Controversy has detracted from Chelsea’s brilliance on the pitch

As we head into the international break, Chelsea are four points clear at the top of the table and look fantastic.

The team are playing glorious attacking football but have also conceded fewer goals than anyone else in the Premier League.

All the focus should be on how well Chelsea are doing on the pitch and how great they are to watch. But of course it is not – and that’s a great shame.

Saturday’s 4-1 win over Norwich highlighted the team’s attacking flair but the spectre of John Terry and Ashley Cole’s disciplinary issues loomed large over the match.

And in all honesty, it’s probably right that they did.

In Terry’s case, allegations of racial abuse cannot be swept under the carpet.

Sometimes it’s easy to dismiss criticism – such as the notion that Jose Mourinho’s teams were boring or that Chelsea have no history. But not this time.

Without going into detail about the rights and wrongs of Terry’s situation, like many I find it puzzling that, with the case already dealt with in a court of law, the FA can decide to re-examine it behind closed doors and come to a different verdict.

But at the same time, none of this would be happening if he had simply not said those words.

In Cole’s case, you can understand him being angry at the FA’s criticism of his evidence and his infamous tweet clearly came in the heat of the moment and was followed by an apology. But clearly it was a daft thing to do.

You can only begin to imagine the frustration Roberto Di Matteo must have felt when told about it.

He has won the Champions League and FA Cup with Chelsea and followed that up by getting the team playing sweet, attacking football, with new stars integrated seamlessly into the team as they go clear at the top of the table.

Huge plaudits should be coming his way.

But having already seen his captain found guilty of something which happened before he was manager, another senior player – a man with 98 England caps and more than a decade in the public eye – labelled the governing body which has given him those caps a “bunch of t***s”.

And every day there is a story like this in the papers is another day those papers are not focusing on how well Chelsea are playing.

What makes it all the sadder is that on the pitch Terry and Cole are so assured, professional and intelligent.

Terry’s stupid sending off in the Champions League was so out of character, and aside from that both he and Cole have consistently done the right thing on the pitch.

They have contributed so much to Chelsea’s cause and should always be regarded as club legends.

If they were as reliable off the field as they are on it, there would be no cause for the media to criticise them.

Hopefully, once any suspensions have been served, the focus can begin to return to the field of play.

The likes of Juan Mata, Eden Hazard, Oscar and Fernando Torres deserve that to happen, because the football they’re playing is beautiful.

James Clarke is the author of Moody Blues: Following the second-best team in Europe

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