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Chelsea take the title, but Drogba provides the Drama
Published by Ian John on May 10, 2010
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In the end, it wasn’t quite as dramatic as fans of Manchester United were hoping. Wigan travelled to London facing Chelsea knowing that a win or a draw would hand Manchester United the chance of the title. Chelsea knew that victory would be enough. United knew only victory would suffice and that they’d have to rely on a favour from Wigan, but from the moment Nicolas Anelka hammered Chelsea in front on six minutes, the title had effectively been decided.
In truth, the title was decided when Chelsea managed to gain a victory at Old Trafford. Joe Cole hasn’t had much of a season and may well be leaving the club in the summer, however his goal at Old Trafford was pivotal in handing Chelsea the lead, perhaps more so than Drogba’s offside effort that eventually proved the difference between the sides.
While United were handing Stoke a four goal defeat, Chelsea were going goal crazy at the Bridge. Gary Caldwell compounded matters to wrestle Frank Lampard to the ground, gifting the Blues a penalty and earning himself a red card into the bargain. It was already Mission Impossible for Wigan, at that point it became merely a matter of how many. In the end Chelsea settled for eight. No doubt they could have got ten if they’d really been bothered.
However the comedy of the afternoon was provided by the brilliant, powerful and utterly pathetic Didier Drogba. A hat-trick saw him confirmed as the Premier League’s golden boot winner. A great achievement, but not until Drogba had once again displayed his pathetically childish nature, pouting like a petulant brat because Frank Lampard took the penalty which made the score 2-0. The rest of his first half performance verged on the ridiculous to the churlish. The spoilt brat mentality evident for all to see. It speaks volumes for his quality as a player that he finished the game with a second half hat-trick. Sadly for Drogba, it also speaks volumes for him as a person that he would be so desperate to put his own glory ahead of that of his team mates and then sulk for fifteen minutes afterwards because Lampard didn’t submit to his request.
Personally, had I been Carlo Ancelotti, with Chelsea being 2-0 up, Wigan down to 10 men and Drogba sporting a monumental sulk that would make even Mariah Carey feel a tad foolish, I’d have told him to get changed at half time and brought a sub on for him. He’d also be, at best, on the bench for the FA Cup final with Portsmouth and I’d have told him to grow up and stop acting like a complete prat.
But in the end Chelsea racked up against against a pathetic Wigan Athletic. United ran in four against Stoke, Rooney hobbled off to cause the nation to go into a collective panic about the World Cup. Liverpool were utterly useless against an already relegated Hull and could not get the win to lift them to sixth, meaning that Liverpool’s season will now start just two weeks after the World Cup Final. Arsenal beat Fulham reserves 4-0 and Tottenham contrived to throw away a 2-0 lead at Burnley to lose 4-2. Quite how is beyond me, but Spurs do have a knack of being able to go from the sublime to the ridiculous in the space of just one game. There were some other results too, but lets be honest, nobody really cared about them, did they?
So Chelsea march on to face Portsmouth, Didier’s all smiles thanks to his second half hattrick and even managed to admit he was at fault (how big of him), United fans anger grows at the board but at least they didn’t resort to the nonsense displayed by Sheffield Wednesday, Luton Town and Grimsby Town fans over the past couple of weekends. There was dignity in United’s sadness in equal measure with their anger at the board.
And so it ends, Chelsea will probably win the double. United won the Carling Cup, Arsenal promised much but delivered little and Liverpool promised little and delivered even less.
Roll on August and the start of the 2010-2011 season!
Image Courtesy of ***Searchgang *** on Flickr.com
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Nabyl Charania on Thu, 13th May 2010 6:17 pm
Drogba just wants to score goals…leave the big cry baby, oh and he made Time’s Top 100 Most influential people in the world list… so he’s doing something right!
Diego Zidane on Thu, 13th May 2010 6:19 pm
Drogba just wants to score goals…leave the big cry baby, oh and he made Time’s Top 100 Most influential people in the world list… so he’s doing something right! -DROGS IS THE MAN! HE will lead Ivory Coast to glory in SA!