CELEBRATING too soon? Ever since José Mourinho announced for the first time, a little more than a fortnight ago, that he thought Chelsea would win the Barclays Premiership title, things have started to go wrong for the club.
There was Arjen Robben’s broken foot, accusations of an illegal approach to Ashley Cole, the Arsenal defender, and a charge of failing to control their players after a match against Blackburn Rovers. Now comes Eidur Gudjohnsen’s arrest on suspicion of drink-driving in the early hours of Sunday morning, which may leave him with more to remember the weekend by than his winning goal in Chelsea’s 1-0 victory away to Everton the day before.
Gudjohnsen, 26, is reported to have been out celebrating his goal, and Chelsea’s temporary 12-point lead at the top of the Premiership, with team-mates before being stopped in his BMW at 5.20am on Sunday on the southbound carriageway of the A3 near Esher, in Surrey. After taking a breath test, the Iceland forward was taken to Battersea police station.
There, he was given a second breath test and kept in custody for a further three hours pending the result of a blood test before being bailed to return at the end of next month. Only just over the limit of 35 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath on the first test, he is understood to have been even closer to it on the second and will learn whether or not he is to face charges on his next visit.
Even if Gudjohnsen avoids further action, his arrest is unwelcome to a club that is seen as being in the vanguard of the move away from the traditional drinking culture in British football, especially as other players are reported to have been celebrating with him.
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When Mourinho became manager of Chelsea in the summer, Gudjohnsen was one of the first players to go public with praise for the new man in charge and made a point of saying that the former FC Porto manager treated his players like adults. Letting off steam after a vital victory is one thing, but Mourinho is unlikely to be impressed by the latest events involving Gudjohnsen, or that he and other players were keeping such late hours.
Mourinho had sought out Gudjohnsen soon after taking up his appointment as Chelsea manager to assure him that he was part of his plans, despite an expected influx of expensive new signings. He was given a new four-year contract and has shared the central striking role with Didier Drogba. Gudjohnsen’s place in the team is unlikely to be affected by Sunday’s alleged indiscretion, especially with fixtures coming thick and fast as battle is rejoined in the European Cup and with the hunt for trophies continuing on three domestic fronts, but it will be viewed as an unwelcome distraction.
This is not Gudjohnsen’s first brush with controversy since moving to Chelsea from Bolton Wanderers for £4 million in July 2000. Alcohol was involved when he and other Chelsea players, including John Terry and Frank Lampard, were fined two weeks’ wages and forced to apologise for their behaviour after insulting American visitors during a drinking session in the bar of an hotel near Heathrow shortly after the September 11 terrorist attacks. He has also confessed to running up gambling losses of £400,000 over a five-month period, while his private life made the tabloids when a Norwegian model accused the father-of-two of ending a three-month affair when he discovered she was pregnant.
There is no suggestion that Gudjohnsen will face official club discipline over what is regarded as a private matter, but whether he will privately have to give guarantees about his future conduct is another question.
He recently indicated his desire to remain part of the club’s quest for trophies. “I won’t leave Chelsea until I win silverware — if I ever leave, that is,” he said. “This is the happiest I have been at the club. I want to be in the first Chelsea team that wins the first championship for 50 years.”