This Saturday, in the late afternoon kick-off, Chelsea travel to South Wales to take on Swansea City, at the Liberty Stadium.
It’s a game that always brings back the same memory and an incident I’m sure you’ll all recall.
It occurred back on 23 January 2013 and the occasion was the Capital One Cup semi-final second leg.
Chelsea had lost the first leg and had it all to do in the second leg.
As it turned out Chelsea couldn’t turn around the first-leg deficit and Swansea City went on to play in their first domestic cup final for over a hundred years.
But matters weren’t helped when Chelsea were reduced to ten-men, with twelve minutes left, when Eden Hazard was dismissed for a misdemeanour you rarely encounter.
With Chelsea chasing the game, Eden wasn’t too impressed when a Swansea ball-boy decided to delay play by flopping onto the ball, as it trickled behind the goal.
Eden, in trying to retrieve the ball, was adjudged to have kicked the ball-boy in the ribs and was shown a red-card.
The ball-boy, who reacted as if he’d been shot, was later identified as Charlie Morgan, the 17-year-old son of the Swansea City director, Martin Morgan.
Eden tried to make amends after the game by apologising to the lad and his father, remarking at the time about the incident,
“The boy put his whole body on to the ball and I was just trying to kick the ball and I think I kicked the ball and not the boy.
“I apologise. The ball boy came in the changing room and we had a quick chat and I apologised and the boy apologised as well, and it is over. Sorry.”
But the Football Association weren’t happy with the apology and Eden was subsequently charged with violent conduct.
However, amongst all the clamour for Eden to be made an example of, his three-game ban for the offence wasn’t extended with the Football Association issuing a statement that read,
“Chelsea player Eden Hazard will not have his standard three match sanction for violent conduct increased.
“Following a hearing earlier today, an independent regulatory commission was of the opinion the existing three match sanction for this offence was sufficient.”
The tale of the strange red card, almost as surreal as when Cesc Fabregas managed to be shown a red card after booting the ball thirty-five yards and hitting Chris Brunt square on the head, at the Hawthorns, but that’s another story!