How I Met Your Mom :)

Posted on February 28th, 2007 by blue champion.

The Defender in Attack!

Why is Arsenal lacking in class? They lose so much but still they have not learnt to lose with grace. Basically, it all stems from their stinking superiority complex and their blind belief that they are the only football team in England and winning is their right.

After every loss, Arsene Whinger should try saying ‘we played like shit and we deserved to lose‘. Instead, he always says ‘we played beautiful football and the opponents played defensive and 10 men behind ball‘. This inflates the already inflated heads of the Emigrants. So when Chelsea took the lead which everyone knew was the winner, the Arsenal captain could not simply digest the fact that their fairytale is over.

What happens here is that Mikel pulls the Toure’s shirt and referee call it a foul and stops play. How many times have you seen this on a football pitch? Million times? Toure was annoyed because they were looking for an equaliser but he cannot expect the world to stand still while they walk the ball into the net. Toure charges towards to Mikel and definitely he did not appear to advise Mikel with his words.

We already know that Toure is still not in the final stage of Darwin’s theory of evolution. He further confirmed this by saying:

Chelsea were winning and were starting to waste time, and I was not happy with that, which is why I went to Mikel and had some words with him.

Wasting time? My foot! Surely, Toure needs some more footballing lessons. This ‘wasting time’ line seems to be their favourite line in all their post match conferences. Chelsea kept attacking till the end and in fact, if the bar did not play for Arsenil, Chelsea must have been 3-1 and Toure would have come looking for Sheva, ‘to have some words with him‘. As a captain of the young team, he should have done atleast a 100 times better.

Kolo Toure displaying his defensive methods!

Arsene Whinger apologised but as always qualifies his apology with not-so-relevant point:

I feel we should not have reacted at all. Overall, we are sorry for what happened. When you do not behave like you want to then you have to apologise. We want to focus on playing football well. We want to deal well with the frustrations and want to be exemplary. But we also want to remind people that we have been top of the Fair Play table twice in the last few years. Also, this year, we are the team who have committed the least fouls in the league and been the most fouled against. What happened was a one-off for us in the last three years and we are sorry for that

Fine. Very good statistic. When you dont have a good figure in the points coumn, you can project all other columns. But who’s talking about Arsenil’s fouling or being fouled. We are talking about a team’s attrocious behaviour in a dead ball situation (remember Gilberto’s kick on Savage recently?). Whinger should be happy that they are the most fouled team as they have scored quite a few free kicks which otherwise they would have screwed up trying to walk into the net. The fact that Arsene did not mention is that Arsenil players have been red carded in the last three cup finals they have played - any inferences?

For all the talent he has for his age, Fabregas is becoming the most annoying creature for me. He seems to match Henry when it comes to uber-ego big headedness. His remarks to Mark Hughes last week was unacceptable and typically as arrogant as Arsenal. He has achieved nothing (of course, he is in Arsenil, but the statement still goes) in the world of football when compared to Mark Hughes to insult him like this. I would like to ask Fibreglass - is that Barcelona football?

In this match, there were two Fabregas moments. One was when he was pushed, he came down with his hands on his chin while there was no contact at all on his chin. That trick didnt work. Then later on, in the Toure’s wrestlemania, Fabregas made all attempts to ensure that things dont calm down and also assaulted Lampard. Fabregas should have received a red card for instigating and fuelling this fight. May be he badly frustrated as he must have been dreaming of his first silverware in England.

Now who’s the better bitch? Fabregas or Eboue? Well, they are setting standards of their own in different styles. Eboue’s antics are intolerable even for the Arsenil fan boys. He was so concerned about the situation that he came in and punched Wayne Bridge down. He must have honestly thought that this might improve the situation but ends up being charged by FA for violent conduct. See this video where he hits Bridge and realises that it is not good enough and applies more pressure - truly a quality of a good defender!

Almunia has different perspective to the whole issue:

That’s normal in big players. They want to win all the games and all the competitions. We had the cup in our hands but in the last moment we lost and I think that made us frustrated

Well Mr.Almunia, may be that’s normal in your Emigrants training ground but certainly not in the world outside. Guys, if you get a chance you can do the normal thing to Almunia and by the way make him feel that he is a big player too. Funnier comment is that he says the cup was in their hands at 1-1? Looks like even he’s taken Diaby’s boot in his head!

