Mystic Brakes in Turin
Thursday, 12 March 09, 07:48 AM · Comments (70)
A psychic journey through Juventus versus Chelsea, 9th March 2009 or a more than somewhat bollock-eyed view of Tuesday night’s game, if you prefer.
If I ask you to give me the lines from two Michael Caine films, the chances are they may well be the following ones [rendered of course with a suitably cockney argot]:
“You're a big man, but you're in bad shape. With me it's a full time job. Now behave yourself.”
And:
“You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!”
They come of course from “Get Carter” and “The Italian Job”.
Both films feature cities where the local team plays in black and white striped shirts, namely Newcastle and Turin (apologies to Torino fans).
Curious don’t you think? And there’s more. While most of the chase sequences in the “The Italian Job” were filmed in Turin, one sequence, where they are driving through Turin’s sewerage system was actually filmed in sewers in a suburb of Coventry. When they are training the drivers and practicing blowing off those doors, they are in and around Crystal Palace (thanks to Wikipedia for the info – hope it’s correct).
Not just the team colours then, but Coventry was our previous game, Crystal Palace appeared out of nowhere on the blog late on Tuesday afternoon. Just coincidence you would say.
Well not when you consider that Tuesday’s game was played in Turin.
And it was a full moon.
Turin: historical seat of the House of Savoy, capital of Piedmont, central to the Risorgimento and the Unification of Italy. Yes, the home of Italy’s first capital and parliament is a far from ordinary place.
Strong and disturbing forces churn about this singular city. It is where the primordial meets the modern, Baroque style contrasts with featureless suburb, weighty intellect co-exists with heavy industry. Most of all, it is one of those rare places where there is an unending confluence of good and evil. The sacred and the satanic.
Located on the 45th parallel, it is at the conjunction of two mystical triangles. One of black magick (formed with London [that doesn’t include Croydon] and San Francisco) and one of white (formed with Lyon and Prague).
There it sits on the banks of the Po in the shadow of the Alps, brooding; not only the gateway to Italy, but the fabled site of a gateway to hell, (said to be below the Piazza Statuto). The underworld and Judeo-Christian tradition collide. Legend has it that the Holy Grail is buried below the City and of course the holy Shroud resides in the Duomo of St. John the Baptist.
Around the city, statuary and carvings depicting good and evil confront each other across squares, streets and courtyards. Darkly negative energies swirl in conflict with the positive, vibrant forces of good. Locals are familiar with the sources of the righteous and the malign, the locations where they have leached deep into the sediment.
Turin has been long associated with Satanists, occultists, necromancers. Seers and practitioners of the mystic arts have flocked there, Nostradamus among them.
The more rational would say that the demonization of Turin is the work of the Catholic Church and arises from its role in the Unification of Italy, which stripped the Papacy of its temporal power.
But prayer books and holy water are stolen from churches. Whispers persist of rituals, pagan inversions of sacred rites fuelling a demonic engine, belching a sulphurous miasma.
Not for nothing do Juventus take to the field in the Biancinero. The white and the black, the dark and the light...
There it is, the eternal battle, a world forever in balance. Pause for a moment and consider the end of “The Italian Job”. It is nothing if not a metaphor for the ongoing ethereal struggle that grips Turin. Everything is finely balanced; the hope of somehow breaking free, the despair of plunging to destruction at any moment.
“Hang on, lads; I've got a great idea.”
Into this lurking dark pool of the magical, the supernatural, stepped our boys, thinking only to play a game of football. But the game was to be played where the teeth of two giant oppositional cogs, gearing for the demonic and heavenly, grind together in an eternal driving motion.
Evening slips away, night and darkness walk abroad. In the heavens above Turin the lunar pull is at her greatest strength. The harmonics of the planets is suddenly dissonant. Something is fractured and disorder leaks in from another continuum.
As we look on, nervous, bemused; crushed one moment, uplifted the next, it seems as in a warped celestial symphony that leitmotifs echo again and again, half remembered phrases return but reworked, transformed. The gossamer thin veils that contain our linear existence are being torn, spectral visions of unlived pasts bleeding through into the Stadio Olimpico.
