Premier League: Chelsea 1 - 0 Reading
Match reports
The Times, Matt Hughes: “Grant’s team continued their dogged pursuit of Manchester United and Arsenal with a ninth successive victory in all competitions that equals the club record. Michael Ballack’s first-half header was all that separated the teams on the scoresheet, although in terms of ability the gap was wider than the grandest of canyons.”
The Guardian, David Hytner: “The win was Chelsea’s sixth in seven league matches and it featured examples of the free-flowing football that is craved by Roman Abramovich. The three points were the bottom line but Shaun Wright-Phillips’ and Joe Cole’s artistry in particular provided cheer and the gloss. This was a scoreline that deceived. Chelsea ought to have won by a handful.”
Daily Telegraph, Oliver Brown: “Somebody sometime is going to have to give Avram Grant his due. The Chelsea manager is assuredly no headline-writer’s dream, but it has taken his curiously muted method to produce a winning streak of nine games, equalling the club record. A ragged Reading restricted his side to only one goal, but if ever a scoreline lied it was here, as Chelsea - inspired by a revitalised Michael Ballack - delivered the type of stylish exhibition that looks set to stop Manchester United and Arsenal from streaking off into the sunset.”
The Independent, Jason Burt: “A performance rich in creativity - through a midfield triumvirate brilliantly marshalled by the indefatigable Claude Makelele - and intent.”
Official Chelsea FC Website: “A resilient Reading side managed to deprive Chelsea of the goals that seemed likely at the end of the first-half, but, the Blues will be happy to keep the gap to the top to only four points.”
The goal
The good
- Three points. With Arsenal cruising to an easy victory over Newcastle last night and Ronaldo kicking Portsmouth back to Fratton Park this evening, a win was vital to keep ourselves in the race.
- The possession. In some quarters, it is deemed as being nine tenths of the law; I’ve not seen our stats for tonight’s game, but we probably weren’t far off that. The first half was probably embarrassing if you were a Reading fan. In the build up to the goal, there seemed to be a five minute plus spell where Steve Coppell’s men might as well have been in the Shed Bar sipping pina coladas for all the bearing they had on the game.
- The football. In the first half, especially. We always looked dangerous going forward with some quick, clever passing and movement; the likes of Claude Makelele, Alex and Ricardo Carvalho worked hard off the ball and denied Reading any room to breathe, allowing Michael Ballack to pull the strings and Nicolas Anelka to lead the Reading defence around like the Pied Piper - a joy to watch.
- Nicolas Anelka. With the prospect of him and Didier Drogba together up front, I’m not surprised Spurs have started buying defenders. They could probably do with a few sandbags and trench shovels too.
- Liverpool - title challengers? In about the same way that I’m challenging Barack Obama for the hotseat in the White House.
The bad
- Well, the possession. In the first half at least, we should have had more goals than an evening with Ashley Cole has diced carrots. The feeling that we might pay for our profligacy grew stronger as the second half wore on and the legs tired. Pretty football is all well and good, but moral victories and critical plaudits are no substitute for silverware which tends to have a nasty habit of slipping away if you don’t score enough goals.
- The legs. Makelele, Ballack and Shaun Wright-Phillips ran their socks off tonight, and in the last twenty minutes or so it showed as our control of the midfield started to slip. Michael Essien, John Mikel Obi and Frank Lampard can’t come back soon enough to give the others some respite.
- Set pieces. Do we have some sort of aversion to taking decent corners? Julliano Belletti (when on the pitch, obviously) should be the man, because most of the rest struggle to beat the first man. On the other side of the coin, we seemed to give away too many free kicks in the second half - possibly tiredness as previously mentioned, but as we started to defend deeper and deeper things often became a little confused at the back. Reading were far too shabby to exploit it, others may not be.
- Joe Cole. Some sublime play from him tonight which should save him from a mention here, but Christ, he can be frustrating. Having beaten your man once, there really is no need to turn your back, pull another stepover and do it again. Delivering a final ball, possibly?
- Although Alex gave it a good go, nobody maimed Stephen Hunt. Boo!
Man of the Match
Somewhere between Ballack and Anelka. Too late to decide so I’ll leave it to you.
Final thoughts
Whatever Chelsea’s resolutions were thirty days ago, they have worked wonders. Eight wins out of eight this month, a club record equalling nine wins in all competitions and all with any number of key players missing. Our African Nations contingent will be away for a little while yet, but we’ve cleared a fair few hurdles thus far without any problems. With the two main challengers still to visit the Bridge - no - we couldn’t, could we? Given the lack of players at times, necessity has ultimately been the mother of invention; Grant’s next test is how he deals with the return of six or seven players from Africa and the treatment room. Credit to the likes of Wright-Phillips, Alex and Ballack who have all shone during the last month or so.
