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Chelsea players confront AVB

Comment: 0 February 14th, 2012 by: admin

Brewing tension between Chelsea players and manager Andre Villas-Boas reached a tipping point Sunday when a bust-up exploded between the coach and the squad’s senior members.

The argument happened on the team’s training ground after AVB revoked the team’s day-off following their shock defeat to Everton.

According to reports, the fight saw players confronting the irate manager and tearing into his management style.

Players who were left unnamed were said to have aggressively expressed their concerns regarding the Portuguese’s methods, team selection and tactics – all in front of the club owner Roman Abramovich.

The Russian mogul, who has been constantly present at the training ground daily for the past few days, insisted that the club needed a jumpstart after slipping out of fourth place.

This fall from the top four boots Chelsea out of the running for the Champions League competition – the one trophy that Abramovich was said to treasure above all.

He however is reportedly still throwing full support at AVB despite the growing player dissatisfaction and dropping performance.

Abramovich, who was said to be blaming the players for their weak performance, spoke to the angry members and reportedly made known his continuous backing for their manager.

Word of conflicts between AVB and players has been spreading as of late, with reports pegging tension between the manager and such names as Frank Lampard, Didier Droba and even Gary Cahill.

It was also under the Portuguese’s management that Nicolas Anelka and Alex left the squad and departed for Shanghai Shenhua and Paris St. Germain, respectively.

The Blues’ 0-2 defeat against Everton at Goodison Park featured what could be considered the club’s weakest performance in the season so far.  The loss leaves them 17 points behind current leaders Manchester City.

Lampard, who is going on 11 years with Chelsea, acknowledged the team’s contribution to the loss.  According to the midfielder, the result demanded that the squad examine their playing style and their tactics as well.

“It’s a group thing,” he explained.  “It was a bad performance from start to finish.  When you come to Everton, the one thing you know they’re going to do is fight you, press you and make things tough and we didn’t react to that.  We created two or three chances and that’s not up to standard.

“We can only take that on the chin and apologise to the people who came up and watched it because that’s not good enough for Chelsea.”

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