After their 3-1 win at Leicester City on Wednesday, Chelsea need a win against Crystal Palace at Stamford Bridge on Sunday to clinch the Premier League title.
Despite being 13 points clear at the top of the table, plenty of critics have hit out at Chelsea in recent weeks for being “boring” after they shutout both Manchester United and Arsenal. However the Blues are unbeaten in their last 14 PL games, winning 11 of them, and have been top of the table since August 30.
[ RELATED: Mourinho angry at HT ]
Speaking about the criticism they’ve been getting, Chelsea’s captain John Terry (who scored the go-ahead goal against Leicester) believes the manager and players deserve more respect.
While veteran striker Didier Drogba, who scored the equalizer against Leicester, had the following to say about the lack of respect shown towards Chelsea.
“We don’t get enough credit for the work we have been doing,” Drogba said. “We are top of the league, we have the most points and people find us boring because we have been top since day one.”
So, are these two Chelsea stalwarts correct? Should their side get more respect for what they are about to achieve this season?
Mourinho summed it up in his presser when asked about the respect issue and simply said: “In a very pragmatic way, I think we are what every team would like to be.” And that’s correct in a lot of ways.
When Chelsea put in several swashbuckling displays at the start of the season to climb clear of their title contenders, they have failed to slip up in a big way since and have only lost twice all season while switching to a more defensive style of play in the final weeks of the campaign in order to seal their first title since 2010.
Soon Chelsea will be champions of England once again, but that issue of not gaining the respect of neutrals will still linger as their defensive style of play has turned plenty of fans off in the second half of the season. It’s hard to see Terry, Drogba and Co. getting the respect they think they deserve.