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Reuters - - - 07/01/2007 21:15

Hattrick and a midflieder?!

A match against Macclesfield cannot come at a better time. Just when we are tired after a busy period of one-point football, we realise how kind the draw has been to us. For those who dont know, Macclesfield is trying avoid relegation in League Two and they are looking forward to the 400,000 pounds they would earn from this FA Cup match. What an interesting match-up this is.

Macclesfield Town are currently 23rd in their league. If you put all the leagues one above another, not only they have two football leagues between them and Chelsea and also they are 88 places below Chelsea. I saw somewhere that one of the defenders in Macclesfield is earning 600 pounds a week!! Macclesfield players are actually over-awed that they would be playing the Champions in their den. It is just ‘playing’ this match and not winning that is in their minds. No wonder!

So, with this kind of introduction to an opponent team, it is normal to expect a thundering win. I think Jose will and should rest some key players who deserve rest such as Essien, Lampard and Drogba. I wish Carvalho too gets some very well deserved rest but I dont see that happening as we dont have central defenders unless Jose tries to put Drogba in the central defence for this match alone! Could be wacky!!

He should play with Ben Sahar and Scott Sinclair in the bench or vice versa. Diarra should find himself on the pitch at last. Even with this team, Chelsea are miles ahead of the opponent in terms of quality and performance. Obi Mikel should play all 90 minutes and I absolutely believe that he is a special talent and tomorrow could be his day.

Macclesfield’s manager Paul Ince, one of the very few black football managers in UK, has just won the manager of the month award for Dec 2006. He brought in some kind of spirit in them and he hopes to give us a fight.

You never know what might happen. It is going to be a great day out for the club and it will earn us a few quid. But we are playing well and it is important we go there and stamp our mark on the game, and not be overawed by the stars, the stadium and the crowd. We are going to go there to try to win the game.

It would be nice to keep it close and not get beaten by six or seven. We want to make a game of it and make it difficult for them and show them what a good side we can be.

Day before the match Jose Mourinho said.

The team can be a bit weak but it will not be a bit weak because I risk or gamble or because I want to leave people out and give chances to other people. We are going to play with the best team we have but the players we have are the only players with the condition to play.

I am happy it is the FA Cup and Macclesfield and not the Premier League because we are going to have to play with the players we have and the players we have are not a lot at the moment. Because of difficult games against teams from that level, I am not expecting an easy match. In the past I always had on the bench ammunition to change matches. Tomorrow I have kids.

The kids he was referring to were, Sinlcair, Sahar, Makalamby and Michael Woods.

Again this match woul not be telecast live here. I would surely watch the delayed broadcast as I’m very eager to see Ben Sahar and Scott Sinclair play. In a match like this, where we think anything less than 4-0 is a shame, we gotta watch out. You know what FA Cup is famous for!

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Game Update: 6-1

We brushed them aside, I should say. I feel sorry for Macclesfield Town. They did try their best and they were unlucky too. For me, in such cup matches, 1-0 is as good as 10-0. I would say that more than the scoreline, I was happy to see Lamps well-deserved hattrick (how many midfielders score hattricks?) and also to see Obi score. I’ve started liking this little brat.

I really really feel for Sheva. Against such an opposition, when we have scored 6 goals, where a midfielder scores a hattrick, he couldnt find the net. He was very unlucky. He will come good. I’m ready to wait to see the resilience of Shevchenko, so is Jose.

Mourinho said:

He tried very hard and that’s a step forward. It is frustrating for a striker to be in a team that wins 6-1 and is not on the goal-scoring sheet. In some other matches maybe he just accepts without a fight the moment he is living now. But today no. He chased the luck. He fought hard. He worked for the team. He got a yellow card because, without the ball, he was chasing people and putting pressure on and making it good for the team

Jose always believed that smaller teams should not be humiliated. He had said that if he gets a comfortable lead, we would not go on pounding them for goal after goal. After today’s match, he said this:

I thought we dominated the whole game but they fought well. I wouldn’t have been happy if we had scored more because a team like that deserve to leave with pride.

It’s a result that shows the difference between the teams but I’m not happy if a powerful team like ours smashes nine or 10 against a team like that.

I completely agree!

