Mourinho's Waterloo

I was at work today when Chelsea played Leicester City in the EPL.  I obviously couldn't watch the game at work, but I was able to follow it by checking in on the Guardian's minute by minute blog coverage, which is sometimes just as good...it's what I imagine it was like getting dispatches in baseball games via telegraph ages ago, everyone hanging on for news of their favorite team playing miles away...

As the news came in over the wires it was not good for Chelsea.  Jamie Vardy scored in the 34th minute and Mahrez made it 2-0 right after the break.  

Mourinho, seemingly out of options, made a final substitution of Fabregas on for Terry.  Chelsea would finish the game in a 3-5-2.  

It seemed to me a desperate last gamble in the context of the season, as if finally Mourinho had no other options, and I found myself thinking of Napoleon sending in the Old Guard at Waterloo in one final attempt to break Wellington's line.  The attack wavered and was repulsed, sealing the allied victory over their French nemesis.  

Here Fabregas made a difference, and Chelsea mounted pressure and earned a goal.   But Lecister wouldn't break, they closed down the game's final moments,  and in the end Chelsea picked up their ninth loss, another twist in the most shambolic and perplexing title defense in many, many years.

This was Mourinho's Waterloo moment.  It feels like this is the end of something at Chelsea even if Mourinho hangs on to his job for the rest of the season.  

It's not a perfect analogy;  John Terry represents the CFC old guard if anyone does, and Fabregas has been in wretched form whereas the Imperial Guard had never been beaten prior to being tossed into battle at Waterloo.  But nevertheless, both were a gamble not quite enough, and I think this is one of those results that we will remember, when its repercussions reverberates through the next several seasons.

This one, for some reason, just feels important.