Just when the world thought Barcelona could never be defeated and that they epitomised beautiful football, Jose Mourinho - who can now be hailed as one of the top four managers in the world(others being Sir Alex, Guus Hiddink and Don Fabio) - showed the world exactly how any team can be conquered by sheer logic.

Yes, what Mourinho did wasn’t tactical genius but implication of simple and pure logic. It’s obviously easier said than done, and you need good defenders every bit as much as good attackers. Luckily, Inter have them in abundance.

Last week Barca had to take the bus to Milan. Last night, Inter drove theirs to Catalonia and parked it in front of the goal. If you have two tall centre-backs jumping for headers against Bojan and Pedro, you’re going to make it hard for the opposition to cross the ball effectively.

If you have the excellent Esteban Cambiasso (the man dumped out of the Argentine national side by Diego Maradona) patrolling in front of the back four then it will be hard to thread passes through the middle. And if you have three players hovering over Lionel Messi every time he picks up the ball, then he’s unlikely to have much impact even if he is the best player in the world.

It musn’t be forgotten that the theory of total football that Barca so dearly claim to be their own and use it to act as the game’s moral defender was actually started and made famous by the legendary football club AJAX. It should be remembered that Barcelona actually started implying this theory after they hired a dutch coach from AJAX in the 70’s and their dream team of the early 90’s was led by an AJAX youth system product and legend Johan Cryuff, who, btw, earned 90% of his accolades in Holland itself.

Their constant tripping over, like the grounds had a butter layer, against Arsenal and then Inter really makes me feel sick. All their claims and drama of being so holy only makes you hate them more. I won’t even mention Busquets ridiculous play-acting!

Obviously for Mourinho this was a dream come through. After being shown the door by the Barca bosses very shabbily, he’s definitely had his revenge. The Translator jumped and celebrated hailing it his greatest ever victory. It’s quite surprising though, that a man - who was mentored at Barcelona who play the free flowing game, by the Dutch coach Van Gaal and England’s Bobby Robson, both of whom play/ed a fairly attractive brand of football - has such a tactical yet dull, boring style of football.

And what Mourinho has done is book himself a seat at the Madrid dug-out. Real Madrid FC must have loved every bit of what he has done - defeated Barcelona, defeated Barcelona in the Champions League, jumped and celebrated wildly in front of the 90,000+ Barca fans at Camp Nou, publicly emphasized his hatred once again for Catalonians, declared that he’d never, ever coach Barcelona and not to mention his previous achievements which include 2 Portuguese League titles and a Champions League with minnows Porto , 1(possible 2) Serie A title(s) and a UCL final after nearly 30 years and 2 UCL semis for Chelsea along with 2 BPL titles(something they craved for over 50 years!).

This means there’s only one way Mourinho’s heading, unless the much speculated resignation of Sir Alex Ferguson stops him at the crossroads …

Just when it all seemed to go back United’s way, Chelsea spanked Stoke 7-0 showing why they were champions and why they still are in the best position to win it back after a 4-year long wait.

Yesterday, It was Arsenal Manc too. But the game was i think limited to welcoming back Pat Viera and booing Adebayor. There weren’t more than 3-4 shots, unless i missed a few, but the only thing i can remember is Adebayor getting booed and of course, his horrendous hairstyle. Coming back to football, Arsenal still needs a new back line. Vermalaen of course is brilliant, but the rest aren’t world class. Their crossing even yesterday was as usual woeful and unfortunately it is an important part of the game.

Like every other True Blue, i was glued to the television screen yesterday hoping Bale produces some magic and United are out of it! However, he couldn’t. In fact, he was rubbish at the position where he plays. Just shows the difference between him and Ashley Cole or for that matter even Evra. United scored first when Asse..something gave United a penalty after a terrible terrible tackle in the box. Giggs made no mistakes. Naturally i was delighted when King scored, but my happiness was limited. Nani received a brilliant ball in the box and chipped the ball past Gomes into the net. Take nothing away from the finish, it was magnificent. Although i do not like him, but he’s good, really good. He won a penalty too few minutes later, generous though but was a penalty. Giggs again made no mistakes. It ended 3-1 to United but once again a highly frustrating game for Berbatov.

Now it was Chelsea’s turn to go back to the top of the table. And they did, in style. Kalou scored his first Chelsea Hat-trick, Lampard put in two, Malouda and Sturridge put in one each. Overall a great morale boosting performance. Stoke thrashed 7-0, third time this season we score 7. And I’m a proud Chelsea fan like every other. Unfortunately Drogba couldn’t score, however his contribution was good.

