The Chelsea Debacle

I was riled a lot yesterday night.Mostly because of some of the most abject refreeing i have ever seen and partly because Chelsea dint show a lot of brains yesterday.Barca had trounced Madrid three days back and i wanted some blood to be spilt.Chelsea began decently,Essien scoring with a tremendous volley to give Chelsea the advatnage.After that Chelsea predictably went to a counter attack mode.Drogba had atleast three oppurtunities to kill the game off but dint.Two clear cut penalties-the body check on Malouda and the Abidal shirt pull/Kick incident were denied to Chelsea.Abidal should have been sent off for this challenge but wasnt.

Story was the same in the second half,Chelsea sitting back to counter attack and Barcelona hardly mustered a decent shot.Messi was completely anonymous and so was Eto.Alves looked like a joke all night running around like a headless chicken and couldnt get one decent cross in.Iniesta was the only one who looked capable of anything.

Meanwhile Chelsea wasted some more oppurtunities to kill the match off and then Abidal was then sent off for a rather lame dive by Anelka,who i thought should have taken the chance to score.But Chelsea still choose to sit back against 10 men and allowed Barcelona to come at them.A Pique handball that happened 5 yards from the ref was also waved off.By now i was really afraid that Barca were going to convert one of their raids into a goal with so many penalties being waved off.Another chance fell to Belleti and he dutifully smashed it wide.Pique started to make runs into the chelsea half regularly!!!! and one such fell to Xavi,the ball was cleared by terry but essien made a hash of the clearance.Messi then picked out iniesta who broke the hearts of Chelsea fan.Chelsea were freaking pissed now and they threw themselves at the other end.A Ballack shot seemed to hit Eto on the hand and in my opinion his hand was clearly raised and must have been a penalty but again it was waved off.

After the whistle almost all Chelsea players barracked the ref but things got ugly when Drogba got involved.He did some Rama Rama Karam Podu dances around the ref and publically denounced him to be a fucking disgrace.The Ref meanwhile did what anyone would do facing a mad bull - run for your life.Drogba wasnt satisfied and continued to barrack him into the tunnel.Terry,Hiddink and Malouda tried to stop him but to no avail.

Barca for all their fabled talent mustered two shots on goal over two legs and were proved to be despicable hypocrites.All their cries of ref bias in the previous leg[which i dont completely agree with] probably influenced the ref today.The ref was some unknown from Norway so claims of a Platini interest in the match might not be completely ruled out.

As for the purist argument,Barca was shit today and dint show anything that proved them better footballers than Chelsea who had a gameplan and sticked to it.They wanted to win the match and no one can blame them for their gameplan.If Barca are so good as is claimed they should have proved it tonight,but they did not so i dont understand how they "deserve" more.I cant believe how much luck goes the Barca way,they won in 2006 by pure luck and now another oppurtunity obtained by luck and Pep had the temerity to speak of honesty.

Best Buys EPL 08-09

1.Guus Hiddink
He was "bought" in to save a sinking ship.Chelsea were 4th in the league and a lot of players had lost confidence in themselves and Scolari.They look like world beaters now.Enough Said.

2.Arshavin
Again bought when the team was in a hole playing some serious shit football drawing 0-0 everywhere.Can play anywhere in the midfield or forward.Scores goals,creates them.Near unstoppable when on song[as we found out yesterday :-( .Next year should be interesting with him on board from the beginning.

3.Geovanni
Brought in on a free transfer,he was central to the run that took Hull to the sky in the beginning of the season.Scored some screamers and created some more.Was great fun while it lasted.

4.Abdoulayye Faye
Newcastle sold him after he was involved in a bust up with NZogbia.End result? Newcastle are 19th while Stoke are very close to safety.Has been a great defender throwing himself at everything and scoring goals too.Has been a rock at the back all season.

5.James Beattie
Came into Stoke at January when they having a problem scoring goals.Scored enough to keep them in the Premier League.

6.Brad Friedal
With Laursen,Young and Barry the spine that were challenging the Fanstastic Four.Pity the team faded away in the second half of the season.

7.Shay Given
Easily the best goal keeper in the league.Bought in for a pittance when compared to the 10m payed for Bridge.Has been making 2-3 great saves every match.Might be the reason[along with Ireland] ManCity stay up.

8.Albert Riera
Liverpool badly needed some pace and skill in the left midfield section.This man has it and has plenty of it.Has been good most of the times,though badly underrated.

9.Fellani
What a buy!!!!The guy brought back the 80's hairstyle.Much of the season Everton were able to play without a striker because of his and Cahill's aerial abilities.Very strong,great in the air,good technical skills.Super Buy.

10.Amir Zaki
The on-loan signee at Wigan was once the leading scorer in the charts and was being compared to Shearer.Not a bad return 10 goals from 25 appearances.Hampered by injuries and the loss of Palacios to Spurs in January.

11.Sebastian Bassong
The only bright light in Newcastle's season.Superb defender.Expect him to move to one of the big clubs in the summer.

that's it.comments/brickbats welcome.

I think that most of the problems with arsenal is self inflicted with their so called pay structure severely screwing their team. Arsene's arguments on leaving behind a good financial situation behind for his successor is his usual bollock stuff. I mean common you need atleast one good CM to replace players like diarra, flamini and gilberto.A player like that Arsenal do not have presently in the squad [denilson,diaby and song are all too young to step up]. So a player has to be bought.That will surely cost somthing in the range of 7-8 mill atleast.That plus he will definitely be on a payscale significantly more than the pittance arsenal paid to flamini.
Also the team spirit came under some severe beating in the preseason with hleb gone,flamini gone and adebayor agitating for a move too all tied up with salary issues.
Now the team seems broken and without spirit.Arsene has to put his hand up accept his mistakes and buy decent players in the January window.Also Gallas as capt is a joke.Everybody except arsene know it.
All this makes for a hugely entertaining fare for me.As i just LOVE to HATE Arsenal and arsene wenger.

Premier League Opening Weekend

Almost all the teams in the league are under one transfer saga or the other.For Liverpool it is alonso and Barry, ManU its Berbatov and Ronaldo,Arsenal one long transfer period where every player was linked with every club and vice
versa,Chelsea were under a cloud with regards to Lampard,Drogba and Carvalho but its been more or less resolved now.

And it showed on the pitch too,they were easily the best team amongst the top four in the opening weekend and if they keep this team fit for the season i think its going to be really hard to beat them in any of the competitions but they lack a bit in depth so ManU might still pip them to it again.Liverpool's crazy lusting after Barry i cannot understand cause they need a decent winger and having seen Jonas play for Newcastle i dont know how rafa missed such a gem.Without a decent winger or two,Liverpool do look a little flat.Arsenal's unwillingness to spend money is going to cost them,i mean i could understand when he did not buy anyone after that unbeaten season but now with flamini,gilberto and diarra all leaving in the last six months i think they need a holding midfielder and a good central defender.

The spurs have been most active in the market but there seems to be little direction in their buys,they have one striker in bent[this is not a joke] with berba laving soon and though their midfield and defense is better than their north london rivals without a good striker they will lose the plot very soon.

Amongst other teams Aston Villa,Newcastle and Borough look like this season's also rans.But right now Chelsea are the team to beat.Lets see what happens in the remaining two weeks,hope Liv gets in a good winger[sionko looked damn impressive to me in the euro's and riera is another good option] and spurs get in a good striker or two[personally i would prefer pavlyuchenko and mccarthy] and newcastle get in a good attacking midfielder and a left back[warnock and inler preferrable] and arsenal get no one in.That would make the season really interesting.