The Man in The Shed
There’s nothing quite like the feeling after a good win
against a top six rival is there ? After playing in three different cup
competitions over the last week with mixed results it was back to the bread and
butter of the league last night. If you needed a perfect way to lift the team
which pushed City to a penalty shootout before falling by the wayside it would be
a home game against Spurs !
There’s always that edge against Spurs as well. Call me
stupid but somewhere along the way I clearly missed the memo which explained
why they should be hated above all others. In my book you get most wound up by a
team because they have won lots of trophies in the recent past. So United and
Arsenal would be at the top for me; Liverpool less so as they fail under the
term “recent” and then City because they’ve only been good for the last few
years. But Spurs, the team until recently which we took six points per season
as a given, who couldn’t beat us at The Bridge for over 25 years – really ? I
couldn’t see a League cup win over ten years ago as worthy of a mention. Let’s
face it, their trophy cabinet must be like the Carlsberg complaints department
(for younger readers check this out https://youtu.be/8oTs6Oz-OW8
).
The evening played out almost to perfection. Yes, it would
have been nice if Higuain’s sliced shot had hit the post and gone in; yes, it
would have been nice if big Willy played the game of his life to validate Sarri’s
decision to bench Kepa but there was plenty more to enjoy. Alonso playing his
best game for months (perhaps we should drop him regularly), Pedro scoring and making
“that” saving tackle and then “England World cup hero” Trippier giving Giroud
another assist – could it get any better ?
The home crowd had delivered their “A game” with plenty of
loud support throughout (why can’t it be this lively every game ?) and we
finished off with all four sides serenading Poch, his team and supporters with “Tottenham
Hotspur - it’s happened again”.
When it comes to supporting your team and enjoying it – this
really was an opportunity to milk it to the maximum. I certainly did.
So where do we go from here ? A season that began in far
better style than we all expected with a long unbeaten run has now defied the
logic that the team would get better over time as “Sarri-ball” became subconscious
for the squad with six defeats in 12. Has Sarri’s one trick pony been figured
out already ? Is Jorginho really the key to this system of play ? Can he adapt
to the EPL ? Will Chelsea fans ever grow to love a man that cannot complete a
shot on target that isn’t a penalty or provide an assist ?
Most worrying is the lack of shots on target. None in two
hours against City and one against Spurs. And when are we going to play in a
way which gets the best out of our latest number nine ?
Still, there are lots of winnable league games in March so
let’s see if we can get back into the top 4 by Easter !
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