BLOG POSTS ARCHIVE - February 2007
Posted Feb 25th 2007, 8:34pm
Pitch(ed) Battle
Arsenal and Chelsea don´t like each other much. Blues fans stereotype Gooners as overly geekish Nick-Hornby-like uberbores. Meanwhile, Arsenal supporters (and their managers) resent the emergence of the Blues as the dominant footballing force. So there was little love lost on a day which saw the game explode into life following Theo Walcott´s sensational opener. The unfairly-derided Ballack then superbly set up Drobga for the equaliser. Although Arsenal were perhaps the side playing the prettier football, it was Chelsea who got the winner, again through Drogba, this time powerfully heading in a centimetre-perfect cross (we live in metric times, my friends) from Robben. Then more drama came when John Terry swallowed his tongue. Thankfully, he´s already recovered. The seven minutes of additional time became 11 after an incredible incident saw Adenbayor and Toure sent off for Arsenal, and Mikel for Chelsea, plus yellow cards for Fabregas and Lampard. And they say football´s not exciting anymore!
Posted Feb 21st 2007, 5:04pm
Here Be Dragons
Chelsea arrived in early December 2004 secure of their qualification to the knock-out stages. Porto "welcoming" their former manager Jose Mourinho back to the Estádio do Dragão, literally Stadium of Dragons, sat in third place in the group, hoping on PSG slipping up and picking up three points to avoid the ignominy of becoming the first Champions to go out at the group stage. Sufficiently fired up, they triumphed 2-1 with a late goal from Benni McCarthy. I was at the game that night and felt the fiery passion of the home supporters who drove on Porto to play above themselves. Porto, it seems, are most dangerous with their backs to the wall. Luckily, Chelsea have something to play for this time around and should proceed to the quarter-finals. Although, not without a fight.
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Always find it interesting that Porto's slump post-Mourinho was really quite severe.
But they seem to be back to where they should be now, and that was a decent draw last night.
But they seem to be back to where they should be now, and that was a decent draw last night.
Posted by Andy Swan, Feb 22nd 2007, 1:51pm
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