Time can be a cruel mistress, as Bengaluru FC found out the hard way on Saturday. Last season, a 3-1 victory over East Bengal in Bengaluru on the 10th of April had all but sealed the title for the JSW-owned outfit and had condemned the Red-and-Golds to a 12th straight season without the league title.

East Bengal coach Biswajit Bhattacharya resigned and in came Trevor James Morgan for a second stint in charge of the Lal Holud. Bengaluru made a managerial change of their own, bringing in Albert Roca as Ashley Westwood departed the club, having led them to two I-League titles and a Federation Cup win in the first three years of their existence.

Fast forward a year and the tables have turned, East Bengal’s commanding 3-1 victory at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium all but ruling out BFC from title contention. Here are some talking points from Saturday’s game:

Bengaluru FC’s drastic downturn

  • What a difference four months can make! In November, Bengaluru were top of the world after becoming the first Indian team to make it to the final of the AFC Cup. After their reverse against East Bengal, they sit fifth in the league table, 11 points behind the league leaders from Kolkata, with a game in hand. Barring a minor miracle, it does not look like the West Block Blues will be celebrating a third I-League title come May.
  • East Bengal and Trevor Morgan were under pressure coming into this match. They had just scored one goal in their previous three matches and had lost 1-0 to Aizawl in their last encounter leading Morgan to dub the EB team on the day ‘ten random men played in East Bengal shirts’. They had not won this trophy since 2004 and had they lost, the chorus of dissenting voices would have merely amplified.
  • Aizawl’s 1-0 victory over Chennai City earlier on in the day, had further put the onus on the outfit from Kolkata. With Mohun Bagan also having a game in the hand, they simply had to win this one in order to hang on to the coat-tails of the two clubs. To their and Morgan’s credit, they came out all guns blazing.
  • Morgan made six changes from the side that lost to Aizawl. Out went Narayan Das, Rahul Bheke, Arnab Mondal, Romeo Fernandes, Abhinash Ruidas and Willis Plaza, the absences of Bheke, Mondal and Plaza enforced through injury. Robin Gurung, Gurwinder Singh, Robert Lathlamuana, Chris Payne, Nikhil Poojari and Robin Singh took their places in the side for the big game.
  • Roca made three changes to the team that drew a blank in Mumbai. Sena Ralte, CK Vineeth and Arindam Bhattacharya came in for Alwyn George, Daniel Lalhlimpuia and Amrinder Singh. Interestingly, the Spaniard opted for a 3-4-1-2 as opposed to the standard four at the back with Sandesh Jhingan, Salam Ranjan Singh and Juanan Gonzalez in the three-man defence, Harmanjot Khabra and Ralte manning the flanks.
  • Mehtab Hossain’s crunching tackle on Sunil Chhetri early on set the tone for what would be an ill-tempered, feisty affair not just among the players, but among the two sets of supporters. There would be chanting, insulting, swearing a-plenty and one man was at the centre of it all.
  • Ever since his departure from BFC and his winner against them in the reverse fixture this season, Robin Singh has become a marked man for the Bengaluru fans. Their chants of “F**k you, Robin” seemed to spur him on further as the Noida-born attacker scored two on the day but refused to celebrate, earning applause from the home fans.
  • After the match, Morgan would go on to say that Robin was one of the best target men in the country. At 26, Singh has never scored more than six goals in an I-League campaign. He already has four so far this season. With the AFC Asian Cup qualifiers coming up, could this be the year that Singh cements his place for club and country?

