Chelsea 2 Manchester City 4
The lunchtime game was a yawn for 40 minutes.
I was thinking about Ruud Gullit’s comment about “waiting for that moment.”
Then that moment came in 41 when Joe Cole got the ball in a good position and played in Lampard to score.
Chelsea passed backwards and sideways a lot, lacked spark on a very damp pitch, looked stale. It was a Serie A snooze hosted by two Italian coaches, Ancelotti and his friend Roberto Mancini.
Four minutes later, in first half stoppage time, Mikel backheaded a long ball to Tevez, who beat Terry and Carvalho and scuffed a low shot that rolled and rolled and rolled across Hilario and trickled in.
At half-time I thought : John Terry is past it, the whole team is past it. But Joe Cole is doing OK. They’ve been scrambling results for weeks without playing well. They miss Essien hugely. Essien’s absence leaves a huge hole. The team’s off-field activities have been FAR too visible and it’s a side in which too many players are automatic selections. If the team’s run by Terry, Lampard and Drogba, that’s not right. Managers Avram Grant, Scolari and Hiddink have all come and gone and it’s the same team getting old and complacent.
At 1-1 it looked like a big half-time for Ancelotti.
If Chelsea don’t win the next 45 minutes, it’s mega for the title race. Their season could go down the toilet and little old Arsenal could jog past them.
After 51, Bellamy took on the dithering Mikel and cut in and put his low shot past Hilario far too easily and then Chelsea started picking up yellow cards as the old boys got rattled. Because Chelsea had won all their home games in the league except Everton (3-3).
Kalou for Carvalho was a bold substitution, to put it mildly.
WHAT DID FABIO CAPELLO THINK OF ALL THIS, I was wondering.
Then Belletti clattered into the back of Gareth Barry in the box and Tevez buried the penalty to put the league leaders 3-1 down. And Belletti was sent off.
Then Mancini brought Roque Santa Cruz on for Wayne Bridge to spare him the handshake moment.
When Ballack hacked Tevez from behind, Mike Dean sent him off. Two yellows.
Sub Sean Wright-Phillips broke away to set up Bellamy for 4-1 and when Barry felled Anelka in the box, Lampard sent Given the wrong way and it finished 4-2.
When did we first say it? When did we say : It’s Chelsea’s to lose.
It’s been a very strange season and this 4-2 shocker was the strangest I’ve seen so far. In their wildest dreams, City did not expect to win 4-2 on a ground where they have not won for 17 years.
Carlos Tevez is a real footballer. Always working, always battling, never giving up a ball.Since he has been out, City have played four games and lost four games. Now he comes back and scores two goals at Chelsea. If I was picking a team to play for my life, Tevez would be in it.
But it’s a fantastic result for Arsenal. What a break ! What an incentive! What an opportunity at the Brittania at 5.30 !
What can Arsenal do at Stoke?
PS How’s this for a Craig Bellamy quote on BBC 606 website :
On the JohnTerry/ Wayne Bridge situation: “You guys make a lot more of it. I know what JT is like and nothing surprises me about him. Everyone knows what he’s like. But that’s off the pitch. On it he’s an outstanding player and a great captain.”
Craig, off-field affects on-field.
JT has been playing badly for months, long before the scandal broke.