MAZACAR, Torres and the Europa League - Chelsea 2012-2013

Chelsea 2012-2013 season- Why They Were Successful

Why Torres, MAZACAR and a Trophy was worthy of more credit and should have been considered a successful season.

The 2012/13 season for Chelsea was one that they went into with a lot of hope. Having had the greatest night in their history in the previous season, in that against all odds Champions League final against Bayern Munich, there were good feelings amongst fans that Roberto Di Matteo could help put Chelsea in the running for the title.

The biggest challenge that they faced was replacing the talismanic figure of Didier Drogba and perhaps it was time for record signing Fernando Torres to take the reins upfront.

But when fans look back on the season, they look at it with a lot of disappointment. They attack Torres for his poor performances, look at the exit from the Champions League group stage as a travesty, and criticise the sacking of Roberto Di Matteo. The appointment of Rafa Benitez as manager was also highly controversial and in general, Chelsea were considered to have a bad season.

But I don’t look at it like that at all, and in reality, I think the season was a success for a few reasons:

1. MAZACAR

For years I called them MAZCAR, but after a quick Google search, I discovered that the electric attacking trio of Juan Mata, Eden Hazard and Oscar are actually known to Chelsea fans as MAZACAR. The 2012/13 season was the one and only season that the Premier League had to witness the trio and they did not disappoint.

Mata had already been a star in Chelsea’s unlikely Champions League success, getting the assist for the equaliser in the final of the competition against Bayern Munich. The following Summer, Chelsea managed to sign the much sort after Eden Hazard from Lille (£32 million for his quality was an unbelievable deal), and Emboaba Oscar, a relatively unknown midfielder from Internacional.

No one really remembers the quite ridiculous stats that occurred for the trio that year and they were real success stories for the season.

And here are those stats:

Mata: 18 goals and 34 assists.

Hazard: 13 goals and 23 assists.

Oscar: 12 goals and 12 assists.

And to give them some context, Kevin De Bruyne, who has been called the best player in the country this year, only had 16 goals and 23 assists in the 2019/20 season in all competitions, whilst MAZACAR’s season is often forgotten about and none of them won any individual awards that year.

2. The improved performance of Fernando Torres as star striker:

Loved by fans, but considered one of the worst signings in Premier League history by critics, Fernando Torres was criminally underrated as a Chelsea player. Reasons for criticism are evident when you look at the statistics: 45 goals in 172 appearances compared to his 81 goals in 142 at Liverpool.

But statistics don’t amount to everything. As someone who has followed Torres since his time at Atletico Madrid, and who often modelled their own game on his, he had the ability to constantly make runs in behind, forcing defenders into positions that enabled others to create space.

But even if we do look at the statistics for the season, Torres scored 22 goals and assisted 11, finishing as Chelsea’s top scorer. His goals were often in key games as well, most notably the brilliant solo effort against Benfica in the Europa League Final, a competition that Torres really seemed to enjoy playing in.

Torres was also playing in front of the magical trio of MAZACAR, who were much more interested in passing it between each other rather than passing it to Torres. He would have maybe hit 35 or 40 goals that season if any of the trio had played through balls every time he made a darting run.

3. Domestic improvement and a European trophy despite fans’ discontent

Rafa Benitez may be number three on my list of reasons as to why Chelsea fans should consider this season a success, but he is definitely the number one reason why Chelsea fans like to forget about the season.

He is by far the most unpopular manager in Chelsea’s history. Reasons for this include the fact that he once managed big rivals Liverpool, had an extremely hostile relationship with Chelsea’s most popular manager of all-time, Jose Mourinho, and he took the job from the manager that won them the Champions League, Roberto Di Matteo. I remember heading to Stamford Bridge throughout the Europa League run and to a handful of Premier League games throughout his tenure and I’ve never heard such abuse towards a manager from a home set of fans.

But Rafa Benitez was truly a brilliant manager for this Chelsea team and was the perfect choice by Abramovich to take charge of the club and did such a good job in all competitions for them.

Despite winning two trophies the season before, Chelsea had finished sixth, their lowest league position since 2001/02. Rafa Benitez helped the side finish a respectable 3rd, a position that they were unlikely to have finished in if Di Matteo had stayed in charge.

The fact that Benitez was the former manager of Fernando Torres in his prime helped massively as well as Torres regained form, perhaps solely down to the appointment of Benitez.

And regardless of what people think about the Europa League and the fact that Chelsea were a shambles for not getting out of the group stages of the Champions League, which wasn’t Benitez’ fault might I add, he successfully navigated Europe’s second hardest competition with ease, while continuing to push for the other domestic competitions.

Ultimately, the fact that Benitez managed all of this with the level of hatred he faced, as well as never being named as official manager, but only as ‘interim’, is something that he deserves a lot of praise for. The season was also one which helped set Chelsea up to be a great force under Mourinho over the next couple of years.

But overall, the 2012/13 season for Chelsea is one that is often gladly forgotten about by fans and considered to be a failure. But the excellent performances of MAZACAR and a resurgent Fernando Torres, alongside the completion of back to back European trophies and comfortable Champions League qualification secured, results in a season that I think should be remembered as a success and maybe one of Chelsea’s most entertaining.