Words of wisdom
Pepe Reina: For me, Fernando Torres is a better striker than Drogba
Rafa Benitez: Stop Drogba, and you stop Chelsea.
Some people just never learn. Sigh !
So, here we were again, similar occasion, similar circumstances. It was at this same stage last season when Liverpool ended Chelsea’s 86-game unbeaten home run courtesy of a deflected fluke goal by Alonso. Then, as now, Chelsea had had a flying start to the season under a new manager. But many consider that game to be the beginning of the end for Scolari, as Benitez highlighted obvious flaws in his gameplan. The signs were ominous this time too. Chelsea gave a wretched performance last weekend to lose at Wigan, and did not seem to improve when they won at APOEL Nicosia in mid-week. And to round it off, we had the all too familiar foe in Liverpool up next… this our 25th meeting in 5 years. Arghh..I’m sick of the sight of them !!
Once again, Pool felt compelled to talk up Drogba before the game at the risk of provoking him. Not very astute from someone who knows the wrath of The Drog all too well. Naturally, all eyes were on him. And he did not disappoint, showing his entire range of ‘skills’. He was everywhere on the pitch, hassling the defenders, providing aerial threat, defending set pieces, taking set pieces, and of course, rolling around 😉
Now, before you go ‘Diverrr’ again, this is a player who has had his fair share of groin and knee injuries, and it would be natural for him to be cautious and take extra care while going into tackles. But apparently, not everyone takes kindly to this sort of behavior. So when Carragher brought Drogba down to concede a free kick, he threw his arms up in the air as if to say,
“Aye ! Don’t go down for such silly challenges”
Of course, Carra was showing his world-class (shirt pulling) defending skills. Seriously, Drogba should know better. The half wore on with Drogba being felled some more, but Chelsea were on the ascendancy. Reira did try to pull a smart one on Chelsea with a free kick at the end of first half, but surely Chelsea would not be caught out again as they did in their previous meeting.
One of the mistakes Rafa made in obsessing about Drogba, meant he completely forgot about the other striker, Anelka. And he was made to pay for it as Drogba fed Anelka, who slipped in behind Carra to score the first goal. He threw on Benayoun and even Babel in a desperate attempt to salvage a draw, but still Chelsea looked the likelier to score. As 90 mins were up, and the board for injury time read 3 mins, Rafa sarcastically showed a thumbs-up to the fourth official. Considering Chelsea scored another soon after, he might actually have been relieved it was only 3 mins.
Coming to the goal, Lampard launched a free-kick to Drogba who shrugged off Aurelio and skinned Carragher to set up Malouda. Once again, Carra was shirt pulling hoping Drogba wouldn’t go down. Drogba remembered the words ringing in his ears, “Aye ! Don’t go down for such silly challenges”. So he didn’t. Once again, the arms were up in the air from Carragher. Silly boy Carra, decide whether you want him to go down or not.
Pool did spring to life in the final two minutes, but it was all over soon. The job was done.
This win wasn’t just about Drogba. Terry gave a stellar performance to keep Torres in check. Carvalho and Ashley Cole were outstanding. Essien was magnificent in breaking up the play, and Lampard – Ballack virtually ran the midfield. Anelka took his goal really well. Just goes to show, Rafa, Chelsea is not a one man show. And if he is to win anything, Pool cannot afford to rely on Gerrard-Torres alone. The flaw will be exploited by every good team, stop the supply line to Gerrard.
All in all, it capped a perfect weekend as United dropped points at home to Sunderland. Fergie did try to shift attention from his team’s poor display to the referee. The miserable, graceless man had this to say about Alan Wiley, with whom he was happy to share a joke after their winner against City,
“It’s an indictment on our game that this referee was not fit enough. It took him at least 30 seconds every time he booked a player and I think that is because he wanted to take a rest. But he didn’t add on that time. The referee did not add enough time, not at all.”
The FA should take the strictest action against him to put him in his place, possibly by handing him a touchline ban.
well keyrock place ur words properly man, fergie , a graceless man? Whatever means grace in ur dictionary
whatever it means, it surely is not anything like what fergie displayed there
That last part is all i agree with in your post.
