Wednesday May 9, 2007 07:10
Chelsea And The Champions
Posted by The Soccer Blogger as English Premiership
It was supposed to be the game of the season. It was supposed to be the battle of the Premiership crown, the final showdown, winner take all. But unfortunately for all the neutrals and, of course, Chelsea fans their team couldn’t keep up with Man Utd. The pressure was too much and tonight Chelsea have to welcome Man Utd to Stamford Bridge as Champions. Oh, that is going to hurt. Instead of playing for glory, all Chelsea have to play for now is pride.
It’s a great shame in a way. Wouldn’t it have been fantastic if the race for the Premiership had, for once, gone down to the penultimate game, or even to the last game of the season? That hasn’t happened for a while, or at least I don’t remember it. There could have been a little bit of deja vu involved if it had gone down to the last game.
I remember back in 1995 Man Utd were battling it out with Kenny Dalglish’s Blackburn Rovers for the Title and that went down to the last game. Blackburn went to Anfield for the last game of the season whilst Man Utd had to play West Ham in theirs. Utd have to play the Hammers Ham again for their last game this season too. Man Utd failed against Blackburn 12 years ago and wouldn’t it have been pure drama, pure entertainment if they had to face West Ham again to try to win the Title. Of course this year would also have had the added spice of West Ham potentially having to win that game to stay in the Premiership and not be relegated. Now that really is winner take all. There could have been tears at both ends of the grounds, ones of joy, others of sorrow.
Now tonight’s game is little more than an FA Cup Final dress rehearsal. These two teams could be sick of the sight of each other by the end of the season, well Chelsea will certainly be sick of Utd. Thankfully they won’t be playing each other in the Champions League Final as well, imagine that!
As I’ve said, it will hurt Chelsea that Utd arrive at Stamford Bridge as Champions but the Chelsea midfielder Joe Cole has congratulated Manchester United. Chelsea are also planning to make sure Man Utd are shown the proper respect on Wednesday.
Cole said: “They clapped us out when we won the league, and that took a lot of dignity. I am sure we will repay the favour.
“There is a good rivalry between the two clubs. We have a lot of respect for them. They won the league and fair play to them.”
Well, that’s all very nice but you can be sure that Cole and everyone else at Chelsea will be all they can on the pitch to beat the new Champions.
The Soccer Blogger