Didier, 'Take A Bow Son, Take A Bow!'

For forty long second-half minutes, Chelsea's solitary goal lead looked far from safe. Once German International Michael Ballack was shown the red-card after a stamp on the Reds midfielder Sissoko, the Red tide attacking the Shed End was continuous and relentless. Cross after cross, chance after chance went begging as the Reds carved Chelsea open on the flanks as Chelsea struggled to tactically shore up the deficit of losing one of their most influential players.

To be fair had referee Mike Riley applied the letter of the law to Sissoko just before half-time after a 'dirty' challenge on Super Frank and shown Sissoko a second Yellow card, then I could have been writing about the game in a different light. Sissoko should have gone, Ballack knew it because he told Sissoko to 'cool it,' and its so ironic that Ballack was punished for a challenge on a player that shouldn't have been on the pitch in the first place.

Stand up and take a bow Didier Drogba, not only did you battle for every ball, fight every challenge and after every fall (legitimately it must be said) got up dusted yourself down and got on with it, you score one helluva of a goal that must rank high in the awards for Goal of the Season.

From a cross field high ball from Super Frank, Dids controlled the ball on his chest, under the close scrunity of Carragher, then Dids let the ball drop before swivelling and with his weaker left foot hit an unstoppable half-volley pass the ball juggling and motionless Reina.

Take a bow son, take a bow!!

I never want to have to go through anything like those forty-minutes again.

Michael Ballack has apologised to Sissoko and to his Chelsea team-mates. This is what he said:

"It was a bad situation for me, I came in a bit late and I didn’t want to injure him. I have just seen him now and I have said sorry.

"It is my first straight red card in my career.

"I said sorry to him, it was no problem, I like him in the game. There was a situation in the first-half where I thought he had a foul for a second yellow card and I said to him then, slowly, slowly.

"In the second-half these situations can happen, it was bad for me, the team worked very hard after this and we went on to win the game. It wasn’t easy for them, and I said sorry to them, as it was important for us. We wanted to challenge Man U for first place.

"It looked bad on TV and all I can say is sorry."

And if you believe what you saw on the TV pictures The Special One and Fat Boy shook hands before and after the game. Whether it means anything is another matter.

COME ON CHELSEA!

41 YEARS A BLUE!