Chelsea’s Ruben Loftus-Cheek spoke out on the alleged racism his England team mate Raheem Sterling received by some ‘Blues’ fans in Man City’s 2-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge.
LONDON — Chelsea are likely to meet with Tottenham ahead of next month’s Carabao Cup semifinal tie between the clubs with antisemitic chants high on the agenda, sources have told ESPN FC.
Wednesday’s draw was received gloomily by Chelsea officials, who fear that a feisty two-legged tie with bitter London rivals Spurs comes at the worst possible time in the club’s escalating battle to rid antisemitic chants from a vocal minority of its fanbase.
Chelsea plan to increase the rhetoric around their “Say No To Antisemitism” campaign around both matches, with particular focus on the second leg at Stamford Bridge at the end of January.
Earlier this week Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck wrote an open letter to supporters doubling down on the club’s stance toward offensive chants and behaviour, warning any individuals who do not share their values of diversity and inclusion that “this is not the club for you.”
Buck also insisted that “what other clubs may deem acceptable from their supporters in the way of personal identification does not alter our position of zero tolerance” — a thinly-veiled reference to Spurs fans’ continued use of a derogatory Jewish term in their own songs.
All eyes with therefore be on the response of Chelsea supporters in both matches, with the club desperate to avoid a continuation of a damaging recent series of incidents that have resulted in police action and could yet lead to them having part of Stamford Bridge closed by UEFA for the home leg of their Europa League round of 32 tie against Malmo in February.
“It’s a massive derby for the fans and we hope that all the behaviour on and off the pitch is what football deserves,” Chelsea defender Cesar Azpilicueta said after Wednesday’s 1-0 win over Bournemouth in the Carabao Cup quarterfinal. “There is a lot of rivalry between us, but this is a game where we have to show everyone [how we are].
“It’s a massive game for everyone. We have to show how we are personally as a club. Hopefully we can show how we are, how we behave.”
Chelsea assistant coach Gianfranco Zola added: “I have no doubts that [the supporters] will respond to it in a proper way. We have fantastic supporters and I’m sure they’ll be supporting respectfully and in the Chelsea way.”
Zola also claimed that the semifinal draw offers Chelsea the perfect opportunity to avenge the “good footballing lesson” they endured at Wembley last month, when Tottenham ended their rivals’ unbeaten start to the season with a comprehensive 3-1 victory.
Azpilicueta agrees. “That game from the first minute to the last we were really bad,” he admitted. “They were better than us. We cannot let this happen again. We have to improve.
After that game we understood what we can improve on and obviously when the game gets closer, we will study them more and try to get better because the game we played that day was not acceptable.
“We have the chance to qualify for a final, we play a derby over two legs so we will try everything to get through.”
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