ARAb StAtES diSMAyEd At WESt'S cOMPlAcENcy - Kuwait Times

SATURDAY, MAY 4, 2013
LONDON: Chelsea’s Spanish interim manager Rafael
Benitez shouts to his players during the Europa League
semi-final second leg football match between Chelsea
and FC Basel at Stamford Bridge in London on May 2,
2013.— AFP
LONDON: Chants of “Jose Mourinho”
rang around all four sides of Stamford
Bridge. Fans sang loud and proud about
club stalwarts Frank Lampard and John
Terry, too. Still nothing, though, for the
man who has defied debilitating circumstances
to guide Chelsea to a second
straight European final as well as the
brink of a return to the Champions
League. Rafa Benitez knows full well he’ll
never be accepted by Chelsea supporters
following his past comments about the
club during his time as Liverpool manager,
but it’s hard not to notice the grudging
respect toward the Spaniard as his shortterm
reign approaches its end.
Once greeted with boos and jeers as
he emerged from the tunnel before
matches, now there is just a stony silence
that will be music to the ears of Benitez.
Fans on website forums and radio phoneins
are even starting to credit the job he is
doing, justifiably. Considering the team’s
crazy fixture schedule - it’s 64 matches
and counting this season - and the hostility
he’s had to cope with since joining as
interim manager in November, Benitez
will leave Chelsea this summer with his
reputation enhanced and possibly another
trophy on his impressive CV.
“With all the circumstances that were
around at the beginning - the situation
with the squad, being without (January
signing) Demba Ba, a team in transition -
we’ve done a good job,” Benitez said on
Thursday after Chelsea’s 3-1 win over
Basel that set up a Europa League final
against Benfica on May 15. “We were professional
trying to improve things without
much time, because we’ve been playing
twice a week, and we did well. Hopefully
we can finish even better.” His famous
outburst after an FA Cup win at
Middlesbrough in February could go
down as a turning point in Chelsea’s season.
Benitez stated in a feisty post-match
news conference that he would definitely
be leaving the club at the end of his interim
stay, before criticizing fans for not getting
behind him and the club’s hierarchy
for giving him the “interim” tag. There
have been few murmurs since, helped by
the fact that Chelsea has lost only four of
its 16 matches in the past two months -
two of those defeats coming in away legs
in the Europa League. Chelsea has won
all eight of its home games in that period.
“I think what’s key is that the fans
have settled down a bit,” Manchester
United manager Alex Ferguson, a longtime
foe of Benitez’s, said on Friday.
“They have left him alone and he’s gone
on doing his job, because it can’t be easy
listening to criticism from fans all the
time.” “They’ve eased off on him,” added
Ferguson, who will renew his touchline
rivalry with the Spaniard in a Premier
League game on Sunday, “and it’s
allowed him to relax himself. He has produced
some good results and he has
picked the right teams in the right
games. He has rested and brought in certain
players. It’s been a good period for
him.”
Faced with a game every three or four
days since the start of February, Benitez
has to be given credit for the way he has
rotated his squad to deal with the
demands of a punishing, unprecedented
sports
Benitez gaining grudging respect at Chelsea
Old rivalry renewed as
Liverpool face Everton
LONDON: Out of contention for a place in the European positions,
Liverpool has a new target for the remainder of the
English Premier League season - finishing above local rival
Everton. The neighbors meet at Anfield tomorrow, with sixthplace
Everton five points ahead of seventh-place Liverpool
and knowing a win will guarantee its status as the top club on
Merseyside for a second straight season.
Outdoing Liverpool two years in succession has not happened
for more than 50 years, however, and the job is far
from done for Everton, with Liverpool holding an impressive
home record against its oldest foe and buoyant after a 6-0
win at Newcastle last weekend. Everton has not won at
Anfield since 1999, while manager David Moyes has led his
team to victory against Liverpool only three times in his 21
attempts. “The fact that they haven’t won at Anfield for so
long has to play on their minds,” Liverpool midfielder Stewart
Downing said. “I am sure David Moyes will get right amongst
them. He must be desperate to beat Liverpool. But we don’t
want that record to end. We did really well against Everton in
the three games last season. “We have to be ready and make
sure we start well. It will be a good test for us and it will be
tight with battles all over the pitch, but we’re confident we
can get another win.”
Liverpool will look to close the gap to two points with two
games to play but is without star striker Luis Suarez, who
recently started a 10-match ban for biting an opponent.
“Derbies mean a lot and we know what’s at stake,” Everton
midfielder Steven Pienaar said. “For the people of the city
and the pride of the club, it’s one of those games you don’t
want to lose. “We will give everything to make sure we come
away from Anfield with three points because it has been a
long while since we won there.”