There is ebb and flow, time speeds up and slows down. Patterns hold for a moment and then shatter.
Can that really be Ranieri, dapper, calm, plotting Chelsea’s downfall or a chimera of a favourite uncle, conjured from some bestial alchemy to taunt us?
Drogba’s free-kick. A goal! No, a moment of beauty cruelly revealed as a vile succubus screeching in from an Anfield night we’d rather forget.
Ranieri watches as his team go down to 10 men then 2-1 up. We shiver in recognition of a refracted painful image that must be Monaco.
Tuesday 8th March 2005 we are 3-0 up against Barca, Ferreira handles a cross from? Yes Belletti. Penalty. Suddenly the game is far from over. My head spins. Opposing timescapes are colliding and throwing off nearly indecipherable shards of half-memory.
And still the pale, sickening light of the full moon throws her baleful influence down upon the field.
As if to restore that vital balance, to reassert the positive life forces that still course through the thin, ancient, parchment-dry veins of this city, Ballack, who conceded the free-kick from which the penalty came, combines with Belletti and Drogba to give us the salvation we now most desperately crave.
In the aftermath, Carvalho and Tiago cling together as though trusting nothing else but their own solid flesh, Ballack and Salihamidzic stand as though amazed to see each other, time warped back to the Bundesliga. Friendships renewed, contacts revived, neural paths reawakened.
Relief. With the whistle a viral spell has been broken. They have all survived, even if they and we are unsure of what we witnessed, unable to apprehend the real nature of what has just occurred.
Drogba is interviewed and seems confused. Unable to pick his way through and explain what it is we were trying to achieve.
Hiddink, Dutch clear-eyed and possessed of Protestant certainties surely sent them out with a plan. It’s “The Italian Job” after all.
[Remember your best Michael Caine] “It's a very difficult job and the only way to get through it is we all work together as a team. And that means you do everything I say.”
But had he prepared them enough for the occult maelstrom that would break on them in Turin or did he just get lucky?
Did Drogba sense way back that Scolari, with his Marian devotion, steeped in the old Catholicism would be swept away by the dark currents, the mystic undertow? Defeat would have been certain.
As a man of heightened sensibility, a shaman with a nose for the scent of the unreal, hearing the incense born whispers of a long departed magus, he made his stand and waited for someone better prepared for the struggle.
On the pitch certainty was lost, it was a ghost world, time was cracked, a mock past was flooding through the cracks. Misrule was riding out.
Perhaps moon sick, he struggles to re-arrange his thoughts and express his feeling of the disorientation that enveloped them all. And then just as quickly evaporated.
Me, I put down my glass and staggering under the psychic weight of the drama reel out of the pub and onto the Lower Clapton Road. I pull up my collar and walk head down to avoid the glaring unlight of the full, full moon, dreading the lunar nausea that grips if you stay washed too long in her rays.
I am confident Habs will sort out the basics, report the football, but I may need to consult the Fortean Times for a true match report, an account of what has really occurred. Somewhere in the underworld a wretched scribe is rewriting the truth, doctoring the statistics, reconfiguring the chalkboard (and I don’t mean Moffat). We must hold hard to what we have seen. Know it for the truth.
It was 2-2. The vital balance was maintained.
I hear the diurnal groan of the turning earth, the gentle singing strings of a celestial harp.
The black and the white, the light and the dark.
Perhaps I should just lay off the Guinness.
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70 Comments · Add yours
Amusing! You'd fit in nicely at 5 live. or you could write one of those disposable occult fiction.
"Carvalho and Tiago cling together as though trusting nothing else but their own solid flesh" - Reading homo-eroticism where there's none, are we?
Bravo!
Brilliant, BB. Excuse me while I read it again.
Did Drogba sense way back that Scolari, with his Marian devotion, steeped in the old Catholicism would be swept away by the dark currents, the mystic undertow? Defeat would have been certain.
Nice one, really nice one BB. Enjoyed to read!
LINK
Jose at his best, takes pressure from the players. Now everybody is going to talk about him punching manc instead of talking about his team loss to Man USA.
Phenomenally splendid, BB. Supernatural with the emphasis on the super.
