Ewood Park on Tuesday night saw the last appearance of Frank Lampard in a Chelsea shirt this season.
Ewood Park could also have witnessed the last appearance on English soil of Joe Cole this season as well.
Originally it had been suggested that Frank, along with Joe Cole and the injured John Terry would miss the last two games of the season. Indeed, in a magnanimous gesture from Mourinho, intended to assist the national squad in their World Cup preparations, we doubted whether any of the trio would be seen in a Chelsea shirt again this season.
It appears that the players though had other ideas. For the Blackburn fixture, Lampard was asked if he wanted to play or if he wanted to rest or indeed, disappear for the remainder of the season. Not surprisingly, Lampard opted to play and completed yet another ninety minutes in a Chelsea shirt. His enthusiasm for playing being ably demonstrated in the final few minutes when he was rushing around trying to retrieve the ball in order to seek the equaliser that never actually came.
With the player holding the record number of consecutive appearances, I suppose there was never any doubt that Frank would reply in a positive manner. However, in a pre-match interview, carried out at Ewood Park, Mourinho indicated that Frank would be given no such choice for the trip to Newcastle and would be departing on a short break before joining up with the England World Cup squad later this month.
Encouragingly, Mourinho also suggested that although John Terry was missing through injury, there would have been a likelihood that John could have played at St James Park this Sunday. However, once again Mourinho has indicated that John will not even be considered for selection and will be rested to aid the national squad.
Obviously, the injury suffered by Wayne Rooney, so close to the World Cup, has made the selection of potential World Cup squad candidates a sensitive manner. Therefore, although Joe Cole came off the bench to play the best part of half an hour against Blackburn, it looks increasingly unlikely that he?ll be risked in, what has now become, a meaningless fixture in the north-east.
We here at Vital would like to thank all three for there superb contributions this season whilst also thanking Mourinho for not risking them in what will now be a typical end-of-season affair.
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