Everyone hates us, we don’t care

A FUNCTIONAL display against Coventry saw us book a place in the semi-finals of the Cup against Arsenal or Hull. More than likely Arsenal, as Hull's star has plummeted since they beat the Gooners at the Emirates.

Either way, the semi will be held at Wembley and I hate that. It's not that I think that it will detract from the final — a cup final at Wembley is as it should be: special. But a Wembley final should be the ultimate prize — the honour of overcoming all obstacles to earn the honour of contending the world renowned FA Cup on the hallowed turf.

As it is, the demolition of the twin towers to build yet another lifeless bowl has removed some of the magic already — to play non-finals there, just adds to the ordinariness. The totally transparent simperings of the FA claiming it’s so as many fans as possible can enjoy the occasion simply add to my frustration as we all know the real reason is cold, hard cash.

It will be another expensive day, although with 19 semi-finals in the last 15 seasons Chelsea fans have had to have deep pockets recently, especially as we are charged Category One prices wherever we go these days. The real price of success, eh?

Another week, another Chelsea witch-hunt; can someone please explain to me how Ashley Cole being arrested on a drunk and disorderly charge, which turns out to be nothing more than a few expletives aimed at the constabulary, produces more column inches than Steven Gerrard actually being charged with assault and affray?

Sports stations and papers have questioned his place in the Chelsea team and his England position, he was booed throughout the Coventry game by their Neanderthal fans and the non-story was still making the front pages at the weekend.

Meanwhile, Frank Lampard is a genius — and that’s official. Apparently, the intelligence of the entire squad was recorded (I have no idea why) and Lampard’s IQ was scored at well over 150 which puts him in the top 0.1% of the population.

Intelligence is not necessarily a pre-requisite of being a great footballer but in Lampard’s case I think it played a major part. By his own admission, he wasn't the most talented footballer within his age-group, but he was advised by his father that the gap between natural talent and talent enough to be one of the world's top footballers could be bridged if you were dedicated enough.

I feel privileged to have witnessed the very best of his career and I imagine I will be boring the future generations of Chelsea supporters in 20 years time as I reminisce on his brilliance again and again, just as the old timers at The Bridge make me wish I had seen Greaves in a Chelsea shirt.

But back to the here and now, and for a change we are beginning to get players back just in time for the run in to the end of the season. Essien has been a big loss and was cheered every time he touched the ball when he came on at the Ricoh. His absence has obviously also been felt by the team themselves, as Drogba led the celebrations directly to the Ghanaian when he scored the opener in the Cup game. We are led to believe that Carvalho too is almost back to full fitness which will be a relief to many.

But the come-backs will help in our crusade to stop United doing a clean sweep although we will undoubtedly make ourselves even more unpopular (is that possible?) should we succeed.

It is amazing how gleeful the “neutrals” are every time United broke one of Chelsea’s records — the hypocrisy that springs most readily to mind is when Van der Sar broke Cech’s clean sheet record. At the time of our dominance, an English national newspaper offered £10,000 and various other endorsements to the first player to beat the Chelsea keeper — was there such a bounty put on the Reds keeper?

I know it seems petty to get so agitated by such things but the bias out there does have an effect on so many aspects of a club and how it is treated by governing bodies, referees etc and will invariably impact eventually on its results.

That's where Mourinho was so good as he was able to take that bias and negativity etc and mould it into a siege mentality — the benefits of which are plain to see.

One final thought, who exactly works out the “official attendance” at the Emirates? Whoever it is I think has a long career in the banking industry ahead of them.