@ Blue Mikel
Wrong, as usual. Given that everyone involved in the game had given their views and every news outlet on earth had covered Inter's defeat and published their reports / comment pieces long before the news that Jose had allegedly clouted some mouthy Manc was made public, I'd say you were well wide of the mark.
Reply to KaiserJonny_II:
From now on there will be no other reports except of this one :-)
Reply to KaiserJonny_II:
and one more thing, if I am wrong and he has done it just because he is a bitter looser it makes things even worse for The Special One.
Reply to Blue_MikeL:
Congratulations on knowing the inner workings of his mind too; and there was you suggesting that it was everyone else that was Mourinho-obsessed...
Splendid effusion. Reminds me of 70s SF/Fantasy -- Zelazny, M. John Harrison, G Zola (no wait, I'm getting that last one mixed up somehow). The Bacchanalian echo of Habs's Apollonian match report. The chalk to his cheese. The yin to his yang.
I think I need a cuppa.
Reply to KaiserJonny_II:
There is no obsession here mate the headlines are everywhere, one must be blind not to spot it. Let's see how many more advocates going to appear. LOL!!!!!!!!!
Reply to Blue_MikeL:
Give 'em enough rope...
haha that was brilliant
Blue_Mikel
Better watch it before you get ‘censored’ on this blog!
Joy’s comments (nos 83 & 84) in the last post were very telling…just that she forgot to mention Jose’s TRIPS to England to see manure play ‘live’ (part of his strategies for the tie I believe)…one would have thought that being the master tactician that we are all made to believe by the ‘wise-men’ of this blog, inter should have at least scored 1 goal over 180 minutes
The Jose worshippers here have gone philosophical (some are even silent)…suddenly, inter players are not good enough!...Rubbish!
For somebody who was recruited primarily to win the champion’s league for inter, he has fared woefully both at the group phase (where he came a dismal second best to panathanaikos) and the knock-out stage…The acolytes and high priests should remember this when next they come sermonizing…
Always Blue!
Utter cuntery.
KJ_II
Have you tried ignoring those who partake in that cuntery?
Reply to KaiserJonny_II:
Sums it up so succinctly JD
Brilliant!
Reply to mike12:
On occasion, yes. Today, no.
Reply to ALEXIS:
The Jose worshippers here have gone philosophical (some are even silent)…suddenly, inter players are not good enough!...Rubbish!
I am glad that Jose Mania did not consume everybody and still there are people who see things properly!!!
KTBFFH
Evening all. Thanks for the comments. Glad you enjoyed the piece. Looking back its probably an unwitting homage to Iain Sinclair and the psychogeographers as much as anything.
@Joy
"You'd fit in nicely at 5 live." That's cruel.
And just because young chaps take off their shirts and embrace, we ought not read too much into it :-)
Looking at the transfer rumours, Barca obviously aren't expecting to get in too many penalty shoot-outs if they want our Petr.
And if Zhirkov's on his way, who is making the decision? If we don't know our manager for next season who is planning the shape of the team?
Now I don't believe every rumour as our name will be linked with god knows how many players, but if Bruce Buck's 5 in 5 out is for real, who is the mastermind?
I think we should be told
Reply to ALEXIS:
Not sure what to make of this.
First, I hope I'm not one of the 'wise men' on the blog- I know enough to know I don't know enough.
I do believe that the Inter players were not good enough. Not good enough to what? Beat Man U in a game that really matters.
We'll see how many teams can do that this season. So far Man U have had a shock loss to Derby with the 2nd string out, an away loss to Pool early season, a loss to Arsenal away early season, and then the juggernaut began picking up speed. That's one odd loss, and 2 losses away to top 8 European sides.
Yet amazingly, Alex Ferguson has lost Champions League games! In recent history, he lost the final 2 years ago, and, oh my, he didn't make it out of the group stage 3 years ago! Losses to Lille, and Sporting? Sir Alex must be losing it! That Ronaldo will amount to nothing! And then last year...
Meanwhile, Mourinho has been coaching only 9 years. In that time, he has won the league 4 times, the Uefa Cup, the Champions League, the FA cup, the Carling cup, the Italian cup, and he's running away with the Italian league.
In the same amount of time the brilliant Arsene Wenger has won the league twice, and the FA cup 3 times.
Alex Ferguson has won the league 4 times, the FA cup 1 time, Carling 2 times, and the CL once.
There were years that each of them didn't win things. Shocking.
You will notice that I asked if Mourinho has lost it. Perhaps he has. It is very tough to know with only a home and away tie against one of the favorites for the CL this year. Maybe the Italian league is easy. Maybe the top 4 English sides are that much better than everyone else right now.
I didn't see the same spark in his team, but it isn't the same team. I don't know if bringing Mourinho back is the right choice. These are things you cannot know from the outside. Do I respect him as a manager? Absolutely.
Do I want to see him managing any of the other Prem sides?
Absolutely not.
Reply to BlueBayou:
Oh, and BB, great stuff as usual. I'm always quite impressed with this blog.
For what it's worth, I think its time to move on (mentally) from Jose. Yes he was the best manager we'd ever had and I was as gutted as the next fan when he left, but he left 18 months ago now.
Trying to judge everything by the high standards of his first two seasons is going to be difficult and is always going to lead to disapointment and frustration.
Some of my favourite memories are from the times when John Neal, Bobby Campbell, Ruud Gullit and Vialli were in charge (blimey I've even got a soft spot for the job David Webb did for the few months before Hoddle took over). Based on what Jose acheived, should I now re-evaluate these times and look at them in a more negative manner??
He was without doubt our best manager, I don't think he'll be back. Even if he did want to come back I don't necessarily think it would be a good idea.
At the end of the day, no club is ever going to win everything every year.
Time to appreciate what he did and move on.
Jose's a decent coach, but he also had a wealth of talent to win the FA cup, and the Carling cup; that he's running away with the Italian league is nothing to write home about as his predecessor won the league 3 years in succession. As for the Champion's league, if Avram had won it last year, which he came as close to doing as one possibly can without winning it, would it have made him a great coach. In fact he could have won the PL, CL, and CC.
Reply to Joy:
The last line says it all Joy, so the fact is he didn't, fine lines between success and failures and all that.
Besides; as much as the media state, and the fans want us to win the CL to be honest I would still prefer the PL anyday. I can't really understand how people can measure a great coach by winning a handful of games in a cup competition, it will always be over a course of a season for me.
Fergie has only ever won the CL twice in how many attempts? does that make him a poor coach?
Awesome bit of scribing BB.
Took me a few reads to make sense of it, the first time yesterday was at the end of a 'mare at work and I was just reading words so to speak.
Have had another look this morning and it's fine fayre. Cap doffed in your direction.
Also, the point you make about transfer rumours is an interesting one. I read this morning that Hiddink met with Scott Sinclair at the recent reserve match with Villa. Maybe Scott's on his way back soon, but I'm surprised that someone who is only here till the end of the season would do that. And now reports this morning that the players are making noises for him to stay.
Clearly, there's still a tinge of honeymoon to his Chelsea tenure, it's only been 6 games but things really do look different. Take Wednesday - under TSSO we wouldn't have played like we did in the second half, it would have simply been more of the same.
I think he's made it hard for the club now. If he goes in the summer as he keeps saying, he's set a pretty decent bench-mark in a short space of time. He's got the same players that TSSO had and the difference in performances is the proverbial chalk and cheese. It's not going to be an easy job for someone to take in the summer and live up to what Guus has done. Hopefully talk about the Russian FA struggling for roubles is true; Roman will bung a few roubles to, umm, himself who pays Hiddinks wages, and we'll get him appointed as our new manager. Failing that, Riijkaard please.
And then it's onto the 5 in, 5 out. I'd love to believe Bucks statement about if such-and-such superstar is available, we'll try. Valencia clearly need the cash, and we clearly need Villa. And maybe David Silva as well.
The problem lies in the fact the 5 we sell wont generate enough money to buy decent replacements. Unless they are JT, Lamps & Cech. And we really need to be looking at Malouda, Alex, Deco etc.