What can you say about Adebawhore?

My reaction after the card did not mean I wanted to hit the referee - I just wanted to know why he gave me the red card.

When you’re given a red card, you dont take 3 minutes to leave the field and all those three minutes you dont keep the referees life in danger. Simple.

In all this beautiful football by Arsenil, Mikel, unfotunately ended up getting the red card and misses three matches. Adebawhore and Toure miss three and four matches respectively. Lampard and Fibreglass got yellow cards. Both clubs have been charged for the involvement of players in this mess. And both managers might be charged too, for coming into the pitch, though it was with good intentions.

I realised that I did not post the cup celebrations of the champions. Here it is:

Finally, to all those under the hallucination of Arsene Whinger’s YNWA (You Never Win Anthing) policy, Jose Mourinho has some kind words:

Arsenal have great boys. But I wouldn’t be sad if a club gives me three, four, five years and tells me, ‘You don’t need to win. You can lose Premiership after Premiership, and you have three, four, five seasons to build. I wouldn’t be sad. Since I arrived, they have won nothing. Since we are at Chelsea, they lost Premierships, they lost the Charity Shield to us, they lost the Carling Cup to us. I don’t think they are winning a lot. Absolutely brilliant young boys, manager top, team with a great future. But they didn’t win.

This is exactly I was talking about here. Whinger has zero pressure to perform. Knock-out punch from Jose!

Posted on February 25th, 2007 by blue champion.

The Blue Champion!

We are the Carling Cup champions again. Very well deserved win for Chelsea. Fair play to Arsenal. They played well too, but they under-estimated Chelsea’s defensive power and depth. What differentiates between Champions and other teams is how they perform on crucial moments - in attack and in defence. That’s where Chelsea excelled today. Whenever it mattered, Chelsea clearly showed that they are the boss. That’s why we’re the Champions!

You know what, like always, before the match I pre-played this match on Winning Eleven 9 on XBOX. After a couple of unsatisfactory 1-0 wins for Chelsea, I crushed them 6-1 with Drogba, Shev and Robben getting three, two and one respectively. So my WE9 predictor also pointed towards a Chelsea win today!

Jose went ahead with a conservative team, not only in terms of selection but also with more defensive minded players. May be, he had made up his mind to win the match in the second half. In the first half Arsenal had the better off opportunities. We looked a little rusty and it appeared to me that we did not play with enough hunger. Some attempts in defence did not look like the best possible efforts. Walcott had a great touch & turn and very good composure to score to his first Arsenal goal. In one way, the Arsenal goal was good for us because I knew that this would fire up the guys and we can get back right into the game.

Chelsea did well to mount most of the attacks on the right to trouble Traore, who was the weak link in the Arsenal defence. Ballack made his only positive contribution of the match with his very timely and correctly weighted lob to Drogba who was onside, I repeat onside, as he was in line with Senderos. Drogba with his first touch controlled the ball and was looking for options before he slammed the ball past Almunia. There are goals, which if scored by your team, you’d call it onside and if scored by other, you’d call it offside. Still this one was onside, adjusting for the slant in the TV camera angle. Anyway, if there is one team that cannot moan about offside goals, it is Arsenil. So many of their scurried late goals are offsides that they cant me moaning about this. For clarity, Drogba’s equaliser was onside.

If there was a disgraceful moment for Chelsea, that was when some stupid fans were throwing stuff at Fabregas whenever he went to take a corner. That was something very silly to do, given the importance of the match and the spirit in which it was being played. I wish these miscreants are identified in video footages and punished severely. While we pride that EPL is the safest league to play football, such kind of soft-hooliganism should also be condoned and controlled.

In the second half, it was a completely different story. We had re-couped in the halftime and we played with lot more purpose in the second half. In the second half of the game, you could see what Chelsea defence is made of - resilience, resoluteness, robustness. Lampard blasted a typical screamer (it had me screaming at least!) that hit the bar and I knew that we are getting home. Meanwhile the introduction of Robben on the right wing meant that Hoyte cannot make his runs as he wished. Robben danced his way past the Arsenil players in his own inimitable style and was always a live wire. It looked that it was only a matter of time before Robben scores or creates a winner.

