John Obi Mikel made his debut for Chelsea two years ago following a bit of a battle between us and Manchester United which ultimately cost Mikel a year of his career and Chelsea around £16million.
Unfortunately for Mikel he’d already been pictured in full Manchester United regalia, having signed for them before claiming it was Chelsea he’d wanted to sign for all along. Even more unfortunate for Mikel is the fact that it’s United who have won both titles since he ‘swapped sides’.
However, the Chelsea midfielder insists he has no regrets about choosing Chelsea over Manchester United and following Sunday’s game stated:
“When I go out there I just want to play well. Maybe it turns out every time against Manchester United I play well but I just have to keep it going and make sure I do it in every game. I love being here – it is a fantastic club with fantastic people and I wish to be here for a very long time. I just have to keep on working hard and see what comes up.”
With Michael Essien out long term, Mikel is now regarded as a key man in the Chelsea midfield. However, despite finding himself in the position he’d hoped to, being given the task of filling the ‘Makelele role’, Mikel now seems to be modestly deflecting anything remotely resembling a comparison, stating:
“We are two different types of players. We don’t play the same way but all respect to him. Anywhere in the middle is fine but the manager will mostly play me in the holding midfield role. When you play under a manager like Scolari it’s good for your confidence when the manager has got belief in you. He wants you to go out there and he knows you can do it. I always go out there and make sure I don’t disappoint him, go out there and give it my most.”
So all good stuff to hear from Mikel who, to be fair, has done a good job in the role since being called upon. Of course, he’s been a bit of a loose cannon in the past, picking up several more red cards than we’d have liked, but hopefully with his new-found responsibility could come some maturity and that’s pretty much what I’d thought from reading his comments.
So why is there a nagging doubt? Well, maybe it comes from his parting shot, when he says of Sunday’s game, and his desire to take United’s title “That is what we want to achieve and I will pray we do that. I’m disappointed we didn’t get the three points but at the end of the day it was a good result — we played much better than them.”
So maybe what worries me is that he still sounds like he’s trying to prove too much of a point – and that’s dangerous.
Blue is the colour
