1 man went to bed, went to bed with Ashley, 1 man and his mobile phone, went to bed with Ashley

I was fortunate enough to get tickets for the last home game in the Grove's debut season, and the atmosphere was tremendous yesterday. Unfortunately a certain cowardly left-back failed to appear - not on the pitch, on the bench, and not even in the stadium. It was disappointing because fans had probably been preparing all season for this moment, and all the songs that had been prepared had scant opportunity to be sung, but i've decided to theme this post accordingly.

2 men went to bed, went to bed with Ashley, 2 men, 1 man and his mobile phone, went to bed with Ashley

Arsenal once again showed all their failings of the season, and Chelsea showed their strengths. Arsenal went under the cosh from the kick-off, but recovered well to have a strong spell of posession, and then one the stroke of half-time when Julio Baptista broke free of the last man and was brought down in the penalty box, Gilberto duly tucked away the penalty. As a bonus, Boulahrouz was also sent off for being the last man. Arsenal had the initiatve now, and for the first 10 minutes of the second-half they had bags of chances.

3 men went to bed, went to bed with Ashley, 3 men, 2 men, 1 man and his mobile phone, went to bed with Ashley

And that was symbolic of the season really; Adebayor, Hleb, and notably (and unsurprisingly) Baptista all squandered chances, and Arsenal conceded an equaliser from a cross - sloppy marking as usual, Michael Essien heading in at the near post. Chelsea had shown great resilience in coming back into the game, and as the fullbacks pushed up for Arsenal, they somehow managed to dominate possession with their 10 men.

4 men went to bed, went to bed with Ashley, 4 men, 3 men, 2 men, 1 man and his mobile phone, went to bed with Ashley

Some good singing on the day - "F*ck Off Mourinho", "Shit Club, No History", "Liverpool", and "Ashley Cole, is a f*cking arseh*le" amongst others. I did enjoy the "Sacked in the summer, you're getting sacked in the summer" whenever Jose Mourinho began his histrionics.

5 men went to bed, went to bed with Ashley, 5 men, 4 men, 3 men, 2 men, 1 man and his mobile phone, went to bed with Ashley

Chelsea almost stole it later on in their period of dominance, when neat footwork from Joe Cole saw him place the ball high into the top left corner past Lehmann, when facing almost away from goal. But it was rightly disallowed for an offside in the buildup. Arsenal poured forward in the last 10 minutes, squandered several chances, and then with almost the last kick of the game Eboue was played in on the right, and he wound up and unleashed a high, hard shot that thumped off the crossbar. Chelsea played well, and deserved their draw, but a winner would have been nice, because Arsenal had been the brighter, more attacking force throughout.

6 men went to bed, went to bed with Ashley, 6 men, 5 men, 4 men, 3 men, 2 men, 1 man and his mobile phone, went to bed with Ashley

I can't for the life of me understand why Khalid Boulahrouz even bothered to foul, or try and win the ball off Julio Baptista. Anybody who watches football knows that when the Beast is clear through on goal, he either softly caresses the ball into the keeper's midriff or sends it somewhere near the corner flag. Silly man, deserved his red card for being stupid.

7 men went to bed, went to bed with Ashley, 7 men, 6 men, 5 men, 4 men, 3 men, 2 men, 1 man and his mobile phone, went to bed with Ashley

As I said, the game was symbolic of Arsenal's failings - inability to finish chances, to cope with pressure, and to concentrate and defend properly. The other side of the coin was displayed by Fulham's other team who with 10 men fought their way back into the game, and almost won it. Incredibly irritating, incredibly resilient.

8 men went to bed, went to bed with Ashley, 8 men, 7 men, 6 men, 5 men, 4 men, 3 men, 2 men, 1 man and his mobile phone, went to bed with Ashley

Even my dad, who was watching his first ever football match in person, said quite confidently that the Arsenal looked pointless up front, and needed a winger, preferrably a left winger. This is the same thing that fans have been saying all season, and if my dad who knows very little about football found it obvious enough to give such confident punditry, then it definitely is obvious. This of course means that in the summer we will sell two wingers and sign a central midfielder. What do I know anyways?

