Chelsea to get a kicking?

Skoorb

Skoorb

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So the annointed winners of this season's Premier League (TM the bookmakers and the media) and "the best team in the league" (many, many pundits and football hacks) are dumped out of the Champions League after
a) winning their group and securing an away tie first
b) securing an away goal
c) playing against 10 men for 90+ (incl extra time)
d) leading the game three times

I assume that in the interests of equality and fairness that this 'uber-team' will get toasted by the media in the aftermath. City got a right kicking after the home defeat to Barcelona even though it has been acknowledged for some time that they have not been the sum of all their parts and are still early in their CL experience curve. Chelsea have been hailed as "the bestest team ever" or similar, have been playing "the best football" and are the product of many, many millions of £ being spent on players.

I await the media reaction (which will hopefully include praise for thr way PSG played with ten men. At times it was difficult to remember they were a man down).
 
It started last night on Talk Sport with Jason Cundy of all people and every punter and pundit who came on.

They have been the form team in the Prem in honesty. It hasn't been us anyway.

I didn't see the game and didn't realise PSG went down to 10 men so easy. Then again, we've been in similar positions including this season in the Champs League at home and not done so well. Didn't Rom go a man down early in the first half and we went ahead but ended up drawing ? PSG are better than Roma on current form.

I'm not gloating really. We're next up on stage and recent showings haven't promised a favourable outcome.
 
They're getting it in the neck and rightly so. I'm so glad that **** never managed us, you can keep your trophies if that's the way you go about earning them.
 
No indeed. Our form has been 'patchy' at best - little wonder if there has been disharmony behind the scenes as hinted at on the City Chat forum.

I am not gloating - playing against a disciplined side who are a man down is not as easy as it is often assumed - but I detected a distinct touch of sympathy and a soft landing on the BBC this morning. Admittedly, it was only the morning show sport bulletin and not a 'hard core' sports programme, but there was more than a hint of 'awww, poor Chelsea' whereas I have previously heard them bang on about 'City crashed to a devastating, shameful defeat against one of the best teams in Europe despite the gazillions spent on their squad'.

In other words I think they are likely not to get the guts of their ejection from the tournament picked over in microscopic detail and expect them to get off more lightly than City.

May sound defeatist but I suspect will will be able to make a more direct comparison next week.
 
Bluedub - 12/3/2015 07:58

They're getting it in the neck and rightly so. I'm so glad that **** never managed us, you can keep your trophies if that's the way you go about earning them.
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If that is so I will wind my neck in.

I have only heard Moaninho getting his retaliation in first trying to spike the hacks guns by saying they didn't deserve to go through. He really has no excuses this time - no referee to blame given the dubious advantage they were handed so early on.

Btw the reaction of the Chelsea players was totally out of order but entirely within character. There was some mealy mouthed absolving them from blame last evening as the commentators seemed to be saying the referee made his decision very early and wasn't influenced.......which kind of misses the point. The Chelsea players were unlikely to know that and so their reaction was solely intended to put pressure on him. Whether it was needed or not was irrelevant.

With you all thr way BD on Moaninho, his methods and thr malign effect he has on his teams.
 
He was slaughtered on Irish TV last night Skoorb and I believe Souness ripped him apart on S*y too.
 
Excellent :yup: That is good to hear. I think Souness has started to become much more balanced recently and has not shirked from laying into whoever deserves it. Good on him. Some of the others (Rednapp and the increasingly slimy Henry) are still too parochial for me.
 
I remember when Souness first started dining punditry for RTE, it was obvious he was taken aback by the freedom his fellow pundits had to speak their mind, it didn't take him long to catch on that they don't care who they offend they were going to speak their mind. He seems to have brought that with him onto British TV now which is great to see. Having said that there was once or twice last season where he let his Liverpool bias cloud his judgement but that's understandable I guess.

The problem with the likes of Henry and Redknapp is they're afraid to offend anyone so I guess hold back on their true feelings, they'd rather just toe the party line to keep picking up their pay packet.
 
Regarding the Champions League, I was wondering that, with Chelsea unexpectedly going out at this point, whether the PL would still have four places up for grabs next season. I had a root round and a poster on the BBC website posted that England will lose their CL spot this season if Arsenal/MCFC go out, if Juventus win the CL and two Italian teams reach the EL final. This is unlikely, so one more year in the offing, then no more 4th place for the PL.

 
There is now a proper article on this subject on the BBC football website if anyone's interested.

 
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