Related links
- Posted at 01:25 AM · Permalink · Print · 2302 views · Last indexed by Google on the 11th May 2008
- Tags: Alex, Ashley Cole, Avram Grant, Chelsea, Claude Makelele, Joe Cole, Michael Ballack, Nicolas Anelka, Premier League, Reading, Ricardo Carvalho, Roman Abramovich, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Stephen Hunt
This game was televised live here in the USA, as are all three Chelsea games this week !! The back four were really excellent throughout, particularly the fullbacks. Ferreira made the goal through sheer determination and was unlucky not to repeat the dose in the second half.
On the other hand, I don’t know how many times I leapt to my feet screaming “shoot” only to see yet another pass, or two, or three, and a wasted opportunity. We seem to be developing the Gooner’s malady.
Maybe it was tiredness, but the entire midfield switched off in the second half, after one of the best first halves I’ve seen in a long time. SWP had his usual game of mixing brilliance with atrocious centres and shots on goal, missed sitters … the usual, quoi. Ballack was terrific except for some poor passing at times. Sidwell’s 15 minutes of fame steadied the midfield somewhat at a time when Reading were pressing quite hard.
In spite of our performing rather better this month than anyone could expect, I think we have some way to go to reach ManU’s level. They seem to be destroying everyone at the moment - their strike force has to be the best around at the moment. It will be interesting to see how we do at Pompey this Saturday for direct comparison. On the other hand, we know we are fielding less than our best possible team whereas they are playing their best every game. I imagine Ferguson is wondering what he has to do to open up a significant gap on us. He must have chortled when he saw the ANC schedule thinking he would take maybe six points off us in this period. So far, we are hanging in there.
I think the intro paragraphs from the newspaper reports sum it all up. We were vastly superior to Reading and played some attractive football, as has been the case in a few games recently. The problem was that we missed some sitters - SWP with a one on one and the Anelka header.
As Graham says, ManU may be destroying teams currently and Sir Alex may think this is his best ever eleven but they’re still only four points ahead. Our team is looking a bit knackered so away to Porstsmouth I’m expecting a tight 1-0 win with a tense final 20 minutes. But so what, in 1955 we won the league with the lowest number of points so, even though we’ve scored the lowest number of goals compared to ManU and Arse, it’ll be great to wipe the smile off their faces at the end of the season.
Returning to the Rolls-Royce / Ballack analogy I think Anelka glides around the pitch even more smoothly. Maybe Anelka is a V12 and Ballack a V10? (not a V1 or V2)
@Jonathan - I think the crowd used up all your credits for the use of the ‘c’ word aimed at Stephen *unt. I have to say I was disappointed with the Matthew Harding lower tier when *unt fell on the advertising hoarding and rolled towards row 1. Why did they throw him back?
It also meant that Avram Grant’s record in his first 29 wins is exactly the same as Jose Mourinho’s.
Where are all the AG bashers now HUH HUH HUH
lol
Also how come the Americans get all the games live on TV and we dont!?!?
Where are all the AG bashers now HUH HUH HUH
Remind me again what trophies we’ve won this season? lets just wait and see. It’s fantastic so far, so lets keep our heads down and hope it continues, then he’ll get all the praise he deserves.
Reading were about as exciting as their grey away kit.
I’m the first to stand up and lambast one of our boys jumping in with both feet, but I’ll happily gloss over Alex’s attempt on Steven K-Hunt last night. If only he’d connected…..
We’re performing well and earning our victories, but we’ve no other players to rely on now. A suspension or injury will really affect us. Would be nice for blizzard like conditions to encapsulate England so we have a few games called off and the ACN boys return….
I tend to agree with the point graham made - we’re trying too hard to score goals with 10’s of passes and walking the ball in - just let Ballack rocket a few shots in from distance.
Sure we’re creating enough chances, but we’re not clinical enough (not that it would be any different with Sheva or Kalou in the team!!!). Also, despite excelling in his new role (due to not needing to cross the ball ???) SWP’s downfall is now his finishing. More work on the training ground required.
Overall, we’re hanging in there. Were making the title race interesting, and I dont really think Le Arse or Man USA would have expected us to be as close as we are. In a way, I’m happy we’re not getting the recognition we and AG deserve. Out of sight, out of mind……..
