Now that Chelsea have comfortably (phew!) secured their rightful place in the Carabao Cup Final one should start to plot the short to mid-term future of this season.
The reality is that Chelsea had the good fortune to have to have the second leg with the main forward thrust of Tottenham missing. Very few teams would have coped without Kane, Alli and Son all missing at the same time and still put up an admirable performance. Fair play to them. That’s the sportsmanship side of me and I’d like to keep that with me.
But, Chelsea have been playing without a striker all season, so that needs to be taken into account.
I hope you liked the passion that our new centre forward displayed and he was only there as a supporter. And the one thing that struck me straight away about Higuain, is the stealth-like determined soul destroying eyes that he possesses when talking about succeeding. We have lacked that bloody-mindedness since, Drogba and latterly Costa.
Both Drogba and Costa smiled a lot but their determination to succeed burned inside them. They were not to be pushed around.
Neither needed or particularly seemed fazed about how they looked until they had scored and were on their celebratory goal dance.
No need for dyed hair or manicured eyebrows.
Higuain is the epitome of a proper striker (not without faults or weaknesses) but a deathly steel determination. I wish him well.
I digress of course, but after last night, I might be forgiven to go off tangent for a while.
What got me thinking was the need to help Manchester City (not that it is something I would ordinarily countenance) but the desire to stop Liverpool winning the league preoccupies me. Oh, they have a great manager and some wonderful players of that there is no doubt and they play some exhilarating football. But I cannot stand them and this feeling extends mostly from the unabashed punditry that I have to endure every day. One could say, I could just turn off the commentary and analysis but then how would I know what they really feel. No, I hate the level of punditry.
And I hate that through Benitez and then this biased punditry, I have been labelled a plastic fan. The Champions League battles of yesterday still rankle with me. Those losses to Liverpool (ghost goal included) were some of the worst footballing moments of my supporting days.
When Liverpool had the late and great, Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley they really were brilliant and won the old league 18 times and were worthy winners. But they have not won the Premier League since its inception. I do wonder out of curiosity why they have had such a barren spell for such a long time. Yes, I do wonder but the curiosity soon dissipates. I really don’t care.
I would like this trend to continue for a bit longer (actually a lot longer).
And therefore, I have been thinking that there may be a plan in the offing that the conspiracy theorist might want to ponder should it materialise.
What if, and it’s a what if mind you if Chelsea win the Carabao Cup and Sarri gets his first trophy?
And what if Chelsea then lose to Manchester City in the Premier League allowing City to close the gap on Liverpool?
And what if then Liverpool get overtaken by Manchester City?
What would be wrong with this “plan”?
I jest of course, as Chelsea will win the Carabao Cup and Manchester City will win the league.
But have I got you thinking?
KTBFFH
Contribution by Navid Deen
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