Sport 04-10-2004 Boring, Boring Chelsea Win Again who: Chelsea midfielder Joe Cole what: Criticised by his manager after scoring winning goal against Liverpool where: Stamford Bridge, LONDON when: Yesterday snippet: "Joe Cole was given a verbal clip around the ear from José Mourinho yesterday," writes The Times` Matt Dickinson after the 22 year-old`s flicked goal kept Arsenal in the title hunt, "but he will hope that his match-winning performance for Chelsea against Liverpool will have impressed Sven-Göran Eriksson." Blues boss Mourinho complained that substitute Cole failed to track back to help defend his team`s lead after scoring. "After that I needed 11 players for my defensive organisation and I had just 10. He still has a lot to learn, a lot... I can change this and he wants that." Mourinho`s criticism of Cole "added fuel to the fire of the critics who say the Blues are a negative team," reckons The Sun, which points to Chelsea`s one-goal-per-game record this season as evidence that Mourinho`s team lack the invention and entertainment value of 26-goal Arsenal. "People say Manchester United have scored seven goals in a week but they have dropped two points," retorted Mourinho. "They should have scored five against Fenerbahce and two against Boro. We keep scoring enough goals to win games." Manchester United almost dropped three points in fact, requiring a late goal from Alan Smith at home to an injury-ravaged Boro to cancel out Stewart Downing`s breakaway goal. "A record Premiership attendance shoehorned into Old Trafford to see Wayne Rooney," moans The Guardian, "but he fell short of his most exhilarating peaks and there was no disguising the Mancunian melancholy engulfing the stadium at the end." It was one apiece at St Andrews too, with Newcastle fighting back to earn a 2-2 draw against Birmingham in what The Times calls an "oscillating match" filled with "good old-fashioned British commitment". Nicky Butt, "of all people, flew through the air to volley in a scissor kick" to equalize and leave Blues boss Steve Bruce complaining that he played with Nicky Butt for a long time at Manchester United, "and I never remember him scoring a goal like that." [... more]

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