Avram’s ‘hatachat’ does the trick again. Chelsea has got a dream draw with Fenerbahce and in fact the easiest draw of all the fellow-favourites. I’m kind of tempted to say that if we ever had one best chance to make it to the champions league finals, it would this. It went perfectly by Avram’s script of the draw.

Avram Grant would have expected three things:

1. To draw either Schalke or Fenerbahce
2. To play the second leg at home in the qaurter final and semi final
3. To avoid Barcelona or Man Utd until final

Goodness me, he got it all. In 04-05, we got Bayern Munich in the quarters where we had to play the second leg at Olympiastadion. In 06-07, we had to play Valencia in the quarter final, again playing the second leg at Estadio Mestalla. So, in many years this is the easiest draw that Chelsea has got in champions league. If there is one (only?) thing that Avram Grant has brought us it is LUCK. May be he’s our lucky charm.

In fact he did get lucky in the other competitions too. While we had to beat Arsenal in the last season’s league cup final, Avram only had to play Spurs this time but bottled it. We had to beat Man Utd in the final last season to win the FA Cup, he just had to despatch Barnsley which would have left us in the company of easier teams to deal with, but again he screwed it up. Now I hope we don’t make a meal of this convenient draw.

Also this has made ourselves stronger in the league too! Arsenal are now supposed to play Liverpool thrice, Chelsea once and Man Utd once in the next 20 days. Funny thing is, they play Liverpool thrice in a space of 7 days. By mid-April, the series of big matches would have taken a toll on the Arsenal team and unavoidably they might have more injuries. Will this period mean the title race is between Chelsea and Man Utd?

Amidst all this, there is a belief that this whole champions league draw was a rigged one. Well it’s not just a belief because when someone gives me the exact pairings with 100% accuracy, exactly 90 minutes before the draw started, I have to think it’s a fact. Also, the betting companies were not taking bets on the draws which was very fishy.

You may say that the balls are there in the bowl and the person drawing the balls will not know the team names inside. But look at it this way, the balls with team names inside can be hot or cold, hard or soft, rough or smooth. You won’t be able to know these things from distance. I read somewhere that statistically, there 32,400 possibilities of the pairings involving all eight teams including calling the home and away fixtures correctly. Exactly 90 minutes before the draw, someone pops up and gets the pairing right, the home/away thing right, the semi final pairing also right, it has be a fantastic incredible coincidence or simply a rigged one.

Rigged or not, Avram Grant would not have expectd for anything easier. With all his prayers answered, will Avram Grant become our Rafael Benitez?