TERRIERS BARE THEIR TEETH
Heroic Huddersfield defy odds to win survival battle as Conte makes dog’s dinner of race for fourth
As Chelsea’s players gathered in the centre of the pitch to show their truncated appreciation to the minority who remained, Huddersfield were still losing their minds in the corner.
David Wagner was being given the bumps by a crowd of celebrating players, the fans were mimicking noisy salutes imported from Germany, it was riotous, joyful, everything Chelsea have not been this year.
And while in the streets around stamford Bridge, all the talk may have been of Antonio Conte’s team selection, the visitors could not have given a monkeys. They. Are. staying. Up. They-are-staying-up.
No Eden Hazard in the starting line-up. No Olivier Giroud. What was Conte thinking? It was as if he was playing the match scheduled for sunday at Newcastle, not the one directly ahead, forgetting that the second fixture was close to irrelevant if the first didn’t go right.
Tottenham now cannot be caught and Liverpool need only a draw at home to Brighton to condemn Chelsea to the Europa League. This was the chance to apply pressure, to spread the fear around on the last day. The wider the scrap the more chance there is of benefitting from the carnage.
Far better for Liverpool to be looking around for two teams, not one. Instead their objective could not be more straightforward. A home draw against a team that has long been safe. This was a huge mistake on Conte’s part.
Yet Chelsea were last night’s support act, no more. This fifth-placed reckoning has been coming since the home defeat by Tottenham.
This was about Huddersfield and one of the greatest survival acts of the modern Premier League era. Leaving aside that just remaining for a second season is unexpected glory, to do so with a final straight of matches against this season’s champions, last season’s champions — both away — and Arsenal is quite stunning.
Having got a point at Manchester City on sunday, nobody expected a second lightning strike — but here it was, brave and tireless, not a drop of energy unspent. What was Carlos Carvalhal’s phrase? They put all the meat on the barbecue.
And it is was Carvalhal’s swansea who got burned. They now need to win by five against stoke and southampton lose by five to Manchester City, or there will be an awful lot of Premier League clubs joining Mark Hughes in giving the swansea Marriott a miss next season.
survival is often about defying the odds and Huddersfield have most certainly done that. The run-in from hell has been, well, if not a walk in the park, certainly not the one-way ticket to the Championship widely predicted.
This was a performance of incredible courage from Wagner’s side. Not in terms of attacking impetus. Huddersfield’s play was not ambitious. But their aggression, their commitment, their furious application to the task — that took heart.
so, sure, they were buoyed by Conte’s bizarre logic but that should take nothing away from this point won. Even a Chelsea without key individuals is still a mismatch man-for-man — but Huddersfield did not treat it like that. They played Chelsea as equals, and even took the lead.
That came in the 50th minute, in effect the first time Huddersfield had threatened Chelsea’s goal. Willian lost the ball deep in the opposition half — Chelsea players claimed a foul, but it seemed more of a tussle — and Adrian Mooy launched a long pass upfield.
Laurent Depoitre was on to it, and suddenly away. Out came stand-in goalkeeper Willy Caballero to make a calamitous error. He won second prize in a fight, clattering into Depoitre on the edge of the area, but coming off worse and falling to the ground as the big striker powered on and put the ball into an empty net. Cue mayhem in the Huddersfield end, consternation elsewhere. suddenly, Hazard and Giroud were on — as they should have been from the start.
Chelsea equalised, but it was fortuitous and ultimately not enough. Cesar Azpilicueta crossed, Christopher schindler cleared but succeeded only in kicking the ball straight on to the forehead of Marcos Alonso, who deflected it into the goal. From there it was all Chelsea, but it was too late to pick up the slack. The mood on the pitch reflected that off it. Too many, it seemed, did not believe. It wasn’t the full Arsene Wenger endof-an-era desertion, but there were plenty of spare seats in a stadium that is usually full. It was as if the crowd no longer had faith that Chelsea could pull off this top-four comeback.
On 82 minutes there was a goalmouth scramble so mad and frantic it might have been choreographed by Mack sennett, but that was as near as Chelsea came to a second. What should have been a lap of appreciation at the end became a lacklustre shuffle around a fast-emptying stadium. It is hard to imagine the FA Cup final will not be Conte’s final game now.
Never has Huddersfield’s nickname — the Terriers — seemed more appropriate. They snapped and snarled at Chelsea, a little, yappy dog that thinks it’s the size of a Dobermann. And very successful they were too. Chelsea had all of the game, some good chances, but just the single goal.
And while Huddersfield achieved little in the way of pressure, that wasn’t the plan. They came here needing a point and to aim for three would have been reckless and greedy. so they contained, and chased, and got men behind the ball and harried. It wasn’t pretty but, frankly, who cares? This was Huddersfield at the home of a club who measure their transfer expenditure in hundreds of millions. What were they going to do — take the game to them?
Just five minutes were on the clock when Chelsea carved out
their first opportunity, Cesc Fabregas hitting a raking crossfield ball into the path of Alonso on the left. He struck it well but goalkeeper Jonas Lossl was equal to it.
Soon after, Fabregas whipped in a corner, which was won with a quite outstanding jump from Azpilicueta. It looked a certain goal with Antonio Rudiger arriving at the far post, but he could not get his finishing touch on target.
Alvaro Morata, too, should have done better with a chance when put through by N’Golo Kante. He turned superbly to break one on one but his next touch was heavy, going too wide around Lossl and left with a tight angle and only a pass across the face of goal.
With so many leading players imprisoned on the bench, Chelsea were missing the polish that had seen off Liverpool. The history of the Roman Abramovich era, however, suggests this is the last mistake Conte will make.