Reply to Clive:
That he didn't bespeaks as much about the difficulty of taking over midstream, in a crisis, while one's players are throwing toys out of the pram; all the while dealing with hostile fans, and press, as it does the fine lines between success and failures.
I want the champion's league, i want us to beat the big boys. It may not be possible to measure a coach by their performance in the knock out competitions but consistency in the said competitions bespeaks the greatness of a team. I am very proud of our record. I do suspect that UEFA is out to thwart our ambitions. We always seem to get Liverpool, Barca, or whichever bigboy is the flavour of the season, in knockout rounds.
Ok, so i am probably paranoid but it makes sense to me
Interesting that Guus has been talking to Sinclair; if it isn't that Mr. H is starting to ponder hanging around, then presumably he might be thinking of recalling SS from his loan spell at Brum (not eligible for CL though I guess). Never quite sure what to make of him; seems to do well on loan at Championship clubs and then doesn't quite make the step up - all about potential, I suppose, but the fact that he's shipped out while Stoch is retained and looks closer to breaking through maybe tells its own story.
Like Fiftee I only spotted this new entry late yesterday and saved reading it till this morning - truly splendid, cosmic stuff, BB!
Your comments on Scolari's Catholicism being swept away by the mystic undertow reminded me that in those heady days of last summer we were informed he often used some female psychologist to provide him with personality profiles of his players - was this possibly the fatal flaw that let the dark forces run rampant and destroy his chances at The Bridge - I think we should be told...
Reply to blueboydave:
What is Eileen Drewery up to these days?
KJ,
Sinclair is ineligible for the CL. He would be ineligible had he not been loaned out, something to do with where he's been playing the previous 3 years.
I recall we mentioned it previously, it's an absurd UEFA ruling.
But guess you're right about Stoch - he's here and on the fringes, Sinclair may be headed the same way as the likes of Jimmy Smith - loan after loan, not looking like making the transition.
LINK
Greetings All,
Its Red Nose day today, you'd think after giving the old git a knighth.........No it wasn't funny when I posted it a week too early so why bother.
@Fiftee
Glad you enjoyed the nonsense.
It is hard to see past Guus shtaying but we are supposed to assume he's going back. It would be good to avoid another summer appointment as it means squad shaping gets delayed.
I'm not sure we're going to shell out sherious money in the shummer either. Maybe one or two shignings to keep the fans on shide but I wouldn't be shurprised to find our chaps in diving into the "Everything less than a pound shop" while we're waiting outside Shelfridges.
(I'll stop the cod Dutch nonsense now.)
@LTB
That's the problem with this blog. People keep referring to writers and bands I've never read or listened to. I still haven't got to B S Johnson since Pete W mentioned him weeks ago. I'm going to have to resort to Brodie's Notes or whatever the modern equivalent is, 'cuase I'll never get it all read before I die. ;-)
btw.
Seen this.
LINK
I never liked the man.
I'm not going to let fairmindedness and a complete ignorance of the facts get in the way of my inate dislike of the smug eejit. I'm just going to nod sagely and say, "hmm what dya expect"
(I am aware that this may not reflect very well on me but I can't be decent and warm hearted all the time)
C'est magnifique, Bayou de Bleu.
Je soulève mon chapeau.
Where does that leave the rest of us bloggers now though? Retirement?
By the way....I have only just read this piece as I'd been refreshing the previous posts comments section and was starting to get a bit paranoid about the lack of activity today. I assumed you'd all done a David Brent and Gareth Keenan and were parading around your various workplaces dressed as Ostriches or hopping all day.
Nothing like a bit of peer enforced fun huh?
Me...I've been tuned solidly to Planet Rock trying to avoid the regular flow of hilariously dressed people rattling tins and buckets walking past me today. Just make it look like a serious conference call and and it's easy to play the curmudgeon role. When the first lot came round this morning I was indulging in Dire Straits 'The Mans too Strong' whilst nodding and muttering things like 'Ok...yes..understood' , on the second zany visit I was stuck into Stargazer and then this afternoon's wacky money collection stunts were covered by conference calls to White Rabbit/Corporal Clegg and then Won't Get Fooled Again.
