Talking of stream, my techy (I just realised reading through
that ‘techy’ is one ‘t’ short of ‘tetchy’!) husband who patiently facilitates
my habit by finding me watchable streams gave me a choice last night of a good
quality picture with Portuguese commentary or a pixelated one with English. I’m telling you this because the end result
was that he managed to synchronise the two running at the same time and so I
got the best of both worlds (thanks). While he was finalising the feed, I
caught a glimpse of Adam Le Fondre on the Reading bench. I found myself giving a public warning about the ‘super sub’ to my
other half, my eldest E (who was taking a break from her psychology course
work - she had just got us to complete a
questionnaire in order to ascertain our levels of ‘neuroticism’ and I had
managed to score over 90....oops) and the cat . I had seen him come on late in the match
Reading played against West Brom when they turned a 0-2 deficit into a 3-2 win –
all three goals being scored in the last seven minutes of the game and Le Fondre
being responsible for two. My family told
me to stop being so negative before the match had even begun (maybe being a
Chelsea supporter has something to do with my high score on the ‘neuroticism scale’).
I don’t want to dwell too much on the details of the match
but I will anyway! David Luiz and Petr
Cech were still unfit and Ross (Brad)
Turnbull stood in for Cech. Juan Mata
scored just before half time from a ball elegantly dinked (would I sound more
professional if I said chipped?) towards him by his countryman Torres and Frank Lampard
doubled the lead in the 66th minute, heading in the ball from a Juan
Mata corner (196 yaay). The team seemed
in control of the game but didn’t manage to capitalise on all the chances they
created. Bambi (Oscar) squandered two
great opportunities, the first by not passing to Fernando (who was surprisingly
well placed) and the second by feeling pressured to pass to the flailing
striker, when he himself was in the best position to realise the goal. The Royal keeper Federici made some good
saves including a thumping strike from Ramires. Gary Cahill also unusually missed a header
from a perfectly placed Lampard free kick.
For Reading Pavel Pogrebnyak had a pretty quiet game finding
himself alone and isolated in the Chelsea half for long periods of the match
while his team played a defensive game.
Adam Le Fondre was introduced into the game at 68 minutes and his team
mate and provider, Hope Akpan at 77minutes, at the same time as a limping Juan
Mata was replaced by Yossi Benayoun (Fernando Torres’ self declared best
friend) back from loan to West Ham. Ten
minutes later Akpan assisted Le Fondre in his first goal of the night and yes
you guessed it, four minutes into the excessive 5 min stoppage time Akpan provided again for Le Fondre (who was
one of three unmarked Reading players – what were we thinking....?) and he
calmly volleyed the ball past Turnbull and into the net. I don’t want to sound biased or take away
from Le Fondre (and have been trying really hard to get away from victimising Brad) but can’t help feeling Petr Cech
may have saved at least one, if not both of the goals.
At this point I am pained to discuss the timing of Rafa’s
inappropriate substitution, bringing on Demba Ba at no not 81 min (I have to
reset my clock) but 90 min in between the two Reading goals. Would John Terry have not been the obvious
choice???
Anyway the game ended
a draw and another two points were needlessly lost on a night when Tottenham,
Arsenal and Liverpool all drew, as had Manchester City the previous
evening. It was the perfect opportunity for
us to close the gap to the Manchester’s while expanding the gap to fourth. I
know it was only two points but ‘take care of the pennies and the pounds will
take care of themselves’. The two much
needed points could have helped cement Chelsea’s position in the top four of
the Premier League table.
Talking of the night before, Newcastle United had their
first away win since last May, at Villa Park.
I was so pleased for Alan Pardew, who I have liked since he got
Newcastle up to fifth in the table last season (for those commentators who say
they ‘over achieved’ last season I have a question: how can you accidentally
over achieve through the course of 38 games?)
After signing an eight year contract with the magpies, Pardew’s team
started to flag – injuries to key players such as Ben Arfa, Cabaye and Tiote mitigated
Pardew’s performance as a manager. Even
though I have been hoping for a Newcastle revival I found myself feeling sorry
for Aston Villa who have been really down on their luck and came back so
strongly in the second half I was surprised they didn’t nick the game. Although Paul Lambert went down in my
estimation for deserting Norwich City (as did Brendan Rodgers for a similarly
timed abandonment of Swansea City) I wish him luck and hope he manages to pull
Aston Villa out of the relegation zone.
Briefly, getting back to Newcastle, who we are playing on
Saturday, I wish the change in their fortunes had come after playing us, as had
their new French signings, who can take some credit for their first away win this season, with Moussa Sissoko
laying on the first goal for Papiss Cisse.
The second goal also had a French connection and was a spectacular
strike from Cabaye who has been impressing since his return from injury. Let us hope we don’t end up a casualty of the
French Revolution at St. James’ Park on Saturday afternoon.
Before I end, I want to share a couple of statistics with
you - I have found myself becoming quite fond of statistics relating to
football, although I hated the topic in school. The first is in honour of my tenth post: Frank Lampard’s goal last
night was his tenth of the season in all competitions and this means he has scored in
double figures every season for the last ten (a post wouldn’t be complete without a
bit of love for Frank!). The second (and
my attempt to seem impartial in my statistical display) is that Leighton Baines
scored twice in one match for the first time in his Everton career (and maybe
ever – please let me know if you know otherwise) last night (the transfer
window is about to close and amazingly no one has snapped him up yet).
Very lastly and desperately, a heartfelt plea to Manchester
United:
“Please stop winning!”
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