Damn. Damn. Damn. This shouldn’t have ended this way. At 3-0 up, they had their tails behind their back and had no chance of coming back at the Bridge. No matter how much the media wants to call it a comeback, I wouldn’t call it so. It was not a ‘come-back’ by Man Utd, it was a ‘brought-back’ by Howard Webb. There’s no way Man Utd could have got anything in this match without the mercy of Howard Webb. As it always happens, they got lucky to the point of being scandalous. Back in Old Trafford, we dominated the game only to see two offside goals give them a big home lead. Now here, two non-penalties giving them the draw. They always get the loooooong rope from the referees. Actually, like with Barca, I’m tired of how they win with referee’s help. Same old.

Chelsea started with an attacking line-up. It showed that we were going to take the game to Man Utd and would be looking for nothing less than a win. I must say the quality of the game was disappointing. To call this a premier league classic only undermines premier league. Neither teams were able to make any meaningful attacks. Possession was lost very very cheaply. Not many clear cut chances. Horrible refereeing. The best moments of the game were Sturridge’s trickery for the first goal, Torres’ cross and Mata’s finish for the second goal, brilliant tackles by Ivanovic and Cahill and a very smart header from Hernandez.

Yet another game where Torres creates a beautiful goal rather than scoring one. He got one good chance which he fluffed by taking too many touches before losing the ball. His current confidence level is such that he needs to be 100% clear that his shot will make it, like he’s taking a penalty. He’s not in a frame of mind to take risks which one would do while in form. At least, his cross was one of the best we’ve seen from a Chelsea player this season. And Mata’s finish was sweet. Should be up there as one of the best Chelsea goals this season. Click Here To Read The Full Article

‘Unconvincing’ is our middle name now. A nervy 1-0 win against QPR has further confirmed it. At least we’re still in the cup. There were some decent attacking moves from our side and while they were nice to see didn’t actually produce a goal for us. We needed something like a penalty and we got exactly that. Still think it was a soft penalty and you would see them not called more often. The way I see it, it’s a penalty nevertheless as Sturridge was in a position to head the ball into the goal and the push from behind (no matter how light it was) denied him.

I’m a big supporter of same treatment for events and incidents inside and outside the penalty box. It’s sometimes sickening to see the fouls during set pieces that don’t get called because they are inside the box and the referees seem to think it’s okay for such things to happen in the box. If anything the rules for the incidents inside the box should be tighter. So, this is a penalty. And for all the pushing and shoving that denies our players during set pieces, we need more such penalties to offset.

The game had a fantastic backdrop in the form of John Terry vs Anton Ferdinand racial abuse incident. There was a big aniticipation on what would happen in the handshake ritual. Will Anton and Terry shake hands or not? Will the whole QPR teams refuse to shake hands with Terry? It’s quite clear that JT’s handshake list is becoming shorter by the day. Being the captain, leader and legend, he needs to be more careful and wary of his on-pitch and off-pitch behaviour. He’s not proven guilty but being aware and careful would have saved him and the club a lot of time and effort and focus could just have been on football.

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