It does not need a Jose Mourinho’s team to ‘kill Chelsea’. Barnsley just did it. A very strong Chelsea team were beaten by a team that is 33 places below them. Simple as that. We were just three matches away from defending our trophy. In a matter of few weeks, we are out of both domestic cups. Barnsley thoroughly deserved their win. Full credit to their players and their manager. I wish them all the luck to go on to win the trophy.

We started with a very very strong team. The intention was very clear by the team selection. This game was not taken lightly. Grant wanted to win this game. There were no reserve players in the starting line-up as such. There were no youngsters either. We are the defending champions and we need this trophy back. That was the message I got from the team selection for this FA Cup quarter final.

We played our typical 4-3-3 with a confused Anelka as the centre forward, right winger and the left winger. It took just a few minutes to realise that Barnsley could well be a headache. As the game progressed, I realised that they were more than a headache. They wanted to win this game and they did not think of sitting back defending Chelsea attacks. They came at us boldly and played with absolutely no fear.

I would put the blame on the coach more than the players because the buck simply stops at the manager, doesn’t it? I don’t think our players played poorly, some of them were but not all. To be honest, the spirited Barnsley bunch made us look poor. Grant was once again slow to read the game and unable to influence the game with this live match decisions and involvements.

We were very predictable in the way we played. I don’t think Barnsley were mentally stretched to undo the Chelsea attacks. Sure we had a good number of shots but most of them were simply poops, easily blocked and calmly saved. The Barnsley keeper did not even have to make a good save. We did not even test him for all the number of shots. Poops.

The funny thing to say is, Barnsley attacked better, with more imagination and variety. They dribbled with ease and confidence that we were completely taken aback. I wonder if the Chelsea coaching team watched the previous matches of Barnsley in this competition and in the coca cola championship. It did not look like we had a plan. It looked like the Chelsea players were unpleasantly surprised by the quality of play of Barnsley.

I’m not going over the individual player performances. It now looks like such a waste of time. When Portsmouth defeated Man Utd this evening, I was completely convinced that this FA Cup belongs to Chelsea. There would be no Arsenal, Liverpool or Man Utd. It would have been a relatively easy route to winning the trophy. Now, we’ve made a mess of the domestic competitions.

I would accept losing in domestic competitions if:

(i) we are playing youth and reserves
(ii) we lose at the earlier stages of the competition
(iii) we dominate the opponent and we simply unlucky not to win
(iv) we are not serious about this competition
(v) we have better chances of winning something else in the season

I too strongly believe Roman wants to win everything on sight. I wonder what happens after this defeat. Will Avram Grant be given the boot? Are we going to go through another round of players infighting, coach-player quarrels, Roman’s stabilisation visit etc. How would he be feeling? We have a fully fit squad but for Petr Cech, we are playing better as per Avram Grant, we had just scored 7 goals in two matches and suddenly we can’t find the net against a championship team? And it wasn’t even a stoppage time heart stopper like they scored against Liverpool. They scored at the 66th minute and there were about 25 minuted to weave attacks and score one goal. We couldn’t even take the match to a replay at Stamford Bridge.

After the match Avram Grant said:

It is a big disappointment, a quarter-final we lost. I think first I need to congratulate Barnsley. They played very well today, and showed a good spirit. For us it was not a pitch we can play quality football on. In the first half we played not good, second half we started very well, very quick, and created chances, but then conceded a goal and we couldn’t score so they won. [A long ball game] is not my idea, we tried to play. In the second half we played good until we conceded a goal, which was their first attack of the half, but again I give a lot of credit to Barnsley.

These things happen. Man United lost at home to Portsmouth, and we played away against a team that beat Liverpool away. I don’t know but I’m very disappointed. I wanted them to play but they are injured so they didn’t play, but we played with a team good enough to win this game. We lost the Carling Cup and then we played two great games, 4-0 and 3-0. We lost the game today, we are not happy from this but it has happened to all four big teams this year. Maybe this year the Cup is not for the big teams. We move on and look forward, we have two competitions to fight for. You can say it yes, since I came to Chelsea this is my most disappointing day, [but] we have a good team and look to the future.

Now Grant makes us believe that this is just another result. He takes shield under the fact that none of the big four teams are not there in the cups. This is a very cheap defeatist mentality. I don’t want my Chelsea coach to sound like this! Also he simply can’t say this because the other teams in big four did not have friendly owners with deep pockets. When Grant has all the support and the money, he should deliver. No excuses. He got all the players he wanted to buy in January. I don’t think many teams spent like we did in January. He got all his players fit and ready. He even had the luxury of not having to play two of his January signings. And here is a team that we should beat with our second team with ease. In a difficult pitch, we should have played much more in the air, that’s sensible smart tactics. It’s much better than losing to Barnsley. I don’t understand why Grant considers the playing in the air so bloody inferior?

Why does he have to talk about the 4-0 against West Ham and 3-0 against Olympiakos here? Why is he saying ‘but it happened to all four big teams’? What does he mean? We will play another couple of great games and lose when it matters? This defeat was the very reason why I did not weigh those big wins so heavily. I always felt that, on the whole, we are slowly losing our resilience and our collective character. The killer instinct that was a mark of Chelsea has been waning. Such a defeat was always coming. You need to lose only two matches to go out the two domestic competitions and we’ve lost those.

From Guardian, Trizia Fiorellino, Chair, Chelsea Supporters’ Group had said this:

It was awful. Grant has changed a team of winners into 11 strangers. It shows our desperation that when we needed a goal we had to bring on Pizarro. Did their keeper have a save to make? You have to be worried now – the players have a huge lack of confidence. The West Ham result was papering over the cracks – they were woeful, whereas Barnsley, like Spurs, were up for it and beat us. Abramovich is going to have to face up to the fact that he has made a big mistake with Grant and get in someone new to salvage our season.

Finally, something to cheer about. The BC Shout thingy is a roaring success. Thanks to the guys who turned up and livened up the BC Shout – live match chat today. It was fun and interesting. And you don’t need to login or anything. Just click the BC Shout banner on the top of the sidebar and you’re in (ok Moyo?). Also please allow it a second or two to load. You can still go there and read the live match chat, just for fun!

I await the champions league draw. Let’s stop kidding ourselves about still being in the premier league and champions league. I want Chelsea to be handed out the most difficult draw of the lot and I want to see what we’re made of. No more easy draw and premature undeserved celebrations. If we win the tie against the toughest opponent, it will surely improve our confidence and belief. If we lose, we can’t complain if we aren’t good enough. Finally, one positive feeling is that at least we did not lose to Barnsley at Stamford Bridge!

Is it time to take up the petition again?