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| Ryan Bertrand loved David Luiz goal a little TOO much. |
With Chelsea out of the FA Cup, it of course allows the club to focus on the league. A little matter that the interim one may have wanted to think about when they faced Southampton and he put out *that* team. With Arsenal dropping a couple of points the night before, it seemed reasonable to expect a very stale and typical draw at Craven Cottage.
For those of you who’ve only heard of this mythical land that is Craven Cottage, protected by a renowned paedophile popstar Nani lookalike statue of the king of pop, sat sleepily by the river - it’s not the gentile place that you may think. As I happily walked through the park in the sunshine, I had no idea what sinister events would await me. And no, it did not involve the Berba - but I can see where you’d all think that. My bag was searched - standard procedure. And a violent missile was found - what could this be? What would I have brought to a game to show that I’m really up to no good? A bottle of perfume. Yes, that’s right. I was trying to make the world smell a better place. Unfortunately I was paired up with a pikey female steward who tried to keep it for herself. I even said I’d rather not attend so I could have it back. (Clearly a bold faced lie) And she made off with it. Knowing it was far too good for her, her boss intervened and laughed at her thinking I was going to attack Benitez with good scents because we all know he needs some.
Be warned on your way to The Cottage - there’s a reason that park was the setting of The Omen! Anyways, on to some actual football here ...
After the match Martin Jol noted that “they deserved the goals but I thought we were maybe the better team for the first half an hour.” Forget a game of two halves, if only a game was of a first 30 minutes Martin. (or a final 30 if we’re still talking about Sunday’s semi-final loss ... but we’re not .. we’re moving on). Fulham did look up for it on this occasion forcing Cech to make the odd save, but for one of the rare times this season, Chelsea looked in control of matters.
David Luiz, you stop it. What a way for Chelsea to open the scoring for the first of many win situations between now and the end of the season. The ball hit the back of the net so hard, that it may have done some long term damage to Billy Badger. It was Luiz first goal away from home, but with Craven Cottage being in such close proximity to Stamford Bridge, I’m not sure that any of us can really count that as an ‘away’ goal.
But Luiz couldn’t be the only central defender to have all the scoring fun. After spending a lot of quality time on the bench planning the eradication of the interim one working on his fitness, Terry was out to prove a point. And a point was made. Scoring the second goal of the game, and swiftly following it up by taking Torres 20th goal back to 19. This was his moment. And no one was taking that from him. For all of us reasonable folk* out there, it was an excellent reminder of the contributions that Terry continues to make to this side and how he should be in the lineup. But for Rafa, this will be some twisted vindication of his rotation policy and what Terry can produce if he spends enough time solving Rubik's cubes on the bench.
In fairness, he gave all the credit to Torres to ensure Chelsea’s precious petal didn’t somehow deflate in confidence now that he’s finally found it. And while the stands erupted with shouts of Torres thinking it was in fact his goal, the stadium announcer let everyone in the away know who’s goal it was. Which one fan waited until it quieted down to add ‘and John Terry’ to the goal celebrations. A moment of surreal comedy that would not have been picked up by the cameras - had Sky deemed this match important enough to broadcast.
Although Frank Lampard had a good game, he wasn’t able to continue chipping away at that scoring record. However, the midfield performance on Sunday without him would have been enough to help build his case for that contract extension. Eight more matches should be more than enough time for him to score those goals and keep him in Chelsea’s history books. And maybe on their books if any of you club official type people happen to be reading this.*
Back up to third with a game in hand, the yo-you positioning for a Champions League position rages on with Liverpool awaiting. Benitez says he’s looking forward to the short commute sitting in his old seat getting applauded by fans for the first time this season the game. It’s a must win for Chelsea, and really his future, but will he continue to endear himself to the only set of fans in the world that think he’s good by fielding a weakened team in hopes they will roll over and let Liverpool win?
jb x
* they’re not
** I may have played fast and loose with the word reasonable, but we'll just go with that for now
Special note: as it's my birthday, don't feel shy about sending gifts. ;)
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