The Man in The Shed
14th December –
Sitting sipping my pre-match coffee I began to speculate
over the January transfer window. Chelsea had a sizable chunk of money in the
bank following the sale of Hazard and others in the summer. The question was if
or who might they set their sights on and who might actually be persuaded to
come for an acceptable price ? Marina Granovskaia was turning out to be a
pretty shrewd operator.
The likely casualties / outgoing players seemed clear –
Giroud, Pedro, Alonso and perhaps even Barkley. An ever increasing list of
potential arrivals was circulating from the possible (lesser knowns) to the
impossible (Chilwell, Zaha) to the ridiculous (Mbappé). My main hope was that
we didn’t ship in a prima donna to upset what appeared to be a great team
spirit in the camp.
The weather had improved after almost a week of wet and
windy days and nights which was a relief.
Like Lille, Bournemouth had announced a second string team
although in this case it was due to an appalling injury list with 9 major
players out. The Chelsea team was unremarkable other than the fact that Pedro
was the only potential leaver in the 18.
Of course one of the reported transfer targets was Ake (out
injured today). In my opinion not an upgrade on any of our existing centre
backs.
Well Bournemouth surprised me by starting quickly and taking
the game to Chelsea. Not the 11 behind the ball I was expecting. Although this
initial energy petered out, the first half an hour was very low on excitement
as the away team gradually reverted to type and defending deep.
Half time arrived and I could find almost nothing to get
excited about – it was just one of those dire games. It seemed that a pattern
was starting to form; whilst teams had been coming to Stamford Bridge for years
and being defensive, this young Chelsea team were now struggling to break them
down.
Beside an Emerson close range header there was little to
show for a Chelsea chance. I was getting that desperate that I was ready to
accept a 0-0 draw, such was my concern that we looked like we’d not score if we
played all evening.
And then VAR struck again. From a Bournemouth corner a deft
flick over Kepa dropped into the net and everyone seemed satisfied that the
scorer was offside. Kepa stood ready to kick off and the players lined up at
the centre line. Time went into slow motion for what seemed like ten minutes
before the goal was given. Cue delirium at the Bournemouth end.
And that was it. The unpredictability of football at its
worst. A team who had lost their last five games and were missing almost their
entire first team had beaten fourth placed Chelsea away from home.
For the first time this season Lampard was publicly critical
of our team. He was also a little critical of the home fans and you couldn’t
blame him – it wasn’t the most atmospheric today.
It was the worst of four scenarios for a football fan –
played badly and lost. No real passion and a lack of creativity.
We move on. A whole week for the players to recover before
the small matter of a London derby at Tottenham (and Jose).
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