-taken from bluechampions : ‘the chelsea fan blog’-

Devil’s Advocate: Chelsea are great
There are very many arguments against the culture of profligate spending of Europe’s richest clubs and how this is detrimental to traditional football values. Richard Ferraris changes gear and plays Devil’s Advocate on behalf of the bete noire of football: Chelsea FC.

Chelsea are frequently cast as scapegoats for the state of football, but without the Londoners the Premiership would be far less competitive.

Roman Abramovic’s spendthrift methodology is another evolutionary step towards globalising football and entrenching it as the world’s best and most exciting sport.

Wealthy owners are part of the fabric of European football history, especially in Italy where the Agnelli and Moratti families have run Juventus and Internazionale as family businesses.

All the talk in the English game is about the burgeoning number of foreign investors.

It would appear as if there is a fair amount of xenophobia surrounding the takeovers, as one need only cast one’s gaze Stoke City and Fulham’s way to observe that foreign ownership doesn’t necessarily lead to the destruction of traditional values.

Football fans seem to have exceedingly short memories as it was not long ago that Manchester United were the literal embodiment of evil when Sir Alex’s forked tongue did all the talking.

David Beckham’s hooves trotted down the right wing and the sick sulphuric stench of rampant commercialism clung to that temple of kitsch; the Theatre of Dreams.

Indeed their domination through the 1990’s equates to perhaps the greatest monopoly over the English League since the round ball was first kicked around in an organised fashion during the Victorian era.

United’s evil empire extended to eight Premiership titles and a one-club cartel with unparalleled buying power in the transfer market.

And in 2003 Chelsea emerged as a rival superpower. An obscure ‘oil-garch’ funded the quest to send the demons of Old Trafford into the purgatory of runners-up.

But to rehash an old cliche: football is a funny game. Neither Chelsea nor United could compete with Arsenal of all teams in 2003 - as the Gunners not only won the Premiership - but did not lose a single league game all season either.

However as all football fanatics (should) know, Chelsea overwhelmed all takers the following two seasons. Predictably recrimations and criticism followed.

“Chelsea are bad for the game…”

“The title was bought…”

Meanwhile in Manchester American Malcolm Glazer launched a hostile takeover of United. The occasional outburst aside most of the vitriol was still directed Chelsea’s way.

While the purists threw projectile vomit Chelsea’s way - very little analysis was centred around what Chelsea had done in terms of blowing the Premiership wide-open.

Prior to the Chelsea revelation only Arsenal and Blackburn had taken the Premiership from the clutches of United, but never for any longer than one season.

Abramovic has thrown £500 million Chelsea’s way in transfers since he took over, indicating that the Blues are more than a dilettante side-show to him. In fact Abramovic’s presence at home games at Stamford Bridge is as ubiquitous as John Terry’s.

The Londoners are good for the English game simply because competition is beneficial. As such under Jose Mourinho - however reviled he may be - Chelsea have set the bar higher.

The erstwhile most-hated team Man Utd have responded to Chelsea’s gauntlet marvelously and are going to challenge them all the way in the 2007 title-race.

Moreover, United have played with sumptuous verve and attacking flair in response to the Blue-tide.

It is now up to Liverpool and Arsenal to hunt down the top-two and if this must be done via foreign investors - then what must be must be.

The Premiership is an elite league and suggestions to curtail and regulate clubs (as some have suggested wage caps and so on) smacks of hypocrisy. Were such measures taken then football would follow Formula One down the proverbial drain.

F1 is supposed to be at the pinnacle of motorsport - but regulations on development and technological advancements have rendered the sport as nothing more than glorified go-karting.

If the Premiership follows this model and also fails to keep abreast with contemporary economic developments then we might as well watch cricket or the Scottish League.

The acolytes of anti-globalisation ought to remember that it is the phenomenon of globalisation which has transformed the Premiership brand into one of the most exciting and lucrative sports spectacles around.

Yet cynics continue to bemoan the lack of parity which has accompanied the footballing revolution as symbolised by Chelsea.

But what the historically-minded fans forget is that even without Chelsea it is absolutely beyond reason to expect the likes of Charlton to compete for major honours.

That is unless someone has £500 million lying around.

Richard Ferraris