If there is one manager in the Premier League who can be guaranteed to  make entertaining column inches from his interviews, it’s Chelsea’s ‘ Special One ’.  So it was no surprise that the back-page headlines this week were dominated by his comments after West Ham left Stamford Bridge with a doggedly-won point.   The quote that made the most headlines was: The only thing I could use was a Black and Decker to destroy their wall. That is not the best league in world football, this is football from the 19th Century.

I didn’t see the game, or any highlights, but the stats tell the story of just how one-sided a game it was.  With Chelsea having 72% of the possession, forcing 13 corners and making 39 attempts on goal, there wasn’t much in what remained of the game for West Ham to make too much of an impression on their opponents.  But perhaps the most telling fact as to why the home side dropped two points was their lowly nine shots on target, meaning that their manager’s complaints were born primarily out of frustration.   But were they also a fair reflection on the game in Victorian times? Continue Reading