A victory would not only give Everton the bragging rights
for another season - it would also keep the club’s faint hopes
alive of qualifying for next season’s Champions League as it
bids to chase down Tottenham, Arsenal and Chelsea. Thirdplace
Chelsea qualified for the Europa League final by beating
FC Basel on Thursday but finishing in the league’s top
four remains the priority and it faces a tough match against
already crowned champion Manchester United tomorrow.
Chelsea manager Rafa Benitez has rotated the squad to
keep his players as fresh as possible in the two competitions,
with the team embarking on a hectic run-in that sees it play
five games in 15 days. —AP
MANCHESTER: Manchester United
manager Alex Ferguson is resorting
to light-hearted bribery to keep his
Premier League winners focused on
tomorrow’s match against Chelsea by
telling them they will only be allowed
a day at the races if they win. His players
sealed a 20th league title last
week and there has been a party
mood around the club since,
Ferguson even sharing champagne
with reporters at yesterday’s news
conference.
“I never took into account all the
(celebration-type) things that happen,”
he said. “The PFA award, our
own Player of Year awards, the
parade and then (Nemanja) Vidic
came to me last week and asked if the
team could go to Chester races on
Wednesday. “And I said without
thinking “Yeah, of course” but then
when you put all these things together
you think ‘what the hell!’. “I hope
they don’t forget there’s a game of
football to be played, now if they
don’t win I think that would be cancelled.”
The incentives do not end there. “In
actual fact, I think I’ve got two horses
running on Wednesday so I’ll give
them a tip if they win,” he added.
Having travelled to Arsenal last weekend
and hosting Chelsea this weekend,
Ferguson has spoken of his duty to put
out strong sides against teams whose
seasons are far from over as they chase
Champions League spots. They might
put out their best team but there is no
pressure. “It’s time for us to play with
good enthusiasm, enjoyment and relax
and play good football and express
ourselves, that’s what I expect to see,”
said Ferguson as he sipped his bubbly
from a plastic cup.
BENITEZ DIG
Third-placed Chelsea are 20 points
behind the champions in the standings
with 65 points from 34 games
and after a stuttering season have
found some form over recent weeks,
reaching the Europa League final on
Thursday. Ferguson said inconsistency
had been the London side’s problem
in a season where they dismissed
manager Roberto Di Matteo in
November and appointed Rafael
Benitez until the end of the campaign.
“When they sacked Roberto Di
Matteo that maybe knocked them
back a bit, it took them a long time to
schedule. Terry and Lampard, fans’
favorites in southwest London, have had
to be content with playing every other
week, often in the less important games.
That policy did not work for former manager
Andre Villas-Boas but Benitez has
emerged the better for it.
Playing David Luiz - a central defender
- as a center midfielder at times has been
a masterstroke while playmakers Juan
Mata and Eden Hazard look to have been
given the right amount of game time to
keep them in good shape for the final
month of the season. “I was helping the
team,” Benitez said. “As a manager you
have to do your job.” For a person who’s
never shy of talking up his own achievements
as a coach - Champions League
and UEFA Cup titles, a Spanish league
championship, a Club World Cup -
Benitez will be desperate to finish his
time at Chelsea with the Europa League
won and a top-four place in the Premier
League secured. Chelsea is third with
four games left.
“He is very concerned about his CV.
He refers to it quite a lot,” Ferguson said
mockingly, before adding: “But you can’t
dispute the fact he has done a good job.”
After his recent comments, Mourinho is
the man most likely to succeed Benitez
this summer although the manner of the
Portuguese coach’s departure from
Stamford Bridge in 2007 must still rankle
with owner Roman Abramovich. “I have
not made any decision about whether I
will stay or go,” Mourinho said on Friday
about his future at Real Madrid. The hardto-please
Abramovich could do worse
than stick with Benitez.— AP
Ferguson resorting to
light-hearted bribery
Day at the races rests on United beating Chelsea
get going again. It’s only in the last
few weeks that they’ve got any consistency
again,” he said. Ferguson
praised Benitez for good recent
results, helped in part he believes by
an easing in hostility from fans
towards the Spaniard. But he could
not resist a little dig at a man with
whom he has often had a fractious
relationship. “I think he’s very concerned
about his CV, he refers to it
quite a lot,” he said.
Ferguson has not got any major
injury concerns before tomorrow’s
game at Old Trafford (1500 GMT)
although striker Danny Welbeck has
been ruled out and midfielder Paul
Scholes is likely to be on the bench as
he returns from injury. The United
manager said he was not planning
wholesale changes to his squad during
the close season, saying “tweaking”
was the right word for what he
had in mind. “We’ll maybe look at one
or two bodies to come in but you’ve
got to remember we’ve got a lot of
young players we expect to improve,
we’ve got to take that into consideration,”
he said. “In the main group, we
know where we are, we are comfortable.”—
Reuters