One would like an impressive resume and the other needs it to save his job come season end. Who will set up their checkerboard right?
Chelsea Football Club have had a less than ideal season, if we would like to assume that we were on Mr.Roman Abramovich's payroll and thus want to put this mildly. If we weren't, and most of us aren't, we would have the freedom to say that Chelsea are a team badly spliced together with ill fitting parts, having no cohesive system to guide them through, with a bunch of inexperienced youngsters at one end, a handful of players ill-suited to the shirt, and a few past their prime, reaching the end of a disastrous season masked by progress in Cup competitions. Reaching crunch time as the business end of those Cup competitions arrive, finally facing really strong opposition, their fate is to be held up or swept aside in a matter of two weeks.
Goal-happy| Chelsea have the small task of stopping the best side in the world on Wednesday
Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, on the other hand, have had a season so topsy-turvy that it could get the Commander of the Royal Navy seasick. With inconsistency as their motto, they have plunged forward bravely, at one point in time trailing Manchester United by three points to now being stuck in a four club dogfight for two (third and fourth positions in the league) golden places in next season's Champions League, having their manager flirt with a bigger, better job, and a solitary Cup run to show for their troubles, seemingly trying to wrest the mantle of "Stylish Underachievers" from hated North London neighbours Arsenal. It is unfortunate that they are being caught in a downward spiral as the season winds down, having gone in with a period of flying high right before.
ROBERTO DI MATTEO v HARRY REDKNAPP
11GAMES SINCE MARCH 48
8WON2
2DREW3
1LOST3
72.72%WIN %25%
Fulham 1-1 ChelseaLAST RESULTTottenham 1-2 Norwich City
Chelsea 5-2 Leicester CityLAST FA CUP RESULTTottenham 3-1 Bolton
But everybody has their problems. Who is going to grab the bull by the horns and try to fix up the mix up? In the gaffer's corner, we have two managers whose departure from the post seems a question of 'when' and not 'if'. Harry Redknapp is a brilliant manager, and has been all his life, but when the pride of managing your country's national team is on offer, it is superhuman to have the ability to refuse.
Roberto Di Matteo, on the other hand, has a sword of Damocles hanging over his head in the form of the Champions League trophy. He knows, like everybody else, his employer's notorious passion for the trophy. In all likelihood, Di Matteo's tenure at Chelsea will be decided by his ability to beat the best team in the world and then go further to beat the second or third best. Avram Grant could give him a tip or two right now.
Spurs are on a miserable run, having won only won just one game in the last eight. A supremely talented squad bought at pretty much bargain prices, one can say they have both overachieved and underachieved! Their players would have liked better, yet this is one of Spurs' best seaons in the Premier League! With one eye on the England job, 'Arry can't be doing much good for the unity of the squad and it shows on the field, collapsing to Norwich at home. Not the kind of resume Redknapp will want. Is a Cup final the sort of tonic they need to make that final push and finish with a Champions League place? Quite likely that it is.
Dog Day Afternoon| Norwich ensured that Spurs' miserable run went on in their last game
Di Matteo has either a Midas Touch or the luck of the devil when we see this current Chelsea side. Having self-destructively divided themselves over Andre Villas-Boas, Di Matteo seems to have somehow restored the unity and made it 8 wins out of 11 for the Blues. There are whisperings that it's only because the senior players of the squad have a malleable manager now that they can play freely again, but any football fan will happily tell you, the end justifies the means, because they can't change what happens anyway. Do Chelsea need to reach the final? Di Matteo would certainly think so with his job integrally linked with silverware.
Everybody has their reasons to win this. And at this stage of Cup football, there are no second chances. To the victors go the spoils. Who will go into the finals and maybe even go one better? Your guess is as good as mine.
