From a winning position to a suffocating losing position where Jose has to make his emergency SOS substitutions of taking out the left back for an attacker reared its ugly head once more and this time at our own Stamford Bridge home. A place where gallants fall, Schalke had been put to the sword there less than 72 hours ago and the victory of over City could still be smelled around. West Bromwich Albion led by Steve Clarke, the man who was there with Jose when the Fortress was being built had come to town to attempt collapsing it. Over the past two years they have directly being involved in the sacking of two successive managers; AVB, had his “project” come to a halt and got the sack after losing to them. As if that was not enough, Di Matteo played his last local match against the Baggies before getting his sack. This time, a sack was far from Jose but equally the thought of a loss was also far and a bit unimaginable. But there we were, with barely 30 seconds to go in added time and the scoreboard still showed 1 – 2. This was the suffocating moment we found ourselves and when you even compound it with the Jose unbeatable home record coming to an unexpected end right before you, then the blood pumping to and fro your head can boil an egg. So, when the famous Ramires stumble in the box occurred and the whistle went for a penalty, it was the least to rescue us from that agonizing high-blood-pressure moment but it was enough to cling our life to it. This made the Hazard penalty kick, as important as any important penalty kicks you can think of. When the young Belgian kept his calm and slotted the ball coolly in the net, I enjoyed it shyly knowing a draw wasn’t enough but hey, a loss would have been devastating on the psyche of the team. That, not so expected one point we bargained for on Saturday, apart from saving us from the ridicule Jose and the rest of the team would have been subjected to, later proved to be more than just a point after the events on Sunday. It was just not a point, in fact it was a precious point after all.
The Super Enjoyable Sunday Matches Later The Following Day
We were the only team which played in Europe (and on Wednesday) that were made to play on Saturday. Jose, being the man who pays attention to details, pointed out to the public to my admiration. It highlighted some inconsistencies by the fixture makers who are not there in the training ground with the manager and the players to understand how difficult it is to prepare for two important matches within a week and how it can affect performance. Then, after they have successfully being able to aid in our capitulation on Saturday, we just had to sit back and enjoy the more special European competition teams including Spurs who played against a team called Sheriff play on Sunday. I thought I would just hurt my feeling more by paying attention to these matches but, boy, Tim Krul’s Newcastle just changed my mind. If getting a point at home is not good for you, then try to be a Spurs fan just for that Tim Krul Sunday only and you will appreciate what we just did on Saturday. The Stadium of Light later followed with an interesting course of event that went to relieve us more of any disappointment When Sunderland had to repeat the same dosage they have been serving Manchester City in the last couple of seasons. So it was a typical moment of “if you think the kitchen is hot, try being in hell” where comparison of events make your bad look good in front of the worst.
The November Champions Couldn’t hold their Own at The New Trafford
We just into the first week of November and their 5 unassailable points lead has been slashed to two unreachable points gap after just a visit to The New Trafford, “The Chosen One’s” New Trafford. The days when it was Old Trafford it was a fearsome place to be but today, it is one of those ordinary venues under Moyes and of you call yourself a serious title contender, you go there to prove to the world how serious you are. I believe even under the current Moyes regime who has struggled to win at the New Trafford, Arsenal managed to show how serious they in winning the title by just not having the balls to take the ball to United and force De Gea to make saves. They were content passing the ball around their own area and just around the area of United. If you want to be called a serious contender, Old Trafford is a good place to prove it. Chelsea did it severally and City just desecrated the whole place by their 6-1 demolition two seasons ago to show a statement of intent. This was the time Arsenal needed to prove their mettle but they just melted after the hype the media did following their win at Dortmund. I even just realized we have closed them up by a point thanks to that priceless point we fought for.
KTBFFH!
By Seth Adusei (twitter @sethaadusei)
