Chelsea have always borne the brunt of the media this season. For some reason or the other, Mourinho always managed to be in the limelight and the team is always discussed in the papers and the TV shows! Chelsea have also been in controversies this season and it has all come out for the Blues who have stepped up as sheer title favourites. What does the media get, and want to achieve by focusing so much on Chelsea related matters? Here are three reasons that perhaps, would explain the situation.
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Jose Mourinho is Entertainment
It is fair enough to say that Jose Mourinho is a source of entertainment for the media, someone who provides them juicy gossip and tangy comments to run their stories. The media always looks for information that can catch viewers, and Mourinho provides exactly that.
Media-darling Mourinho makes life easy for the Media, though perhaps confirming that they are running a farce, by giving them what they want- Headlines! He has shown the tendency to make scathing attacks on rivals or make comments that are not politically correct or even sane for that matter! Last season, he called out to Arsene Wenger and branded him a ‘Specialist in Failure’ which became a raging hit for the media. The media need not even change the headlines to a catchy phrase because Jose has already done it, and presumably that would mean that they would get sensationalism organically in the news piece, hence nullifying the need of creating gossip and fake rumours.
Organic sensationalism sells, and doesn’t harm their reputation and when it originates from someone as high profile as the Chelsea manager, the media is surely going to pounce on it, and hence bring the club into the news.
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Chelsea players make headlines
You can’t help it when you have personalities like Diego Costa playing in the team. An entertaining, aggressive and a dirty opponent to deal with, Diego Costa has epitomized Chelsea’s strengths this season. He has stood out as the Premier League’s top scorer and has been a controversial player with his aggression. He has had tussles with the opposition defenders and has been involved in a sensational case of ‘Costa Crimes’ where he was seen stamping on Emre Can, Martin Skrtel etc.
Just like Mourinho, Chelsea’s players also have the tendency to make headlines. Terry, Costa, Fabregas and Hazard have been regular headline makers forcing the media to take more focus on Chelsea’s colorful players. “Making headlines” is a crucial requirement for media to sell.
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Chelsea are title challengers and league leaders and news-makers
When the league leaders lose a game, there is a huge hue and cry and a lot of hope for the teams immediately below them. Chelsea have been the pace setters of the league this season and they started with the hope of winning all the trophies on offer, and also win the Premier League in an invincible style like the Gunners of yore.
But Chelsea being Chelsea have had slack periods of complacency, three sensational losses against Newcastle, Spurs and Bradford in FA and also the surprise exit in the UCL, everything the media wants to run a story on the league leaders’ short comings. And in the various positives, there is the one trophy that Chelsea won this season already and that is the Capital One Cup. Plainly speaking, more sensational news happens with Chelsea, and the media decides to make it their focus.
The recent case of Chelsea fans’ racist behavior in Paris has also been discussed vehemently in Media, but is West Ham United fans’ anti-semitic behavior in a train cared about so much? Chelsea have taken over the mantle from Manchester United in being the most discussed team in media, something that sells like hot-cake, so much so that one website even coined the term ABC-Anything But Chelsea! So much for the campaign against Mourinho’s men!