Drogba is a fucking disgrace. Tender groin and knee my foot. He was on the floor for half the game when in most cases he wasn’t even touched. There is o doubt that he has skill. But he is a DISGRACE
maddy,
if in most cases he wasn’t even touched, why did the ref not book him for diving? its just ur frustration maddy. let it go
dude mourinho is like ur most successful coach and a much revered legend of ur club, keep that glass house in mind when u throw stones at others.
Typical Chelsea.. Brilliant start to the season.. But you DO have your flaws as we saw against Wigan and apoel nicosia… Old habits die hard and Chelsea is a OLD team… The season will catch up with you lot and terry will be left to throw fits like he did against Wigan…
Every team has its flaws, and any team can have bad days like the one at wigan. utd lost to burnley remember?
and btw, most Chelsea players are between 27-31. so saying they are an old team is a bit rich from someone who’s team has a 36-yr old as its best player..
The point is not the one off day.. Its the flaws and the fact that they will keep creeping up like we saw last season… Agreed that Giggsy has been our best player so far but do you want me to talk about the average age of the two sides and our ability to improve with youngsters… Would you like some stats.. you’ll probably ignore it like before anyway and stick your head in the sand…
yes, i would like you to come up with the average age of the respective squads please. and don’t include welbeck and macheda or rafael for ur 1st team
dude dont give keyrock any stats man, he would call them
fabricated if its against chelsea like the earlier transfer one.
Deserved win for Chelsea. We just didnt take our chances. disappointing for the moment. Gerrard was pathetic….
Funny isn’t it? how Chelsea supporters forget what happened 4 months ago and start talking about disgraces… Just a little reminder:
So STFU…
how is that even related? that dumbf**k norwegian was a thoroughly incompetent ref, which was agreed upon by everyone. and Drogba did it in the heat of the moment, and later apologised.
Alan Wiley, on the other hand, is one of the more senior refs in the PL, and fergie’s vile attack was cold and calculated, and just a lame tactic to blame someone else for his teams shortcomings.
Cant believe im saying this but I gotta side with Keyrock on this one…
Fergie is as graceful in defeat (or even draws) as Drogba is while tumbling to the floor…Last year after defeats against Pool and Fulham, the guy didnt have the balls to come out and face the press in post-match interviews…
And the assault on Wiley was disgraceful…for Ferguson it was a cheap way of deflecting blame from his and his teams shortcomings (lets not even start on that) but imagine how Wiley felt, I mean the guy didnt do a bad job and he suddenly finds a supposedly respected manager casting aspersions on whether he’s fit to referee…questioning decisions is fine, like most managers do, blaming the referee still ok… but to disgrace the chap in such a cheap manner should, atleast in theory, be beneath a man who has been conferred the title of ‘Sir’….
Of course as we all seem to discover very often…nothing…is beneath Alex Ferguson
dude i mean u conveniently seem to forget ” i did not see it” when u take grace in the equation. Mind you , you guys are not angels when it comes to handling refs. Remember the utd game, ur managers comments indirectly questioned the referees loyalties and talking about fergie not having enough balls, u gotta see phelan handles most post-match PR. And he really did come out to face the press when united lost to pool at liverpool. But then, diaby-voronin supporters are prone to forgetfullness and decision making handicaps and ur no exception.