Elsewhere, Liverpool thrashed Burnley out of the BPL by scoring 4 second-half goals against them. They’re now only 2 points off Tottenham who host Bolton next week and are curently fourth. However both ManC and Spurs have a game in hand and it still looks unlikely for Liverpool, but you never know!

Come this way for all your Comments!

It isn’t over yet. And nobody knows that more than Jose Mourinho. Offered the opportunity to announce last night’s 3-1 win over Barcelona as the best of his Inter career, the manager politely declined. Winning at Chelsea in the previous round was better, he said, because that was in the second leg and ensured his team’s progress. He knows it is still only half-time in this semi.

In many ways for the neutral, the night’s result was the best possible thing to happen. You imagine that it will have sparked Barcelona, banished any hint of complacency. In doing so it has set up the second leg brilliantly. To progress now, Pep Guardiola’s team will have to reach levels of attainment even they have not yet managed. Next Wednesday’s second leg in the Camp Nou cannot come soon enough: it promises to be titanic.

What that clash did was to remind the world that when it comes to a tactical game plan Jose Mourinho currently has no peers. While Arsene Wenger, Alex Ferguson and many others have been left floundering in Barcelona’s tight-passing techniques, Mourinho set out a methodology which nullified them. It is pretty obvious what he did: Arsenal, for instance, were destroyed by allowing Lionel Messi the freedom of the space about 10 metres ahead of their penalty area. From there he was able to attack them at will, running at their back line at pace with the ball apparently cemented to his laces.

Mourinho coached his team to press Barcelona further back. Much further back. As a result, Messi spent most of his time last night picking the ball up close to the half way line. From there, Inter’s midfield could snap in on him and if they didn’t dispossess the world’s finest player, then the defenders following up on their heels could do so. Rarely in a season, never mind one match, could he have given the ball away as often as he did in the San Siro. The poor lad barely had the chance to breathe before Wesley Sneijder or Walter Samuel or the wonderful Lucio were at him.

What’s more, Barcelona’s defence likes to play up the pitch. With Inter winning the ball so high, suddenly Barca’s back line were exposed to the through ball or the through run. Sure, it helped Mourinho enormously that his tactic was aided by an apparently blind linesman who allowed Inter’s third goal to be scored from a position so far offside Diego Milito was practically in the stands when he nodded home. But there is no doubt that while many have theorised about the way to stop Barcelona playing, the Portuguese made it happen. Not least because in the brilliant Sneijder he had a midfielder perfectly equipped to fulfil his run-all-night instructions.

The Italians have a certainty that their coaches are the best in the world. And a glance at England’s current infatuation with managers from there would suggest that they are not alone in that opinion. Yet, since Carlo Ancellotti’s Milan won the title in 2007, Serie A teams have not been making any impact on the Champions League.  Spanish and English clubs have dominated of late.

Never exactly short of self-certainty, the Mourinho ego was more inflated than ever before. All this result will have done is confirm in his own mind his opinion of himself. And the fact is, he has a case. As he himself pointed out, he has already transformed Inter from the Champions League also-rans they’ve so often been called to serious titles contenders. The Mourinho master plan is working. And Abromovich, so desperate for that one trophy, will regret.

Moving on to the second semi-final, I’m staggered that the commentators are still referring to Bayern as a weak team? Bar their centre backs they’ve got some quality! Ribery, Robben, Schweinsteiger, Lahm, Muller, Ollic (sometimes)…

Ribery went off for a ridiculous challenge. His week couldn’t get worse, could it? I feel he’s had a ‘Britney Spears shaved head’ moment! Now we really don’t bother with what footballers do outside the pitch. We couldn’t care less about Terry shagging his mate’s girlfriend or Beckham getting a fancy hair-do. Nor did we bother about half the French team getting tangled in a sex-rackett bust-up…. until now. Imagine how Bayern are feeling right now… their prized asset admitting that he’s f*cked an underage hooker! Yieks, one minute you’ve got a £60mn superstar on your hands, the next, you’ve got a pervert worth nothing commercially!

Dear oh dear! What is it with footballers? I thought picking up women was supposed to be as easy as plucking flowers. Jokes aside, when you earn£150k a week, surely you should be doing something a little classier with your mates on a Saturday night. He’ll never shake that image now… who will want to purchase him now (Chelsea probably, not much will shock their shabby fans)?

