Midfield calls will decide title fate

PRESTON was a great trip. We travelled up on Friday night and made a weekend of it — rejecting the “allure” of nearby Blackpool, we stayed just outside Preston and encountered a town and its people excited at having Chelsea coming to visit.

It made a nice change to talk to football fans free of petty prejudices who appreciated our team and players. When was the last time Frank Lampard was applauded off by the opposition fans, I wonder? It wasn’t just Preston’s fans that gave us a friendly welcome — the local police demonstrated that if you treat fans as you would treat any other group of people, then you will, in the main, encounter no problems.

So Preston had its biggest crowd for 40 years, with 6,000 Chelsea supporters doing their bit and both teams treating each other with respect.