For all that the beauty parade of potential owners has been a dizzying carousel of promises and sweet talk over the last seven days, none of those bidding to take the reins at Stamford Bridge will be able to retain the sort of riches that Abramovich collected over his 19 years.
Chelsea’s status at the top end of the Premier League will likely remain, but whether they can operate in the same rarefied air with American capital underwriting them is very much open to debate.
Whoever wins the auction that started with Friday’s deadline for bids, they have some standard to aspire to with the team Thomas Tuchel is leading so astutely in the final throes of the season. It is four wins since the sanctions were applied; Chelsea absorbing the shock of Abramovich’s sudden exit and moving into the last four of the FA Cup and last eight of the Championship League with relative ease.
Asked to cope with a red hot Teesside atmosphere and a Middlesbrough side that had seen off Manchester United and Tottenham in previous rounds, Chelsea looked the model of ruthless efficiency. It was not that Boro failed to meet the standards set in seeing off Spurs last month, it was just that Chelsea were able to keep them at arm’s length while applying their own knock out blows.
England midfielder Mason Mount was peerless in a midfield that purred, teeing up the two first half goals that took the sting out of a sell-out crowd that hailed Steve Gibson before kick-off. Boro’s owner had announced the incredible gesture of donating their share of gate receipts to the Ukrainian aid appeal the day before kick-off and he remains football’s model owner – a boyhood fan who has created a competitive, sustainable club with a moral conscience.
In Chris Wilder, they have one of the best managers outside of the Premier League so it was no surprise that Boro equipped themselves well. Had Folarin Balogun made a better connection with Marcus Tavernier’s corner they might well have found themselves back in the contest after Romelu Lukaku’s clinical opener.
They were made to pay when Chelsea broke with pace and Mount supplied Hakim Ziyech, who cut inside Neil Taylor to send a fizzing effort past Joe Lumley.
Boro played well but Chelsea looked lethal every time they attacked. Only a goal-line intervention from Anfernee Dijksteel prevented Lukaku from adding his second on 36 minutes after more slick interplay involving Mount and Christian Pulisic, an effervescent presence in the engine room.
The 600 Chelsea fans who had bought tickets before the Government’s sanctions had been levied celebrated in the corner of the Riverside. They have a Wembley semi-final to look forward to, by which time their club may have emerged, blinking into a new era.
For now, at least, the old one continues to deliver.
Player ratings
Middlesbrough (3-5-2)
Lumley – 5
Dijksteel – 7
McNair – 6
Fry – 6
Jones – 6
Howson – 7
Crooks – 6
Tavernier – 6
Taylor – 5
Balogun – 6
Connolly – 5
Subs:
Bamba – 6
Peltier – 5
Watmore – 6
Chelsea (4-3-3)
Mendy – 6
Azpilicueta – 6
Silva – 7
Rudiger – 7
Sarr – 6
Kovacic – 6
Loftus-Cheek – 7
Ziyech – 7
Mount – 8
Pulisic – 6
Lukaku – 8
Subs:
Kante – 6
Werner – 6
Kenedy – 6
Vale – 6
Analysis: Boro’s Isaiah Jones secret is now out
By Oliver Young-Myles
The bulk of Boro’s brighter moments came via their right-hand flank and the rampaging wing-back Isaiah Jones.
Boro’s march to the last eight of the competition has been an overwhelmingly positive experience for those involved. That penalty shootout success at Old Trafford was the stuff of dreams for a club that has spent 12 of the last 13 seasons in the Championship and the 1-0 win against Spurs that followed was sealed in extra-time by a homegrown teenage striker in front of a raucous Riverside.
The one possible downside to Boro’s eyecatching run, is that Jones is no longer Middlesbrough’s best-kept secret. If Premier League clubs were not aware of Jones before this season’s FA Cup, they most certainly will be now. Boro are firmly in the Championship play-off race, but Jones’ displays against each of United, Spurs and Chelsea were indicators that his talent belongs at a higher level than the second-tier.
The 22-year-old’s form has meant that Djed Spence, the Middlesbrough-owned wing-back on loan at Nottingham Forest who has reportedly caught Bayern Munich’s eye, has not been missed. Much like Scotland and their abundance of left-backs, Boro appear to have stumbled upon the two best right-backs outside of the Premier League.
Speaking after the game, Tuchel admitted that Chelsea had made specific plans to try and contain Jones, a ringing endorsement for his burgeoning reputation. Quotes that drew the following response from Wilder: “Don’t tell him what he [Tuchel] said – he’ll be after a pay rise!”
Tuchel: We will not get carried away
Tuchel insisted that Chelsea will not “carried away” despite their recent impressive form and conceded that Manchester City and Liverpool are operating on a higher level to his side.
“It seems like they’re [Man City and Liverpool] are three years on a run also,” he said. “We will never admit anything before things are decided and always push ourselves to the limit. But we should not get carried away. Two teams took advantage of my problems and they deserve to be where they are.”
Reece James did not feature in the FA Cup tie and Tuchel seemed bemused that he had received a call-up for Gareth Southgate’s England squad for games against Switzerland the Ivory Coast.
“The recommendation is that he does not go,” he said. “He needs one more week of individual rehabilitation and it’s not the job of the national team to do this.”
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