What a season! What a season! It doesn’t get better than this it never would get better than this!

After having almost won the title 3-4 times this season, Chelsea has again blown it away. This time, they’ve lost to an inspired Tottenham side who has defeated two title contenders within 4 days. First Arsenal, now Chelsea. And ironically, they play the third one next week.

Earlier in the day, United shut their loud rivals for good when Scholes scored a last minute header, keeping the title race very much alive. It was a very scrappy game and could have gone either way. There weren’t many clear cut chances for either side. Rooney did start but was taken off in the second half. Showed good signs of recovery too. However, the turning point was the substitution of De Jong.

In the 21:55 Tot-Che game, many would’ve thought that Chelsea will win as they have been winning against Spurs since the past several years. Chelsea have gained the maximum league points against Tottenham, ever since their existence. That wasn’t the case tonight. Not only did “Captain” John Terry get himself sent off for a foolish second yellow card offense, but also gave away a penalty in the start of the game after the ball hit his hand [may be]. Anyway, the penalty was awarded and Defoe made no mistakes. In the first half itself, Bale doubled Tottenham’s lead. He cut ferreira [who I HATE] like a dog and shot the ball past Cech into the net. In the second half, Spurs were decent and played well enough to hang on to their lead. Chelsea showed the usual signs of frustration. Taking full advantage of their counter-attacks, Tottenham had 3-4 clear cut chances of burying the game, however, Cech was brilliant and made some terrific saves to deny Bentley, Defoe, Bale and Pavlyuchenko.

Surely this is the best season we’ve witnessed since a very very long time. It can still go either way. Tottenham as of now look favourites to grab the fourth spot. As for the title,

Remaining Games:

Chelsea:

Stoke - [H]

Liverpool - [A]

Wigan - [H]

United:

Tottenham - [H]

Sunderland - [A]

Stoke - [H]

Naturally the title will be decided by next week itself if Tottenham are to upset United, but the Liverpool-Chelsea game does appear to be the most vital game of the season. If United do defeat Tottenham, Chelsea would require full 3 points against Liverpool, which wouldn’t be easy. I still tip Chelsea to win it.

Of course, you guys can come this way to give your tips!

Last night, a nervy and tired Chelsea sealed the domestic double by going 4 points clear of United after defeating Bolton by a goal. Considering the FA Cup final is against Pompey, it’s pretty much the double they bagged at the Bridge last night.

Although, it must be pointed that Abramovich still looks unhappy with the way his teams been playing football. One of the reasons why the ‘Speacial One’ was sacked was that he didn’t play good attractive football.

The thing about Abramovich is that he thinks exactly like a fan. And this is also what makes him the most demanding boss in the business. Ancelloti, beware!

What surprises me the most is that you lot, wether on English blogs or back here in India are yet not considering Arsenal’s chances of getting any League glory. On every single website and in every discussion I can hear, everyone’s been talking about how Chelsea have now won the title and United can only win IF Chelsea drop points in at least 2 games.

A look at the table on the sidebar( -> ) will tell you that it’s Arsenal and not United that are sitting 2nd behind Chelsea (considering they’ll win the game against a 120 minute - Wembley pitch bruised Spurs!). Yet no one, and I mean absolutely no one’s talking up Arsenal’s chances of winning the League. Now that’s some insult at Wenger’s boys who’ve shown tremendous resent and mental strength all season long despite of being written-off on several occassions. There are kids and players who’re crocked for at least 6 months a year! Yet they are 3 points behind leaders Chelsea and were only out of the UCL ’cause of absolute misfortune(they met Barca in the quarters)

Come this way to congratulate Chelsea and to make fun of/sympathise with Arsenal!

Amazing isn’t it! Even after going into administration and 24 hours after getting relegated, Portsmouth have defeated their ex-manager’s team Tottenham 2-0 in the FA Cup semi-final at the wembley, Piquionne and Boateng scoring. They face holders Chelsea in the final who defeated Villa 3-0 yesterday. Lampard, Malouda and Drogba all scoring in the second half.

Earlier in the day, United were held 0-0 by Blackburn Rovers at Ewood park. Berbatov was rubbish and missed many opportunities. Valencia showed just why he shouldn’t play for United! He got a glorious opportunity, and could have finished the game, which he squandered by hitting the ball right at Robinson.