Then came the umpteenth dreadful moment of this season for Chelsea. Diaby challenged recklessy with his foot for the ball that Terry was about head to goal. For some reasons I did not understand that wasnt even a foul. That reminded me of Ibrahim Sonko’s challenge on Cudicini on that evil day, which also went unpunished. Do you still remember the so-called foul by Terry on Garcia just outside the box in the Community Shield match, whose freekick led to the goal? If that was dangerous play, this one is a murder attempt. Thank Goodness, Terry is reported to have been discharged from the hospital and he in fact, celebrated the win along with the team mates. Is he a superhuman or something?

Robben did not disappoint us. He swerved and swinged on the left wing and delivered the perfect cross to Drogba, whose blasted header sealed it all. Have you seen the goals scored in those handball games. This header went in with such force and precision. Senderos had Drogba marked but his sad story with Drogba had to continue. What a strike that was! It all happened in a flash.

No way Chelsea is going to slip the cup with 5 more minutes of regulation time to go. Chelsea grew in confidence and looked more and more solid. Sheva had a golden opportunity to make it 3-1 and make them surrender right there but hit the post. Our ill-luck with shots hitting the bar continued in this match too.

During these circumstances, Arsenil’s desparation and inability provoked themselves to create some very ugly scenes that you wouldnt want to see in a game of football. They knew that they lost the game after their dream run in the Cup and they couldnt take it and lost the cool. The referee was spot on and he handled the incident rather well. Toure was sent off for his childish response to an ordinary foul. Unfortunately, Mikel got sent off for reacting to it.

In his peacemaking process, Adebayor pushed and punched and earned himself a well-deserved red card. They way he refused to go out of the pitch deserves some more punishment. In my opinion, Fabregas must have been sent off for inciting continued fights and didnt seem too interested in calming his colleagues. Fabregas is becoming more and more dislikeable for the neutrals. This whole brawl incident did not have a bearing on the result of this match and it was virtually over for the Emigrants and they knew it and thats the very reason why this all started.

Jose Mourinho was clear in his message:

It was a pity that happened. I do understand it’s emotional and I understand how the players are feeling. Arsenal were losing the final so I think their emotions took over. It was a great game between two teams with two different styles but history will show we have taken the cup home.

Even Arsene Whinger admitted that they were on the wrong side:

It suddenly exploded. It was strange as it didn’t reflect the quality of the game. Suddenly we lost it and they lost it as well and it became a brawl. I’m not sure the referee picked the right ones out but he made a decision. I don’t think you should ever lose your calm. You should always keep under control. Kolo is usually very calm but he was pulled down and the ball was kicked away. I felt the referee was not the cause of the incident, of course it was the players, but he was a bit slow to give it. Overall we can only look at ourselves and next time not lose our nerves.

In the end, I cant help but think that even if the Emigrants had Henry, Gilberto, Rosicky etc, the result would not have changed. May be, it would have made things more comfortable for Chelsea. Same old predictable football from the Arsenil seniors would have been easier to deal with. Arsene Whinger’s Arsenil is yet to beat Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea for the last 3 years in all competitions. He does have a psychological hold on Whinger.

Some special praises need to be given. Petr Cech - Truly the 50 million pound man as claimed by Jose. He was simply outstanding today. He gives so much confidence to the defence and he nullified so many Arsenil corners and crosses with his anticipation and movement. Diarra - Is it a mistake that we didnt play him all along the season and have we brought him in the first team so late? He’s got it all - the pace, the skill, the accuracy and the determination. I dont see Jose dropping him in the near future. He was in defence what Robben was in attack - livewire. Carvalho - He marked Baptista to precision. So many crucial tackles and strategic fouls that kept Big Bap loitering around.

Drogba - Needless to say, he was the man of the match. Despite this not being one of his better performances, his winner, which was his 28th goal of the season, proved what he is worth. Robben - He should play and many a times along with Drogba, he is certainly the difference between a win and a draw. Anyway, all the players played well and deserved this trophy absolutely. And finally to Jose, for his tactics and his substitutions and making the players and fans believe that we would surely despite whether we are 1 goal down or 2.

