A Quick Note
Sorry that I’ve been MIA recently Blues fans, until BBC decides to start paying me and Bryan for our dedication and alcoholism, work unfortunately has to take precedence to my regular posts. That said, I want to have a quick word about the recent Chelsea FC happenings. 2 things in particular I want to highlight: Fernando’s inexplicable ability to make me love and hate him simultaneously, and Frank Lampard’s aggressive reassertion that he deserves a place in any starting 11, not just that of the 2 teams he currently plays for.
Regarding Nando: Only the unluckiest man in football can play like Fernando has in his past 2 games. I mean seriously, I have remained silent about his horrid miss during the United match… while I’m not saying I can do any better, I do think that most people have been unnecessarily harsh on the poor boy, all things considered. Did he beat De Gea? Yes. Should he have scored? Probably. Could you have scored given the same circumstances? Probably not. Unless a club has paid 50 million pounds for you, then you have no right to mock the poor boy. He has come back from unbelievable injury and is performing at near his top form… which brings me to my next point. What the fuck was up with his tackle in the game against Swansea? I mean, I completely understand his desire to show every one of his critics that he is 150% committed to giving his all for the team, but that tackle was worse than I used to do when I was playing middle school B team soccer. Okay fine, I will remain one of Fernando’s biggest fans, mostly because I see shades of him coming back into form with every game he plays, but when he makes moves like that, intention doesn’t matter… the 3 match ban he has incurred does. Every game he doesn’t play is another 90 minutes gone by that he starts to go back into his dark place.
Speaking of dark places, let’s move on to my next topic of discussion: Frank Lampard. Accused of being past his prime, Lamps went on to silence his critics 1000 times over this past weekend. Sure he was kept out of the match against Valencia this past week, but if you watched the Bolton match, Lamps looked like a man possessed. Running all over the pitch, wanting the ball, he seemed the natural leader that we have seen him as for the past 10 years. A hat trick speaks for itself (and can we just note how Sturridge very nearly had a hat trick too that match?). Not only that, but Lamps’ goals showed everyone that he was not only out for blood, but that he wants his spot on the England squad back. Fabio Capello’s commentary that Lamps was no longer guaranteed a space should be laughed at after this kind of performance. The England squad’s chances are a different story, but to insinuate that Lamps is past his prime is ridiculous. Frank Lampard needs to be allowed his ability to use his natural leadership and captaining abilities to inspire his “troops.”
Long story short, it is about to be a very interesting season. Where we stand in the table, it is very much a 3 horse race… all it takes is for us to beat City and for United to underestimate a weaker opponent and drop points and then we can jump on tome. The season is far too young to speculate on (this time last year we were just about to start on our way to one of the worst results streaks I can imagine), but I have very high hopes, and I think that, once Torres gets his mojo back, the Chelsea FC train will be amazingly difficult to stop.