East Bengal get the job done

  • East Bengal’s plan from the start was clear. Cede majority of the possession and wait for the defence to win the ball back before countering at pace. On one of these counters, Wedson Anselme broke from the right flank, shimmied past Juanan before unleashing a fierce curler into the far corner, giving Arindam no chance. With six goals so far, the 30-year-old Haitian is surely one of the best foreigners to grace these shores.
  • Yet, if it was thought that the goal would motivate the champions, it did not. Cam Watson and Lenny Rodrigues were sloppy in midfield and the defence was unstable, none more so than Sandesh Jhingan. With Anselme charging down on goal, the Punjabi decided to turn his back on the ball. Later, he would make another error that almost led to the second goal but Payne’s shot was poor and Jhingan and Bengaluru were let off the hook.
  • John Johnson was a winner in absentia. With the Englishman suspended, it was expected that Jhingan would step up but the defender from Chandigarh is an old-fashioned centreback, no nonsense with a crunching tackle and a mean header. Ask him to play the ball out and it will inevitably lead to an error. When Johnson and Rino Anto return, it is difficult to see Jhingan having a place in a four-man defence.
  • It is impossible to guess what must be going through Harmanjot Khabra’s head at the moment. A switch from East Bengal to Bengaluru FC in order to win the league title hasn’t gone so well. Playing as a right wing-back, the cross from Lathlamuana for the visitors’ second came from his flank and sealed the deal for the hosts. Was rash in the tackle, gave possession away on multiple occasions and was lucky not to get more than one yellow against his former team.
  • The refereeing standards in the I-League have been appalling and that trend continued today. R Venkatesh lost control of the game not once but several times as the hosts became frustrated and committed several fouls, having been riled up by their opponents. Jhingan, Khabra and Sunil Chhetri were rash in their judgements as the referee failed to stamp his authority on the game.
  • None exemplified this frustration more than the skipper Chhetri himself, who lashed out at Mohammed Rafique after the latter did not let him take a quick free-kick. The marksman then shoved the official, kick-starting a fracas and should have been sent off for two yellow card offences. Such incidents are becoming commonplace in the I-League and referees need to clamp down on poor behaviour irrespective of the offender.
  • Udanta Singh was the only Bengaluru player to emerge with any credit on the evening. The youngster’s end product wasn’t always the best, but BFC’s best chances came with him cutting inside or running to the touchline and zipping the ball in. The consolation goal too came from the winger’s persistence.
  • The problem for Bengaluru is that their game-changers seem to be terribly short of confidence at the moment. Daniel Lalhlimpuia came on for Salam Ranjan Singh at half-time, effectively making it four attackers up front but with the score at 0-1, the 19-year old Mizo forward missed a golden chance to equalise five yards from goal. He missed another from an Udanta Singh cut-back as his fellow sub Mandar Rao Desai had a point-blank shot saved by Rehenesh TP. However, they were not the most disappointing to come off the bench. That honour goes to...
  • Eugeneson Lyngdoh, axed by Roca for a series of poor performances, looks like a shadow of the player who played such a pivotal part in the Blues’ AFC Cup campaign but he was given 15 minutes here. A series of wayward shots from long range followed, not even close to troubling Rehenesh in the East Bengal goal. With his team chasing the game, this was the last thing expected of Bengaluru’s midfield talisman.
  • Mehtab Hossain had a good game in midfield but his act at the end of the game was completely unnecessary and drew the coach of Roca, who got into a tussle with the veteran midfielder, sparking off a free-for-all in which players and officials from both sides got involved. It was juvenile from the 34-year old and his own coach Morgan remarked that the game had been won and there was no need for what Mehtab had done.

What lies ahead?

  • Where do Bengaluru go from here? It is admirable that Roca wants to change the style of play but it is also mandatory to have the players with the right skillsets to do that. Their previous highest streak without a win in the league stood at four in their first season, that number is now seven and overall, it is 8 out of which they have lost four. They travel to Minerva and Chennai City next before hosting Bagan and an AFC Cup qualifier. Failure to stop the rot could result in some casualties and the old adage says that the buck always stops at the manager’s feet.
  • For East Bengal, it once again puts them in pole position for the title. With no continental distractions, arguably the best set of foreigners in the league and having already played six of their eight matches against the rest of the top five, the Red-and-Golds will have renewed hope. With Bagan involved in the AFC Cup and Aizawl heavily reliant on home form, Trevor Morgan’s side have seven matches to win their first I-League title.