David Luiz scored a great goal for Arsenal last night.
And Frank Lampard\’s penalty was an even better goal for Arsenal.
Vidic, sent off again, will miss Anfield and Liverpool now have the giant Andy Carroll fit enough to play as a sub in Sunday\’s game.
Can\’t see Liverpool-Manchester United being as thrilling as last night, but you never know.
Exciting footballers play exciting football by rising above the humdrum, the ordinary, the predictable. And we saw one last night.
An adventurous defender, David Luiz is an incredible athlete who can have a big influence on a game of football.
When Chelsea got a corner, Luiz grabbed John O’Shea’s shirt, won the header, whistle went, Ivanovic hit the loose ball into the net, United took the free-kick quickly and counter-attacked at electric pace through Nani.
Immediately, this was a firecracker of a match.
Luiz cut out a Hernandez cross, released Ramires, who beat Fletcher twice and found Anelka, whose cross reaching the incoming Malouda, his shot was far too straight to have a chance, Terry stopped a Nani shot with his shoulder, an Evra cross went begging at the far post : it was an all-action contest.
Really didn\’t like Sir Alex\’ s midfield of Fletcher- Carrick-Scholes-Nani…….but who else was available? I thought that midfield could cost United the game.
When Nani crossed nicely from the left, Rooney miscued a header that hit his shoulder after the ball came over the head of Luiz. What a miss! How off-form can you be, Wayne? That was grotesque !
When I saw that, I thought Chelsea would win. When Hernandez saw it, he held his face in his gloves. The Mexican was thinking what we were thinking : “How could he miss that?”
In a game like this, with the score at 0-0, that was a big chance wasted.
A Terry pass to Malouda went straight to Fletcher, then to Rooney, then to Fletcher again but his cross to Hernandez was cut out by that man Luiz in the six-yard box.
When Ramires lost the ball to Evra, his shot was blocked by Luiz, painfully.
Then Nani had a little dribble, passed to Rooney, who spun round into the space Nani had just vacated. The Chelsea defenders were all in position and Luiz, the nearest defender to Rooney, seemed to think, “He can\’t score from there.”
But the pink-faced Irish scouser fired a phenomenal shot between the near post and the fingertips of the diving Petr Cech.
Time : 28 minutes, 57 seconds.
That\’s Wayne Rooney this season. Some bad misses, lots of assists, a few spectacular goals.
In 40, Lampard hit a rocket free-kick that Edwin Van Der Sar parried into Ivanovic, then Vidic blocked the rebound on the line.
When Essien crossed from the left, Ivanovic flicked on and David Luiz hit the best half-volley you\’ll see by a defender in 2011.
What a finish, what a player !
After 54 minutes, it was Chelsea 1 Manchester United 1.
By the time Drogba came on for Anelka in 64, I was convinced it wouldn\’t be a draw.
Rooney went through on the left but shot selfishly and ridiculously, yards wide.
Since his mate arrived from Benfica, Ramires has become a super-charged skirmisher and a bionic water-carrier who makes long, long runs.
Rooney turned Luiz and but fired straight at Cech, then Luiz made a late lunge on Rooney that might have been a second yellow card. I didn\’t think Luiz deserved to go for a late challenge that was not malicious.
Vidic grabbed the shirt of Ramires and pulled him down just outside the box and I\’d have waved play on for that one because Ramires was leaning forward and looking to go down anyway. But Martin Atkinson gave Vidic and second yellow, so he misses Anfield on Sunday.
Then Chelsea got a very lucky goal in 80.
A Lampard pass hit Smalling and broke onto the shin of lively sub Zhirkov, who then fell over Smalling\’s leg. In real time, I didn\’t think the ref would give a penalty.
Having seen it again this morning, it was never a penalty.
But Atkinson pointed to the spot and Lampard walloped it straight down the middle and Chelsea won 2-1 and that\’s severe blow to Manchester United\’s title hopes.
David Luiz does things I\’ve never seen by a player of his size.
Not all of them are sensible things, admittedly. He\’s like Carvalho with size, Lucio with adventure. Sure, it\’s a team game, you need a collective method, but exciting footballers play exciting football and lift the spectacle and Luiz does that. He is electrifying.
Real Madrid, eat your hearts out ! David Luiz makes Sergio Ramos look like a pub player. Both are big, impetuous competitors. But Luiz is an exceptional footballer as well as an alpha male athlete.
This morning I was trying to see think of the last time such an exciting foreign player arrived in English football and make such a big impact from day one. The first name that came to mind was Jurgen Klinsmann. The second, after a lot of head-scratching, was Jose Antonio Reyes.
Really enjoyed last night, a game I had been looking forward to for four days. Hoped it would be an exciting battle, always saw it as under 2.5 goals, but didn\’t have a bet. It looked like a 1-1 or a 1-0 but on the night it was far more open than I figured. I\’d had a long chill-out session in the bath at 6pm to clear my buzzing head and compose my mood and that was wonderful because I never, never have a bath at that time of day. It was nice to calm down before the game. Then I had my pre-match meal (chicken) and parked myself on the sofa.
Yes, David Luiz was somewhat lucky not be sent off. And he was lucky that Carlo Ancelotti took him off before he got sent off. He\’s a huge talent, a big man with skill, playing with panache and the exuberance of youth. OK. he\’s a bit Spinal Tap at the moment but I reckon he\’ll be fine when he turns the volume down to 10.
Commentator Martin Tyler slipped in an aside that you might have missed if you weren\’t listening carefully.
He said United were had been preparing to play without Rooney, since he was in danger of being banned for that elbow when James McCarthy at Wigan.
How badly did the FA handle that?
How weak are the FA? Tell Mark Clattenburg to own up. Tell Clatt to admit his mistake! An elbow in James McCarthy\’s face is a red card, on or off the ball.
Are the rules different for superstars?
Sir Alex said it was nothing and moaned that the media wanted Rooney “hung or electrocuted”.
That\’s rich coming from you, Alex. Your nickname at Rangers was “Razor Elbows”
PS. Mrs Palmer just told me that it was a year ago today that we flew to Marrakech.
Don’t think we’ll be going back to North Africa any time soon.