@Vishwa
Firstly..u can go back and check as many post liverpool match tapes (of the 4-1 defeat) and u wont find a single one with a Fergie interview…
Ohh..and if Phelan handles most post match PR, why the bloody hell was Fergie out there abusing the referee after the sunderland match…does he take time out of his busy schedule only when he needs to give weight loss advice to referees
Secondly…’I didn’t see it’ is not lack of grace, it might be naive, cheeky or even dumb but not disgraceful or disrespectful…its simply a way of not slagging one’s players in public, also its in no way insulting or abusive to another. All managers say stuff which is a little over the top in the press but none goes to this extent of abuse. In face Wenger didnt even say a word about the ref who sent him to the stand for no good reason. And Fergie was the one who was all gaga over the ‘Respect for Ref’ campaign. And picking on players and managers is one thing, these guys have an army of agents and publcists to manage their public image, but referees are generally defenceless and any tarnish to their image is extremely difficult for them to overcome. And as common etiquette would dictate retorts b/w managers/players is generally accepted as mind games, no necessity to drag refs into this…
Ohh..and u have most definitely shown ur from the Fergie school of deflection…wat the bloody hell does supporting Diaby or Voronin or anybody else have anything to do with this…
You NEVER get your facts right, do you? Gimme a link where SAF says that the ref robbed us..He never blamed Riley for the draw… In fact in an interview to MUTV after the match, he says that we had an off day and was LUCKY to come off with a point… But his criticisms are justified in that the ref should’ve added more time after the goal… Riley’s lethargic walks also cost us time and he never added time for those…
@Venky
Firstly…please get ur facts right…i never said Fergie blamed the ref..i said he indulged in an unnecessary rant which was insulting simply to deflect media attention…he cast aspirations on a referee for ‘taking walks’…firstly since none of us pays too much attention to refs during the game we cant even be sure if this true..secondly nobody observes ref behavior in every game, so u cant say that this ref takes any more time than others..so there is no way to say, even with a remote degree of certainty ,that ‘Fergie’s criticisms were justified’
He repeated multiple times this referee was not fit to referee the game..wonder why he never raised this issue in games in which alan wiley refereed for united in the past, or has wiley dropped in fitness suddenly…and a simple ‘didnt add enough time would have sufficed’ no need for he’s not fit enough bullshit
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/article6862416.ece
Now read that..and tell me how justified was fergie’s rant…and imagine how the ref must feel for being insulted for doing his job well enough…i mean missed penalties, red cards, its ok..but to berate brutally a referee for as inane a thing as that…
oh yeah..and not too long ago…when asked abt time added on..fergie said…’sometimes it doesnt go ur way, managers should just accept it and move on’…
so…disgraceful and a hypocrite…
I was referring to Keyrock when i said about getting the facts right…
I don’t understand why you’ve taken up this crusade against Fergie now… Don’t give the BS that you care about refs.. That’d be utter Gobshite….. You just want a reason to criticize SAF here you have it.. Don’t tell me that WEnger or Arsenal have never criticized the ref…
Do you want the real reason behind the tirade? I’ll tell you now…. The amount of added time was 4.02 mins…. It should’ve been atleast 5 mins because of the goal and the slow restart… It was not to be because the ref was afraid of the consequences should United score again in the extra time and thus he did not even give us the time that we deserved… This is a direct consequence of our result against City and refs would’ve continued with this tradition until something was done… Thus the tirade.. Now the refs know that they cannot get away with stealing time off United and will follow the books from here on…
Yet another mind game from the master and if it brings a couple more victories for united over this season, that is well worth any touchline bans that he may get now…
Now what facts are u talking about here ?
The FACT that fergie berated the ref, or is it about ur claim regarding the average squad age??
The fergie rant’s link is given above.
For the average age of the 1st teams, here…let me make it easy for u
United: VDS, o’shea, vidic, rio, evra, giggs, scholes, fletcher, nani, rooney, berbatov
Chelsea: Cech, bosingwa, terry, carvalho, a cole, lampard, essien, ballack, malouda, drogba, anelka
Now go ahead boy… find the average age for each squad
funny how you easily ignore Anderson,Valencia,Evans,Carrick,Hargo who play almost every week… Scholes and Giggs very rarely play together… So thats 2 30+ players in our entire outfield….
evans is a cover for rio. valencia, carrick and anderson don’t always start. infact giggs and scholes start almost every big game. and who the fuck is hargo??
by ur standards, include mikel, borini and sam hutchinson also in chelsea squad.
harish,
i am sorry if i have hurt ur sentiments. U r motherly love and fatherly
care for the ref shows that the world can still become a better place
for everyone. You are such a peace lover man.
And yes, fergie did come out after the defeat at ANFEILD.and i have seen him face the press after much worse defeats but i dont expect you to know it, because u might go “i didnt see it”. Also you would have
conveniently forgotten le boss blaming everyone from the groundsman
to the ref after last seasons FA cup semi. That time u never went the groundsmen are such
defenceless poor people.
