Congratulations to Tottenham Hotspur on their Carling Cup victory yesterday!

What a pleasure to see this team finally rounding into form…and actually playing top quality defense.  Hutton, King, and especially Woodgate were excellent throughout.  Great match, despite Chelsea dogging it until they got desperate in extra time.  I was really surprised Grant did not go to Joe Cole earlier, or perhaps even start him if he was determined to go with a 4-4-3 formation.  Cole is much better on the wing than Anelka.

At last, somebody besides the usual suspects. Well done.  Did anyone see the Eduardo da Silva incident? Horrible, horrible late tackle.

I did not see it since I decided not to pony up for SkySports this season; I only arrived in England in January and didn’t think it was worth it to pay for half a season’s worth of matches.  However, my brother (who is a flaming Gooner) brought it up on YouTube when we got home that afternoon.  Apparently it was quite awful.  Bad enough that they did not show any replays during the live broadcast.

Arsene wasted no time in calling for Martin Taylor’s lifetime ban, though he later retracted the statement.  My brother thought it was a very poor, sloppy tackle and well deserving of a sending off, but he didn’t see any ill intent in it.  It’s a shame for everyone involved.

Vrhovnik - 25 February 2008 11:28 AM

At last, somebody besides the usual suspects. Well done.  Did anyone see the Eduardo da Silva incident? Horrible, horrible late tackle.

It’s terrible, I feel sorry for him and pray that he will return in 9 months.

Uggghh damn you Avram

I hope Grant can shepherd Chelsea through a transition to playing a more attractive brand of football.  They have some fun players and some exciting young talent in the reserves, but the style they’ve gotten locked into the last few years is just brutally, brutally dull.  It seems like a waste to have one of the top clubs in Europe playing football that’s simply unwatchable at times.

Wok, it sounds like you’re a Chelsea fan.  What would you suggest?  Who needs to go?  Who should stay?  Who amongst the kids has the best shot of sticking with the first team?

DOUBLE POST

I think I’m going to watch the FA cup tie with Boro and Sheff Utd tonight.  The first match was pretty awful; hopefully Alves will get the start tonight and do something interesting.

Well, Alves flashed some of the form that made him the £12M man, and Stewart Downing was good as well.  Other than that, another hideous display.  The “goal” that finally won the thing was absolute rubbish, pure luck.  Too bad for the Sheffield keeper, who played rather well with the exception of that costly slip.  Boro really should have won it in 90 minutes, by 2 or 3 goals no less.

Arsenal looked like they are back on track after really taking it to AC Milan tonight.  Some marvelous flowing football on display in that match; Fabregas and Hleb were both outstanding.  I was not that impressed with Eboue (again), and I hope we continue to see more of Walcott as he rounds into form.

Tottenham deserved better tonight, and they would’ve gotten it if they had anybody on the pitch who could hit a f**king free kick worth a damn.  Absolutely zero quality deliveries from set pieces.  Zilch.  Bloody hell.

Say what you will about PKs, that was some end to the season today in Moscow. Terry (and Chelsea fans, I imagine) will be seeing that one in his nightmares for a while.

I despise Chelsea, but it was hard not to feel gutted for John Terry.  I don’t much care for ManU either, but they don’t even approach the astonishing level of aggressive whining and berating of officials that’s become Chelsea’s calling card.  Makalele in particular was extremely fortunate not to be sent off in the first half when he continually got up in the ref’s face (often in response to fouls with which he was not even involved) after already having been cautioned.  With a few exceptions, Chelsea are a despicable bunch of queens.