I dont think any Chelsea fan would have walked off the stadium or switched off their TV sets until the final whistle. With such kind of stoppage time wins and draws, we are not doing any good to Sir Aex Ferguson’s health. Think of him. He must have been jumping for joy in the final moments and there comes Kalou to break the old man’s heart!

Jose’s team selection, in hindsight, looks to be correct. This was not one of those walk in the park kind of games as most of us expected. Watford are playing at home and they are fighting for their survival in the Premiership. With just a few more matches to go, they are not in a mood to sit back and defend, while Chelsea charged with attack after attack. They decided to attack us and surprisingly they did rather well. They lacked quality and that was quite evident. Lot of their chances could have produced goals if they had that extra bit of quality, it would have been all over for Chelsea. Overall, they were matching us in every department and were always a constant threat. Well played Watford!

May be Jose knew with his ‘third-eye’, what Watford had to offer. He packed the starting eleven with the best possible players at his disposal. I was shocked to see Lampard with his hand bandage on and he played for 90 minutes. May be, Jose should have played Mikel in place of Lampard and given him some rest. If Lampard was involved in some kind of nasty tackle worsening his already fractured arm, we could have possibly lost him for the Champions league matches. I certainly dont think this was worth the risk.

As much as Watford playing well, we were very poor in front of the goal. See, this was the list of players, who missed some sitters – Drogba, Shevchenko, Lampard, Ballack and on second viewing of the match I could go with more. In fact, the miss by Ballack would qualify for the funniest football videos compilation. With some weird slapstick background music, it could be even better. Drogba played very well but still I have this feeling that he is over-awed by his own form and he keeps trying to score ‘brilliant, magnificent, stunning’ goals rather than just goals. He now has this beautiful first touch which gives him some extra seconds on the ball, which he does not want to make full use of.

Very typically, we were playing low gear and low tempo football. No one really seemed too bothered to play well in this match and thought that they had 3 points in the pocket. Only in the second half we realised that this could bloody well end in a goalless draw. By that time, Watford had grown in confidence and they had fantastic crowd support to keep them going. We had all reasons to panic, with the kind of spirit with which Watford was playing. And we did panic. I expected Chelsea to come back strongly in the second half and roll them over. On the contrary, we were in panic and we played some chaotic football in losing the possession, conceding freekicks/corners and not stringing together in attack.

Cech was once again the reason why we are still in the hunt for the Premiership. He made some fantastic saves. Especially his quick reaction save off the scissors kick by Kabba was outstanding. Every single match, he makes me feel that he has made the difference between No.1 spot and the No.2 spot. Carvalho, as always made some crucial tackles and interceptions as Chelsea was looking more and more worried by every passing minute. With Ashley Cole taken off to put more pressure on Watford, Carvalho and Terry had to play a more decisive role as even one goal conceded could have put Chelsea in deep waters. I should say, when Terry was injured in the first minute of play, I couldnt help but think about the injury curse on Chelsea this season. Luckily, Terry was back on his feet and played his heart out throughout the match.

With just seconds to go for the final whistle, came the moment I was waiting for. Chelsea were not going to finish this game without giving everything they had. Ballack, after a poor 90 minutes, nudged a off-balance pass to SWP who had the only option of giving it to Sheva, who dribbled along before he delivered a perfect cross in the middle. Both Drogba and Kalou rose above as high as they can, and Salomon Kalou forcefully headed the ball inside the net to bring ecstasty to Jose, Roman and all millions of Blues fans. Like he did against Spurs, once again Kalou bailed us out, coming in as a sub.

[video]http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/3DNLiOxkghtJcbdZ8[/video]

Jose was very very honest in his assessment of this match and our hope in the Premiership, when he was asked if we were 2 mins away from handing over the title to Man Utd:

Mathematically no, because there is still 21 points in the game, but if we got to eight it is much more difficult so it was a crucial goal and a crucial victory and we are there still. I think it was a very difficult game, and we didn’t play well. Especially in the first half, the game was very difficult. The pitch is small and bad, the opponents press a lot and fought and run, a game without big quality.

I never like matches after international weeks, especially double international weeks because the players don’t come in in the best conditions. Some come tired and some don’t train much. It is always difficult and only our belief gave us that chance because, in terms of the quality of the game and in terms of the game, I think a draw was a fair result for them because they fought a lot.

The way we gamble, one day we can have a bad day. Today when we finished the game with three defenders and they brought Bouazza on, they could easily have scored on the counter attack. But if you have to die, it is better if you gave everything than feel at the end of the game there is more you could have done. So I gambled everything and my players accepted once more the risk and they have the belief in themselves. They fought and they won the game.

Meanwhile, Man Utd at home, crushed Blackburn from being a goal down. Not that I expected Blackburn to win but atleast for all that they managed for 60 minutes, they should have gone for a draw. Man Utd will have to travel to Portsmouth and Everton and play Boro at home – all this month. At the Anfield, Liverpool scored a thumping 4-1 win to avenge their cup defeats to Arsenal. Such was Arsenal’s misery that Peter Crouch scored a superb hattrick.

Though we made heavy weather of this game, we survive and can still call ourselves aiming for the quad. Well, I’m more than happy to be in contention for all-four in the month of April, in the background of the on-field and off-field troubles that Chelsea has experienced this season. Something keeps telling me that the Premiership is not over yet. When Man Utd get their rude shock, we will always be there to deliver the killer punch! March on Blue Army!