Fantastic match for neutrals. Surely a heartstopper for the Chelsea/Spurs supporters. Quite a typical injury-inflicted Chelsea performance of this season – concede a few goals courtesy of poor defending, throw bodies, change tactics, increase the gear, be just-in-time for a win/draw. And worst of all, do this at home. Anyway, while the negatives are there for everyone to see, I thoroughly enjoyed the positives – spirit, spirit and spirit. Not one moment, we looked like we were going to surrender. Coming back to level scores from 1-3 at home, we were not content with a draw and still went for a win. Credit to Spurs. Whenever they did not waste time, they played very positive and attacking football.

All three goals conceded were caused by our poor defensive errors. I would hold Ricardo responsible for the first goal where he went chasing the ball and opened the door at the back. Essien showed once again that even a world class midfielder will struggle at central defence against stronger teams. What he did was an interception which is normal and appreciated if it had happened in the midfield, but at the defence his margin of error is hardly anything. Surely John Terry would have given a shout to Cech to collect the ball while he would have shielded the attacker. Well, Michael Essien is not John Terry. The third goal was an embarrassment to say the least. A poor clearance by Cole followed by a gathered scrambling of defenders for 50-50 ball which made things all too easy for Ghaly.

In all these goals plus in some more occasions, our positioning was unfortunate as we preferred went aggressively chasing the player with the ball, while we created space in the back line for Spurs to exploit. While Cech might consider this result as an insult, there is nothing much he could have done in preventing this situation. By the way, a trivia for you – when was the last time Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea conceded three goals at the Bridge?

Thankfully the first half disaster was undone by our relentless attacking play in the second half. Jose gave the deserved praise for the players’ mentality:

I contributed with my substitutions but the players did it. It is all about the players. The team’s character, spirit and belief are very important. The players’ mentality was very, very good. We were almost out of the FA Cup when we were two goals down but at the end we are still in the competition.

It was a magnificent game for all the supporters. There were two magnificent teams out there but the third team, the referee, was not magnificent. If Mike Riley is in charge for the replay he needs to be better because today I thought his performance was not good.

The refereeing was dubious. I thought Sheva was punished quite a few times for no foul of his. Whereas quite a few fouls on Drogba went unnoticed. Starting from the 60th minute, Martin Jol made a tactical move whereby his players started to waste time at every possible opportunity. I dont mind seeing players sent off for wasting time. All players know that the worst that would happen is a yellow card and most cases they seem to be ready for it in the bargain.

Martin Jol said this while did not confirm if he was talking about this same match:

We scored goals and I felt their equaliser was a lucky goal – even their second was a cheap goal.

Forgive this funny old man. Can’t digest the fact that he let the apple slip through this fingers. Lampard’s equaliser was a fantastic one and he was thoroughly deserved for his presence of mind. Same goes for his second goal. Crespo scores like that day in and day out. Those kind of goals are van Nistelrooy’s bread and butter. And if we hadnt scored those goals, we would have scored in some other manner. Chelsea’s comeback was always there and this cannot be denied by Jol. It’s funny that Martin Jol seems to take full credit for the Essien own goal, which in fact, is truly a lucky goal.

Chelsea’s first equaliser was a well worked goal which once again involved Drogba, Sheva and Ballack (he did mis-hit) before Frank Lampard cleaned up. Once again, you should give credit to Frank for being in the right place at the right time and doing the right thing. Same holds good for the second goal too. I’ve seen Fibreglass showing us the miss of the season so I know that the ‘doing the right thing’ part is the most important one. And then with just over 3 regulation time minutes remaining, Drogba headed to the centre of the 6-yard box knowing his fellow-Ivorian is there and Kalou slammed a volley to send the Stamford Bridge esctatic.

[video]http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/2cURohXEd404pa04I[/video]

With the scoreline at 1-2 at 34 mins, Jose subbed off Ferreira for SWP. It was obvious that he was getting impatient as he just cannot contemplate losing. When Chelsea ended the first half at 1-3, I was sure that Jose would mastermind a second half come back at any cost. While we started the second at a frenzied pace, Jose changed the formation to 4-3-3 and with just over 60 mins, we changed to 3-4-3 and soon he took off Diarra and Cole too.

For the last 10 or 15 minutes, Chelsea played with just two at the back, while every single player knew what that meant and did their best in not making any passing errors or not losing the possession in the midfield. To have just two at the back, in a home match where you have already conceded three goals, you need lots of guts. Jose was running the risk of being humiliated, if his two-man defence was to be beaten. Knowing Jose, he wants a win. He does not see a difference between 1-3 loss or 1-5 loss as they basically mean to him as defeats, simply. As a fellow-manager, Martin Jol would know that Jose Mourinho has stolen the match from him with his sheer dugout tactics.

While I’m proud of the way we fought back with vengeance, I would be happier if we dont allow ourselves to be trailing in the first place. We have squandered a superb opportunity of wrapping up this quarterfinal at the Bridge. To replay at White Hart lane and win is some task. I’m confident that we’ll put the Spurs out of the cup in front of their own fans. Terry will be back and let’s maul them there.