I have a slight suspicion that the kind of football we played in the first half needs a helping hand from the opposition. Coppell is no fool and over half time he obviously explained to his band of dimwits that if they stood around and let us run the midfield they wouldn’t see the ball very much. The second half was a totally different story. They pressed up a lot more, and, hey presto, no more shexhy football. (Of course, we should have caught them on the break, but SWP obviously missed his weekly meeting at Chance Missers Anonymous.)
At about the 65 minute mark, everyone around where I sit was agreeing that it looked *exactly* like one of those games we dominate for a long time, fail to score a second goal, and end up drawing 1-1 thanks to some set piece disaster.
How many times have we won by more than one goal since the thrashing of Man City? I can think of one (the 2-0 over Spuds).
A good win, though. The back four looks impregnable. Paulo had an excellent game. Bridgey seemd slightly below his best but still well in control. Alex won every header he challenged for. Riccy was so smooth you hardly noticed him. I also thought it was Maka’s best game for us for a very long time — back to his matchless best going both forwards and backwards.
Reading were as exciting as their greay away kit, so only a bit less exciting than Chelsea. I’m afraid it’s the usual Chelsea fans with their blinkers on. If you believe that on that performance you are going to catch the top too you really are on something. Reading had more possession in the second half than Chelsea and If I was a Chelsea fan bearing in mind our league possession and away form I would have been worried about that second half display. So far Grant has managed two games agains Man Utd and Arsenal and he has lost them both convincingly, that is where you truely are.
Good match with a deceptive scoreline that once again makes our goal difference look rather cruddy compared to Ure’s and Arse’s. We could have hit the net many more times.
Nice of Stephen Hunt to not attempt to murder Petr Cech this time, as well.
Ugh, don’t feel like writing anything else. Am pretty f_cked off with the world, Further Maths is sh_t, I’m never gonna get the three As for LSE and whilst I’m delighted that Liverpool lost, I feel so bad for Crouchie, it was his birthday and he didn’t start as usual.
Chelsea’s win was the only ray of light in my cruddy little world.
@Emma
If you don’t want to follow the academic route you can always try the Aimee Walton alternative :-)
Time to start studying I think.
@Mark
I hope you’re not offering your services to corrupt this young lady ;-)
“I hope you’re not offering your services to corrupt this young lady ;-)” because then Mark would form part of JD’s newly appointed collective….
I say we leave this one well alone. And let Emma study.
@Clive
Quite the opposite. I’m advocating studying as a better alternative to wannabee wagging
I’ve given myself a slap on the wrists, and I accept my polite telling off.
Eww and eww. Words cannot describe how trampy Walton is. WTF was Ash thinking, Cheryl is infinitely more babely!
I am hoping to meet/marry a nice footballer though… :S :S
>> JD’s newly appointed collective….
Eh? What? I deny everything…
We simply offer corruption as part of the blog services; however a decent education is obviously more strongly recommended!
It is quite a week for Chelsea fans in the US when we see the Wigan, Reading and Portsmouth games all live.
Just a word about Makelele. He played as well as I can remember. Absolute control of the midfield, and he must have made at least four of those sweet passes threaded through the middle, splitting defenders. How SWP missed both of the ones that reached him is beyond me. The spine of Alex, Makelele, Ballack and Anelka controlled that game.
Royal Flush - not sure you grasped the points made in the review. Second half we clearly tired, but given the number of absentees and how many games we’ve played in January it’s hardly surprising. But ‘that performance’ you refer to was a) a win and b) included a first half where your boys were nigh on invisible.
Nine wins on the bounce, four points off the top with seven or eight players to come back and both title contenders still to visit the Bridge? Forgive us for being optimistic - all part of being a football fan, surely?
All the Chelsea Premiership matches are shown live in STAR in India & Bangladesh, but not in SKY in the UK! WTF?!
So far Grant has managed two games agains Man Utd and Arsenal and he has lost them both convincingly, that is where you truely are.
Convincingly you say 2-0 against Utd with 10 men and 1-0 against Arsenal with a goal conceded with a rare Cech howler. And you say we have our blinkers on, enjoy the fizzy drink league next season, because hopefully that’s were your lot will be heading.
