Monday, April 10, 2006

Schoolyard football

Super performance on Sunday - we played some top class football, and put Arsenal firmly in their place. It's a shocker that they've gone so far in Europe, but perhaps Villareal and Barcelona will know better than to sit back and give them space to play.

The highlight of the day was of course Kolo Toure's incredible two-palmed save to deny Wayne Rooney when Jens Lehmann had been left for dead. It puts Arsene Wenger's pathetic comments about "playing a fair game" in perspective when his centre-back pulls off a manoeuvre out of a schoolyard rulebook, where the player closest to the goal gets to function as the keeper. Still, even playing the 2-3-5-1 formation with two goalies didn't help.

The new German #1 (boy did I laugh at that) was no better either. His hilarious attempt to get Rio Ferdinand booked when he tripped over his own leg (watch the replay if you don't believe me, it's outstanding stuff) was something to behold. Par for the course for Lehmann, of course.

I'm hoping against hope at this point - it's hard to see Chelsea winning only two of their remaining five games, but all we can do is fight to the end. What is very clear is that we're building up a young team of real quality - once again with the right blend of youth and experience throughout. Bring on next season, I say!

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