A tribute to Michael Essien, Chelsea’s man for all things and all seasons
Michael Essien is not the first name that comes to mind when talking about Chelsea’s success in the modern age, but he is definitely one of the club’s best players.
In football, the life of the reserve man is strange. Like a knife, they can be used for a lot of different things and are important to have around. Managers like them a lot because they can do just about anything.
The utility player, on the other hand, is often overlooked in favor of those who do more exciting things on the sports field.
Being a “utility man” can also hurt the player. Since he can fill in almost anywhere, he can’t settle into a specific role on the team when there’s a fire to be put out every week in a different spot.
In this way, they are both important and disposable, which must be confusing for the people who play these roles.
Michael Essien, Chelsea’s Man For All Seasons, was the best at what he did.
He was bought from Lyon for £24.4 million in the summer of 2005, after Jose Mourinho’s team had won the 2004-05 Premier League title by 12 points over Arsenal.
Mourinho liked a three-man middle with Tiago, Claude Makelele, and Frank Lampard. The first two gave Lampard the freedom to show off his skills further up the field, but the Blues manager thought Tiago needed to be replaced.
And Essien was a big step up.
At 22, he was the right age to be turned into a Mourinho player. He was old enough to not need to be coddled, but he was still young enough and eager enough to be turned into a top-level football player.
Mourinho said of the club’s then-record signing, “We think he’s the best we can get for his position, and he can play anywhere in midfield.”
Essien, who was known as the “Bison,” got off to a good start at Chelsea when they beat Arsenal 1-0. He set up Didier Drogba’s lucky goal.
The Ghanaian became a regular in Chelsea’s starting lineup, playing with Makelele and Lampard as they successfully held their title. He played 31 times in the league and 41 times overall.
The other side
The man whose former teammates called him a “physical monster” didn’t always have it easy, though. In his last season in France, he made a nasty tackle on Mohammed Kallon of Monaco, which was a sign of things to come in England.
In December 2005, Essien went studs-up on Dietmar Hamman just below the knee during a Champions League group game with Liverpool. This is called a “horror tackle” by the rules of the game.
At the time, the judge didn’t see what happened, but UEFA did. Essien was sent to the bench for two games.
But as Essien got more powerful at Chelsea over the next few years, he stopped making such rough hits.
His flexibility was known when he played for Lyon, and even though he said he liked to play in the middle of the field, he never complained and did a great job wherever he was asked to. He could play as a right back, a center back, or in the middle of the field without any trouble.
The best thing about Essien’s game was that he seemed to be able to do everything. He could easily pick a pass, rush forward as a box-to-box defender, or protect the defense.
It’s fitting that he played like Patrick Vieira and Roy Keane because he modeled his game after them. In fact, he could have played with Roy Keane if he hadn’t been denied a work permit after a trial at Manchester United in 1999.
Great goals
Even though Essien wasn’t known for getting many goals, the ones he did score were almost always the best.
There was the amazing equalizer against Arsenal in 2006-07, which was named Chelsea’s Goal of the Season, and the goal against Valencia that put Chelsea in the semi-finals of the Champions League later that season.
Essien was named Chelsea’s Player of the Season at the end of the season. He was the first African to win this award.
After Mourinho was fired at the beginning of the 2007–08 season and Avram Grant was hired to replace him, the team was able to go on a run that finished with them just missing out on the league and European titles. This shows the team’s character.
As a right-back for Manchester United, Essien was dwarfed by Cristiano Ronaldo when he scored the game’s first goal for Manchester United in the 2008 Champions League final. He had a rough start against Ronaldo, who at the time was probably having the best season of any Premier League player.
But what most people don’t remember is that Essien slowly got better at the game and stopped the losing streak. The fact that he started in an unusual spot in the biggest game of his career up to that point and did so well shows how dedicated he was to the cause.
Beginning of the end
In a cruel way, that was the best Essien could do at Stamford Bridge.
In a World Cup qualifying game against Libya, the midfielder fell badly and tore his anterior cruciate ligament. He will be out for more than six months because of this. This was the first of many serious knee injuries that would end his time at Chelsea.
He came back at the end of the 2008-09 season and scored another Goal of the Season against Barcelona in the Champions League semi-final. That game is now known for a number of controversial calls by the officials that cost Chelsea the game.
In 2010, he was out for a long time again and missed the World Cup in South Africa. Then, in the preseason of 2011, he tore his cruciate ligament again, which kept him out for another six months.
When the story of Roman Abramovich’s takeover and final success in the Champions League is told, players like Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard, John Terry, and Petr Cech will get credit for making a billionaire’s dream come true.
Below that group of players, there will be a place for a man who did his job quietly and sometimes forcefully and put the team’s needs ahead of his own.
Even though Essien didn’t do much to help his team win the Champions League in 2012, history will be kind to him in the end.