Mighty effort to sustain title challenge falls short

THEY GAVE IT A GOOD GO – THEY always do – and a mighty effort by the Chelsea players almost kept the title race alive for another few days. José Mourinho was rightly proud of their endeavours, although, typically, he was not about to shower the new champions with praise to go with their champagne. “They got more points than us,” he said. “Congratulations to Manchester United, but that is it.”

It was not quite the graceless performance of the previous week, when Chelsea had succumbed to Liverpool in the Champions League, and, in any case, Mourinho seemed to be more concerned with the enemy within. The Portuguese repeatedly questioned the commitment of some of his squad and, while he refused to name individuals, the finger of suspicion will be aimed at Michael Ballack and Andriy Shevchenko, among others. Paulo Ferreira and Khalid Boulahrouz are being offered around at discount prices.

Boulahrouz was laughably bad yesterday, sent off before half-time and unlikely to be seen again in a Chelsea shirt, but most of his teammates kept fighting long after he had gone. It was only when the final whistle blew that anyone could be certain that Mourinho, a title-winner in each of the past five seasons in Portugal and England, had finally lost his crown.

Perhaps he will join the guard of honour when United visit Stamford Bridge on Wednesday. A taste of humility has never hurt anyone.

Mourinho’s players scrapped to the end, but there had been a concession from their manager even before kick-off when he left out Didier Drogba. The striker is said to have an ankle injury, but he is expected to return for the FA Cup Final, if not before, and he would surely have played if their title challenge had not appeared so forlorn.

Chelsea had to win to keep the race alive and Arsenal were never likely to roll over to such loathed rivals. Their biggest problem would be scavenging a goal, but that came with Gilberto’s first-half penalty. Boulahrouz had looked the worst player on the pitch when, a few minutes before the interval, he allowed Júlio Baptista (arguably the second worst) to barge him out of the way as they raced back into the penalty area.

From the wrong side, the defender felled Baptista and Alan Wiley, the referee, awarded the penalty and showed the red card. Steve Clarke, Mourinho’s assistant, mounted a furious protest as Wiley walked to the dressing-room at half-time, although, thankfully, Mourinho was later persuaded to accept the decision.

It had been hard to see how else a goal might come. Converting chances at home has been Arsenal’s main failing this season, while, in the absence of Drogba and Shevchenko, Chelsea effectively played without a striker. Salomon Kalou did most of his running out wide so Joe Cole was the nearest to a centre forward.

In the circumstances, it was remarkable that they came back so strongly. Arsène Wenger accused his players of overelaborating – as they have been doing for years – and Cole won a corner with commendable perseverance. Arsenal only half-cleared it and Shaun Wright-Phillips whipped in a cross to the near post, where Michael Essien got ahead of William Gal-las. There were 20 minutes left of frenetic football, with Jens Lehmann saving from Kalou and Emmanuel Eboué rattling the Chelsea bar.

But then came the final whistle and there was just time for Mourinho to stride across the pitch to the away fans and, in that shy, retiring way of his, point to his players to say that they were the heroes. Meanwhile, Clarke was responding to the taunts of the Arsenal fans by signalling a zero – presumably a big fat zero of trophies – and Chelsea trooped off to resounding jeers.

Arsenal 1 Gilberto 43 (pen)

Chelsea 1 Essien 70

Referee: A Wiley 6

Attendance: 60,102