The potentially tricky tie against Stoke was safely dealt with and I suspect JT rather enjoyed the second goal considering the 'light-hearted' banter from a section of the travelling fans. Certainly in the newspapers that was the headline story, boy do they know how to stretch out a drama to breaking point…Get over it and get on with the job of reporting the football please, certainly that is what I want to read about.
Lecture over, there was another subplot I noticed beginning to rear its head in a number of journalistic outlets, why has Nicolas Anelka's influence on games became much less marked over the past little while, specifically since Didier Drogba returned back for the African Cup of Nations?
I suspect it is not because Nic is in a big huff at getting moved into wider areas from being the focal point of the Chelsea attack, though part of the answer is in there. Just consider Wayne Rooney for a while. The Man United and England striker has been, as they say in the trade, on fire this season.
He is scoring regularly, involved in everything and grabbing the headlines for the right reasons. Everyone is wondering whether it is the new found maturity of being a father, his building up for a World Cup or a hundred other things. Actually it is almost certainly little more than the fact that he has been moved into the centre of the pitch from the wide area this season.
From a career of painful knowledge I am aware that you can become a peripheral figure on the wing if nobody passes to you. You could be in the form of your life but if team mates can't get the ball out to you regularly, then the game can go along merrily without you.
I always preferred playing more centrally quite simply because you get the ball more and you also have more options in front of you. Even someone as talented as Rooney can be overlooked in the team, especially if the striker is as high profile as Ronaldo was last season. Now the Portuguese poser has flounced off to Real Madrid, Rooney is allowed to flourish. He hasn't improved immeasurably in just a few months, he was always that good. He is just more involved, more central to the play now.
And so Nicolas Anelka finds himself in a similar position and though it probably pains him to some extent that he has to play second fiddle to Didier now and again, like any other player he probably understands why this is happening. It was ever thus. In my time I wanted to play as second striker to Kerry Dixon and I sometimes did when David Speedie was injured or suspended, usually scoring in the process. But as soon as Speeds was fit again, there was I waiting out on the wings for the odd pass again.
I understood the manager's wisdom, he said I could create and score from wide anyway, but the real point was that sometimes there are personal sacrifices that have to be made for the team, and right now Anelka is doing that.
The very worst thing in this situation is when fans, journos and pundits suggest your form has gone as well or that you don't seem to be trying as hard. Then the stats come out that you aren't getting as many touches, dribbling as much or completing as many passes.Not only are you sacrificing yourself but you are then roundly abused in the meantime. So let me just say that I know you are doing a good job Nic and that some of us applaud you for doing it, no matter what the OPTA stats suggest. He will still have an impact and hopefully it will be appreciated when he does.
So last week was the tough old question of what I put on a sausage sandwich. Now let me underline that as a former athlete I very rarely eat a sausage sandwich, one has to keep an eye on one's waistline. The answer is that although I prefer brown sauce on just about everything else, I actually prefer red sauce on a sausage sandwich. What did shock me was that more than 80% of you plumped for the brown sauce option, some for nothing, a few for mustard, but only 3% thought that red sauce should be the right choice.
Because of this important information I am going to try a brown sauce, sausage sandwich next time…surely all of you must have a point!
There was a surprisingly large number who entered the competition this week, even if there were only a few correct but there can only be one winner and Sofia Yukhneva from Saint-Petersburg, Russia, was chosen by the flighty feline type of the family (my nickname for me daughter is The Cat).
On a much more sensible and intelligent note this week, for a chance to win a copy of the Chelsea Here, Chelsea There book, can you tell me which Chelsea player is most likely to say the phrase 'perfer et obdura; dolor hic tibi proderit olim' to John Terry. Answers as ever to pat.nevin@chelseafc.com and as ever the winner will be picked at random by someone who in no way looks like Peter Bonetti in case you were wondering.
Oh and if anyone wants to listen to me DJing in London, playing some obscure indie music in a scruffy and friendly little club on the 19th March, let me know and I will send you the details.
Lecture over, there was another subplot I noticed beginning to rear its head in a number of journalistic outlets, why has Nicolas Anelka's influence on games became much less marked over the past little while, specifically since Didier Drogba returned back for the African Cup of Nations?
I suspect it is not because Nic is in a big huff at getting moved into wider areas from being the focal point of the Chelsea attack, though part of the answer is in there. Just consider Wayne Rooney for a while. The Man United and England striker has been, as they say in the trade, on fire this season.
He is scoring regularly, involved in everything and grabbing the headlines for the right reasons. Everyone is wondering whether it is the new found maturity of being a father, his building up for a World Cup or a hundred other things. Actually it is almost certainly little more than the fact that he has been moved into the centre of the pitch from the wide area this season.
From a career of painful knowledge I am aware that you can become a peripheral figure on the wing if nobody passes to you. You could be in the form of your life but if team mates can't get the ball out to you regularly, then the game can go along merrily without you.
I always preferred playing more centrally quite simply because you get the ball more and you also have more options in front of you. Even someone as talented as Rooney can be overlooked in the team, especially if the striker is as high profile as Ronaldo was last season. Now the Portuguese poser has flounced off to Real Madrid, Rooney is allowed to flourish. He hasn't improved immeasurably in just a few months, he was always that good. He is just more involved, more central to the play now.
And so Nicolas Anelka finds himself in a similar position and though it probably pains him to some extent that he has to play second fiddle to Didier now and again, like any other player he probably understands why this is happening. It was ever thus. In my time I wanted to play as second striker to Kerry Dixon and I sometimes did when David Speedie was injured or suspended, usually scoring in the process. But as soon as Speeds was fit again, there was I waiting out on the wings for the odd pass again.
I understood the manager's wisdom, he said I could create and score from wide anyway, but the real point was that sometimes there are personal sacrifices that have to be made for the team, and right now Anelka is doing that.
The very worst thing in this situation is when fans, journos and pundits suggest your form has gone as well or that you don't seem to be trying as hard. Then the stats come out that you aren't getting as many touches, dribbling as much or completing as many passes.Not only are you sacrificing yourself but you are then roundly abused in the meantime. So let me just say that I know you are doing a good job Nic and that some of us applaud you for doing it, no matter what the OPTA stats suggest. He will still have an impact and hopefully it will be appreciated when he does.
So last week was the tough old question of what I put on a sausage sandwich. Now let me underline that as a former athlete I very rarely eat a sausage sandwich, one has to keep an eye on one's waistline. The answer is that although I prefer brown sauce on just about everything else, I actually prefer red sauce on a sausage sandwich. What did shock me was that more than 80% of you plumped for the brown sauce option, some for nothing, a few for mustard, but only 3% thought that red sauce should be the right choice.
Because of this important information I am going to try a brown sauce, sausage sandwich next time…surely all of you must have a point!
There was a surprisingly large number who entered the competition this week, even if there were only a few correct but there can only be one winner and Sofia Yukhneva from Saint-Petersburg, Russia, was chosen by the flighty feline type of the family (my nickname for me daughter is The Cat).
On a much more sensible and intelligent note this week, for a chance to win a copy of the Chelsea Here, Chelsea There book, can you tell me which Chelsea player is most likely to say the phrase 'perfer et obdura; dolor hic tibi proderit olim' to John Terry. Answers as ever to pat.nevin@chelseafc.com and as ever the winner will be picked at random by someone who in no way looks like Peter Bonetti in case you were wondering.
Oh and if anyone wants to listen to me DJing in London, playing some obscure indie music in a scruffy and friendly little club on the 19th March, let me know and I will send you the details.
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