Chelsea 8 - Wigan 0.
The title is ours. Title number 4, won and earned on the last day of the season, how sweet it is! :).
I have finally come down to earth enough to write something about the match. Before the match Ancelotti came out and said that we were not aiming to set records and winning by a goal would be enough. Thankfully this was either media chatter, or something that got lost in translation to the players, as we went out there aggressively and looked to and succeeded in pounding Wigan!
Right from the outset our approach was clear, we were there to win. There seemed to be a lot less nerves than in the Liverpool match. It was one of those days where the team clicked and it was the most important day of the year for the team to click.
The title this year, for mine, was really about 4 teams. Us and United, obviously, but also Manchester City, who had taken 6 points from us over the season and given 6 points to United in the final minute twice in the season. The other were Burnley, the team that in the very early stage of the season did almost the unthinkable and went a goal up against United and held on, defending, for over 45 minutes to steal 3 points. It was then that I saw, but didn't believe, there was a chance that perhaps United could be tamed this year.
We won this title. There is no way anyone can say otherwise. Drogba got the Golden Boot, Cech got the Golden Gloves and we got a special award from the Premier League for being the first team in the Premier League to score in excess of 100 goals for the season. Earlier in the week Drogba won "Chelsea Player Of The Year" and Malouda won "Players' Player Of the Year", congratulations to them both :).
The match itself was work in the first half and then party in the second. Lampard was awarded a penalty in the first half. It was a definite penalty, but he also made sure that the referee saw exactly what impact it had on him. The Wigan defender was red carded, correctly, as the replay showed he was indeed the "last man". Excellent refereeing. At the time I was too wrapped up in the action to make the last man call, but the replay showed the ref was correct. There was some minor drama between Lampard and Drogba as to who was going to take the penalty. Lampard won out, correctly, as when you are 1 up in a must win match you do not change your penalty taker, no matter how much he wants that Golden Boot. Drogba rightly got to take a penalty later and he too converted, though I was surprised the goals were still standing given the power that ball hit the woodwork with *lol*.
For a lot of the match, with the result not really in doubt, Drogba was focusing on The Golden Boot. Interestingly when we scored in the second half Drogba celebrated the team goal, rather than rued the chance to go for the Golden Boot, and suddenly it all came together for him :).
The following link contains a match report and also embedded video of interviews with Terry, Ancelotti and Drogba. It is beautiful to see just how humble and gracious we were in victory, which is in stark contrast to how self-righteous and self-entitled Sir Alex was after losing the title. Here is the article.
Now for the FA Cup...C'mon Lads!
(I have to say, as much as I hope we do the double, I won't be too gutted if we lose The Cup Final to Pompey, as it is Pompey and I can't begrudge them. We got THE win I most wanted this year given the way it all panned out.).
I have finally come down to earth enough to write something about the match. Before the match Ancelotti came out and said that we were not aiming to set records and winning by a goal would be enough. Thankfully this was either media chatter, or something that got lost in translation to the players, as we went out there aggressively and looked to and succeeded in pounding Wigan!
Right from the outset our approach was clear, we were there to win. There seemed to be a lot less nerves than in the Liverpool match. It was one of those days where the team clicked and it was the most important day of the year for the team to click.
The title this year, for mine, was really about 4 teams. Us and United, obviously, but also Manchester City, who had taken 6 points from us over the season and given 6 points to United in the final minute twice in the season. The other were Burnley, the team that in the very early stage of the season did almost the unthinkable and went a goal up against United and held on, defending, for over 45 minutes to steal 3 points. It was then that I saw, but didn't believe, there was a chance that perhaps United could be tamed this year.
We won this title. There is no way anyone can say otherwise. Drogba got the Golden Boot, Cech got the Golden Gloves and we got a special award from the Premier League for being the first team in the Premier League to score in excess of 100 goals for the season. Earlier in the week Drogba won "Chelsea Player Of The Year" and Malouda won "Players' Player Of the Year", congratulations to them both :).
The match itself was work in the first half and then party in the second. Lampard was awarded a penalty in the first half. It was a definite penalty, but he also made sure that the referee saw exactly what impact it had on him. The Wigan defender was red carded, correctly, as the replay showed he was indeed the "last man". Excellent refereeing. At the time I was too wrapped up in the action to make the last man call, but the replay showed the ref was correct. There was some minor drama between Lampard and Drogba as to who was going to take the penalty. Lampard won out, correctly, as when you are 1 up in a must win match you do not change your penalty taker, no matter how much he wants that Golden Boot. Drogba rightly got to take a penalty later and he too converted, though I was surprised the goals were still standing given the power that ball hit the woodwork with *lol*.
For a lot of the match, with the result not really in doubt, Drogba was focusing on The Golden Boot. Interestingly when we scored in the second half Drogba celebrated the team goal, rather than rued the chance to go for the Golden Boot, and suddenly it all came together for him :).
The following link contains a match report and also embedded video of interviews with Terry, Ancelotti and Drogba. It is beautiful to see just how humble and gracious we were in victory, which is in stark contrast to how self-righteous and self-entitled Sir Alex was after losing the title. Here is the article.
Now for the FA Cup...C'mon Lads!
(I have to say, as much as I hope we do the double, I won't be too gutted if we lose The Cup Final to Pompey, as it is Pompey and I can't begrudge them. We got THE win I most wanted this year given the way it all panned out.).