Don't worry i will give ....but it will be tonight under my own steam.....plus some influence from a binge session (according the health facists) of the Black and White stuff. See....we;re all affected by the balnce between light and dark........in my case the dark being the much larger proportion unless served by some un-trained, 18 year old 'couldn't give a shit' bar-steward.
It's good to be grumpy.
Errr hardly.
With the CL shaping up the way it is I'm anticipating another dose of JD (like Michael Caine in Zulu) as he rallies the troops before another assualt from the Scousers...
LINK
And the guns of Fort Glover falling silent? I think not.
Anyway as a relative newbie, I'm hoping to encourage others to join in with the ravings of their diseased minds.
@ BB - Like any artiste I get overwhelmed by huge insecurity when confronted by masterpieces I didn't produce nor have yet to produce. I apologise for the dismayed tone..it wasn't intended to steal any of your well deserved thunder.
The guns of Fort Glover are fully operational......see previous Red Nose Fun rant.
Today I have been leant The Damned United and whether or not the quote is true I just felt I needed to share this - not as inspirational...far from it...but just because its so funny and as far as I was concerned as a youthful Chelsea fan, so bloody true. Allegedly on his first meeting with the Leeds United players Brian Clough said the following
'Gentlemen, I might as well tell you now, you lot may have won all the domestic honours there are and some of the European ones but, as far as I'm concerned, the first thing you can do for me is to chuck all your medals and all your caps and all your pans into the biggest fucking dustbin you can find, because you've never won any of them fairly, you've done it all by bloody cheating'
Accuracy and truth aside, for me that's up there with Jules Winnfield's recital of Ezekiel 25:17.
Genius.
I think I might enjoy this book.......
Hey Blue,
I just want to post this before the weekend consumes us in the next round of mayhem and this page gets lost in the archives, and say how much I was blown away by the post. I don't know another football site that has writing that you find on this blog. Quite amazing! It so accurately reflects the kind of psychic strain an intense game like that can bring on, opening all kinds of subconscious portals. I read it during the ad breaks as i was watching Red Riding on the tv last night and noting a whole series of my own connections - the fact David Peace wrote that weird quartet of books the series is based on, that fact he also wrote The Damned United, with its evisceration of Clough's psychically disturbed mind, the fact I now live in Yorkshire etc.
Somehow that night in Turin was the weirdest event. It think it was Paul Wilson, in the Guardian, who said that Chelsea won through not because of any tactical game plan Hiddink had installed, but because he had re-introduced the players to themselves, or rather the selves they were able to be at their best in games before Jose left. Often under Jose, at moments of great intensity, when collective spirit was needed it was found and players performed at extraordinary levels to win games. At the centre of my own recollection of the Blues at their best over the past 5 years are images of Terry and Lampard, yes, but most of Drogba, a player of such huge potency who is entirely reliant on his own mental state to perform. On Tuesday night he reached deep and the strain was there in THAT post-match interview in which he said the strangest things.
Reply to ChelseaTony:
Gordon Bennett you had me going there. What's he on about June Whitfield for, I thought. He's lost it this time? Then I took a closer look....oh I see now that makes more sense.
Be intersted to know what you think of the book. I read it last year. I found it quite an intense if rewarding. The main distraction is wondering which bits, particularly the player's various attitudes are factual. Some have been well documented others haven't. Once you get past that it's a good read. Dannybrod has it right, it's very much about Cloughs mindscape.
I don't know whether I should refresh the memory before I see the film. Decisions, decisions.
Reply to dannybrod:
Thanks I'm glad it struck a chord.
Your right about Drogba. He's not a surly youth as Richard Williams tried to characterise him, but a deep and quite complex individual. I was disappointed about the way he played under TSSO even allowing for the injury. I wonder what caused it?
If you're in Yorkshire, be sure to pop into Hillsborough. I worked up in Leeds in the early 90's but never moved there. Went to see the boys play Sheffield Wednesday a few times. I remeber once we bought a pie on the way in and it was still to hot to eat at half time. I think they must have had nuclear material in 'em or something to stay that hot for so long.
I've missed Red Riding unfortunately. The books are now on the ever growing list.
