Not fair as Special One left hanging on the telephone
If that call doesn’t come soon, José should scream and scream until he’s sick — and JT should bleat endlessly to the media — who will of course be running a campaign to decapitate the referee/linesman. Then there should be a week’s worth of radio shows with presenters on soapboxes whipping up a frenzy of moral indignation at the unfairness of it all.
Or perhaps we’ll conduct ourselves with a bit more dignity than a certain other club — after all, these things happen. I can deal with disallowed goals — Saturday’s wasn’t the first and it won’t be the last — but the more sinister fall-out of the Anfield hysteria (for that’s what it was, courtesy of Messrs Gray, Benitez and assorted Reds) is that it now open season for unpunished fouls on Chelsea players.
We can handle ourselves, but with our current injury woes and the new law that tackles from behind are not only permitted but encouraged when the recipient is a Chelsea player, we could be playing against 14 opponents more often than we would like this season.
Hughes was one of those players that even when he played for United, you had grudging a respect for — hard and ruthless but generally fair. A trait he continued at Chelsea which won almost all of us over.
However as a manager he has been transformed. His eyesight has become Wengeresque and his team are a bunch of unadulterated thugs. And their time wasting started as early as the 20th minute.
It has been a real wake up call to many to see how we perform without Lampard. What we have is a midfield bereft of any ideas. Sidwell did nothing wrong on Saturday, but neither did he do anything positive.
Our set pieces, and especially our corners, have for some time been a standing joke with supporters — we are unbelievably bad at them. When you’re winning, you can chuckle about it. When you’re not, it’s not so funny. How can it be that we have some of the best players in the world, and not one of them can take a corner without it hitting the first man or sailing over and out? Surely the law of averages alone would dictate that one in a blue moon would be decent — but no.
Shevchenko looks a lost soul and watching him is painful and embarrassing. If and when he did get the ball, he would want another few seconds or another touch before having a shot. Inevitably he was closed down before he could do that. Is it time to admit that we made a mistake and try and get whatever for him on the open market (I’d be surprised if anyone would be willing to pay even half of the €40 million we shelled out). And Avram Grant — what exactly is his role at the club except sitting and looking like the Grim Reaper on the bench? Wasn’t one of his tasks to work with Sheva to get the best out of him? Not working very well is it?
I was one of those last season calling for patience arguing that someone who had not played in the Premiership before needed a season to adjust, no matter how well he had performed in other leagues. Well he has had that season, and although we are only six games into the campaign it does look like that it is a league to far for this superstar.
That said, I am not laying the blame at the feet of Shevchenko. I thought we were lacking in oh so many ways but, most importantly, the team spirit that won us that game up at Ewood two years ago and led us to our first modern title has all but disappeared.
I am not sure what to make of this weekend and the match with United. They aren’t playing particularly well either. Both teams have key players out, both teams have had a lukewarm start to the season, both teams will have had Champions League games in the week and both teams will not want to lose ground to the other. So I am expecting a cautious approach by both managers — a 0-0 beckons!!
Contact Trizia on Trizia_f@hotmail.com
