Di Magician?

[Wxgba 306]

Although the goal that wasn’t that actually was succeeded in grabbing the headlines, the reason that Chelsea won the game was because they were the better side over ninety minutes. You can dominate first halves all season long and still finish in the bottom half. There’s no point in starting strongly if you’re unable to produce the goods. Spurs simply weren’t clinical enough in front of goal – they had the chances but failed to make them count. They outplayed Chelsea for 43 minutes, but then William Gallas made the fatal error of allowing Didier Drogba, aka Mr. Wembley, to turn... in an FA Cup semi-final. He was never going to do anything other than smash it with his weak foot in to the top corner, was he?

Scoring just before half-time must have given the side great belief going in to the break. That much so that it took only four minutes of the second half for Di Matteo’s men to bolster the lead, albeit via the controversial goal. 10 minutes later Spurs may have had another cause for frustration as Petr Cech took down Emmanuel Adebayor as he was one-on-one. A certain red card... surely? Not thanks to Gareth Bale being alongside Tottenham’s target man and successfully tucking it home to make the score 2-1. Retrospectively, the Welsh winger would have been better leaving the ball on its natural course, leaving Spurs with a penalty and half an hour to overcome the deficit against the ten-men of Chelsea. He didn’t, and Chelsea made him eat his words. Yes, Gareth, we all know you’re the better team, hence why you won 5-1. Oh, wait a second...

Some may say that Chelsea rode their luck during the game, but the truth of the matter is that when the time came, the players stood up and fought hard for the win. It wasn’t the most glamorous 5-1 victory you’ll ever come across, but it will be difficult to find such an important. And the standard of goals the game produced? Phwoar.

It was a proud moment to be a Chelsea fan. We may not have had a successful season for the most part, but we do have the opportunity to end the season on a high: we’re in the FA Cup final; we’re two games away from the Champions League final and there’s still a chance of finishing in the top four of the Premier League. Considering how poor we have been at times this season, we will have done extremely well for ourselves and will leave us in a good position to rebuild for next year.

Speaking of rebuilding... the old guard faired alright yesterday, didn’t they? Drogba, Lampard and Terry were amongst three of the best players on the pitch. I thought they were past it... (No, that’s not a joke, I personally thought they were) obviously not. Di Matteo has them back on side, and they can definitely help during big games as they proved against Spurs on Sunday night. If they’re capable of producing a performance of that standard on Wednesday night, then there’s every chance we can go on to beat Barcelona.

Pessimism has been prolific amongst Chelsea fans as of late, but Di Matteo’s succeeded in turning the results around and has started to gain points from games we wouldn’t have earlier on in the season, leaving the team with evident, new-found confidence, which is now at a new high. After all, it is mid-April and we’re still competing in three competitions. Not many teams in Europe can say that now, can they?