In a transitional season that was a bit like the curate’s egg, it was very pleasing that we had so many choices for Match of the Season. But, we have to nail it down to three nominations.
Those that didn’t make the cut included the comedic demolition of Spurs at home featuring the old man Eto’o and his goal celebration; the fantastic win away at Man City becoming the first team to beat them at home in the League. Also, this match was the first match of the season where we began to believe that we might just win the title. A match that many forget is the Super Cup match with Bayern Munich, very early in the season. So early in fact that Romelu Lukaku missed the vital penalty in the shoot-out thereby denying us another European trophy. The fact remains that we went toe to toe with the European Champions and outplayed them for much of the match. But then, we were playing a Pep Guardiola side I suppose!
The three that made it are as follows:
The second nomination is for the victory at Anfield beating Liverpool 2-0. The loathing of the scousers has increased massively over the last few years, but this year with the monstrous media love in at the prospect of the History boys being in with a chance of winning the title for the first time since 1990, it scaled new heights. What could be better if you are a Chelsea supporter than to poop on Liverpool’s parade and in the process confirm Chelsea as the enemies of football and the most hated club in football by the media and the neutrals in the process!!
But the match came at the worst possible time for us. Liverpool were in the ascendancy, banging in goals for fun and had just beaten Man City. Chelsea were suffering from injuries
The team put in a phenomenal ‘rope-a-dope’ defensive display against Liverpool whose frustration was palpable after they went 1-0 down to a self-inflicted Steve Gerrard error. They were left resorting to long range shots for most of the second half before they were caught on the counter and Willian ably assisted by Torres put the game beyond doubt. Liverpool had been weighed and measured by the master tactician that is Jose Mourinho. Brendan Rogers was left whinging and looking very much the apprentice. The media and armchair fans all cried foul. We parked the bus, we were the enemies of football and we had cheated them. We didn’t care. We loved it. And in the process Liverpool’s title challenge now had more than a seed of doubt!
After the match, in rather jubilant form I caught up with Jason Cundy and Neil ‘Spy’ Barnett for a few post match drinks. Apparently I was rather drunk and foolishly did a live interview with LBC. They have never phoned me back since, and Jason and Neil laughed. What a great day!
If you want to vote for the Match of the Season then all you have to do is vote below. We will be revealing the results and discussing what we voted for on the Chelsea FanCast on Monday 19th May. Watch the show live at 19.00-21.00 GMT (Voting closes at 19.30 GMT) by going to sportstonightlive.com or on this website here or of course you can listen and post in the chat room at Mixlr.