Azonto Epistle 26: Away In A Rainy Day At St. James Park

Chelsea-manager-Jose-Mourinho-shows-his-frust_3028934A perfect October harshly bid us goodbye for a not so welcoming month of November for Chelsea fans to remember. Over the course of our recent past, many of our bad patches of form began with November. A November to remember for our under performances, Di Matteo’s woes and Rafa’s arrival. Even, the great Ancelotti dreaded the sight of November. We wish that every month is October when everything we touch turns gold: we boot out Bucharest, witch-hunt Norwich, shackle Schalke, Nullify Arsenal and Cardiff? well, they parked wrongly at the Bridge after 10 minutes so we gave them a different Car (a 4×1 wheel drive). Forgive me of the unnecessary superstition which are only remembered in retrospect. “We just didn’t turn up” at St. James. That was all. Maybe Jose made “11 mistakes” in his selection of players or perhaps we should have won the toss of the coin prior to the match. Such is how easy it is to make a retrospective analysis and blame everything after things don’t go well. Jose’s response of “11 mistakes” in his post match interview was exactly to that effect.

The match had a poisonous physical atmosphere. It was as if the stage was set for us to lose at St. James after our great victory over City and the small matter at Emirates. We were billed to play in an early kickoff against a Newcastle side who had just come out from a defeat to a bitter rival at Tyne-side. They were suppose to put up a strong performance in front of their home fans to get things in shape. On that soggy pitch in an unwelcome weather to a good number of our players, victory for us was difficult to come by for a team which seemed to be complacent after a streak of great results. Newcastle gave us the initiative to kill them in the first half but we failed and I could only but yawn after the end of the first half. There was no sense of urgency and purpose and Mazascar experiment by Jose had failed big time. Maybe it is time to seriously think of Mazascar in November. Di Matteo can be the best judge of it.

THE REALITY OF THE EPL

The most exciting football league in the world doesn’t come by mere rhetoric. It is fully demonstrated when you find West Brom beating Manchester United at Old Trafford, Cardiff do their thing against  Man City and West Ham hammer Spurs by 3 goals at White Hart Lane. If you ever thought we wouldn’t lose a game after beating City then begin to draw different analogy because the EPL is no respecter of logic. Losing to Newcastle away at St. James is far from losing at home to QPR. And that is exactly the kind of lose we hope it can’t happen under Jose at Stamford Bridge. And that is the reason why we can fully be sure that we will improve upon our 3rd position of last year. I saw a real excitement among rival fans who had gone quiet for long due to their own backyard problems and our recent winning streak. The almighty Chelsea had fallen and it was more than a victory they had longed for. The moment I saw rival fans had an astonishing celebration over our loss was way back in 2009/10 season under Carlo where we went on to win the league. That same sort of interest in our matches by opposing fans is building and I’m beginning to enjoy it. It gives me a good sense of nostalgia of our double winning season.

NOVEMBER CHAMPIONS

Arsenal fans nearly made me think the league ends November 2nd after their all-important- trophy-winning match against the strongest team in the league, Liverpool at Emirates Stadium. They have every reason to celebrate if you were just knocked out of your first chance to win a trophy match by Chelsea, thus limiting their options and margin of error to win trophies. If you know your team can hardly be crowned the title after the 38th match you should make the most out of it when you happen to find yourself in the potential winner’s seat.

The truth of the matter is that, no club wants to lose a match even if you are watching the DVD clip of our 2011 Champions League match against Napoli in Italy where we got thumbed by 3-1, even though you know we would turn the scoreline at home and go on to win the title in Munich. I know you still don’t feel okay when you watch Muller head in their 85th minute goal in the Champions League final even though you know Drogba will eventually respond later in equal but painful measure for us to clinch the title. Such is how difficult it is to watch your team lose or concede. However, that’s football and it is why we call it league, after the 38th fixture, all teams would have played against all teams and the true winner, not November winner, would have emerged.

KTBFFH!

LondonsFirst

13 thoughts on “Azonto Epistle 26: Away In A Rainy Day At St. James Park

  1. Emeka Anozie.NIGERIA

    people complained about mata’s earlier omission,we should allow jose to do his job.win or lose I trust we will come top

  2. Arthur Osadebe

    I really luv dat word, true winners, not November winners, but I wnt dis Chelsea team to borrow from the lion heart of the lion tribe of Chelsea, DROGBA. He fights, play out his heart for the ROMAN ARMY. if we most emerge winners come may, it’s high time we wake up & start to break the opponents nets

  3. Chelsea4life

    I remembered the first time jose lost at st james park was in the league cup in his first season at Chelsea where losses were rare. Chelsea were down to 9 men with wayne bridge playing the match of his life. Chelsea fought like warriors though. That was also a rainy day. Deja vu?

    • Chelsea4life

      My apologies. That was an FA cup loss not league cup.

  4. K DHEERAJ

    Yeah! I saw the manu and arsenal fans celebrating our defeat against newcastle more than their victory, lets see who will have last laugh. If we win double this season they would keep on moaning and crying on us forever.

  5. Anonymous

    This is indeed an epistle. Novembr sh’d pls hurry up

  6. Emenike ken

    Bt am stil wnderin why the fumes is always arnd Chelsea whneva they lose.

  7. thats a good work.true talk overall winner not november winner.but the teams play must be dynamic from now.mix it up so that our team wont be predictable by opponents.up chelsea.

  8. Neri Abayomi

    Firstly, Jose plays Mata and Lampard out of position, Mata is better in the centre but he keeps playing Oscar in that position and it is very obvious that Oscar is not as creative as Mata. We saw Mata play the number 10 position to perfection against Spurs and Arsenal, even the match we lost against Everton, Mata created chances for Eto’o.

    De Bruyne is a better 10 than Oscar too, at least he is more creative. Still he is used sparingly through the right flank. Don’t get me wrong, Oscar is a fantastic midfield but is a ball recycler with an attacking intent unlike Mikel that has been restricted @ the bridge. Oscar-Mikel- Ramires shd be reshuffled @ the pivot with Lamps and Essien providing cover. I think Mou shd think of the possibility of using Lamps as an impact sub behind the striker to use his late surging runs to great effect.

    Against Newcastle, Jose made hurried changes, removing your most prolific striker for a not so prolific one and bringing Willian, a definite hardworker but not a direct player, remember, the game was still goalless @ dis stage. Torres should have stayed on, with Schurrle replacing Lampard.

    This is my ideal team with their replacement in bracket

    ——————Cech (Schwarzer)———-
    Ivan(azpi)—-Cahill—Luiz(Terry)–Cole(Bertand)
    ———–Mikel(Essien)–Oscar(Ramires)–

    Schurrle(Willian)–Mata(Bruyne/Lampard)—Hazard(Schurrle/Willian)

    ——–Torres (Eto’o/Ba)

    • 请教一个文献中一句话的理解问题。有这么几句话“the mass outflow increased by a ftoacr of 6 between two observations separated by 18 months”和“Other stars showed changes in MLR by a ftoacr of 1.5 or less.”请问这其中的“a ftoacr of X”该怎么理解?是不是表示新结果是在原有结果前面乘以x而得到?

  9. Yeah, Danielle, I didn’t see the end coming any qukiecr than the runner. 🙂 I know of one person who is chomping at the bit to get her hands on this new one already, so the books are worth checking out. I think they are being considered for a new series that is being likened to the Showtime Dexter series.

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