There are times when your team loses but make you hold your head high in pride. Yesterday, the way we played, the performance of the players and the manager were all sub-standard and to some extent shameful.

Let me warn you before you read the rest of the article. I’m gutted to have lost, to have lost to Tottenham, to have lost in Wembley, to have lost in a final, to have lost when we had the full squad to choose from, to have lost when we had two extra days than Spurs to prepare for this match and to have lost in this fashion. So this article would sound negative to some of you, but that’s fine, atleast it matches with our performance yesterday.

A win for Chelsea would have been undeserved and would have been daylight robbery. Chelsea did not play it like a final. We did not do enough to deserve the trophy. Worst is, we did not seemed to have the desire or motivation to win the prize. Ramos outplayed Grant and more than made up for the shortage of the quality of his players. Just like the way we have been blessed with generous draws in cup competitions, we had the advantage of playing Spurs in the final, instead of Man Utd, Arsenal or Liverpool or even Everton. Lying at No.10 in the league table, you’d expect Spurs to play with their heart on their sleeves and lose the match, just like good underdogs do. Spurs took the game to us, gained territorial and psycological superiority very early and pushed Chelsea back.

Grant started with his 4-3-3 but could not resist the temptation of playing both Drogba and Anelka. That was the first screw-up. Drogba and Anelka are both alike in the manner they would drift away on the pitch, playing out of position and trying to create things rather than finish things. That left unutilised empty spaces and unwnted congestion at the same time in different areas. SWP got a start. The second screw-up. When we have a full squad to choose from, I really don’t know how SWP has merited a start in a cup final! SWP has always been found wanting in big matches and this was absolutely no different. So that makes the front three. No wonder we didn’t have a shot on goal for 40 minutes.

To start with Essien and Mikel in a three-man midfield was the third screw-up. When we have a fully fit first choice backline and a world class goalkeeper, I don’t know why we had to go for the double protection of Mikel and Essien. In the end, I saw one of Essien’s worst performances ever for Chelsea. Essien seemed to have been struggling with his role there on the pitch and ended up doing nothing. Lampard was bright in the first half, went missing in the second half and re-appeared when it mattered but was too late by then.

Belletti started the match on a wrong note and continued the same way all match. He was rounded up once too many and we might have conceded two or three goals from his end in the first 30 minutes. Carvalho was shaky but had Terry and Cech to make up when he stumbled. John Terry was the best player of the match for me, followed by Wayne Bridge. Terry absolutely showed why he should be picked above Alex. Even the whole argument looks so funny now. In a day of lacklustre performance, he shone right through and did his best to fire up his colleagues.

Only bright moment of the match was the goal. It came when I was expecting Spurs to score and take a deserved lead. It was against the run of play but a goal is a goal. I thought at least the goal should turnaround our performance and shut the match with some controlled aggression. I expected the Spurs heads to drop but credit to Ramos for instilling thet confidence and making them still go for it. I remembered what Ramos said before this match. He said he would make his teams truly believe that they can match and win the big teams, just like Sevilla came through against Real Madrid and Barcelona. He did just that yesterday.

I would put this defeat squarely on Grant. Yes the performance of the players were appalling but that’s what the manager should have stepped in. I’ve been saying this for many matches now. Grant is not showing up when it matters and it’s happening way too often. He got the team selection wrong. He got the formation for the selected team wrong. He got the timing of the substitutions wrong. The sight of Grant walking so slowly and scratching his head while Terry was screaming his heart out to his colleagues at the extra time break said volumes. Ramos cannot speak English but he communicated to his team better than Grant did to his.

Someone should tell Grant that we can make substitutions in the first half too. SWP’s horrendous display would have seen him out in the first half under any manager who knew how to win this match. Kalou came in and made the difference and created the closest chance for Chelsea. Ballack did not play because Grant wanted Lampard to play and did want to have both of them on the pitch. Still he could have played 4-4-2 with his classy strikers. Or he could have played the 4-4-2 diamond like Jose did, which accomodated both Lampard and Ballack and was not disastrous to say the least. Did someone count how many aerial passes were directed to Didier Drogba? I don’t have a problem with that if it fetches goals but let’s not fool ourselves that we don’t play long passes (we that’s what Grant meant by longballs) anymore.

Last few seasons, when teams score against us or take a lead against us, we would torment them with an array of attacks and won’t rest until we regain the advantage. There was some real fire in the belly. They had the burning desire to win and prove critics wrong. Yesterday, we woke up so bloody late that Tottenham had it so easy to shut shop. We lacked the urgency and I think that was more down to the lack of confidence of the players that they can win this match. I saw Chelsea resigning to defeat with a good 20 minutes to go. We started to attack late on only because Ramos wanted to take the win by defending. If Spurs had continued to play the same way, it might have been even more painful.

I have been saying this for many weeks now. Chelsea under Grant, have been poor against decent oppositions. Any team with a decent players or a decent manager would give a run for our money now and might even defeat us. You don’t need a world class manager for a Chelsea team to beat Fulham, Blackburn and the like. The manager’s signature is on the big matches such as the ones against the top rivals and also in the crucial matches such as yesterday. Chelsea looked like they had no ideas of how to play and what tactic to follow, especially after Spurs took the lead. Spurs scored their second goal in the 94th minute, which means we had 26 whole minutes to equalise and we came close genuinely just once. Grant looks so clueless sometimes that he prefers to watch the game rather than change it. Is he scared to making changes? I thought he was brought here to bring about ‘change’!

Now don’t ask for time to briong about ‘changes’. Ramos took charge in the middle of a season. He has turned around Spurs this season. They have beaten Arsenal 5-1 dammit and beaten Grant’s first choice squad in a final. Good managers don’t need time. They come, they see, they conquer.

Quadruple, my foot! Oh I’m sorry, we are still in three other competitions. In all these three competitions, we are going to face stiffer challenges from stronger oppositions. In Champions league, we still have teams like Barca, Madrid, Man Utd, Liverpool, Milan etc. To see this Chelsea team winning that competition ahead of these names is looking dreamy now. In the FA Cup, there is still Manchester United who are kicking everyone’s backside with fearsome aggression. In the league, I would like to believe that we are still in with a chance. But Sir Alex is a classic run and he knows how to get things done.

Where do we go from now? No idea. I’m nearly convinced that Grant does not make the cut as the manager for a club like Chelsea. For a man of his age and experience, I don’t see him changing or transforming in the short term. But the players would feel the hurt. They have got used to be champions, they have won trophies and they would know that Chelsea should have beaten a team like Spurs. This defeat can either dwindle their confidence and have a negative impact on the rest of the season or fire them up and show what they’re made of. I sincerely hope that it is the latter.

Have I gone overboard with this match reaction? Nah. I’m not just looking at this match. This match reaction is also influenced by the ‘transformation’ of Chelsea of late and the potential to win things under Grant. But you know what, Avram Grant can make a fool out of me by winning the champions league or the premier league. How I’d love to be the fool!