Chelsea
PodJockey David Chidgey invites all Blues fans to listen latest Podcast which reflects on
the Blues recent 1-1 draw against the butchers from Bolton, a look ahead to
Moscow plus much, much more from Chidge and his co hosts.
Chelsea's
aspirations for a third Premiership title in 4 years ultimately was 'A Bridge
Too Far' We ran Utd close but at the end of the day, who of us really
believed that lightening would strike twice and Emile Ivanhoe Heskey would do
us a favour?
Having been at the
Bridge to witness our Premiership death throes, it seemed apparent that the
players were all too aware of proceedings at the JJB. Their concentration
visibly lapsed with 10 minutes to go and the fight hitherto very apparent all
but fizzled out. Mind you, the goal that Bolton hardly deserved in the last few
minutes came about more through the Assistant Referee's incompetence or
downright blindness.
Only half a yard away, he completely failed to see that the ball had gone out off the Bolton players shin. The resulting throw in, saw Bolton score from a combination of their usual up and under and welly in the resulting scraps. Without sounding like Fergie, I have to say we've had more than our fair share of incompetent officialdom at the Bridge this season.
What a shame Bolton survived to fight another day in the Premiership. And when I say fight, I mean fight. As we discuss on the latest Chelsea Podcast, Bolton and their loosely termed ‘style' of play could well be described as ‘Anti-Football'. They came to the Bridge armed with their usual weapons of blatant time wasting (when will this ever be punished by Referee's?), crude hacks from behind on clearly more skilful players, belligerent and ungainly aerial challenges from the uniquely untalented Kevin Davies, and some extra-ordinary petulant kicking and thuggery from Gavin McCann (how could this 2nd rate player ever have been considered worthy of an England cap?). If you think this is down to Gary Megson - think again - they used exactly the same tactics last year when securing a thoroughly annoying last minute 2-2 draw at Chelsea, when under the charge of Sam Allardyce. God help us if he'd become England manager.
So, Chelsea's Premiership challenge was "A Bridge Too Far", and at the end of that film, the Generals question what was the single factor, that led to the operations failure? We ask the same of Chelsea's attempt on the title in our latest Chelsea Podcast - the answers? Well they range from too many draws at home, too many last minute goals conceded: Everton, Spurs, Villa, Wigan and now Bolton. Not burying teams like Utd do is a possible failing, and then of course, there is Avram Grant!
Poor old Avram has had a very bad press all season of course, but seems to have been going through something of a makeover by getting Chelsea so close in the Premiership and to the Champions League final. It was a nice touch to see that bastion of Chelsea home support - the Matthew Harding Lower - giving Avram a rousing "Avram Grant, Avram Grant, Avram Grant, Avram Grant, Avram Grant, Avram Grant" chant as he approached them during the traditional end of season lap of honour. He even high fived and shook the hands of the supporters as he walked along the touchline.
But, and it's a big but - most supporters feel that under Grant's managerial reign, something is missing. When we go 1-0 up, we just don't have that confidence that the game is in the bag like we did a year ago. More depressingly, there is a 50:50 chance that something else will be missing come the end of the season - SILVERWARE. And, that my friends would be the first time we finished a season without silverware for 5 years. How will Uncle Roman like that?
But, when all is said and done - and no doubt older fans will appreciate this more broadminded sentiment than the Johnny Come Lately's flush with Chelsea success - most of us would have taken a Carling Cup Final, Premiership Runner's up and Champions League final this season. Especially the day after the Special One got the boot. Hey, Johnny, do you remember Rotherham away???
All this is discussed on our latest Chelsea Podcast, but also much more important issues like - how disgusting is Petr Cech's orange goalkeepers kit? Which players have done the Chels proud this season, what were our best and worst moments and of course our weekly look (and attempt to sing) our favourite chants from the terraces! All good clean fun, well nearly!!
One more game to go - the Champions League final on May 21st. On next week's show we'll be previewing Chelsea's biggest ever game and I hope to have an interesting guest or two to join me for the show. Make sure you check both this week and next week's shows out. Come on the Chels!