Jose was more happy about the result than the performance:

They have a great coach, great players, but football is about winning and the cup goes to us. I think we showed character, I don’t think we played a great game. It was difficult, Arsenal played a very good game in my opinion. They showed the reason why they arrived at this game. They beat Liverpool, Everton and Tottenham with this team and they have a great football team, but I think in the second half it was a bit different as we dominated the game, hit the post and at the end of the day I think we deserved the victory.

I’m quite relieved, to be honest, that we have won the Carling Cup. Now I’m even more convinced that we are going to win all against all odds. This result also shows the world that we are still in the hunt for all trophies. Despite the injuries, the internal troubles, no new transfers, we have become the Carling Cup champions. A strong message from the Chelsea team to all that we are coming at them and we’ll get them.

One down. Three to go!

Posted on February 24th, 2007 by blue champion.

“I’d never do this to the Chelsea supporters”

Jose stays. No more discussions on this. He has made himself crystal clear on his Chelsea future. This is what he said:

Do you want to believe in what you read, or believe in what I tell you? The only thing I can tell you is there are only two ways for me to leave Chelsea. One way is in June 2010 - I finish my contract. If the club doesn’t give me a new one, it’s the end of my contract and I’m out. The second way is for Chelsea to sack me because there is not a third way. The way of a manager who decides to leave and walks away - no chance. I would never do this to the Chelsea supporters - no chance.

Look, he not only talks about his honouring his contract till 2010, he also talks about the possibility of the Club giving him a new contract in 2010. I dont see Roman sacking Jose until he literally slaps Roman in public or something.

So relieving! He cannot me more categorical on this subject than this. He’s done a great service to all fans by making himself so clear. And all those jealous fans of other clubs can calm down and swallow this fact.

In May 2005, Jose was given a 5-year contract and there was a clear indicatio of commitment from either sides and this was Jose’s reaction then:

The below interview of Jose was captured in 1988 when he was associate trainer of a portuguese club named Estrela da Amadora and he was 25 years old then. I dont understand a bit of what he talks but I thought this makes good interesting video!

The Carling Cup post coming up tomorrow!

Posted on February 20th, 2007 by blue champion.

The goal machine goes on and on and on . . .

Siena 3 - 4 AC Milan

Like most of us, I’m a big fan of Ronaldo’s talent. In my opinion, he is the greatest modern day footballer, bigger than anyone including Zidane. His records for his illustrious clubs (Barca, Inter, Madrid & Milan) and his country is unmatchable. I love watching his goal videos. In sheer pace, dribble and one-on-one situations, he is the best ever. I thought he didnt get what he deserved, under Capello. I’m happy that he moved on and happier to see Ronaldo score. The first goal from Ronaldo was a beauty. Enjoy it!

Download this video!

Valencia 2 - 1 FC Barcelona

If there is a team that can beat Barca anyday, that is Chelsea. If you’re looking for a Spanish team, it is Valencia. They have once again managed to beat the defending spanish champions and have closed the gap at the top. The Valencia goals were beautifully set up but I should also say those were defensive horrors to allow quality players that kind of time in dangerous areas that too unchallenged. Rafa would have enjoyed this match for sure. But I’m sure Barca would come back like a wounded beast.

Download this video!

I’m planning to post more stuff on European soccer in future. Let me know what you feel about this!

Posted on February 18th, 2007 by blue champion.

Excellent ball control and no-nonsense football!

Not many times would you see a 4-0 match so evenly balanced and controlled by both the teams. Credit to Norwich. They played with all their heart and they deserve to go back with a proud performance. A couple of occasions, they came inches closer to scoring. Only bad luck and Super Cech denied them from scoring. I never expected Norwich to outpossess us, but they did. Now we have 6 consecutive clean sheets, 18 goals in those matches that included three premiership opponents.

Though Norwich took the game to us and had some very close chances, our open play defence was spot on. Once again Diarra had very good presence. His ball control and retention was a real joy to watch. Paulo did a lot of running and worked really hard. Jose did not prefer risking Bridge in this match when he saw Paulo was doing a decent job. Khalid was once again unlucky to go off with what looked like a dislocated shoulder (matter of weeks!?). Just when Essien was enjoying his return to midfield, he had to go back to central defence.