It's interesting that Peace lives in Japan and has done for some time, yet he writes so convincingly about Britain in the late 20th century. I suppose it may be bcause that's as far as his memory of the country extends.
Looserpool are leading 2-1 over the mancs, I have mixed feelings for this result, they can close the gap with the mancs (which is good for us) but the Mancity gmae tomorrow is a must-win, and looking at our fixture we SHOULD guarantee the the second place.
Oh God, two penalties for the two media-loved teams, ironic!!
A great result for us in that Utd game. Liverpool showed everyone that Utd aren't invincible and now it's up to us to regain second place and close the gap.
PeteW...
Is Manure still 'hard to beat'?....4-1 drubbing (at old trafford) doesnt do any credit to your ascertion on the last post, or does it...?
Without the extra favours from refs, manure can be beaten like any other team...nothing special!
3 points from city 2moro and life would be much more pleasant...
Always Blue!
Stop trolling and get yourself a life Alexis, you tiresome little idiot.
Cracking game between the Mancs and the Scousers, it has to be said; referee was top-notch too. Illustrates the importance of Vidic to Ferguson; Gerrard had him rattled very early on and when he went to bits, so did the team. And Rio "England captain material my arse" was rather conspicuous in his relative absence when the chips were down.
Stop trolling and get yourself a life Alexis, you tiresome little idiot.
@JD
I was just thinking that, there is a tone to his posts that are really quite malicious.
Afternoon Clive
Nutters with broadband connections - Lord, preserve us etc.!
Reply to ALEXIS:
People on this blog (at least some of them) are prisoners of their misconceptions, so do not bother to prove whatsoever, mate. Although, it does not mean that you do not have to sound loudly your opinion. However, we still have to embrace them, even when they walk down the blind alleys, as we all have one thing in common CHELSEA!!!!!!!!!!
KTBFFH
Reply to Clive:
Rudeness regularly sign of stupidity.
I do think that todays game had one of those freak scorelines, lets hope it will make Utd feel vulnerable, and not galvanise them.
And of course lets hope it doesn't give Looserpoo too much confidence, although they do tend to balls it up against the lesser teams at the moment.
Three points against Citeh tomorrow is a must.
Reply to Blue_MikeL:
What's your excuse then?
I do need one. I do not think that anybody who states here his (her) opinion, as long as they are Chelsea supporters, are trolls or whatever. I do not think that in order to prove that one is right, one has to call his opponent stupid, as simple as that, as simple as that!!!
Errr ... okay ... then perhaps we can say that the Mancs are "hard to beat" because: their league record this season reads Played 28, Lost 3; they didn't lose a Carling Cup tie; they haven't yet lost in the FA Cup; they haven't yet lost in the CL; and they didn't lose the Community Silliness either.
In fact, bearing those facts in mind, perhaps it's not totally unfair the question the insight of someone who claims that the Mancs are not "hard to beat".
It might be my "opinion" that the world economic crisis is caused by my neighbour's cat. If I decided to promulgate this opinion on a blog, would people be justified in calling me an idiot?
Sometimes one has to do a tad better than just having an "opinion".
At least, that's what I think. **
[** joke]
Reply to limetreebower:
Just to say that United did lose a CC tie - the first leg ended 1-0 to Derby. :)
Reply to Blue_MikeL:
Will you please stop this circus? It is not even annoying anymore.
..... Resisting the urge to respond to trolls (or if you prefer, those members of the blog whose opinions are somewhat wacky and off the wall!)
Well that result at least makes the rest of the season interesting..... And Utd will now have to play Villa next weekend without Vidic, which could make things difficult too.
A very interesting run-in for the top 3. If we can get a win tomorrow then we do have the best run-in out of the contenders. Guus said that if we win every game in the league under his leadership then we could be champions and it's now looking quite possible. And Vidic getting a 3 game ban could come in very handy.
Reply to Neanderthal:
The point is: I did not plan to annoy anyone, mate. I just say what I think, it is very easy to be yourself.
Tomorrow by the time I am writing and even much early we must be on the second place!!!
KTBFFH
Reply to limetreebower:
Well, that proves it!!! I always thought it was your neighbour's cat and you were covering him, I'll see what I can do about that :)
I'm trying to get the cat to say sorry, since that's obviously the most important response to global economic disaster, but I can't get her further than Meow.
