When will the fans learn?
Chants for Abramovich during mark of respect for Ukraine sour Chelsea win
A BRIGHT winter sun lit up the stone of the mills and the factory chimneys and the church spires and exaggerated the lush green of the hills that rise above the town but Roman Abramovich resisted the temptation to visit Burnley on Saturday afternoon and bid it farewell as he prepared to take his leave of English football.
His private jet was said by some to be in Ankara, in Turkey, perhaps while he brokered the sale of Chelsea to the wealthy Turkish businessman, Muhsin Bayrak, who is said to be keen to buy the club. Others maintained he was in Moscow. Wherever he was, he was not at Turf Moor to see his team ease to an emphatic 4-0 victory.
His presence, though, was still keenly felt and not just because every game that Chelsea play now, after Abramovich announced last week that he had put the club up for sale, will be another step towards the end of an era that has twinned the owner and his team in the public mind and brought the club unprecedented success for close to two decades.
No, regrettably, it was more than that. Before the game, as the advertising hoardings around the ground lit up in the blue and yellow of the Ukraine flag, slogans flashed up to express solidarity with the people of a country that is being devastated by Russian forces unleashed by Vladimir Putin. The Burnley fans stood and applauded as one.
But well before the minute of applause had come to an end, the Chelsea fans in the Barnfield Construction Stand behind one of the goals began a chant of their own. ‘Roman Abramovich,’ they sang, over and over again. ‘Roman Abramovich, Roman Abramovich.’ The Burnley fans booed in disgust.
It was hard to blame them. It is understandable Chelsea supporters feel gratitude to Abramovich for the success he has brought them but to chant his name at that moment felt like a desecration of everything that the pre-match show of respect was designed to achieve and a mockery of the suffering in Ukraine.
Why do that? Why sing Abramovich’s name at that moment as if it were a taunt? Why sing it as if it were a riposte to a show of solidarity with a people whose nation is currently being shelled into oblivion on the orders of a man many believe to be at least an associate of Abramovich? It was a low point the afternoon never recovered from.
It was much to the credit of Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel that after the match he expressed his regret about what had happened.
‘There is no second opinion about the situation there,’ said Tuchel, ‘and they have our thoughts and our support and we should stand together as a club. It was not the moment for other messages.’ How sad that the show of support for Abramovich, even in the moment of solidarity with Ukraine, was not wholly unexpected. This is what English football has become. This is where the Premier League’s business model has led us. English football tribalism means owners are judged on the amount of money they spend and nothing else. Everything else gets a free pass.
So Chelsea fans drown out a show of respect for Ukraine with a show of loyalty to an owner who has an association with Putin — the president whose evil is disfiguring the land he has invaded — though Abramovich denies an association. Maybe Abramovich would have been touched by the support.
Who knows? At least his team won. His thirst for victory is all we ever really knew about him anyway. On the pitch, at least, this was an important win. It left them in third place but put six points between them and
Manchester United in fourth, ahead of
United’s clash with
Manchester City today. Visits to these northern towns have been some of the most memorable in Abramovich’s reign at Chelsea. There was the key victory in a league game at Blackburn in February 2005 that was a staging post in their first league title for 50 years.
Chelsea and their players are aware of the antipathy towards their owner. It would have been easy to fold and for results to suffer. It is to their credit they refused to yield. They fashioned the first chance. Saul had made a good start at left wing-back and he burst down the flank and sent in a cross behind the Burnley back four. It eluded Kai Havertz but Reece James met it at the back post and his shot was heading in until Charlie Taylor flung himself to block it.
Burnley hit back straight away. Aaron Lennon ran on to a through ball that caught out Saul and clipped a cross into the box. Wout Weghorst met it first time on the volley with his right foot and the crowd was rising to acclaim a goal until Thiago Silva appeared on the line to kick the ball clear. Burnley started to cause Chelsea more discomfort as they settled. Nathan Collins rose highest to meet a free-kick from the left but headed just over.
Burnley weathered another spell of pressure but then missed another chance to take the lead. Ashley Westwood sent a cross spiralling high into the air and when it came down, Edouard Mendy made a hash of it and punched it straight to Dwight McNeil 10 yards out. He controlled the ball beautifully with his first touch but with the goal gaping and defenders scrambling, McNeil fired over.
There was another alarm for Chelsea just before the interval. Trevoh Chalobah tried to shepherd a ball out for a goal kick but Jay Rodriguez slid in and kept it in play. The ball broke to McNeil six yards out but he delayed too long as he tried to pick out a colleague.
Burnley soon regretted their profligacy. Two minutes after the interval Chelsea worked the ball across the face of the Burnley area until Chalobah fed it wide to James, making his first start since
December 29. James turned McNeil one way and then the other and then unleashed a fierce cross-shot that whistled past Nick Pope’s right hand as he held it out forlornly. Five minutes later Chelsea were further ahead.
James and Christian Pulisic exchanged passes on the edge of the box, Pulisic made space to drift a cross to the back post and when the ball evaded Connor Roberts, Havertz headed it past Pope at his near post.
Chelsea were rampant now and soon they had extended their lead again. James was excelling and when N’Golo Kante found him on the overlap, James drilled the ball into the six-yard box and Havertz bundled it over the line. Chelsea celebrated in front of their fans. They had scored three goals in eight minutes.
Twenty minutes from the end Chelsea made it a rout. Saul lashed in a cross from the left and when Burnley skipper James Tarkowski tried to intercept it, he succeeded only in touching it into the path of Pulisic, who accepted the gift gratefully at close range.