9 men went to bed, went to bed with Ashley, 9 men, 8 men, 7 men, 6 men, 5 men, 4 men, 3 men, 2 men, 1 man and his mobile phone, went to bed with Ashley

Watching the lap of honour after the game, there were some interesting things to be noted. For one, it was called a "lap of appreciation", which I guess is fair enough when you are not competing for any honours at all. Mathieu Flamini seemed alive and well, which was nice considering that many of us suspected that Arsene Wenger had drowned him in the hydrotherapy pool. I also noticed (albeit from a great distance) that Jeremie Aliadiere seemed to be wearing spectaces. Strikers with bad eyesight are about as valuable as goalkeepers with no hand (no disrespect meant to the fine participants of either the Blind or Disabled World Cups).

Anyways, the season's done. Tied for 3rd place on points, but in 4th on goal difference, I feel the team has moved up a level from last season. With the kids blossoming in the background, all that's needed is 1 or 2 good experienced players (left winger included), and things could be very, very interesting next year. Seriously. Last season Arsenal only got 4th spot on the last day of the season, and stuttered throughout. Of the 6 league games played with Man Utd, Chelsea and Liverpool, they lost 4, drew 1 and won 1. Pathetic. I was worried at the end of last season.

This year, of the 6 league games played with those 3, we've won 3, drawn 2 and lost 1 (to Liverpool). Both draws were against Chelsea, and both involved them coming from behind to equalise for 1-1 (and one of those was in injury time). Add to that 3-1 and 6-3 away wins over Liverpool in the FA and Carling Cups and 2 wins and 2 draws over Tottenham in 4 games, and Arsenal have dealt comfortably with the big teams. It's the small teams that have posed the problem - losses to West Ham (x2), Man City, Sheff Utd and Fulham have been unacceptable, and you add those up and it's 15 points more to the total. This is not unrealistic because in each of those matches, Arsenal dominated (sometimes 20 shots to 1), but just allowed the points to slip away. Add to those results the pairs of draws against struggling Newcastle (1-1 and 0-0) and Middlesborough (1-1 and 1-1) and that would be another 8 points. It all adds up - that's roughly 20 points, with those added to our total, we'd be contenders. All we need is to gain experience and be clinical.

10 men went to bed, went to bed with Ashley, 10 men, 9 men, 8 men, 7 men, 6 men, 5 men, 4 men, 3 men, 2 men, 1 man and his mobile phone, went to bed with Ashley

Manchester United and Chelsea both advanced to the semi-finals of the Champions League today. Whilst Arsenal haven't managed to score against either West Ham or Newcastle, United thumped 7 goals past Roma at Old Trafford to win the tie 8-3 on aggregate. Chelsea dominated slightly superior opposition away in Spain, coming back from a goal down to win 2-1 in stoppage time, and 3-2 on aggregate. Gutting stuff really.

Not only that, but assuming they overcome their semi-final opposition, there is the distinct prospect of a Manchester United vs Chelsea Champions League final, and FA Cup final. YUCK!

To add to that, if things stay as close as they are, then Wednesday May 9th might very well see the Premiership title decided in 1 game, when Manchester United play Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. It's almost like 3 cup finals in a row, and the only thing that could make it worse would be if Spurs reach the UEFA Cup final.

Meanwhile Arsenal, with 2 wins in their last 11 games in all competitions are still trying to figure out how to score a goal and not let the season completely fall to pieces. I don't think a single person is in Wenger's corner anymore, and certainly no one is going to put up with another "The boys have shown tremendeous spirit, and you can see that the quality is there, and they are learning and next season we will see the benefit of that and the team will be much stronger". It's a dangerous game to play, to keep building up the merits of the next season, because too long without success and the entire project will have failed, because the youngsters will want to leave.

Millions of fans around the world aren't paying hard-earned money to see a team be slowly educated, they are doing so to see a challenge take place. The education of youngsters is supposed to be something that's happening in the background. Maybe it's just the frustration of today, and maybe i'm ignoring the big picture, but Arsene has left himself with far too much to do, and unless there is serious rebuilding in the summer, a lot of people will have no faith at all come next season. All deficiences have been clearly exposed this season - the inexperience, the lack of goalscorers, and the lack of effective players - and Arsene Wenger, with his fondness for youngsters, perception that goalscorers aren't important, and penchant for buying technicians, dribblers and passers, is to blame for all of them.

But deep down I think we all still suspect, despite his best efforts to confuse us, that Arsene still knows. Make it happen next season Boss. Please.

So explain this to me - while fans all over the world are gettin hunted down and banned, and clubs being fined for their misbehaviour, why were Chelsea fans allowed to throw things on the pitch all game and get away with it?

Okay, yes, we know they are a bunch of classless, ignorant pigs, mostly Johnny-come-latelys and plastic fans, and even the traditional sort that were basically trashy drunks, were only slightly better than Spurs supporters to begin with. But even then, on an occassion like this - a cup final against a major rival, with millions of people watching (yes, millions of people watched, that was the effect of Arsenal's FOOTBALLERS reaching this final), you would have expected them to behave.

Instead, things were thrown onto pitch all game long - food, paper, plastic, all kinds of nonsense. Cesc Fabregas was hit by a piece of celery when taking a corner kick, several others players had to dodge and throw-away stuff. Manuel Almunia, the most non-controversial nice-guy figure that you could ever find was even struck by something from the crowd, and required treatment from the physio. (This was right when Arsenal had conceded the corner from which John Terry got kicked in the head, and it was because the Arsenal physio was close by treating Almunia that Terry's life was not jeoparised). It's funny that Chelsea get away scot-free again. In 2002 at Highbury, when a pound coin got thrown at Jamie Carragher, the fan responsible was hunted down and banned for life. Can you imagine any such thing being done by Chelsea? No chance. Why? Same reasons again, primarily a sheer lack of class, and additionally a lack of control, and a lack of standards being set by a club that despite breaking all the rules, persists with a siege mentality like no other. You have shameful people like Abramovich and Kenyon who have broken every rule in the book, and then bragged about it, and you have the ultra- (but very talented) Mourinho, and they've created this bizarre pseudo-posh yob culture at the club. It's honestly quite painful.

"Where were you when you were shit?"


Cesc holding up celery that the Chelsea fans threw

I watched Ashley Cole make his Champions League debut against Sparta Prague as a second half substitute for Silvinho, and he gave a zippy energetic performance. 3 days later, he scored his first goal for the Arsenal, starting the game against Man City because Silvinho was still injured, from a well worked set piece in a 5-0 win. Sometime later, he started against Bayern Munich in an important game, and was absolutely fearless and effervescent. That was the birth of Ashley Cole at the Arsenal, the Londoner who wore his heart on his sleeve, who was a Gooner through and through, and who claimed that he used to cry as a little boy when listening to the radio to matches that Arsenal lost. He was a rarity for Arsenal as well as England, a talented English youngster, who had come through the youth ranks and provided a left-footed, left-sided option to both club and country when they needed it most. The fans made him a hero - we loved loads of the players, but he was special because he was an Arsenal boy. He was being touted as a future Arsenal captain, and the heart and soul of the club. What a load of shit.

Ashley Cole is nothing but a fucking pretentious, dirty, money-grubbing, two-faced disgusting chav. He betrayed the club for money, lied all the time, jeopardised some of our most important games and moments, and showed disrespect to everyone including his teammates, all so he could make a bit of cash.

And he sunk to new lows on Sunday at the Carling Cup final. Although Ashley didn't play, he was warming up during the second half, and in the course of doing his warmups came close to the Arsenal fans section several times. It wasn't just enough to see his pathetic face during a final where Arsenal were having such hard luck, but Cashley Cole had the audacity to repeatedly make a point of kissing his Chelsea badge and grinning at the Arsenal fans everytime he was running past them. It's shameless and it's classless, and it's exactly what you'd expect from a pathetic, misguided cunt like that. We're all a bit bitter, we're all a bit sad, but hey... We've got William Gallas! Fuck off Ashley, you're lucky the Arsenal fans aren't as badly behaved as that bunch of monkeys at Chelsea, or you'd have had a bottle or two smashed over your head by now.

Back when he didn't have Roman Abramovich's mobile phone stuck up his arse:

First off, Chelsea are a bunch of fucking horrible cunts. Now that we've established that, we can move on (briefly) to the football, where Arsenal went ahead 1-0 with a great Theo Walcott finish. Chelsea equalised not too long after with a goal from Drogba, where he was clearly offside, but we're Arsenal, and they're Chelsea, so obviously nothing more can be expected of the officiating. Robin Van Persie scored a perfectly good goal last season against Chelsea, which was ruled out for offside, and Drogba was a good 2 yards further on this effort, so it was pretty poor officiating. The young, inexperienced Traore didn't help by being sucked upfield, and Drogba had time to take 5 or 6 steps to settle himself before slotting through Almunia's legs - no challenge on him at all. Then late in the game Arsenal gave the ball away cheaply in their own half, Robben crossed, and Drogba easily beat Senderos to the ball to make it 2-1. Another Drogba goal that is down to very poor defending from Senderos, and I don't know why Djourou wasn't playing. Almunia was OK without being great, but Cech was monstrious for them and it could have been 2-0 long before they scored if it wasn't for him.

So on paper, Chelsea win 2-1. Anyone who watched the game would have seen the real story - Arsenal's young players playing brilliant football, controlling the game, and running circles around a bunch of unambitious overpaid shitheads. Chelsea celebrated afterwards as if they had just won the Champions League (regardez the "Winners 07" shirt that they put on), and Drogba's over-exaggerated celebrations are always hard to take given the cheapness of some of his goals. I'm angry about this not just because of the late brawl, but also because the Arsenal kids didn't get the result they deserved. It was gutting. Overall there are definitely more positives to take out of this game than negatives, but footballwise only.

And now to the incident. Kolo and Mikel were challenging for the ball, and Lampard was around. Toure and Mikel were getting heated, and then Lampard wades in and says something and suddenly Toure went mental like you could never imagine and that sparked a huge brawl. Lampard was definitely involved in the middle of it, not sure exactly what John Obi Mikel did, and there were several players in the thick of things. Watch the highlights carefully, Kolo and Mikel are angry, but then Lampard steps in, and Kolo absolutely loses it like he's never lost it before, and that sparks a huge brawl. Cesc, who always gets involved, got involved, stepping in to let Lampard know that he can't just say and do whatever he wants, and then Lampard and him went at it, and Drogba came and had a go at Cesc as well, and once they were all separated, Lampard went after the little Spaniard again. I love that Cesc plays with so much heart, but i'm worried it will burn him out.



Kolo and Mikel did nothing but shove like crazy, maybe they deserved their reds, but Lampard got away with just the yellow. As always, it's Arsenal who are portrayed as the dirty ones, but Lampard is as fucking horrible as anyone else you'll find. But what else is he? He's English, he's one of England's only half-decent midfielders, and he's a fat overrated overpaid cunt playing for a team run by an arrogant monkey and owned and funded by a criminal. As you can see neutrality is not my concern at the moment. Cesc stepped in, alternating between aggressor and peacemaker, but Lampard was the one who waded in to start with, and shove, and say something, and then just kept going at it. Cesc was booked, and he was frustrated but he understood. Lampard you could almost see smirking as he received his token yellow - he knows he's untouchable.

Most ridiculous though, was the sending off of Emmanuel Adebayor, who stepped in 3 times as a peacemaker when everything was going crazy. He did absolutely nothing, and he was quite rightly absolutely livid when the assistant ref told the linesman to send him off. He was furious, he had to be restrained, and it took the physio Gary Lewin, Henry and everyone else to get him off the pitch. This was the problem with the replays not being shown, but to everyone watching it just looked like a bunch of angry thugs being sent off. Adebayor did NOTHING at all, and that was why he was angry. I'm told that Emmanuel Eboue might have clashed with Wayne Bridge and that Adebayor was sent off for this. What kind of stone age are we in where the linesman can't tell a 6'3" ponytailed black man from a 5'10" shaven headed one? This was nonsense. African football fans will be very, very unhappy.

It's very dissatisfying as you could imagine. Lots of positives for the youngsters to take, because they outplayed Chelsea, but the red cards are a horrible after-effect - Toure and Adebayor suspended for 3 matches. Cesc's yellow will mean that he needs to be careful, because he's gotten a few this season. Diaby and Denilson were oustanding, and the team was in general. Up front Aliadiere worked hard, and Baptista tried (but was sluggish and off the pace). Once again, Senderos was at fault for Drogba scoring a winner, and despite all the qualities of the Swiss defender, his mistakes seem to outweight them.

John Terry was injured in the game as well, heading a 50-50 ball and getting a kick in the head from Diaby for his troubles. It looked like a very serious injury, and I was concerned for him at the time, but right now i'm just disappointed that the big fucking r***ist hasn't ended up in a coma. Diaby had a wonderful game, but he looked quite distressed by what he'd done to Terry, and I think that's probably more the reason why he was substituted.



Unbelievable bitterness stemming from undeserved loss is what the doctor would probably diagnose right now, but Chelsea really do make it difficult with the way they behave, and the media compound it by always pointing the finger at Arsenal and their "foreigners", and always backing up Chelsea's nonsense, especially as far as Lampard and Terry are involved. I'm sure Zokora and King and Chimbonda over at Spurs were quite happy to see TheWorld'sBestDefenderAndBestPlayerInEnglandCosHe'sEnglishJohnTerry flat out on the turf.



Anyhow. Enough. That's two losses on the bounce now for the Arsenal, and it's tough for the team. The lack of an offside call for Drogba's goal was pretty gutting as well, especially when the big fucker acts like he's just scored the best goal ever. Last year Robin Van Persie had a brilliant left-footed effort disallowed for offside when he was at least 2-3 yards more onside than Drobga. But it's Chelsea, or it's Arsenal, or maybe it's both. Explain why Michael Essien wasn't given a second yellow, while poor Denilson good booked for a harmless foul. Early on, a cross was put in from Walcott, and Baptista dragged it back instead of taking a shot, but was tackled, and the defender was nowhere near the ball. Where was the Penalty? Where was the penalty when Aliadiere was brought down clearly at Blackburn? Where was the penalty when Hleb was chopped down at West Ham? Where was the penalty when Flamini was brought down at Highbury a couple of years ago against Chelsea?

Arggghh. Big, tough week of football up ahead. Congratulations to Chelsea, good luck to the Arsenal, and fuck off to Fat Franky Lampard. Look out for some heavily biased, heavily edited highlights to start circulating all over the place soon. I'm sure you can guess by now what the purpose of those will be. Rupert Murdoch can't die soon enough, the disgusting prick.

Apologies for all the expletives.

Well, lots has happened in football over the last week or so; some interesting upsets in the Carling Cup, the Pardew-Wenger incident, and a bit of this and that, but one incident that seems to have disappeared somewhat, is the sending off of John Terry in Chelsea's loss to Tottenham last weekend.



Now the foul itself is innocuous enough, but when Terry is getting up, he clearly says something to Ledley King. This infuriates two of the other Spurs' players - mainly Chimbonda and Zokora, with Aaron Lennon and King joining the fracas slightly later. So clearly what he has said really infuriated a group of Tottenham players (all of whom were black), to the extent that they are absolutely livid and chasing him up the field.

Terry, on his part, tries to avoid the confrontation entirely. Players are shoving him left and right, but he just walks away, and offers no argument or response or hesitation when Poll shows him a second yellow and then a red. In fact he seems more than happy to leave the commotion on the field behind.

So what did he say? What did he say that seemed to drive two Spurs' players absolutely ballistic, and cause such an incident? What could he have said to one player, that so offended so many others? We often see players involved in scuffles, but those are generally over things like bad tackles and fouls, very rarely do we see an exchange of words between two players affect others as well. OK, him and Ledley King go back a long way, and they "exchanged words", but what could these words between two "old friends" have been that they so enraged others on the team?

Well, no one knows. There are only rumours. If you have anymore information, please let us know in the comments. Some of the allegations are quite interesting, but getting into Chelsea's bad books is probably not the safest thing to do at the moment.

Terry himself now claims to be shocked by referee Graham Poll's decision, but why did he not say or do anything when walking off. We have seen him involved in enough confrontations and incidents in the past to know that if he was wronged, people would know. None of his teammates argued with the referee, or got involved with the brawl (Wright-Phillips pulled him aside, and Essien and Drogba went to hold Chimbonda and Zokora off and talk to them). Terry, Cole and Chelsea have done their best to discredit Poll in that article, but Poll at the same time has not helped by keeping quiet about it. There is too much confusion over the issue, and Poll has either been given orders to shutup, or feels like that is his best option.

No word has come from the Tottenham people either. Who knows what is going on? They have a strange relationship with Chelsea, but they are well aware of the power at Stamford Bridge, having accepted a quite large payoff from the West London moneymen over the poaching of their former Director of Football Frank Arnesen. The Terry incident is either a whole lot of something or nothing, but by the enraged looks of the Spurs players and the subsequent media hush after, it seems more like the latter than the former (allegedly, the forums at Football365.com have been banned from discussing the incident, can anyone confirm this?)

Chelsea don't need anymore dirt to deal with. Apart from their generally awful behaviour and lack of respect and decorum, there are some more incidents. Barcelona's African striker Samuel Eto'o claimed to have been racially abused when Barca lost at Stamford Bridge in 2004/2005. They have the Ashley Cole tapping up incident sitting on their heads, the John Obi Mikel "signing" scandal with Manchester United, as well as the poaching of Arnesen from Spurs and two youngsters from Leeds (all three clubs accepted massive payments to settle the issues). The last thing they want is a scandal involving their captain and only "home grown" player (the reason i'm sure why many Arsenal fans gave Ashley Cole the benefit of the doubt so often). Terry might seem like the angelic responsible role-model these days, but don't forget his nightclub scuffles, or him urinating into a pint glass at a pub, or just over 5 years ago when he and Frank Lampard (along with Eidur Gudjohnsen and Jody Morris) drunkenly misbehaved in front of grieving Americans at Heathrow Airport after the disasters of September 11th. Granted, he has grown and matured and become a fine player, but his character should still be open to question.

What has also been disappointing, if unsurprising, is the hush from the English media. Known for sticking their noses into everyone and everything, they have been noticeably quiet about this incident. Why? Well perhaps because John Terry is the England captain, and we all know how the English love their heroes. For years Alan Shearer's flying elbows were quietly ignored. Andy Johnson and Robert Pires and Cristiano Ronaldo are all divers, but when Michael Owen and Steven Gerrard collapse like wilting lilies in a slight breeze, well... they are just trying hard for the team. Double standards are the norm.

What is equally distressing is the Wenger-Pardew incident that has been getting all the coverage. To their credit, the media have been playing it up and have blown it nicely out of proportion. It seems to have taken centre-stage with the neutrals, taking the attention away from the Terry incident. Chelsea fans probably don't want to know or hear more about it, and Tottenham fans don't really care because they won, and everyone else is supposed to be wrapped up in Pardew vs Wenger. A childish manager over-celebrating a game-winning goal right in front of a much senior peer, who has just seen his side be denied a clear penalty and now lose the game. Pardew was silly and provocative, Wenger was silly and provoked. That's it. It was a minor scuffle, involving a few shoves and some words exchanged. Yet they've both been charged with improper conduct, while the Terry vs Spurs incident has not been investigated at all. For all we know, Terry will probably have the red card revoked, and will be given a kilo of gold and a new car instead.

Well, we've had a great response to the launch of our website. Thanks to all our visitors for taking the time to come and check the site out, and we encourage more of you to enter the contest - it's a great opportunity.

I've also been disappointed by the lack of comments! Loads of hits, but no one with anything to say? What happened to football fans being the lippiest bunch around??

So anyways, today was the "much anticipated" Barcelona v Chelsea rematch - the 3,327th time they've played in the last two seasons, and it ended in a 2-2 draw. Deco put them up 1-0, and then Frank Lampard equalised to make it 1-1 with a goal that for once was both good AND did not involve 6 massive deflections off the knees or arses of the other team. Eidur Gudjohnsen then fired home to put Barca en route to victory, but some poor concentration and defending from Barca (coupled with great stamina and doggedness from Chelsea) saw Drogba score in injury time to salvage a draw. It was an exciting game, with some very good goals.

For the first one Deco carried the ball for about 20 or 30 yards down the left flank before cutting sharply inside and shooting from just outside the box into the far corner. It really was a cracking strike - a low, rising show, hit with great power straight through the legs of the lunging Carvalho. Hilario couldn't get near it.

Lampard's equaliser was an equally sensational goal. Essien chested the ball down about 40 yards out, and clipped a speculative lobbed pass over the defense which Lampard ran onto. He missed his first touch, and so had to shepherd the ball away towards the byline, giving the defender time to recover. However as he moved away from the goal along the byline, back turned to the keeper, he looked up to seek out options, and then swivelled to stroke a dipping lob over Valdes from an impossibly acute angle.

It was a great goal, but Valdes should have been positioned better. He first came off his line when anticipating a shot from Lampard from Essien's pass, but then instead of going back into position, he continued to hover around the near post even when Lampard was moving away from goal and had a defender covering.

There was also more than a hint of flukiness about the goal, because Lampard never once looked to see where the keeper was. Right before he struck it, he took a look up to see who was arriving in the box - Ballack was starting a run towards the far post, and Drogba was lurking close by at the near post, so it might well have been intended as a cross. But since we'll never know, we'll give him the benefit of the doubt, because it was a nice goal as it turned out.

Gudjohnsen's goal was all about Ronaldinho. The perma-smile Brazilian was hugging the left touchline, and brought down a long pass from defence with one touch, and then flicked it past the right-back Boulahrouz in almost the same motion. He then slid a perfect pass across the face of goal with the outside of his right foot, and Gudjohnsen nipped ahead of the Chelsea defenders to convincingly fire home. A good moment for him up against his former club, and it will give him confidence at a time when the critics have been in full flow.

As for Chelsea's equaliser... well I think most people could see it coming. They lost the ball far upfield, with too many players committed too far forward. Either they lacked concentration, or stamina, but their attempts to win back the ball were exasperated. When they lost the ball, and Chelsea charged forward down the right with Essien, they put in a few half hearted challenges, and a few desperate sliding tackles and lunges when they would have been better served trying to get back into position and slow down the play. Essien powered forward and lumped it into the box, it was nodded down by Terry at the far post, and then Drogba chested it forward and stroked it home. Marquez was very culpable, first ball watching when Essien delivered the cross - meaning that Zambrotta had to try and mark Drogba, leaving Lampard free behind him, and then when Zambrotta moved back towards Terry, Marquez vaguely waved a back heel at the ball when Drogba chested it past him.

I think it was a fair result, but Chelsea's celebrations at the end were once again far too over the top. They are not winning any friends with the way they continually behave, and this was just the latest installment. Mourinho sets the tone for this team, and there is a visible lack of class in the way they conduct themselves. It is tiring to see them always behave like angry underdogs, when in fact they are bankrolled by one of the most powerful men in the world - flagrantly breaking the laws and conventions of football, throwing money at anything and everything, and generally destroying the whole idea of "competition". Apart from the various tapping up scandals, and the fact that they blatantly sabotage the transfers of other big Premiership teams, their disgustingly opulent spending has not resulted in anything close to the standard of football that you'd expect from a team with such overwhelmingly large resources. All Abramovich is doing is buying results, albeit indirectly. I hope for the sake of the Premiership that someone else can win the title this year, because if Chelsea win, and Abramovich spunks another 100 million pounds in the summer, hope will well and truly be hanging by a thread.