Kudos to Newcastle United for their fantastic 1-0 defeat of Chelsea, shattering Jose Mourinho's dream of a debut-season Quadruple. Mourinho, cocky little snob that he is, failed to learn from Rafa Benitez's failure in the Fourth Round, when Liverpool went out against lowly Championship side (I hate the league name, it's too confusing) Burnley with a one-nil reversal of their own, largely due to the resting of several key players (Steven Gerrard et al). Chelsea were without the services of suspended skipper John Terry, as well as injured forwards Arjen Robben and Didier Drogba, while five more first-team regulars (Petr Cech, Frank Lampard, Damien Duff, Paulo Ferreira, and Eidur Gudjohnsen) started on the bench. Claude Makelele was rested as well ahead of their midweek Champions League first-leg against Barcelona. In their places started Carlo Cudicini, William Gallas, Glen Johnson, Geremi, Jiri Jarosik, Alexei Smertin, Joe Cole, and Mateja Kezman. Not a weak side, I might add, but on this day no match for Newcastle's first-XI. After Patrick Kluivert put Newcastle ahead with a headed goal in the 4th minute, Mourinho sent on Lampard, Duff, and Gudjohnsen at half-time hoping to spark a comeback, only to see his plan backfire as Wayne Bridge was stretchered off with a possible broken ankle minutes after the break, leaving Chelsea with 10 men for the rest of the match, while Gallas and Duff picked up knocks as well. To add insult to injury, Cudicini was sent off in the final minutes, leaving Johnson to stand in as keeper and face one of Laurent Robert's trademark freekicks.
All in all a superb result for both Newcastle and Manchester United. We're all be hoping that Chelsea will be knocked off stride by their first defeat in 16 games. But what is more encouraging for us is the fact that since Robben was injured early in the match aganist Blackburn, the Blues have scored one measly goal in nearly four full matches. Of course, they've only conceded one measly goal over the same duration, but it's much easier for teams to upset the Premiership leaders if they don't have to claw back two or three goals. Having said that, Chelsea's league schedule matches them up against the bottom four sides for the next four games, so Barcelona must produce a dominant display at Camp Nou on Wednesday to really shake Chelsea's self-belief.
Speaking of the Champions League, Man United will entertain Milan at Old Trafford Wednesday night. Milan rested Alessandro Nesta and Kaka for their Serie A match against Cagliari, while Jaap Stam may not get the call to partner Nesta at center-back. More newsflash: Just as I suspected, Andriy Shevchenko will indeed miss the first-leg at the scene of his 2003 Champions League final-winning penalty with a fractured cheekbone suffered this past weekend. This means advantage United in terms of strikers with Ruud van Nistelrooy set to return following his 3-month absence due to an Achilles injury and Wayne Rooney in fine form (6 goals in 8(1) appearances), not to mention Cristiano Ronaldo's own hot streak (5 in 8(1)). The future of United is already shining today.
Looking forward to reporting on United's fortune on Wednesday.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment