First off, Chelsea. In defeating Liverpool 2-1 at Wembley Stadium, Chelsea claimed their fourth FA Cup since the Roman Abramovich takeover in 2003. As with the other three victories, Didier Drogba scored in the final, this one turning out to be the winner just as in 2007 and 2010. The win was deserved even though Chelsea did rather little to earn it, but the bottom line is they didn't need to.
Liverpool staged a late rally, spearheaded by Andy Carroll, but the simple fact of the matter is they did not display any urgency or attacking intent for the first hour of the match. Had Cech not pulled off his impressive goal-line save in the closing moments then the Reds may have forced extra time, but it would have been more than most of them deserved.
If I was a Liverpool fan I think I'd be pretty miserable right now. This has truly been a dismal season for them: 9th place with just two games left...20 home goals scored in 18 games...9 defeats on the road...only 5 League wins at Anfield. Pathetic, disgraceful, not good enough. The Carling Cup victory and repeat Wembley trips are some mitigation for those who view the world in a more optimistic way than I do; but for a club of Liverpool's stature this is surely a disaster. Only a couple of years ago, Rafa Benitez lost his job after guaranteeing that Liverpool would finish fourth, but then failing to deliver on his promise. At the time it seemed crazy to think that they would not be competing in the Champions League, a competition that for a few dizzy years they became the team everyone wanted to avoid.
Their signings have been by and large inadequate, their results have been unacceptable, and surely things need to change in some way for the Merseyside giants to get back on track. But this post was supposed to be about winners, although given the somewhat distracted Chelsea celebrations maybe it is understandable why my focus has drifted from them.
The Blues players and fans all seemed to have one eye firmly on the Champions League final, you sense they would happily trade this FA Cup for the big one. Sure it's good to win another trophy, and it always feels better to win than to lose, but if they don't view it as a priority then why the hell should I. In truth it annoyed me a bit to see the blasé fans who have been spoilt with FA Cup success in recent years, just standing their passively rather than generating the party atmosphere that should have just happened.
For proper meaningful lunatic celebrations, our attention turns to the other big weekend winners. Manchester City have been immense of late, and this hard fought and well deserved win away at Newcastle now has them within one win of their first ever Premier League title, and first top flight championship in over 40 years. Yaya Toure, who by some miracle was not cast in the Avengers to play the Hulk, has been an absolute colossus for City and did the business again. His late brace sent the travelling supporters into the type of hysterics that I love to see from football fans.
It doesn't happen all the time, but every now and then a goal will be scored of such importance that you just completely and utterly lose your shit and go mental. I remember, moments after Grezgorz Rasiak's late goal in the play-off's at Derby, trying to ensure I landed either side of the plastic seat threatening to castrate me having been bundled about 6 rows forward in the absolute yellow mayhem...and I treasure that memory. The images of the City fans just not knowing what to do with themselves shows what it really means to them, and one can only imagine the scenes if they do their job next weekend.
Roberto Mancini's men have one final hurdle to overcome - how they will pray for an early goal to make their task that much easier - but even without it you still feel they should have enough. If they do cling on their it will be a remarkable achievement, having overturned an 8 point deficit to Alex Ferguson's Manchester United in just 4 weeks. It is not over yet, their may be a further twist to this tale, but I feel that City have shown over the past couple of weeks that they really are winners.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Final word of the weekend regarding winners goes to Gina of 'what women think about football' fame. For her, the real winners in football are the animals that get onto the pitch. In fairness this is about the only thing in football that holds any interest to her, David Beckham aside. This has already been a vintage season with the Anfield Cat, but now that things have escalated to the point where animals get on to the pitch wearing clothes, truly the sport has reached it's peak. A satirical protest figure without knowing it; a cape-wearing style guru; a legend in his own right, all hail the Blackburn Chicken.
No comments:
Post a Comment