THE actual match was secondary on Sunday as for once the Chelsea crowd were unanimous in their sentiments and wanted to ensure that Roman Abramovich heard it loud and clear.

AS the final whistle went last Wednesday, I looked away from the celebrating Barça players and my eyes alighted on one of the many special UEFA advertising hoardings – this one had “Fair Play” emblazoned across it.

YOU would have thought that Satan, Beelzebub, Lucifer, Mephistopheles and all the gathered cohorts of evil had lined up against Barcelona last week considering the wailing that has been coming from the Catalans since. Now that that nasty Mourinho bloke has left, they obviously expected us to follow UEFA’s unwritten rules of allowing Barcelona to score at will.

I LOVE playing West Ham — especially at their place as those good old Irons relish giving Frank Lampard a hard time for the perceived injustice he has done them.

SO much for reaching the semi-final of the Champions League without incident eh? Last week saw the game of the season and only Chelsea could attempt to throw away a foregone conclusion, not once, but twice during 90 minutes.

THE PHRASE “the sublime to the ridiculous” could have been penned for Chelsea FC. Whether it be Osgood to Mayes, Mourinho to Grant or last Wednesday’s spectacular performance up at Anfield to the extraordinary finish to Saturday’s game against Bolton.

GEORDIES are a strange breed; Newcastle only have to announce the signing of a second-rate player and for whom they have paid well over the odds and they all descend on St James’s Park in their thousands, loud and invariably bare-chested (and that’s just the women), telling all and sundry that this is the signing that will change their fortunes.

I SEE the Chelsea hierarchy have found that self-destruct button again — and inevitably, they will not be able to help themselves from pushing it.

I’VE had better weeks. It all started so well, with a visit to the Chelsea training ground, where a few of us got to watch training, get a tour of the facility, meet the players and finish up with a Q&A with Guus Hiddink, where I thought I’d made very clear the significance of our games against Spurs — obviously not.

TURIN was a blast, or so I’m told, confined as I was to my hotel room for the three days due to illness.