What did he have for lunch?

For the records, Jose Mourinho did shake his hand with Rafa Benitez, once before the start of the match and once after the end. LIke Jose, even I’m puzzled why that should make the headlines. Let’s not bullshit about professional decency. Lot of things are done by all clubs and managers, which beat these protocols and just a handshake may not improve things which cannot improve otherwise, for that matter even hugs and kisses may not.

It’s Premiership and it’s Liverpool. There could be only one possible result. This Chelsea win means much more in the context of Manchester United’s shock defeat at home. Now we are tied in the second place with Man United with 12 points from 5 matches and trailing only to Pompy who have 13 points. So, my prediction of Chelsea topping the table by end of September looks much more possible.

I have to say that the better team lost. Yes, Liverpool was easily the dominant team even when Chelsea had 11 men. In the first half Chelsea played without too much of a plan or objective with occasional spurt of action especially during set pieces. Liverpool defended well and Chelsea couldn’t pierce them through easily. Often Chelsea were under-estimating the Liverpool defence or expecting some kind of favours from them. Whereas Liverpool attacks had more venom in them and they looked more like taking the lead. It took a moment of brilliance to end this painful deadlock. It was Lampard’s high-lob cross (which was not uninterceptble!) that proved to be the key. Chelsea’s talisman Didier Drogba chested it before he blasted it past Reina to his right. He gave absolutely no chance to anyone. Sheva was once again not too impressive. He may be thinking why did he invite Tiger Woods to see this match of all. He still has a score to settle with Liverpool and let’s see when he does that.

Michael Ballack did deserve a red card for that stamp on Momo Sissoko. Some referees might have given only a yellow. It appeared that it was a mis-timed tackle and a quite unintentional one. Ballack also said later that he spoke to Sissoko and tendered his apology. He also apologised to the team and the manager for putting them into a difficult situation in a crucial stage of a crucial match.

On the red card incident, Jose Mourinho said:

“It is a red card but I would like to say it is the first red card of Michael Ballack’s career. The other thing is that he gets a red card for a foul on a player who should not have been on the pitch.”

After Chelsea were reduced to 10 men, they were just trying to win the match by holding on. I should say Chelsea defended very well indeed supported by the excellent work by Cech. There was this brave save by Cech off the full-blooded close range shoot by Gerrard, which was the highlight of Cech’s performance today. Robben was introduced with around 15 minutes to go and he was just live wire. Only after Robben arrived, I could see what we were missing all along - the pace, the tempo and the terror. He should have won a penalty when he was pushed from behind. With Ballack under suspension for the next three matches, we could see Robben in the playing eleven and even a change in the formation.

Liverpool looked a very different team today. They played with purpose and they wanted to prove a point. Dirk Kuyt was very visible and did trouble Chelsea once too often. Gerrard had his chances and with some luck, could have easily had a goal against his name. Sissoko was very active in the middle and he was lucky not to have been sent off. Crouch came in late and had a good header to his name which was cleanly pouched by Cech.

Good news is 3 points against a top team and trailing the leaders by only one point. Bad news is that the team could not play fluently.

Jose Mourinho put all that I mentioned in a few diplomatic lines:

“Sometimes if you win with just quality, playing fantastic and scoring a lot of goals you can feel you are a great team. But you need these matches where you feel you are a team ready to fight. My players were very brave and the team fought very hard”

Arsene Wenger finally had something to smile as Arsenal were celebrating. If you see those clippings on a different day, you might mistake them for some of their cup celebrations. Okay, fair play to them, they played well and thoroughly deserved their three points. But Man United did not deserve to lose either. A fair result would have been a 0-0 draw or 1-0 win to Man Utd but this is football.

May be the absence of Thierry Henry and van Persie did help them. Because the current team played with a different philosophy than the one in the last three matches. Today, they did pass the ball, but when it mattered they shot. The goal was not from one of these outside box shots, but these shots really increased the confidence level and they started believing in their ability. The one player who stood out all the match and was a constant threat to the Man Utd goal was Tomas Rosicky. He doesn’t mind giving it a try and he’s got the skill to put one in. Adebayor worked very hard and his time did come with 5 minutes to go from an intelligent and accurate pass from Fabregas.

Man Utd was very unlucky to come out with no points. They had more shots on/off target. The new keeper Kuszczak did a great job in saving the Gilberto penalty and also made quite a few citical saves. Adebayor dived inside the penalty box excatly the same way as van Persie did against Hamburg. I hope all this is not part of the startegy and practised int he training ground. Though Rooney was not too impressive, Cristiano Ronaldo played beautifully. Surely he must have scored atleast one goal. He constantly beat players and in one such attempt in the wrong place he lost the ball which ultimately resulted in the goal.
Arsene Wenger grew in confedence and said:

“We are not a team in transition. We are a big club who want to win championships. There is great potential in this team. I strongly believe in the quality of the players and results like this have to help”

Unlike the Arsenal fans, who have now started saying that Arsenal will do the treble this year, I would play this down a little bit until Arsenal is able to win the next four matches, which are on paper, easy ones - Sheff Utd, Charlton, Reading & Watford. If they get anything less than 10 points from these 4 matches, I’m sorry. Winning one match with an 85th minute goal is easier than being consistent all through the season. If you think like just a football fan, you will see the truth in this statement.

Chelsea’s performance today: [rating:3/5]
[tags] Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool, Jose Mourinho, Arsene Wenger, Rafa Benitez, Drogba, Adebayor, Fabregas, Lampard, Ballack, Henry, van Persie, Rosicky, Kuyt, Gerrard, Cech [/tags]