Today we must go back to our second place.
Reply to limetreebower:
Shifty buggers, cats. Up there with badgers in the untrustwothy stakes in my opinion.
Wasn't it celeb Chelsea fan David Baddiel that had a cat called Chairman Meow? Or was it just The Cat, after Bonetti? Sunday morning trivia - you can't knock it.
'kin brilliant, bayou.
first team berth fully deserved. i had no doubt
Well, i never thought i'd say well done Liverpool that's for sure but bloody well done!! haha!! actually they did play very well and outplayed man-u for the first time under Benitez. What i find really weird and i dont know if anyone else has noticed but all the talk in the media is of liverpool possible catching man-u and winning but the reality is this result is absolutley fantastic for Chelsea!! if we win we will go 2nd above Liverpool and with our recent form, if man-u stumble we could actually still win it..who would have thought that 6 weeks ago!!! And if you look at the fixtures remaining man- u dont have it that easy! we just have to win every game and if we want to be champions then that's what champions do..easier said than done but hey, why not start dreaming again..I know I am.....GET IN THEIR CHELSEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
An brilliant performance from us where the 1-0 scoreline flattered City hugely. Much like the Villa game, we should have demolished them but 1-0 will do. Essien and Lamps were awesome but one of the best performers was Ballack. All the pundits got it wrong as they put Essien in the holding role but Hiddink put Ballack there. His lack of pace was hidden but his experience, power and height made him perfect for that role. Only negatives were the lack of a second goal and Didier's injury.
Don't know why i used An? Silly keyboard
Reply to haberdashers:
You're right about not scoring the second. Today was our chance to pull our goal difference back above United's. We all know how unlikely it is that it will come down to that, but we will regret it immensely if it does. It could have provided some useful psychological pressure for the Mancs.
I don't understand why Guus put Belletti forty minutes in to maintain the diamond, or brought on Malouda to replace Drogs in the seventieth. Quaresma's been here for a month and would have been the ideal replacement when we were looking for the second goal.
Ballack's role was understated today, and I only realised what was happening by the end of the game when I realised he was even more anonymous than usual. Seems a good choice to play there at home - certainly a more attacking option than Mikel.
Rottenham at the Lane next... A little worried about a draw from that one, in honesty. We need to maintain the momentum after today, but with Drogs possibly out and King probably playing after his weekly rest at the scrapheap, I'm afraid we may come unstuck.
Very good performance. One of the least nervy one-nils that I can remember, largely due to the bossing of the midfield by Frank and (in particular) Essien. Poor old Obi's done nothing wrong but he's unlikely to see another start on that showing. Even Herr B looks more comfortable, leaving the fancy interplay up front to Frank and Essien (with Anelka and Deco dropping back to help) and just tidying up behind. A couple of vintage Riccy interceptions too, and some fantastic runs in the box from Drogs. Nothing flashy, nothing stupid, just good controlled confident football.
Citeh were pretty feeble. Ireland good, Shaun good, Bridgey good, Richards decent, but otherwise fairly pathetic. We should have replied to their fans' "We've got Robinho" chants with a rousing chorus of "You've got Robinho." The bloke obviously can't be arsed.
It looks like ourselves, 'Poo and Arse have all just remembered how to win games again. A shame we all left it too late and the filthy Mancs will be champs. And a shame Villa have bottled it too.
Reply to limetreebower:
I hat to continue this ridiculous debate but i strongly believe Man u's record belies their strength. They are a good team, but they have been luckier than most, and that's been my consistent opinion having watched a good number of their games. They have managed a good number of 1-0 wins where others have only managed a draw, even when the game could have gone the other way. We can agree that results are not always a fair reflection of games, and i think the manc's record flatters them. But it has also served to reinforce it's self as by acting as a psychological barrier against opponents. They have also had ridiculous penalties awarded to them, but that's besides the point. And our own displays against them have contributed to this myth of them being hard to beat. What people forget is that we've faced them when in pretty bad shape. Although the results stand, i think we should keep things in perspective: United is hardly a juggernaut!