So Chelsea came through and beat Spurs in a way I couldn’t be more proud to have witnessed. Shevchenko’s goal was, for me, especially enjoyable to watch. He is finally hitting his stride, scoring goals and moving around the pitch with the class we always knew he was capabable. It’s fantastic, and an absolute joy to watch. I’ve tried to support Shevchenko all throughout his spell at Chelski, no watter if his role was primarily support-striker to Drogba (he still did a fair job) or otherwise. But now that I’ve watched him take a few and put them in the back of the net, it really is delightful to see him do what he does best. He’s damn good at it.
As the goals keep coming, so too does the confidence. He can only get better.
Good, too, for Shaun Wright-Phillips. SWP has had a tough spell so far at Chelsea and although his critics have screamed nowhere near as loudly as Shevchenko’s, I feel as though his drought has ultimately been the worse of the two. Shevchenko was always the confident, classy, tireless worker personality. For him it always seemed a matter of time before he got lucky and things started happening. SWP on the other hand, was a quieter, more brooding type. He wa always more likely to spend time brooding over his recent form than over his pedigree of success (Of course, Shevchenko’s “pedigree” always offered a larger cushion to rest on than SWP’s). And thus, he was more likely to stay in his drought perpetually.
Perhaps he too can snap out of it now?
Jose Mourinho picked him over Robben to start. Robben is fit and he’s one of my favorite Chelsea players. I love nothing more than to watch a pacey, agile, intelligent winger run at and attack an opposing defense, and to me, Robben is one of the best at it in the English game. Playing for Holland, he is perhaps the most exciting man on the pitch. And I wish his form would translate better to Chelsea’s tactics, but alas…
Point is, I would have picked Robben over SWP any day. Jose picked SWP and he scored a fantastic goal and put in a very solid, more intelligent performance. Shows how much Jose knows about footy compared to me, eh?
In other news,, Chelsea’s fixture list is officially out of control. Such is the price of victory. It’s ironic, but perhaps not unusual or surprising to most football fans, that the cost of winning as consistently as Chelsea (and ManU, for that matter) is such a brutal schedule. I get the feeling that Chelsea will inevitably slip up on at least one of the four fronts, and something tells me that the punishment will most likely come in a Champions League fixture. If not Valencia, somebody else will soon take advantage of our tired legs. The great European teams left in the competition will know how to exploit this weakness with brutal efficiency.
Good luck, boys.