Royal Flush,
“If you believe that on that performance you are going to catch the top too you really are on something”
I’ve re-read the post, and the responses, and can’t see anyone’s come out and said they think we’ll catch them. I said we’re making it interesting, and while I can only imagine how amazing it will be if we do it this year, realistically it may be out of our reach
“I’m afraid it’s the usual Chelsea fans with their blinkers on”. Ummm, not really. We’re pretty sensible on here, while it’s nice to be mixing with the best teams in the World I think we’re fairly grounded. There’s nothing blinkered about us celebrating our (record equalling) ninth success in a row.
Didn’t Reading break a club record last night as well…….
You guys can see it if you have a parabolic antenna, just have to move it around until you lock into the satelite and code the box, you can get that in the net, just google it, but you will not get any sound though.
the same applies to the tansmission to the States.
Reading looked good in the second half because our boys had run themselves rugged. Some of them, SWP, need time off. Shevy will be back soon, so that so help!
I live in Dubai and all Prem games are shown live.
Sky just don’t do it - because the clubs need to sell tickets to the grounds.
On the plus side though - we can’t get the FA or Carling cup out here for love nor money.
Royal Flush - i dont only think we will catch you, i think we will over take you.
Sorry Fifty - i know you were being dimplomatic - just trying to make it interesting ;)
I agree with other posts though - we arent blinkered - far from it. You must be worried to come on here and start claiming random facts.
With Ze German and SWP being legendary at the moment - do you think Frank should get a call up?
MunkeyFeet,
I think, being called ‘Royal Flush’, he / she’s a Reading fan.
And thus, they have been caught and over-taken.
I think, being called ‘Royal Flush’, he / she’s a Reading fan.
And there’s me thinking he/she was a posh toilet cleaner ;-)
Jonathan’s excellent post from 2006 - The Chelsea question - football ‘expert’ Dr. Rogan Taylor enters the debate… - is getting a few hits from Google today.
Turns out that Taylor is the clot behind the plan for fans to buyout Liverpool.
Good luck with that.
http://www.shareliverpoolfc.co.uk
Great all that’s going to do is give scousers more excuses to got out and steal
things so they can get the money together.
Damn I’ve got to stop this stereotyping!
Did some one mention Frank????
Please do not get me started… When are we getting Arteta…
Missed the game…had to follow it through the bbc updates on my phone…
And to any Flushing Royals…hope you have your brakes on lest you get flushed…;-)
Fifty i realised that after - having one of those days - one of those weeks actually.
Clive you do - lots of negativity from you today - though i have to agree - £5000 each - 100,000 owners - 71,000 seats!! they havent thought this through have they!!
@Munkeyfeet
All is well with me Chelsea win, Looserpoo lose doesn’t get much better ;-)
And I agree they haven’t thought it through, which makes it all the more enjoyable.
Great looking back at that article from 2006 that you linked to Nick, I remember it well! Heady days of being 12 points clear and all the media hating us! It’s amazing what a year of NOT winning the title can do for our popularity amongst journalists!
Also amazing how many points in the article proved to be true - the likes of Man Utd and Arsenal DID improve as a result of the benchmark we set in the back-to-back years, and now this year we have a three horse race for the first time in years. Kenny Sansom had a good point then. Shame Liverpool didnt learn the lesson ;) Also look at SWP now - he certainly never proved to be a bench-warmer! JD you are the oracle.
If that idiot ‘professor’ is at the head of the fans movement in Liverpool then we can probably look forward to many more years without the scousers lifting the title. Liverpool in 7th place in the league going into February, I have a very big grin!
New England manager, same old story when it comes to squad selection.
Downing ?? Wes Brown ?? Curtis Davies ?? Lescott ?? Kirkland ??
Christ, the footballing World must be sh1tting itself at the prospect of Fabio’s England….
Does rather illustrate the worrying lack of talent at his disposal, I have to say. But if Otto Rehhagel can turn Theo Zagorakis into a European Championship winner…?
@Fifty
You missed out Heskey and Crouch especially the latter who can’t even get a game for Liverpool. But yes it does show the lack of talent available, and he obviously doesn’t do sentiment either with regards Beckham.
I would of thought he might have picked and played him for the friendly to finish off the media circus that will certainly follow until he gets the 100th cap.
Sure England need Otto then, not Fabio :)
Surely Fabio should be judged on the results he gets rather than the selections he makes.
Fair enough, there aren’t that many surprise call-ups to the squad but if the results come our way over the coming month then we wont really have that much to complain about.
Has anyone clicked on the liverpool share link that Nick put up? It just goes from bad to worse for them.
re: England squad
I see that Chelsea reject Glen Johnson gets a call up though I assume Richards will actually play. Third right back is Shorey. Pretty dire position at the moment since Richards is now a centre-back. I would not be surprised if Fabio plays Joey C on the right and Ashley Young on the left with Rooney and A N Other in the centre up front. The squad seems top heavy with centre backs and defensive mid-fielders, and why no Green? He has been terrific for West Ham.
Just to assuage any jealousy, this week is the first since New Year when Chelsea has featured on Fox Sports. We have been getting a lot of Man City recently. At least this year, they are televising more than the first two rounds of the FA Cup, but still no Carling Cup. Sigh.
@ Emma
As someone who spent many years being put through the academic mangler, followed by quite a few more putting others through it, can I just say that your life will *not* be ruined if you don’t go to the LSE, despite what it feels like. Meeting a “nice footballer” would almost certainly be a million times more destructive to your future happiness…
The title race is almost less fun this year than the comedy contest between Newcastle and Liverpoo. Which set of fans are further up their own bottoms? Only time will tell.
I love Michael Ballack.
And our team just seems to win with Makelele in the line-up. I don’t know if it’s his positioning or his anticipation or some intangible quality… but we just seem to get results with him in the squad.
I wouldn’t immediately insert Frank back into the line-up.
Not much to say about the game last night, decent performance, great goal and YET ANOTHER win, which is the most important thing. Only 4 points between us and the top, know i keep saying it but i really believe we`re gonna get the title back. That`s not being over-optimistic, as some people would try to make me believe, i`ve just got 100% confidence and belief that the boys can do it. Hell, we can do all 4 can`t we?? Look at how we`ve been playing recently and that`s WITH injuries, the Africa Cup etc, imagine when the team is at full strength? I`m getting just a bit excited thinking about it! Ha! Ha! As for the “new” England squad, i agree with Fifty on that one. I mean, there`s more Villa players in there than from anywhere else. 5 to be exact, Liverscum have 2, we have 4..Jeez. What`s that all about then? An England team with an Aston Villa majority? And we`re gonna win the next World Cup? HA! I suggest Capello gets back to the drawing board. And what`s with all you guys having a go at Emma if she wants to meet a “nice footballer”? Know the chances of that are pretty slim, especially if you don`t get your kit off for a living..but come on lads..us girls are allowed to dream aren`t we? If SuperFrank came to my local one night and flashed his supasexy smile at me, well, i don`t know many girls that would say “no”!!!
Up the Chels xxx
Can anyone think of a more ridiculous ‘Rescue” attempt for Liverpool than getting 100,000 scallies to come up with 5 Grand each??????
Although if they could find the blokes that keep robbing their houses to chip in with some of the loot already nicked, they might be well on their way to salvation!!
That Liverpool share link comes up Account Suspended.
Ha ha ha!
wrt tv coverage, here in Australia we get virtually every Premiership game live. There’s even a split screen option where you can watch four different games at once, which is very very confusing and tends to overload the brain.
ESPN cover the FA Cup and Hokey Cokey and we even get live Championship games.
let’s offer some money for the red’s site to keep it running but in one condition: it should have our beloved blue lion as a background and a “Thank you Blues” on the top. That would make them focus more on their silly site back, I would really like to see it tunning again then a week later they will post an article to re-new their faith in the Americans again.
Silly silly reds.
I don’t think we should be so flippant about the Liverpool share scheme. The reality is that if you’re a UK taxpayer (I say bitterly after paying my tax yesterday) you’ll be paying your share for Liverpool FC via the UK benefits system. Let’s face it, we’ve been funding Liverpool since the last dock closed.
The Liverpool gang is just running a bloody scam! LOL!
lollipop,
Without the injuries, we’d have 6 in the squad (I’m guessing Fabio would include JT and Lamps, but who knows…)
And he’s only got himself to blame for not picking Beckham with the furore that will ensue.He should have played him for the second half and then teold him straight “100 caps is it”. The papers are full of it today, and it’ll be the same until he plays.
@Mark
I’m glad it’s just not me stereotyping our “scouser” friends. :-)
Hang on, I’ve just read the BBC story from last night about the Liverpool site. Thought I’d cut and paste this rather memorable paragraph :
“In the first hour after opening the website crashed, a problem that site designers Navy Blue said had been caused by the high volume of people trying to access the site. “
A Liverpool website being designed by a company named ‘Navy Blue’. Hmmm. I’m wondering / hoping if some little Evertonian rapscalion isn’t having a laugh at their rivals expense…..
And coincidentally the Inland Revenue site crashed yesterday. Never, in the course of human history, have so many people tried to give so much money to Liverpool via so many web sites.
EVERYBODY;
It is obvious what should be done regarding the proposed Liverpool buy out.
Fans from rival clubs should invest so the club is not controlled by scou…..oh, by London reds and all other nationaities. It will be controlled by Chelsea, Manure, Everton, supports.
That is the best idea i’ve heard regarding this. A campaign should be started to get rival fans to put their hands in their pockets.
Come on do it for us!!!
K.T.B.F.F.H
It’s looking like we might have had a bit of a bargain with Anelka at £15 million.
Considering that Boro have spent supposedly £12 million on a “high scoring” dutch league player of similar age. (I wonder how many more premiership sides are going to hoodwinked into buying these so called strikers) I think that Bolton should have asked for more, but certainly glad they didn’t
At first I didn’t really think that the money for Anelka was well spent, especially considering his age but after the performances that he has been putting in for us he looks the real deal, I hope the same can be said about Ivanovic when he gets his first run out for Chels and I hope that’s soon.
Now that Avram has got the exact same record as Jose at the Bridge, do you reckon we could actually go all the way in either the Champs League or the Premiership this season?
I think with all the African players returning to the squad after the Liverpool game, and JT and Lamps set to come back from injury, we are definitely going to end the season strongly.
Our squad is more complete than anyone else’s in the league, which we have demonstrated so powerfully over the past few games, but it is absolutely crucial that we beat United and Arsenal at home, considering their ability to simply trounce other teams. If we don’t do that, then I don’t see us lifting the trophy this year, but we will see…
As for the CL, Olympiakos should be a relatively easy challenge, and after that I genuinely believe we have the ability to beat anyone that’s put in front of us. Let’s just hope we don’t get Liverpool!
Shaun Wright Phillips is not good enough to play for chelsea, it’s just that simple.
Defoe was clearly offside when he took the ball.Another referee mistake costs us 2 points.
Just watched the pompeii game.
Defoe was offside
Pizzaro is crap - I mean really crap - would rather Malouda had stayed on - even though he is crap too.
Can’t believe Man USA got the =izer so late in the game.
Is that it now for us in the League?
I think a draw away to a team like Pompey is not a bad result. I live down here and my Pompey fan mates all felt this would be a win, such is the confidence they have at home. Last night in the pub, and after seeing our knackered display in the second half against Reading I would have settled for a draw…and predicted as such if I’d had time to do a preview.
I’m not convinced we had a shout of the league, even after the recent run as I expected either Arse or Manure to slip but not both. If we finish second or third after a season bedevilled with turmoil early on then I think we’ll have done well and maybe we can see what AG does in the summer with players in and out for a trouble free assault on our Title next year. I think RA has stated that the CL is the priority this year.
I agree with Tony. I managed to watch the second half online and we played really well, some great, dare I say it, entertaining football. But the game could have gone either way: if Defoe had a bit more quality we could be looking at an (undeserved) loss. Harry Redknapp is building a good team; if they get the new stadium they want Portsmouth will be a force to be reckoned with in the future.
Mark was at the game and is doing the review, but it might not be posted until he gets home tomorrow evening.
One last thing: what a shame Diarra’s a whinging Frenchman. He might still be a Chelsea player otherwise. Thought he looked really good today.
I think that we’re still in with a decent shout in the league. We’re still just six points behind and Arsenal have to visit our place, I know that doesn’t guarantee us three points but it’ll be tough proposition for them to grab tree points away from our place.
I guess it all depends whether we can continue on this good run of form but as yesterday proved, even equalling our best ever run of victories doesn’t mean that we will get any closer to the Gooners at the top of the league.
@ Fifty
We`re PRESUMING that Capello will pick J.T and Lamps for the squad, i for one really hope he does but with press speculation about a “new” England regime and rumours of pressure on Capello to pick certain squad members, i`m not so sure. Been hearing AND reading that Trevor Brooking is making his feelings known that he`s not happy with J.T as Captain, saying that it`s the Captain`s responsibility on AND off the pitch to be on “good behaviour” as such. Then, in the next breath, you hear about Duck-Bill Ferdinand and Fat Boy Rooney named as possible successors!! Think Trev needs to keep up to date with the media a little more! Doesn`t he know that the boys down at Old Trafford enjoy nothing more than a good night out filled with hotel trashing and prozzy shagging?! Good behaviour?? We`ll say no more…
Up the Chels xxx