Saturday, February 11, 2006
Boro 3 Chelsea 0
Can someone please explain to me what's going on this season!? I know football is a funny old game, but this is ridiculous... Not that I'm complaining about beating Mourinho's Chelsea by the biggest domestic margin ever, or keeping a clean sheet against them, or basically showing the runaway champions how it's done, but it is a bit surreal!OK we scored before the game had really settled, with an element of luck in both our first half goals, but we didn't stop for the full 90 minutes - a definite increase in effort all around was much in evidence. It all started from the unlikely source of the (so far) wayward Fabio Rochemback, who finally saw one of his shots hit the back of the net after what must be about 300 attempts since he got here - law of averages state one of them had to go in eventually, but with 90 seconds gone talk about timing! From then on his personal confidence soured and we began to see a side of him that has been all too rare, but has obviously been lying dormant all the while: he made runs, passed precisely, was inventive, bold and unafraid of the opposition. Please Fab, carry on! To add to that joy the return of the boy wonder became fully realised when his first goal of the season snuck past defenders and attackers alike to double an incredible lead shortly before half time. Normally you would expect Jose's teamtalk to do the trick, but the determination from us defensively in the second half simply wore the champs down into submission. And going forward Yakubu looked world class, making fools of Carvalho and Terry on more than one occasion before getting his deserved reward to put the cherry on top of a very tasty cake indeed.
So that's the triple crown of Arsenal, Man Utd and now Chelsea - if nothing else but relegation survival happens this season then at least we'll have that... But now we must take this as the catalyst to spring into action and turn the season into a winning one once and for all! What better excuse do we need? It is another busy time ahead with 4 games in the next 10 days: 2 legs against an equally troubled Stuttgart, an away cup tie at Preston and finally a vital six-pointer against West Brom that could sink them firmly into the bottom four and lift us back towards mid-table. With this result winning on all fronts seems realistic again, and after the anticipated doom if the scoreline had been reversed, you have to say it's happy days again.
My MOTM: Yakubu, Downing and the whole back line deserve praise, but it is to Fabio Rochemback that all hats are lifted.
