INTERVIEW

Skipper Wise senses Chelsea's title
By Steve Stammers
Monday, January 18, 1999

While Chelsea wait to hear if they will face FA action after the unseemly touchline fracas against Coventry, skipper Dennis Wise is convinced the team have the mental strength to last the pace in the title race.

Chelsea stayed top of the Premiership after their 2-1 win - and it was a victory achieved without several key players.

Tore Andre Flo, Pierluigi Casiraghi, Marcel Desailly, Michael Duberry and Gustavo Poyet were all missing and Wise said: 'That shows what strength in depth we have in the squad now.

'It wasn't our greatest performance, not by a long way. The pitch didn't help. We like to play a quick passing game but you had to be so sure of your touch on that surface and that slowed things down. But we won and that is the main thing. And it means we stay on top and as far as we are concerned, that's great. A few years back maybe that wouldn't have been the case. It might have been an extra pressure that we may have found hard to handle. Not now.'

Wise will join his team-mates in the Canary Islands tonight and the FA will study the report of referee Jeff Winter before deciding what action to take after Saturday's fracas in which Coventry manager Gordon Strachan and Chelsea back-room staff member Aaron Lincoln were sent from the touchline and will be reported for misconduct.

Before leaving for the six-day break, Vialli said: 'I think Gordon Strachan is a manager who cares a lot about getting the result and I sympathise with him.'