Blue is the colour (except on Ashley Cole)

THWARTED by goal difference for the top spot in the Premiership table, but now top of the Champions League group — am I happy? No.

I enjoyed Sofia though, despite having the mother of all hangovers on the day of the game. They shouldn’t be allowed to sell alcohol that cheap: all it does is encourage those of us with no willpower to over indulge to the point of utter stupidity. Having been to Sofia before, we didn’t do the sites this time (all two of them), instead we ill-advisedly plonked ourselves in the hotel bar from 1pm-1am. Being a Five Star hotel I was expecting a bit of a hammering when the bill arrived and so was pleasantly surprised when it totalled just under €300 — that’s all day and all night drinking for six people, including lunch and an evening meal, all for under €50 each!

Although we did all feel rather sheepish when a Bulgarian friend that joined us the next day told us that our bar bill was the equivalent of a months wages for him.

He also told us that we had been drinking in one of the most expensive places in town and then took us to a bar where we stayed for the entire afternoon drinking all for the princely sum of €6 each!

Drogba destroyed Levski although I will not use the term ‘single-handedly’ as many did last week. Shevchenko once again proved a handful for the Bulgarian defence allowing Drogba time and space to secure the goals and get the accolades. It was a good win, but I was a bit disappointed that we took our foot off the pedal and allowed them to score. Barcelona drawing was also a welcome result as we have to face them both home and away next, and our record against them isn’t great.

I can’t pretend I am not disappointed with the result against Villa. It was a good game — exciting even; it had an almost cup-tie feel about it, especially the desperate pumping of the ball up to the goal in the last ten minutes, while urging Peter Cech up in the dying seconds of time added on. But it felt like a loss as we wandering away from the ground and it was difficult to exactly put your finger on what went wrong.

The defence doesn’t look impenetrable anymore. The midfield isn’t clicking, but we need to give credit where credit is due. Villa were determined, organised, physical and passionate. O’Neill has transformed that team and in turn their support has awakened from the malaise of mid-table mediocrity. We scored early and got complacent; and even after they equalised, strolled around believing that a goal would come from somewhere — it didn’t and then and only then did the urgency set in. But Villa had got the sniff of some points by then and clung on for the point. It was the least that they deserved having played so well in the first half.

The back-page that had me literally guffawing into my Sunday morning coffee last week was the one which claimed that Spurs were willing to take Joe Cole “off our hands” for €15m. Oh that’s good of them. Expect them to offer their “assistance” once again in a few months time by offering one of their youth team rejects for Shevchenko.

I feel a bit sorry for Ashley Cole. He is having a bit of a stinker for us at the moment, and the crowd aren’t really getting behind him. The Chelsea crowd are generally a patient lot — they are also willing to do their bit when a player is going through a rough patch, especially when he is new. We sang Kezman’s name until we were blue in the face, despite getting virtually nothing in return in terms of goals; Chris Sutton, too, got plenty of encouragement. Both left rather swiftly, but certainly were not hounded out. And let me be understood here, no one is hounding Ashley Cole either: no booing, no chanting for Wayne Bridge, nothing like that; I’ve not met a fan who actively dislikes him either; the simple truth of the matter is that many still do not consider him one of our own.

We’re so used to seeing him in red that the blue looks wrong on him somehow and he needs to prove himself before we can start to adopt him. I do believe that he will take at least a season to settle in and start playing to his best.

An emotional memorial service was held at Stamford Bridge last weekend in honour of our King: Peter Osgood. Former team mates, current players, friends, family and fans listened to tributes, watched Ossie’s greatest moments and remembered our most famous son. Despite an afternoon of rain, as his ashes were interred under the Shed End penalty spot the sun shone brightly as we said our goodbyes. It makes me smile to think of him causing mischief under there should an opposition team be granted a penalty at that end, and I imagine our boys will get some help if they’re awarded a spot-kick. Either way it’s good to know that the King has been returned to his Kingdom to watch over the club that he graced as a player — RIP Ossie.

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