IT’S A GOOD JOB STATS DON’T WIN MATCHES

Chelsea win their second successive European title under another interim manager

It is a good job that match statistics do not win you matches and major titles. Well, for the sake of Chelsea FC it is.

For the second successive season an interim manager has led the London club to European success, despite being heavily outplayed by their opponents.

Just 12 months ago Roberto Di Matteo won Chelsea’s first Champions League trophy after they beat Bayern Munich on penalties in their own back yard.

Thomas Muller’s late header for Munich seemed to give the German side their first European title since 2001, but Didier Drogba ensured his final match for Chelsea went all the way to penalties after he levelled the game with only two minutes left of regulation time.

It was then Drogba who ensured Chelsea had their first European crown as he kept his composure to stroke his penalty, in the shoot-out, past Manuel Neuer.

This year another interim manager, Rafa Benitez, followed in Di Matteo’s footsteps in leading the club to more European success.

Even though this year they only won the Europa League it is another trophy that owner Roman Abramovich can add to the growing list that Chelsea have won under his reign.

In the 2012 final at the Allianz Arena Chelsea should not have won the match, never mind the tournament, if stats were ever considered.

Chelsea were limited in the amount of possession that they had during last year’s Champions League final as they only had hold of the ball for 45 per cent of the time, similarly the same amount they also had during this year’s final.

Di Matteo’s men had nine shots all match, six of which were on target, compared to the 34 of Munich.

Again compare this to the attempts on goal from Wednesday’s Europa League final and they could only muster a further two shots against a much weaker opponent in Benfica, when you compare them to Munich.

The Portuguese side outnumbered their English counterparts on three of the five main statistics collected from the match as they had 14 attempts on goal, with eight on target.

Chelsea could only match Benfica with the amount of fouls conceded and corners won.

Last season, the Blues went with the intentions of ‘parking the bus’ and taking the game as far as they could against their German superiors, but under Benitez this was not the case.

The former Liverpool boss, who does not have the best relationship with the club’s supporters, went out with the intentions of trying to prove his doubters wrong. And he did.

From the perspective of a football supporter, especially one of those who sees their team in a major cup final whether that be Chelsea or not, they will not reflect on the match statistics if they won the game. If they came up trumps against their opponents they with, more often than not, look back at the game and question how they got beat. Just like Benfica fans will be doing right now and the Munich faithful from this time last year.

Any other time of the season stats are deemed an effective way of recognising a teams form or potential success in a competition. But, when it comes to the climaxing match in the major European Cup final stats seem to go out of the window.

Anybody who would have seen the stats before they had glimpsed at the result would have instantly presumed that Bayern Munich and Benfica would have both beaten Chelsea in their respective finals, but they didn’t.

All that is left to day is congratulations to Chelsea on winning a second European title in as many years and lets hope that more English sides can upset the stat book in major finals and hopefully one day it might just rub off on to the England national team so we might make it past a quarter-finals before being knocked out on penalties.

Words: Adam Grice

Photo: Getty Images

MOODY SAYS CAVIAR IS CLEAN

Black Caviar won 25 consecutive races before she was retired from racing last month

Australian trainer Peter Moody insists that the now-retired Black Caviar was never given any performance enhancing steroids.

Caviar, who won 25 consecutive races including the Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot last June, was retired after winning three group one races within the space of two months in her native Australia.

The Godolphin scandal which hit the sport last week raised questions over whether the supreme Caviar had been given any banned substances.

When asked if Caviar had been given any performance enhancing drugs, her trainer Moody said: “Nil.”

He told the Sydney Daily Telegraph: “Black Caviar was a huge mare, from the day she was born. It would have been absolutely counter-productive.

“Steroids increase bulk.”

This comes after the British Horse Racing Authority (BHA) requested clarification on the matter of out of competition use on steroids as that is permitted down under.

The use of anabolic steroids are allowed in the United States, Australia and Dubai when a horse is not in competition, but the use of these substances are compulsively banned in Britain.

Prior to her narrow win at Ascot last year, the six-year-old Caviar was tested for any banned substances.

The BHA said: “There is no evidence to suggest that horses trained from outside Britain competing in this country have done so with the benefit of anabolic steroids.”

BBC Sport states on their website that “All visiting trainers are required to disclose treatments to the BHA when horses arrive in the country, and the Australian rule is that steroids must not be present in the horse’s system on race day.”

Moody confirmed that Black Caviar was tested within 24 hours of her arrival in England last summer and he said: “There was nothing in her system.”

Words: Adam Grice

Photo: Sydney Daily Telegraph