Neil Humphreys: Fiery FA Cup final awaits Conte, Mourinho
Arch-rivals Conte and Mourinho promise fireworks in winner-takes-all clash
In recent days, the hopeless romantics have drunk in the nostalgia of those classic Arsene Wenger-Alex Ferguson battles.
| CHELSEA | SOUTHAMPTON |
| 2 | 0 |
| (Olivier Giroud 46, Alvaro Morata 82) |
But as Wenger prepares to retire, the last relationship built on outright hatred promises to play out at Wembley.
Antonio Conte and Jose Mourinho will now meet in the FA Cup final after Chelsea defeated Southampton 2-0 in a tepid semi-final last night.
Fireworks are promised after a damp squib of a season.
Ferguson has gone.
Wenger is going.
And even Conte is probably on his way after the FA Cup final, leaving English football with too many hearty handshakes, polite accolades and mutual respect.
But Conte and Mourinho are old-school haters.
They despise the other man's achievements, always looking for an opportunity to humiliate each other.
Both need silverware to validate their campaigns.
Both need the FA Cup to vindicate too many dubious tactical decisions.
But Mourinho may feel he has less to fear.
Chelsea prevailed against Southampton, but their performance was ragged and often ponderous against defensive opponents.
To his credit, Saints boss Mark Hughes followed through on his promise to play with a pair of strikers, rather than a lonely, lost soul up front.
Long-suffering supporters have demanded greater attacking support for more than a year, but in some ways, the pairing of Charlie Austin and Shane Long underlined Hughes' lack of options.
Hughes' bold 3-5-2 existed only on paper. In reality, the Saints' wing-backs frequently retreated to make a back five.
Chelsea probed immediately and needed only seven minutes to seep through Southampton's porous defence, with Willian whipping a fine strike against the crossbar.
And yet, extraordinarily, that was about it for a wretched first 45 minutes.
The Saints had their excuses.
The semi-final essentially offered a free hit.
A loss allowed them to focus on their relegation battle.
A win would have boosted confidence as they returned to their relegation battle.
THE REAL PARADOX
But Chelsea proved, once again, to be the real paradox.
All season long, the former English Premier League champions have been brilliant, brittle or downright baffling, with their unsettled manager leaving the club every other week.
Their frustrating inconsistency was certainly evident at Wembley.
Despite playing a team seemingly bound for the Championship, Chelsea's back three struggled to conceal Gary Cahill's lack of pace, N'Golo Kante did Cesc Fabregas' running for him as usual and Olivier Giroud looked like the exasperating forward from Arsenal.
That essentially left Hazard and Willian, a couple of mini-merchants of menace, to tear up the turf.
But they lacked support to break the deadlock.
At half-time, the only person enjoying the turgid trudge at Wembley had to be the original architect of the turgid trudge.
Based on the first half, Mourinho had little to fear.
Sleepwalking offers a more entertaining, physical attraction.
Fortunately, Chelsea woke up 28 seconds later.
Fabregas, anonymous in the first half, floated a sublime pass from the halfway line.
Hazard rose and flicked the ball on to Giroud, who pulled off a Messi-like slalom to beat a couple of defenders before poking Chelsea ahead.
Conte's relief was palpable and he took a leaf from Mourinho's book just after the hour mark.
DEFENSIVE MOVE
His decision to replace the popular Willian with Tiemoue Bakayoko was a strange, defensive move. It was greeted with boos from Chelsea fans.
A nervous Conte sought to park a bus with 25 minutes still to play, but his caution only encouraged the Saints to march forward more often.
In the 72nd minute, substitute Nathan Redmond belted a strike from 20 metres that was somehow beaten away by the flailing body parts of Willy Caballero.
But it was another substitute who settled the contest.
Alvaro Morata, on the pitch for a matter of moments, rose highest to nod in Cesar Azpilicueta's outstanding cross in the 82nd minute.
Morata had been on for less than 90 seconds.
His goal settled a mediocre 90-minute contest.
Conte will get a Wembley send-off.
Beating Mourinho would be the perfect farewell gift.
Catch Neil Humphreys as he gives his satirical take on the English Premier League and football every Saturday, 10am to 12 noon, on Money FM 89.3
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