Dean Twists the Knife Further
By dixon9
September 25 2007
I think it’s fair to say that there was an almost attitude of indifference before this game from a lot Chelsea fans. Any hopes of achieving anything now in the PL (or in any other competition) this season are more or less written off anyway in my opinion unless there´s some form of drastic rectification soon of last weeks circus.
When I saw the line-up that didn´t include 2 of our best performers in recent games, Alex and Belletti, the seeds of fear about the selection ability of our new manager, Avram Grant began to germinate. No Wright-Philips either.
Ferreira, to be fair, usually performs well against the Mancs but Belletti has demonstrated that he has settled in very well indeed, has shown pace to get forward and the ability to put over a decent cross when required. Alex has shown all the signs of being a monster player for us and the selection of Tal Haim gave me the feeling of some degree of nepotism being involved. Tal Haim is a very reasonable player but he was signed as cover and doesn’t possess the same attributes of Alex by a long chalk.
Still, Joe Cole was on the field in his best position – that was something at least. Essien and co were all there and Sheva up front in a 4-3-3 formation.
Man Utd started off the brighter with Rooney forcing Cech to make a great save early on. Both Cech and Terry actually had quite good games despite a level in form of less than can be expected from them two in previous games.
There was a 20 min spell in the first half where I begrudgingly perked up in surprise when we actually seemed to be controlling the game and playing decent football…that was until Dean ruined the game with a dubious dismissal of Mikel on the half hour – that was it – game over.
Dean continued to twist the knife in us even further to cap a devastating week with a series of calamitous decisions, which on the whole were against us rather than the home side.
To be honest, after the sending off of Mikel I’d almost past caring anyway and there was a part of me thinking that the trouble is now the fact that as we were playing with 10 men this would only serve to distort the board’s horrendous decision made earlier in the week.
Steve Clarke was extremely animated on the sidelines with Grant taking the odd saunter down to register some seemingly muffled protests to the 4th official.
Next up was a goal scored over the allotted injury time by Tevez and the 2nd half included an extremely dubious penalty assisted by a spectacular swan dive from Saha. Both Joe Cole and Rooney were lucky not to see a red card each in the 2nd half - It was pretty embarrassing afternoon for the ref and for Man Utd fans who must have felt this was a very hollow victory.
An off the field point of interest was the fact that Van Basten was sat behind Abramovich. The young Dutchman said he was there to watch 36 year old Van de Sar – does anyone believe that? He certainly fits the profile of the next Chelsea manager in being young and also a purveyor of the required “attractive football” that we apparently need in our CV.
Qualification for the European Championship ends in November, so if it is Van Basten coming in, I wouldn´t expect any shuffling around at Stamford Bridge until then.
Hiddink recently made some comments in the Dutch press:
“Roman Abramovich and I met again around the England match. We had good talks and discussions. I always get on well with Roman, but I am not going to give away all the details from that meeting. However, one or two things will become clear in the near future and I will be able to talk about it then.”
”I have never had a personal problem with Frank Arnesen. Our relationship was good and it is still good. I could work with him again.”
”There was a point when it was a strange situation at PSV. I was responsible for the results of the team but I did not have enough input and authority when it came to buying and selling players.”
Maybe it would be a case of Hiddink taking the main reins with Van Basten sat beside him? Who knows! Me? I’m still grieving to be honest – there’s only one man I want to see at the helm of Chelsea Football Club.
Against Chelsea:
1) Mikel shouldn't have been sent off
2) The whistle should have been blown for H/T as soon as the corner was cleared from the penalty box
3) Saha dived - no penalty
4) Rooney should have been off for his second bookable offence on Tweedy
For Chelsea:
1) Cole should have gone off for his bad tackle on Ronaldo (although again Ferguson suggesting it was a potential career threatener was pathetic)
2) Cole's tackle on Evra was a penalty
Obviously had it been against any other opposition than ManU I would have laughed, but then again no team gets referees being as biased towards them as ManU so it wouldn't have happened anyway.
.
"It is born out of hypocrisy and fundamental insecurity. There have been two kids on the block for the past 12 years. Suddenly, there is a third and that one is threatening to be more successful than the others and they don’t like it." P Kenyon.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2007:09:25:18:23:18 by dixon9.
nigeria, abia state iam an igbo i live in benin, cotonou.