Flog - Please Please Me

Something peculiar happened to me after watching Man City vs. Chelsea. I was pleased. I actually smiled at several intervals during the game. The required muscles in my face have not been used since 2003. They ached. They burned.
You see, I was so pleased to see a great advert for English football. It was a proper Premiership game- goals, blood and guts tackling and controversy.
But overall I think I was pleased with Chelsea. No, really.
I was pleased to see that despite the fines and player bans UEFA imposed on the club after their behaviour in the wake of being knocked out of the Champions League by Barcelona, they are sticking to their guns and abusing the referee whenever possible. I was pleased that, collectively, they made a mockery of the ideal of growing old gracefully. Pleased to see that of the 32 nations that will be at the World Cup next year, nine of their starting XI against City (and both of the substitutes used) will represent their country; of those nine, four were booked for persistent or malicious fouling (two others found their way into the book as well, therefore incurring another fine from the FA). Another had their mouth wrapped around Howard Webb’s ear so tight all game that you could accuse them of public indecency. It was also pleasing that the same player went down under no challenge whatsoever and brought on an entire team of physios, returning to the action within seconds of ‘treatment’. He must have missed Webb’s soft skin. It was pleasing to see that England’s first choice left back has learnt from past discrepancies and now pays complete attention to the referee when getting booked. Ashley Cole’s conduct during the game was, as ever, petulant at best and the repeat of his mini ego-protest at Tottenham two years ago will probably go unpunished again. Which will please me, of course.
Finally, it was pleasing to see that when Chelsea are on the back foot, they can always resort to violent tackles to quench their annoyance. Deco’s lunge was sadly only a close second to Julio Belletti’s mile long slide tackle on Wayne Bridge’s shin. A 50-50 ball, maybe, but 100% malevolent. Bridge left the field on a stretcher. Undeterred, Belletti spent the rest of the game attempting to get himself that elusive second yellow with a glory-covered mixture of dissent and over zealous challenges. Forgive the sarcasm, but all in all I wasn’t happy with Chelsea during the game.

Their actions afterwards, however, changed my perception slightly. Despite an at times tempered game, one which entertained a sometimes competitively hostile crowd and meant masses to both the Red and Blue sides of Manchester, the players after the game embraced and congratulated each other. Frank Lampard applauded the travelling fans and held his hands up apologetically for failing to convert a penalty in the 83rd minute which would have levelled the game. The home crowd commended the efforts of both sides while still heartily celebrating City’s first win over Chelsea for eight games. John Terry, obviously in some pain after battling hard throughout the game and who limped off late, stood up to observe the last ditch sequence of corners Chelsea had in the closing moments. If his lion heart tendencies follow him to the World Cup with as much vigour, I will be a happy England fan.

All of which added up to a very good game of football. Not even ESPN (Every Stupid Pundit Necessary) couldn’t ruin it. Can we consider it a turning point in the season? Pfft. Please.