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10 02 2008 Chelsea 0 Liverpool 0
This was one of the most tedious games I had seen at Stamford Bridge for years. I am not sure if it was due to the
Sunday kick off, or whether we can use Manchester United’s excuse that players were tired due to international fixtures
(which seemed to be unquestioningly accepted in the media again!) or whether everyone, including the players, had
had a very heavy Saturday night like me. Maybe Lampard disrupted the relatively successful formation we had been
playing previously. Or maybe the two teams have played each other too much in recent seasons and have become
bored of one other.
It was not simply that the teams cancelled each other out – the quality of the play was in general excruciatingly bad.
Passes going astray, schoolboy chances missed. In fact, Liverpool probably deserved to be ahead at half time. Thank
God Crouch was up front and not Torres.
Chelsea should have earned a penalty after Joe Cole was brought down in the box, but the spineless Mike Riley was far
more interested in blowing his whistle for petty fouls and non existent hand balls than making any concrete decisions. I
had not seen a drop ball or a foul throw at Stamford Bridge for quite a while, and yet in this game he blew up for two of
the former and one of the latter. The only real entertainment was Riley getting whacked by the ball in the second half,
and the stadium announcer advising us that we should go to Earl’s Court, as there were problems at Earl’s Court station
not once, but twice!
I don’t really want to slag Avram Grant off considering how well he has done, but in the league yet again we have
struggled against one of the better sides. My nagging worry is that we are not as good as we think we are, and at some
stage this season we may come a cropper. Even though we are rarely losing, there has not been any improvement in
“entertainment” since Jose left. The team really still feels like it lacks confidence, and one knock could really hit the
players hard. It may just be that we still lack complete faith in Avram. We shall have to wait and see, but we blew a big
opportunity to beat another team that is low on confidence and catch up on Manchester United and Arsenal for the
second week running. This is not what champions are made of.
Sunday kick off, or whether we can use Manchester United’s excuse that players were tired due to international fixtures
(which seemed to be unquestioningly accepted in the media again!) or whether everyone, including the players, had
had a very heavy Saturday night like me. Maybe Lampard disrupted the relatively successful formation we had been
playing previously. Or maybe the two teams have played each other too much in recent seasons and have become
bored of one other.
It was not simply that the teams cancelled each other out – the quality of the play was in general excruciatingly bad.
Passes going astray, schoolboy chances missed. In fact, Liverpool probably deserved to be ahead at half time. Thank
God Crouch was up front and not Torres.
Chelsea should have earned a penalty after Joe Cole was brought down in the box, but the spineless Mike Riley was far
more interested in blowing his whistle for petty fouls and non existent hand balls than making any concrete decisions. I
had not seen a drop ball or a foul throw at Stamford Bridge for quite a while, and yet in this game he blew up for two of
the former and one of the latter. The only real entertainment was Riley getting whacked by the ball in the second half,
and the stadium announcer advising us that we should go to Earl’s Court, as there were problems at Earl’s Court station
not once, but twice!
I don’t really want to slag Avram Grant off considering how well he has done, but in the league yet again we have
struggled against one of the better sides. My nagging worry is that we are not as good as we think we are, and at some
stage this season we may come a cropper. Even though we are rarely losing, there has not been any improvement in
“entertainment” since Jose left. The team really still feels like it lacks confidence, and one knock could really hit the
players hard. It may just be that we still lack complete faith in Avram. We shall have to wait and see, but we blew a big
opportunity to beat another team that is low on confidence and catch up on Manchester United and Arsenal for the
second week running. This is not what champions are made of.
