No, but it could have become interesting. If QPR had held out for 2 more minutes, Chelsea would have led Arsenal and Utd by 5 and 6 points with Utd going to Stamford Bridge next week and then Chelsea going to Arsenal the week after. Not impossible for there still to be a contest after those games. We've seen teams come from further behind in the past.
Chelsea do have a game in hand, but dropped points in consecutive games would put pressure on them. Having to rely on Drogba, who looks really sluggish and off-form, is a real problem for them right now, though. Not sure why they went for Brown on the bench, as he's not a striker. Solanke might be a better bet.
Yes, true. However, I can't see Chelsea losing either one of those games, Mourinho is too smart. He knows that both you and The Goons have to win, he doesn't.
And that's the problem. He's the ultimate pragmatist. Whereas SAF and Wenger would naively see the merits of trying to beat (and finish off) their opponents, Mourinho will happily play for the dourest of dour 0-0s against them.
Yes, agreed again. I'm not a massive Mourinho fan, just pointing out his very likely thought processes.
When I read that Jose had said to not do anything to the fans for throwing coins,I thought,"hello.Chelsea won!" He would have tried to get the game replayed if they had lost! But,once again,Chelsea went out to not lose hoping to score an odd goal and once again it worked. Jose only went silly in the head when they played at The Lane thinking they'd knock the crap out of us.Didn't work! So Chelsea went back to their old proven style. Their fans must be bored crapless,while our fans just remain disappointed......so,should we try the Chelsea way or the United way??????
Nothing interesting about seeing Arsenal win the league (the likeliest scenario if Chelsea mess up). It's bad enough seeing Chelsea doing it, but Arsenal is beyond bearing.
Citeh epitomise all that I hold in utter contempt about Sugga Daddy FCs. The bi-annual underperforming. Secure in the knowledge they have bought their berth in next seasons' CL. Spend more to fix their most recent mess. Yet to have a fraction of those in their squad stockpiles would make an immense difference to the likes of Spurs (whose CL fate has been decided by 1-2 pts over a season) .
The annoying part is that, if they want to offload players (for example, Dzeko and Jovetic are rumoured to be off this summer) their wages at City will prevent them being realistic targets, short of City comping their wages - and given how the pair of them are under contract until 2018, I doubt City will want to be forking over half their salary for three years.
"The annoying part is that, if they want to offload players (for example, Dzeko and Jovetic are rumoured to be off this summer) their wages at City will prevent them being realistic targets, short of City comping their wages - and given how the pair of them are under contract until 2018, I doubt City will want to be forking over half their salary for three years." Taking a wage cut for regular game time at a title contending / CL participating club : perhaps. Wage cut to play for clubs that cannot guarantee the latter : highly unlikely.
Most of the City players who have been stalwarts of the team for the past 4-5 years are now 29 or older. The club may feel they've seen the best of Toure, Zabaleta, Kolarov, Navas, Dzeko and others - perhaps even Kompany. They've also bought badly in recent times with Mangala, Fernando and Jovetic. They could be looking at a major overhaul of their team, although I can't see them recouping anything like what they paid for some of these players.
They've been linked with Danny Rose in the BBC Gossip Column this morning according to The Mirror. Amazingly, if this had been a story from last summer I'd have jumped at the opportunity but after the season he's had so far, they can go and whistle. Must admit Danny has changed my opinion of him and he's more than warranted his place in the side, credit to Tots and any others on here who believed he'd come good, I certainly didn't see it happening. If City do indeed look at performing a major squad overhaul, I'd be more than happy to take Zabaleta, Dzeko and Navas off their hands.
I didn't see it, but it was mentioned on one of the reports that Newcastle should have had a pen. Whilst this is not surprising if true, how many pens is that they've gotten away with this season (again)? I even saw one a few weeks back when one of their players pulled back an oppo player to exactly the same extent (or more) that Dyer pulled back whatsisname in our home match against them, but of course it wasn't given. And they say all this evens itself out over the season! Bollox, particularly big hairy bollox when the final margins are only a few points between qualifying for the CL and not.
I don't think the player helped himself there, the fall looks a little unnatural. Should have been a pen though.
