There is a lot of speculation as to why Chelsea have decided they have had enough of Jose Mourinho. The row with John Terry story may be backed up by the non-attendance of the Chelsea skipper and Frank Lampard at the Chelsea DVD launch last night, an event seemingly attended by the rest of the squad.

But ultimately, you just needed to contrast the match at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday evening with that at Ashburton Grove 24 hours later. Nearly 60,000 tickets sold (although a god number of no shows amongst the season ticket holders, but there were comfortably double the number of physical attendees than had watched Chelsea. Some flowing, expansive football of the type you hope to see if you’ve shelled out at least £32 for a cheap seat. And goals.

There have been a number of stories over the years about Roman Abramovich’s desire to either move his club to a new stadium or significantly increase the capacity at Stamford Bridge (although sitting tenant Ken Bates could prove an immovable obstacle there!)

However, if the Bridge looked a bit embarrassing with 17,000 empty seats, upping the number of unfilled places is hardly going to improve the club’s image.

To focus on the Gunners’ performance briefly, the 3-0 scoreline flattered the home side a little. Sevilla have won the UEFA Cup two seasons in succession and although the Champions League is a step up (they are unlikely to meet the likes of Tottenham Hotspur there, let’s face it), they are no mugs and will almost certainly make the last 16 – as should Arsenal assuming they can pick up maximum points from their three home matches. The Gunners are good enough to pick up at least two further points on their travels and that would see them through.

The ref was kind to the home team in his leniency with yellow cards in the first half, and that helped Wenger’s men assert themselves physically, which was encouraging, but might not work as a tactic with sterner refs. Good though to see some more signs of the players showing that they can mix it given the opportunity. Always a sign of commitment as long as it’s not done with the intent to maim.

The key difference between the two sides was that Sevilla’s errors were slightly worse and more costly. The visitors though, did come within a whisker of scoring a few times and had they been presented with the kind of opportunities they allowed Arsenal, the game would have been much tighter. The Gunners are playing well going forward with more use of width and more shooting from outside the box – very, very encouraging to see. They are a better team than last season.

However, there is still a feeling that to win the big matches, there are probably not going to be many 1-0 scorelines. Better sides than Sevilla would have made more of their opportunities and Arsenal have to try and tighten up a bit at the back. They are getting away with it a bit at the moment. Still, if the goals keep going in at the other end, they can win matches even when the defending is nothing to write home about.

And that is the contrast that Abramovich is unhappy about. Wenger has built a young team with little significant spending (compared with the other three of the ‘top four’) and yet, more people are paying to watch a team that has won a solitary FA Cup in the last three seasons. And that is because matches are far more likely to be both entertaining and unpredictable. When neutrals – especially those outside of this country – talk about the English teams they like to watch, it’s generally the names of Arsenal and Manchester United that come up. Both Liverpool and Chelsea have been successful, but their tactics do not make them the viewing choice of the neutral.

On Tuesday evening, faced with the choice of watching Chelsea, Liverpool, Real Madrid, Milan, Valencia, Celtic and a couple of others I can’t recall, I bypassed the English options and settled for Milan. I would have watched Real as a second choice. Now here are two sides stuffed with players who – for the most part – have not come cheap (although in fairness to Milan, they tend to try and retain a consistent line-up once they have done their purchasing), but who do play watchable football. And those that consider Milan play sterile Italian calcio are living in a time warp.

Little over a year ago, Chelsea purchased Andrei Shevcenko and secured the services of Michael Ballack. Logically, a third consecutive title should have been a stroll. However, the hand of the owner in the decision to bring in these players cannot be understated, and I imagine there was an element of truth in the story that the club courted Ronaldinho near the end of the transfer window this summer. In 2004 and/or 2005, I believe they were determined to land Thierry Henry, but despite the huge sums they were prepared to pay got nowhere.

Shevcenko and Ballack are players that should make a team more entertaining and watchable, as well as being winners. What went wrong then? A conflict of philosophies between owner and coach. If Mourinho had continued with the success of his first two seasons, he would have been untouchable.

But I take you back to Cardiff in February. For several spells during the Carling Cup Final, an Arsenal side with only two first choice players played the expensively-assembled Chelsea off the pitch with some breathtaking football. Ultimately, lack of composure and the finishing qualities of Didier Drogba did for them. Arsenal lost that final, but the evidence was clear to see. If you want edge of your seat football, you cannot buy it off the shelf. And this was from a ramshackle mix of reserves and youths. Finishing aside, Arsenal were fantastic that day. Now the finishing is improving, the team are winning games they used to draw. The crowds are still turning up even though the novelty of the new stadium is waning.

The Chelsea public may have loved the trophies, but when times took a bit of a turn, the football wasn’t enough to keep them coming. And for the amount of money invested in the squad, the least you should expect is a good night out.