Tottenham vs Cheslea was always going to be about Keane and Lennon
I loved Mourinho’s post-match interview – he comes out, praises Tottenham (generously, I imagine), and plays the victim quite brilliantly by putting all the spotlight on the referee, whose decisions were, in Mourinho’s point of view, questionable.
But the highlight of the match was the quality of football on display, and the genuine passion with which it was contested.
Chimbonda, Dawson, Lennon, Keane, Jenas – all very, very good for Tottenham.
For Chelsea, they’re always good – Essien, Robben, Carvalho, Drogba. And that goal by Makelele – it’s a wild swing until it ends up in the net, but after that who cares.
Was the disallowed goal rightly disallowed? Was Terry given a fair second yellow?
I don’t know really – it’s a matter of interpretation, and some times the ref gives it in the favour of one side, the other times he favours the other team. The problem with refs will stay until the authorities do something about it, although with the amount of public pressure being laid on them, added with the reduced numbers of refs coming through the ranks (read a recent article on this in the Guardian I think), something’s gotta give.
But I think refs realise, and managers eventually realise as well, that some decisions are just too 50-50 to decide by the letter of the law. You gotta make a snap decision, and if its wrong, you have to get on with it (unless it is blatantly stupid and happens to a person who can’t deal with defeat, and then you have to hear about it 3 weeks on – if you haven’t figured it out by now I’m talking about Henry’s disallowed goal).
But most of it we can fix using vid replays.
But that’s for another day. Today we celebrate Tottenham’s return to the top 10 (finally), the stutter that’s left Chelsea 3 points behind Manchester United, and a Premiership weekend where it all, apparently, went according to plan (even the Liverpool win, which gives them the boost to go on and beat Arsenal next weekend – hopefully).
I don’t think Tottenham could have beaten Chelsea if Drogba’s goal hadn’t been disallowed. Still, even then I don’t think they could have beaten Chelsea if Keane and Lennon had not attacked that well, and Chimbonda and Dawson hadn’t defended so well near the death.
All credit to Tottenham for showing the spirit to win here – in middle of the all the fuss about Mourinho and the ref, we forget that this was a quality, quality game of football.
Topics: Chelsea, Jose Mourinho, Tottenham
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Good article. I disagree with one point however. The essien goal was the result of no “wild swing”. He cleverly adjusted his feet as the ball came his way, twisted his body, bent it sideways, lifted his leg high and swung his foot at the ball with enough right sided ‘cut’ to curve it out of Robinson’s reach but just inside the post. It was the best taken goal of the game. And I’m a diehard Spurs supporter with a full appreciation of Lennon’s goal.
November 7th, 2006 @ 00:05But it wasn’t Essien……….
November 7th, 2006 @ 01:49Good article, but about the questionable decisions. There was definately no problem with the drobga goal. There just wasnt anything to see. But about terry i just think its going to be one of those things that we weill never know for sure until Ref. Poll comes out and says what just happened, which will never happen. Think about it, if terry hadnt done anything wrong then why did he just walk off without any arguement and shock. It looked like he knew it was coming and showd guilt but it didnt really look like anything serious happened that warranted a second yellow. And Mourinho saying that he shouldnt have got it because he was the “attacking player” makes no sense.
November 7th, 2006 @ 12:53Ahmed, You know I love a good Spurs article. As far as the refereeing goes well sometimes you get the luck and most of the time when your name is Tottenham Hotspur you don’t.
To beat Chelsea with 90% skill and 10% luck is all the sweeter when you were in the bottom half of the table at the start of the game. Especially when your team gave 110% effort.
Anyone who says that Chelsea were hard done by by the referee – well maybe, but 12 yellows from two different referees within days of each other says that Chelsea are far from the innocent victims Mourinho claims…gotta love him!
November 7th, 2006 @ 15:24I’ve been waiting so long for either ManU or Chelsea to lose points :p so that Arsenal can move up (*exasperated*) and the three can lock horns….. did I miss Liverpool? Yes, I did – knowingly :p……
November 7th, 2006 @ 20:07