 yards.

Chelsea’s biggest boost was John Terry being named a substitute less than two weeks after knee surgery. He was expected to be out until April but the speed of his return is more a sign he recognises there is a crisis at the club, rather than a miracle of modern medicine.

It is understood the 31-year-old insisted he would return after seeing how abject Chelsea were in the 1-0 defeat at West Brom on Saturday.

He declared his knee was fine after a training session after the match. Chelsea need his leadership because the challenge to salvage something from this season has only just begun.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in