Chelsea stir the blood — at last

FINALLY we have seen some football that gets the heartbeat up a notch or two. The Everton game, especially, proved to be one of those good old fashioned cup ties.

Of course an injury time winner always erases any dross prior to the said goal, but that wasn’t necessary in this game as two committed teams and a dodgy referee ensured that the sell out crowd had much to make a lot of noise about — and we did.

It was a cracking atmosphere.

We were treated to a great performance from the €26m Shaun Wright Phillips rather than the two bob one — and he followed that up with another great game against Tottenham.

Ironic really that Joe Cole has gone backwards given a free role, yet SWP has positively flourished.

What’s even more surprising is that Mourinho, too, had tried him in this “inside right” role but with only limited success. I wonder whether Lampard’s absence has had some bearing, as SWP would naturally be less likely to come inside if Lamps was playing.

Whatever the reason, long may it continue and when the injured return lets hope that both styles can be accommodated.

“Le Sulk” too finally landed in SW6 and about time too. Given he had barely enough time to be introduced to his team mates, he was outstanding hitting two very good chances and only the woodwork and a good save prevented him making the dream debut.

He is saying all the right things too, and perhaps, getting him that little bit later in life is also a godsend as I don’t think we’ll see some off the personality problems that many of his previous clubs have experienced.

He’ll have little to moan about either – he will now be living in one of the most exciting and cosmopolitan cities in the world, being paid very well, will be playing alongside world class players and due to our limited options up front will play regularly.

If ever you needed more proof that the beautiful game had sold its soul you need look no further than Manchester United this month.

At a crucial stage in the race for the Premier League they are jetting off to Saudi Arabia to play in a testimonial match for which they are allegedly receiving one million pounds. In the football world one million pounds is small potatoes and would hardly make a dent in United’s UK holding company’s debts of £135 million.

Is it really worth the risk of disrupting the team when they are playing so well? And let’s hope at no point this season will Alex complain about the amount of games having to be played as that would seem a tad hypocritical.

Benitez is looking a very worried man. I don’t think the fact that he could lose his job is particularly causing him sleepless nights — after all that is the lot of the football manager, but I bet the talk that he could be replaced by Mourinho is making him nervous.

As much as I am enjoying the speculation (as it does seem to be having a negative effect on Liverpool’s performances) I would be distraught at seeing the Mourinho’s pitch up at the European City of Culture (titter).

Not that I think he owes us any loyalty (after all our top brass showed him very little), but that you just know he would achieve something up there, and that would never do. They are making some pretty mediocre history at the moment and long may it continue. We travel out of London this weekend for the first time since the 23rd December to take on a Birmingham side that has in the main, struggled this season, but has still managed to pull off some surprising results. In recent years games at St Andrews have been dull and goals were few and far between, but I am hoping that Anelka will be wanting to put some markers down and Wright Phillips will be looking to prove that his Everton and Tottenham displays were not the proverbial two swallow summer.

As for Grant, I still can’t take to him and not even a win over Tottenham could persuade the crowd to chant his name, but if he and the management committee keep winning, then I will keep schtum.

The calamitous season that I thought we would descend into, is not materialising thank God – and even better, seems to be happening to Liverpool.

All we need now is for Arsenal to wobble a bit more and Ronaldo to strain something or other in his extra curricular activities that we seem to read about every Sunday, and you never know – we may just get anther title race on our hands.