No way Jose – Paulo’s in

Following Chelsea’s poor run of form recently – despite yesterday’s result – there is no doubt the defence is the Blues’ weakness. Although many are saying David Luiz is the fault at centre back and he should be more of a striker, I think most our goals we concede are coming from the right hand side; and the heavenly scope of light shines on you Mr Bosingwa. However, I feel I’ve also found the solution in the form of Paulo Ferreira.

When I mention Ferreira to anyone they always chuckle and compare him to their club’s awful right backs, and, if I’m honest, I used to agree with them. But now when you think about it, it wasn’t his form that threw him down the pecking order but the players bought in.

When Jose Mourinho bought him alongside Ricardo Carvalho, Paulo had a very impressive debut season with solid performances down the right. However, injury scarpered his playing time and eventually Mourinho bought in Khalid ‘I get the player not the ball’ Boulahrouz and much travelled Geremi Njitap.

But despite this lack of playing time, Ferreira has been happy with limited places on the substitute’s bench and avoided handing in a transfer request since his arrival seven years ago, so for that he deserves some credit.

Following Branislav Ivanovic’s injury against Tottenham Hotspur a fortnight ago, the local pub was surrounded with tuts and groans as Ferreira jogged onto the pitch, but as the full time whistle sounded I thought he done a decent job in the end.

Although the 32-year-old made a late substitutes appearance in a disappointing 1-1 draw at home to local rivals Fulham, the real evidence that AVB needs to start Ferreira instead of Bosingwa came against Aston Villa. The latter came on for his fellow Portuguese international when the scores were tied at 1-1 with 15 minutes left. However, just 11 minutes later, Chelsea were 3-1 down following a huge gap at the back and Frank Lampard’s error. 

Cue the icing on the cake yesterday when Chelsea found themselves level as Bosingwa was easily beaten to a deep cross for Wolverhampton Wanderers to equalise. Yes there is a chance Ferreira wouldn’t have got to it, but he surely would have had a better go?

Overall, arguably Ferreira is a better defender yet Bosingwa offers more in attack. If you put it into perspective, they both provide good crosses in the box for strikers to finish, whereas Paulo can keep out goals whilst Jose can score them. All in all, I just hope AVB will read this and play Ferreira in the FA Cup clash v Portsmouth on Sunday.

Aaron Aquilina
@P_D_L_P