Three crucial points! Thanks to the linesman and Kalou, in that order. In a remarkable day of favourable results, West Ham complete the double over Man Utd but Arsenal top the table which leaves us trailing them by 6 points.

We started with 4-3-3 once again but Cech and Shevchenko were missing due to injuries. We completely dominated the first half but I don’t mean we played brilliantly. Newcastle were way too horrible and gave no challenge at all. It was just a question of Chelsea taking advantage of a poor opposition and killing the game off. Ideally we should have finished off the game in the first half because the second was going to belong to Newcastle.

In the first half we were really helped by our poor opponents. Sam’s boys were so bad that on a different day they might have got conceded about 3 goals in the first half. Martins was the one and only danger from their side. It was clear that if the supply to Martins is cut, there would not be any threat from Newcastle at all. While we were attacking relentlessly, we could come up with clear cut chances. I was quite happy with the individual performances our players in the first half but the when we got closer to the goal, each of them were having different ideas of finishing the attack. We got a thoroughly deserved lead in the first half. Though the ball brushed Kalou’s arm, that was not a punishable hand ball.

Get ready guys! I’m gonna talk about Grant’s post match comments. I know you’re getting sick of it but you know what, same here. I’m getting sick of his digs. If you think his remarks have no malice and he talks like any other noble gentleman, that’s your view.

I didn’t see it (on Kalou’s offside goal) but we created so many chances that we deserved to win anyway. I think we are in the picture with the race to be champions, I never give up. The situation sometimes is not easy, and if Man Utd didn’t lose today we would continue to fight. You saw the spirit of the team today, they showed great spirit. The supporters are behind us, and know that we are not in easy times with all the problems we have. It’s not easy, I think everybody remembers what happens last year with two or three injured, but today with ten injuries this is the time to speak about the players that played. They showed good football, especially in the first half, a lot of chances, and a lot of character at the end of the game. I made substitutions because after the goal we didn’t play well, Joe Cole had some problems, and Ballack hasn’t played so much so he cannot do 90 minutes in our programme. Because of the problem I preferred to change the system, and changed to 4-2-4 and I think it changed the game, so it was a good sub. You need to think about tactics more carefully than before.

This year better than last year . . blah blah blah . . yawn . . blah blah. Look at him talking about his own tactical brilliance – his substitutions, his change of formation, his tactics – man, he needs appreciation. I’m sure he wants people to say ‘Avram is a master tactician’ or something. No Avram, your tactics did not change the game. Did you thank the linesman after the match? That’s it. My boring, annoying, stinking remarks about Avram’s boring, annoying, stinking post match comments is over.

Today at the Stamford Bridge, Avram Grant was heavily boooooed and he had to listen to the Chelsea fans singing “you don’t know what you’re doing”. That was really bad but I’m very serious when I say Avram needs assistance in building up his image because left to himself, he’s gonna ruin it badly.

Sam Allardyce was furious over the Kalou goal which is quite natural as it costs not only points but also his bloody job! But he should that it is part and parcel of professional football.

It hurts deeply – not just for me but the players in particular. A result has been taken away from us by no fault of our own, by an assistant referee that has got a horrible decision wrong. You have to complain when a decision like this is made and it has cost us a crucial result.

Now coming over to our second half performance. Newcastle was the team that played the second half. When they equalised, that was may be to some extent, against the run of play. From that moment on, they were a completely different team. They pushed us on the back foot and started playing as if they were in St. James Park. We were just spectators for long periods of time and I even thought we’re going to concede sooner or later. The Chelsea I knew was much different than the one I saw today. One thing is opponents like Newcastle would never get to score at the Stamford Bridge. Even if they get to net one, they’d preserve it so well and play for a draw, because one point from Stamford Bridge was quite an achievement. But today, Newcastle equalised at the 56th minute and from then on they played to win and get the three points and in the process, dare to break Chelsea’s home league record.

If Newcastle had won the match, I would not have had anything to complain about them. They deserved something for their show of spirit and perseverance in the second half. By statistics we were clearly the better team but from the 56th minute the away team had real fire in their belly to win the match. For about 25 minutes or so, they outplayed us in fortress Stamford Bridge. And it was so pathetic to see that we were in such terrible panic when Newcastle came at us.

Just when this was all set to become another disappointing draw, Kalou found the net. Kalou could slot it home peacefully because he had lots of time and space. He had lots of time and space because he was offside. Atleast by a couple of metres. As he was celebrating, Kalou kept looking at the linesman as he could not believe his luck. If you want to explain your girlfriend about the offside rule, you can show this goal video. Anyway, I don’t care if it was a good call or bad call. Any goal that stands is a goal. But that does not hide the fact that we allowed Newcastle to outplay us for quite some time while we could muster only few quality chances.

I could not appreciate the two second half substitutions. Pizarro came in for Joe Cole at the 65th minute. Under the situations where we’re looking for a winning goal, I’d not bring in Pizarro. Sinclair early on would have done better than Pizarro. If someone had to be subbed at that time, it must have been Mikel. Mikel is not the ideal guy to keep on the pitch when you’re chasing your winning goal with some urgency (which wasn’t there).

From our side, SWP was impressive. He did not make even one row Z cross. Such a relief. Alex and Belleti were solid. Particulary Alex played with such ease and composure that he made Ben Haim look ridiculous. Tal is really a disaster waiting to happen. I don’t know what happened to him. When he was in Bolton he was quite decent and I had more respect for him then. Kalou did a decent job as the striker, and of course scored the goal that won us the match.

Essien and Ballack were very good and they also seem to play nicely alongside each other. Mikel was average and inconsistent. Hilario was right on the money. He was not really tested to the maximum but c’mon he got a clean sheet against mighty Barca on his Chelsea debut, he is lot better than how we rate him! I liked Joe Cole’s contribution today. He has certainly started to take things on his own, holding the ball for too long, trying his little tricks and all. But today, he was quite busy and effective. Overall, individually there were good contributions but as a team we seem to be failing in certain areas.

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Man Utd and Arsenal taking turns in dropping points is the best thing that can happen for us. Now we are 6 points off Arsenal and Liverpool are 5 points below us with two games in hand. Off track – Fibreglass keeps giving me new reasons to despise him. His ugly dive today had me curse him non-stop for 5 minutes. If there is such thing as football karma, he’s gonna see a long lay off, mark my words. Allright, back to the table. We have got closer to the table leaders which is nice. The manner in which we have been playing gives me butterflies in my stomach. We seem to lack the spirit and gung ho mentality. When teams score against Chelsea, we used to start bombarding them attack after attack to such an extent the opponent would be ruing why they scored he goal. That does not happen now. I don’t see players playing for the collective good. That’s why this 6 points gap looks to me like some 16 points.

I don’t think they look too worried to concede a goal or committing a mistake or to draw or to lose. In the previous seasons, we were a team that hated losing, that hated conceding goals and we felt badly when such things happened and make good if they made a mistake. The current Chelsea outfit reminds me of Real Madrid of 2003-05 – not so much attachment for the club or for the manager, nothing was a matter of worry – conceding goals or losing points or matches. The ‘sense of pride’ is now missing. Hope it will all be allright once the core group of Cech, Terry, Drogba, Essien, Mikel and Lampard get together after the ANC.

Just a couple of days to go for the transfer window. About half a dozen names are discussed with Chelsea and I’m sure we’d be getting 3 or 4 new names. For this to happen we must now get rid of 2 or 3 from the current team. We more or less know those names but I just can’t wait for the incoming names. Hope to see some young and hungry players with the right kind of spirit and attitude, which can sometimes make up for other attributes. We’ll keep discussing on the transfers.