Luiz Felipe Scolari failed in his mission to bring the beautiful game and success to Stamford Bridge. An early insight into the problems he faced was provided by Joe Kinnear’s Newcastle side, which came to West London with the intention of winning a point. It created an extremely ugly spectacle. Scolari accepted responsibility for failing to break down the obdurate Newcastle side, so what would be done when facing similar sides? “When we receive more teams like Newcastle who can play with ten players in back we need to have preparations for win,” said Scolari. “Training, change the position of the players; try to do like that in the next match.” It failed and Scolari paid with his job.

Meanwhile, his opposite number not only kept his job, but turned a temporary appointment into a permanent one, although his health problems, which had kept him out of the game until the resignation of Kevin Keegan resulted in his surprise appointment as temporary manager of Newcastle in September 2008 until a new buyer could be found, may ultimately cost him his job. The Magpies’ owner Mike Ashley found that buyers were scarce in troubled times, so Kinnear arrived at Stamford Bridge in November buoyed by an extension. “It’s due to run out at Middlesbrough, but I’ve been informed I’m here another month that will bring us up into the window, so I’ll twist his arm and get a few quid out of him and then I’ll buy a couple of players,” he said then.

“It’s maybe the best team performance we’ve had,” said Kinnear. “We drew 2-2 at Everton, but this was a better performance. We had two key players out. I always knew it was going to be a difficult match. We brought Michael Owen back in and played him a lot deeper than we normally would. They had long shots and Shay Given has pulled off two world class saves. Our two centre halves were magnificent. I thought [Habib] Beye was sensational. The two wide players, obviously we didn’t get much out of them going forward; they tucked back in which I think is part of the game. We got our just rewards today. You see games that are lost you know late in the game; it concerned us that this would happen again, but you know we dug in there. It feels like a win. We drew with Wigan and that felt like a loss at home. They scored in the eighty-ninth minute I think from a corner, but this feels like a victory.”

Scolari’s effort to solve the riddle of a parked fleet of buses was not resolved by training, or changing positions. Another 0-0 at Stamford proved the last straw for billionaire owner Roman Abramovich who sacked the World Cup winner on February 9th after just seven months in charge. Kinnear left Stamford Bridge with more than just a much-needed point, as his team proved that they had the ability to play to a plan even if that meant that there would not be sight, nor sound of the beautiful game; it was ugly but very effective.