Can Grant’s luck hold out?

WELL, what a great week that was to be a Chelsea fan! The Liverpool game was hilarious. We were awful and deserved nothing from the game — which is what made Riise’s intervention even more fantastic. Right in the middle of a rendition of “You’ll Ne-ver Wa-alk Al……oh”. Cue mental abandon in the Chelsea end. I still have the bruises.

The whining about the four minutes of time that we had to listen to as we made our way back to the car was pathetic. As I told one Liverpool fan — Drogba rolled around on the ground for at least that long. But before anyone gets silly with videos, perhaps a bit of honesty a bit closer to home should be observed.

Gerrard seems to have problems with gravity himself and it looks like it’s contagious, with Torres seemingly unable to stay on his feet.

One thing is for certain — we need to play better than last week if we are to make it to the final. The only player that did well was Cech. The others were awful.

What a contrast to the game against United?

We got our pride back, outfought them in every department and when the chips were down, it showed what could be achieved against Fergie’s team if you apply a bit of pressure rather than roll over to get your tummy tickled, as has been the case from many teams when playing them this season.

Looks like West Ham are not interested in an upset. With nothing to play for Curbishley, who I have always disliked from his whinging days at Charlton, has already confirmed that he will be giving a few of his youngsters a run out. Not fair on us but then football isn’t fair — there would be hyperventilation and expletives galore if it had been United in our position.

Speaking of being fair: will the referee report Ferdinand and co. for surrounding the officials continuously during Saturday’s game? Of course not — we know that only Chelsea do that.

I’m glad Capello was watching the game and witnessed Ferdinand at his loathsome worst. Questioning every decision in an aggressive manner, niggly unnecessary tackles, booting the ball into his own supporters in frustration at one point and arguing with the referee at the final whistle and kicking a female steward in the tunnel after the match (when aiming for the wall, we are led to believe), Ferdinand’s behaviour was a joke.

If anyone thinks that he makes a better England captain than JT, then they need their head examined.

As for the punch-up between United players warming down and Chelsea ground staff — that was pure Benny Hill with handbags at 10 paces... until United players claimed they were racially abused.

This claim has now been withdrawn.

But the slur is out there in the public domain. You can’t simply make such an accusation and withdraw it. They either were or they weren’t and if they were, it needs to be dealt with, and if they weren’t, then they should face further disciplinary action for claiming such a thing.

Apart from the obvious reasons I was desperate to win the game because of the equaliser which was down to Carvalho. Our Premier League hopes dying due to a rare mistake from him would have been grossly unfair. He is by far our player of the season and how he has not managed to make it into the PFA team is beyond the comprehension of most Chelsea fans.

Tonight is a tough one to call. My heart and my head says Chelsea all the way. We are better than Liverpool, they have difficulty scoring at the Bridge, we have the away goal but something, something holds me back. Of course it’s not something but someone — Grant. I know I am obsessed but I do not trust him and I am worried that he will make some bizarre decisions (á la Carling Cup Final) which will mess us up. But as someone said to me last Sunday — he is not a good manager but he seems to be a lucky one, and that is almost as good, so let’s hope his luck holds out just another month or so.

John Terry too is one booking away from missing the final which would pray on anyone’s mind — Gerrard, and Carragher are in the same position. Liverpool do seem to have an affiliation with this competition but Chelsea have broken enough records and hoodoos in the last five years to take anything and anyone on, so all we can do is go for it and hope for the best. Every player knows what is at stake and they know what they have to do. So bring it on — let the final games begin.

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