Back at the end of 2008, John Obi Mikel was copping a bit of flak. Fair play to him though because he seemed to take some of what his critics were saying on board and resolved to address the issue of his previous lack of discipline.
His early seasons at Chelsea had certainly left a lot to be desired on that front. Just a month after making his first start for us in September 2006, Mikel was sent off against Reading. Then he had some sort of issue around telling the time apparently and got himself 3 successive fines from the club and dropped for a month for turning up late for training. His time-keeping must’ve improved though because he got on as a sub in the 2007 League Cup final against Arsenal, unfortunately he didn’t make the final whistle in that one either and took an early bath with another red card to his name.
The 2007-08 season didn’t see any improvement either, with another sending off against United in the league and then the Carling Cup semi-final against Everton seeing his fourth sending off in two seasons. Add to that tally the 27 yellows he picked up along the way as well and it’s fair to say he wasn’t doing himself any favours.
Skip forward to 2010 though and it looks as if he meant what he said because there haven’t been any more reds since Everton and so far this season, he’s picked up just two yellows from 16 games.
The man himself puts this change down to simply becoming accustomed to life in the Premier League, stating “English football is always something crazy and, when you come into the Premier League, you must adapt to it somehow. I guess the timing of those tackles was the area I had to improve and I think I’ve dealt really well with it.”
My money’s on it being more about him growing up though – a point he sums up nicely when he says “I think it was the hunger I had for the games, the enthusiasm, that meant I did not know how to restrict myself from going into tackles at the wrong moment.”
Still, whilst his ‘enthusiasm’ does seem to be better controlled these days, Mikel insists that doesn’t make his challenges less committed, saying “It took me a bit of time to get used to things but now it has been two years with no red cards and I hope I can continue like that. I always try to keep my aggression but not get booked. But when you play in the position I play, sometimes you have to commit because the team will be in danger if you don’t.”
………and that’s where the refs come into it eh? 🙂
Blue is the colour