I felt that we defended the set pieces very poorly. Every time Norwich had the ball and crossed it in, they looked very dangerous. Against better oppositions, we might have conceded a goal or two, with this kind of set piece defending.

SWP scored again in a cup match. Still, I was not too happy with his performance. He over-does his skills, under-estimates his opponents and sometimes thinks he is superman. At times, he thinks a couple of moves ahead and in the process screws up the current move. He will excel in Chelsea only when he starts playing simple uncomplicated football.

Jose was very honest in his account of the match:

No doubt we deserved to win the game but 4-0 is a bit heavy for a team that fought like they did. They gave us a very difficult first-half and we were a bit lucky to be winning 1-0 because they defended quite well. The second-half, after the second goal, we had a lot of chances and a lot of space and I could rest players and start to think of the game next Wednesday.

Because the team is in a good moment, winning matches, confidence back, I thought I could give some rest to some players and left Carvalho and Makelele out of the team. I am always a bit afraid of these matches and I want to be protective. I want to have some important players on the pitch or bench in case I need to make an impact in the game. The first moment I felt the game was over, I took Didier and Lampard off.

Of course, Jose valued the Champions League match against Porto more than this one. He managed to give rest to Sheva, Drogba, Lampard, Essien and Carvalho while Cech, Terry and Diarra needed more minutes on the pitch. Talking about the pitch, you saw it today. Something needs to be done before we lose another player to a pointless injury. The next match at the Bridge is after a gap of one month which should give enough time for fixing things up.

Drogba scores again. Instead of a net-ripping full-blast goal, he chose a smart spin-flick that is typical of a fox-in-the-box striker. I dont quite like his new hairstyle. One out of the 100 reasons why I hate Adebayor is his stupid hairdo. Looks like Drogba has caught on to that kind. I hope he wipes this off. Sheva did as much as he could do in just 25 minutes. He set up an easy finish for Essien, the centre back and also scored a Milano style header from a well-timed Kalou cross. All those four goals were well earned but 4-0 should not mean that we crushed them or something.

To sum up, we played well enough to win and move to the FA cup quarterfinals, lost only one player to injury, have key players ready for the Porto match and if it interests you, Roman was at the Bridge!

____________________________________________________________

And some Scott Update:

Scott Sinclair scores once again for Plymouth in the FA Cup match against Derby. Nice to know that Chelsea FC has allowed Scott to play, if Plymouth is drawn against Chelsea in the FA Cup. See his header goal below:

Posted on February 11th, 2007 by blue champion.

Drogba’s scoring at will - screamers, headers . . now freekicks!

For the reasons mentioned in the previous post, I could not see this match. I did get to see the goals and also read what was on Press. Fantastic win against a not-so-easy opponent especially when Man Utd was playing an easier team. There’s more good news as Liverpool has lost and are a clear 10 points off from us. Now scoursers, dont even please talk about catching Chelsea at all.

With the current team we are back to our cruising best. We are back to the form that will make you watch the Chelsea match with no pressure whatsoever. After the Liverpool loss, we have scored 14 goals and conceded none in the 5 matches. Such a relief to see that Chelsea’s so-called crisis and Jose’s future are not finding space in the Press nowadays.

The match statistics might tell you that the Boro team never got down from the team bus. How else would you explain zero shot(s) on target?

Jose was happier about winning this match than enjoying the records:

I wanted Chelsea to win and win and win and, in the main, that is what we have done. Now we must keep on doing it. Credit to United, they’re doing it too. We’re in a battle. We can’t afford not to keep winning, neither can they. We’re enjoying it. To go on enjoying it, we must keep on winning.

The unstoppable Drogba now has 25 goals this season with more than a dozen matches yet to be played. So far, he has scored about four times from free kicks this season. Robben was justified in celebrating for the goal that he created but ended as an own goal.

Here are the goals:

By them we play in the Premiership again on 3rd March, we could be Carling Cup Champions, a step closer to being FA Cup champions and European Champions. We are ready for the challenge. Bring on any team!