What a weekend of football. The footballing Gods were smiling on London this weekend. Arguably both losing teams played the better football and the statistics seem to back that up. I think that what makes football so compelling is that none of this matters, it is justthe team that sticks the ball in the net the most times which wins. What other game can you only play well for one minute in 90 and still win? being fair, both Chelsea and the Hammers stuck to the task and hung on in there. The banner of the day was held up by Hammers fans rephrasing Ian Dury's old catchline "Sex and Drugs and Carlton Cole". West Ham gave England the world cup with Peters, Hurst and Moore. I am glad they are back in the premiership, although I am desperately sorry for Ian Holloway who has worked miracles on a shoestring. He is always value for money.
As to Chelsea, if any two players in the Premiership deserved a champions league medal, surely Drogba and Chech would? Drogba is a force of nature. I actually knew he'd score the goal, before the ball left the corner quadrant. As someone who has played football (albiet at the lowest possible level) as a Centre Half, Drogba is the type of player you least want to play against. He's strong, quick and goes down like a sack of spuds if you do so much as sniff him. He can hold a ball up, you cant' knock him off the ball, even when he has his back to the goal he's a threat. In some ways he reminds me of Mark Hughes in his heyday. As for Peter Chech. What a player. He saved three penalties in the game. He nearly saved the other three. Those two carried Chelsea through.
I sincerely hope that Abaramovich gives Roberto the job. How many managers can come in with a team in disarray and win everything they could still win? People talk about Mourhino, but he couldn't achieve in the years he had what Di Matteo has done in three months. It would be a truly bizarre move to get rid of him now.
But as anyone who knows football will realise. Sanity and football don't mix.
1 comment:
Having followed the fortunes (and failures) of West Ham for some 65 years I began to think they did not wish to be promoted.
They began the season by losing (a frequent occurrence) and then delayed their climb up the table with some poor home results. Then they sustained a place in the top two for most of the season. At the end they had that ridiculous 2-4 defeat at home by Reading that consigned them to third place and gave the championship to Reading. It is ironic that the reverse result of that game would also have reversed their league positions. All in all it would not have surprised me if Blackpool had won the Wembley encounter.
A fellow supporter tells me (a tad sarcastically) that it is all part of the plan - promotion PLUS the Wembley money!
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