In all likelihood, Chelsea are not winning the English Premier League. Chelsea have a mountain to climb if they want to win the Champions' League. Chelsea are out of the FA Cup and the Carling Cup. But, despite all that, there is no better feeling than watching what happened today when Chelsea came back from a 1-0 half time deficit to beat Manchester United 2-1 at Stamford Bridge. After a strike by Rooney put Man U up 1-0 in the 1st half, Chelsea responded in the 2nd half with a brilliant volley by Essien to Ivanovic to newly acquired central defender David Luiz who looked more like a veteran striker in tying the game at 1. Then with 10 minutes left in the game, substitute Yuri Zhirkov carried the ball into the box only to be tripped up and drew the penalty. The penalty, taken by Frank Lampard, was a beautiful. Edwin van der Sar, knowing that Lampard likes to shoot to the goalkeeper's right, dove there, and for a change of pace, Lampard slotted it top shelf, ensuing van der Sar never had a chance. 2-1, and after 10+ agonizing minutes which featured more offensive chances for Chelsea than Manchester United, the home side were able to hang on and preserve the 2-1 victory. If you want to see the awesomeness for yourself, here are the goal highlights (watch ASAP because they will surely be down 15 seconds after I hit publish).
Manchester United fans will likely be upset at the referee of the match for not giving David Luiz a 2nd yellow after two questionable fouls after he earned his first yellow card. To them, I say tough luck. Manchester United have seen plenty of calls go their way, including Wayne Rooney avoiding a red card for elbowing Wigan's Jamie McCarthy last Saturday.
Enough talking about Manchester United, though. For me, this was the best win for a team I support since Roy Halladay's post-season no-hitter in October. Fantastic stuff from the Blues and a huge win that not only has them back in the race for the 2011-2012 UEFA Champions League, but has also blown the 2011 English Premier League title race wide open again with Arsenal only 4 points behind and holding a game in hand over league-leading Manchester United.
Well.....we have an under .500 away record this year. Unacceptable.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't watch the game as I was in class but yeah I'm pissed at the result and really pissed Chelsea games under Martin Atkinson are guaranteed victories. I saw the "penalty" incident later and t hat was a load of crap.
Oh well, at least Sideshow Bob is a bit of a fun player to watch.
We have to beat Liverpool this weekend or we might screw ourselves out of the title race.
To be honest, that penalty call could have gone either way. I have certainly seen lamer fouls in the box called, although it is admittedly unclear if Smalling could have gotten out of the way.
ReplyDeleteSideshow Bob is quickly becoming one of my favorite players. I love him.