Lesson to learn from a rhapsody in blue

FORGIVE us our trespasses, not to mention our sloppy passes, but with those other Blues fetching up these shores at the end of the week, it was hard not to view yesterday’s grand slammer at Stamford Bridge against the backdrop of altogether more high-stakes games to come in Dublin and Paris.

Yes, yes, we all know that the Premier League is – dilute to taste – the greatest/most exciting/most hyped league on the planet but, my friends, the World Cup is the World Cup.

The Premier League season still has a long, long way to go and so nothing was decided at the Bridge yesterday but next Saturday and the following Wednesday are days which will shape the footballing destinies of nations.