@vishwa
Firstly, its not abt caring for the refs, its abt respect, and as i said questioning decisions is one thing, but abusing a referee for lack of fitness when facts and figures clearly prove otherwise is unfair, especially when it is abt as ridiculous a thing as amount of time taken to book a player… as if that changed the course of the game entirely…
As for Wenger’s remark, he simply said something along the line of …the state of the pitch is bad, this is not a pitch for a FA cup semi final (a statement which most of the press agreed with at the time)… he never abused the groundsmen for not being as good as european groundsmen…he never said these ppl are not fit to be groundsmen or anything of that nature…
The point is this..its possible to criticise an individual’s performance or statements without getting personal and given Fergie’s experience he could have done that, yet he deliberately chose to go the abusive way simply because he wanted to deflect media attention from his team. And barring Mourinho (and even i cant remember a specific instance, but he might have done it) I doubt any top flight manager has launched a personal attack of this nature on a ref, questioning his ability to referee games, calling him inferior to his european counterparts, especially when facts clearly prove otherwise..
And the reason why I mentioned the fact abt this being hard on the refs…is because this kind of pressure and abuse is precisely the reason why referees buckle under the pressure so much, quit, or become utter crap or worse. end up becoming submissive to the likes of Fergie..
@ Keyrock..
Again you’ve messed up the facts… Anderson has played in every big game so far…. Valencia has played in all but 3 our games so far this season in the league… And he’s a new signing so needs to be given time to slot into the team….Giggsy and Scholesy have started only one game together this season… We do not have a set midfied as you do and there is always atleast two young midfielders in our starting 11… IF giggsy is playing, then we’ll have fletch, ando and nani to cover for him…
Who the fuck are Sam Hutchinson and Borini? How many important games have they played? Anderson and Carrick and nani have played in 2 CL finals!!!
especially when it is abt as ridiculous a thing as amount of time taken to book a player… as if that changed the course of the game entirely
That is a ridiculous argument.. The amount of time that a refree takes doing things is extremely important especially given the fact that he did not add any extra time on for them… Watch the footage of the match and you’ll know how slow the ref back.. In fact, after our equalizer, the ref was panting and took eons to get back… Considering that, he should’ve added extra time on but he didnt…
Are you gonna argue that we couldn’t have scored another goal in a minute against 10 men? Considering that, we are angry that the ref did not add enough time on after the repercussions of the citeh match…
@Venky
I wonder if u could possibly prove that the amount of time he took in booking players was excessive….whether it was more or less than any other normal ref…and I have seen refs moving slowly very often on the football pitch, particularly when u run as much as wiley did..its quite normal, again wonder if there is any conceivable way u can prove if it was excessive, so as to justify fergie’s rant that wiley was not fit enough to referee that game
And precisely what are the so called repurcussions of the city match…a few people raised a hue and cry…and it was Fergie who told them to get on with it…and in reference to the citeh game…even the usually over defensive hughes..didnt go to the extent that ferguson did…
I wonder if u could possibly prove that the amount of time he took in booking players was excessive
I don’t have to.. You are the one accusing Fergie.. So you’ve gotta prove that Fergie was wrong in saying that the ref was slow… So show me that the ref was indeed acting normally and i’ll accept that Fergie was wrong.
And precisely what are the so called repurcussions of the city match
The repercussinons were precisely what you saw in this match.. The ref blowing the whistle as soon as the 4 mins was up instead of playing on for another 30sec-1min to accomodate the goal… That was coz the ref was afraid that a goal may cause people to criticize him.. That is just not acceptable….
even the usually over defensive hughes
LOL.. where did you get that point from… I’d say you conjured that from thin air.. He is as defensive as other managers.. But not even close to over defensive… Sparky is one of the most calm and mellowed people in management today… He’s always been that way right from his days at United
harish,
if questioning a refs decision is ok, then questioning his fitness should also be ok. The first one is indirectly questioning his mental abilities the latter his physical. I dont see too much difference between both the cases. Whether or not he did it to deflect media attention is not important, the point is he didnt do something so criminal that others did not do. And ur theory about why most decisions go fergie’s way is simply fantastic. It is up there with the scouse s fergie is a vodoo practitioner theory. It is so immature of you to think of it in that line. But again the voronin- diaby supporting helps atleast in comprehending ur state of mind. Dont worry u will get ur trophy soon, until them atleast dont come up with fantastic theories like the ones that you have spewed out.
@ Keyrock
This piece of news just made my morning.. 🙂
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/08102009/58/premier-league-united-vindicated-pogba.html
Looks like UNITED are nowhere near as stupid as Chelshits…
Awesome blog!
I thought about starting my own blog too but I’m just too lazy so, I guess I‘ll just have to keep checking yours out.
LOL,