Can Chelsea really ‘just concentrate’ on the Premier League?

Some sayings almost always have the opposite effect of their desired intention of making football fans feel better. Gems such as ‘it’s only a game’ or ‘there’s always next season’ often cause many of us to hold in our temper and realise why we shouldn’t watch football with our partners.  Sometimes we can even tell ourselves little pearls of wisdom in the hope that it will make us feel better after a poor result. One such gem ‘we can now concentrate on the league’ was probably being spoken by a few positive thinkers as they spilled out of Stamford Bridge on Tuesday night following Chelsea’s Champion’s league exit at the hands of Internazionale.  We’ve all done it following a cup defeat, tried to ease the pain by convincing ourselves that in a perverse way getting beat was probably a blessing in disguise. The question is though has the loss to Inter really helped Carlo Ancelotti’s team become more focused and better equipped to win the Premier League?

Logically, one would say yes. After all less games, means less tired players and less chance of injuries so you’d expect that Chelsea will now be in the driving seat to go on and win the title. With Manchester United having to play in the Champion’s League quarter final first leg only a few days before Chelsea’s visit to Old Trafford it would seem that the London team would have another advantage.

Then there’s Arsenal, whose young side may struggle with the prospect of having to play a game every three days as will be the case come Champion’s League time. Also given there injury record of late Arsene Wenger may have difficulty deciding which players to risk against the so-called lesser teams, which could bring them a few problems. However I’m sure Wenger and Ferguson’s problems are the sort that Ancelotti would happily take.

The reason that I’m not quite buying into this whole ‘concentrate on the league’ idea is that for me many teams can actually play better when there’s a big game every week, and you’re facing the prospect of winning Europe’s top prize. The last three seasons have been a case in point. United have managed to win the title thanks in large, to gathering momentum at the right time and being able to maintain it. That same momentum has often been helped by big Champion’s League games. Who can forget the 7-1 against Roma in 2007 which seemed to galvanise the team in a way that Chelsea’s exit to Liverpool did not.

Last season the Champion’s League seemed to lift United when their season seemed in danger of floundering. The wins against Inter, Porto and Arsenal came at times when United’s league form, especially performance-wise, was looking suspect to say the least.

It can be no coincidence that the last season in recent years the title went right down to the final game was the season that both challengers progressed to the Champion’s League final.

Knowing you’re still in the Champion’s League can create not just a better feeling and atmosphere among the fans but one would imagine it does so in the dressing room as well.

There are also the players who are on the fringes of the squad who really motivate themselves to try and force their way into the European games. Last season Carlos Tevez seemed to raise his game in the final few league games as he knew the chance was there for playing in the final.

Chelsea may take a little bit longer than most teams to recover from their exit because of the amount of expectation that seemed to be around them.

At the beginning of the season I predicted that this could be Chelsea’s year in the Champion’s League as they’d been knocking on the door for several years now and surely it was only a matter of time. Two semi-finals and a final in the last three years showed that Chelsea were a force to be reckoned with in Europe. The travesty of last year’s exit and the closeness of the previous one gave me the impression that they were almost there.

Then there was the appointment of Ancelotti a manager who’s won more Champion’s Leagues than he has league titles, there could be little doubt as to the thinking behind him being given the job.

All this expectation can only make it even more devastating for many at Chelsea- the fact that Jose Mourinho is responsible can only add to the sense of disappointment.  The whole nature of their exit with Drogba being in the limelight for all the wrong reasons, and the fact that many players just simply didn’t turn up must be a real cause for concern.

It’s true that the best way to respond would be to go on and win the league but Ancelotti may have a hard time raising the dressing room morale after such an anti-climax.

The good thing for Chelsea is that they have two seemingly winnable games coming up away at Blackburn and Portsmouth; if they can get those two –expected- victories then maybe the defeat to Inter will be erased. The problem is you just wonder whether watching their title rivals battling it out in Europe’s top competition could still have a negative effect.

Chelsea are still favourites for the League and let’s not forget through to the semi-final of the FA cup so it’s not exactly all doom and gloom. If they don’t win the league you’d at least expect them to be lift the other piece of silverware.

There was a time when winning the FA cup would have been seen as a hugely successful season at Stamford Bridge. However that time was probably when Mark Stein was their main goal scorer and Steve Clarke was in the team. Things have changed in the Abramovich era, if they fail to win the title for a fourth successive year,  it could mean curtains for Mr Ancelotti, and he may look back at the game against Inter as the one where it all went wrong.

Read more of Justin Mottershead work at his blog ‘Name is on the Trophy’