So here we go, 5 games away from the title with a 2-point lead and a game against Bolton at SFB in hand, Chelsea are going good! And just another thought, if Pool do manage to finish fourth and go on to win the Europa League Cup, ironically, they will have a better season than Carling Cup winners United. So hence, even after all the criticism, it wouldn’t really be so bad for the Reds.

However, you all can come this way to laugh at Berbatov, Valencia, Harry Redknapp and for some reason Garry Neville! We can praise some teams too.

Line Up(ratings/10):-

Manchester United : VDS(7) ; Evra(6) - Vidic(7) - Rio(6) - Rafael(7) ; Valencia(8) - Gibson(6) - Fletcher(6) - Carrick(6) - Nani(9) ; Rooney(8)

Subs : O’Shea(5) - Giggs(5) - Berba(0)

Formation : 4-5-1 [changed to 4-3-3 , 4-5-0]

Bayern Munich : Butt(4) ; Lahm(6) - Van Buyten(6) - Demichellis(5) - Hadbuster(5) ; Robben(8) - Van Bommel(6) - Schweinsteiger(6) - Ribery(7) ; Muller(5) - Olic(7)

Subs : Altintop(7) - Gomez(6) - Pranjic(5)

Formation : 4-4-2

The game kicked off to an electrifying atmosphere at the Theatre Of Dreams. Despite of the 2-1 loss suffered by United just a few days ago in the League, there was absolutely no shortage of optimism being displayed by fans. The announcement of Wayne’s selection was enough to leave them all in a frenzy. The noise in the stadium had reached deafening levels. A mate back here, who had gone to the MUCB in Mumbai said he’d never felt such an atmosphere before in a pub, cafe or any sort of public gathering.

United started the game with great intensity moving ahead like a pack of hungry dogs. And well, that paid off. SAF’s gameble paid off. Darren Gibson, whose inclusion had raised a few eye-brows, had surpised Bayern’s goal-keeper to score a cleanly hit goal on his bottom left. Rafael played the ball to Rooney, who brilliantly passed the ball to Gibson, who, to the surprise of Butt took a shot straight towards the bottom left corner leaving him astonished and putting United in the driver’s seat. Three minutes and United back into the tie, with the game very much open. Seventh minute - Valencia gets the ball, teases Badstuber on the right before delivering a near post ball to Nani, who scores with a brilliant back heel, not dissimilar to Joe Cole’s effort at the weekend. Brilliant stuff! 2-0 in under 7 minutes and leading 3-2 on agg. Or wait, was it two goals too early? Well, Bayern were shell-shocked at that moment… with United riding high on the Rooney-inspired wave. Certainly, being in the right place at the right time without doing much was itself more than enough from Wayne Rooney. Bayern looked like they were unprepaired for United’s talisman to come on. Van Gaal certainly left dumb-founded!

Then the moment which every United fan feared. Rooney, challenged by Van Buyten goes down and well, doesn’t get up fully fit. From then on till the end of the half you only see him limping and struggling while Bayern’s players take full advantage to nudge and kick him whenever possible. Now they are Germans(well, not exactly, but still… ) and not some school kids who wouldn’t do that. Of course they would, they want him out as soon as possible! In the middle of all this Rafael, that litle bundle of talent runs through with the ball straight into Bayern’s nest, looks left, looks right, gets confused and shoots horrendously. I mean wtf was he thinking?! He had Rooney and Nani on his left. All he had to do was pass the freaking ball! Nevermind. With Bayern not really coming up with anything apart from a real sweet chance to Olic which was denied by a brilliant save from VDS, United moved the ball around with all the time in world. 

Five minutes from half-time and United make it 3-0. Nani, once again! Valencia is again the architect, sending the ball past Demichelis before setting it up perfectly for Nani, who hammers the ball into the roof of the net! Brilliant, brilliant finish! United, leading 4-2 on agg seemed poised for a SF clash with Lyon!

Floating in their dream world United feel the game has been won and the SF berth booked. The park the bus.

And then, Ze Germans arrive! Read the rest of this entry »

Barcelona have fairly outclassed Arsenal in the CL semi-final second leg tie. Messi scored 4 times to throw the gunners out of the CL and book his team a  place in the Semi-Final against Inter Milan, who defeated CSKA earlier in the night.

Teams:

Ars - ALMUNIA [Who conceded above his head, through his legs, to his right and left]

Silvestre. That’s it. I’m writing NO more.

Barca - MESSI. That’s it. I’m writing NO more.

Arsenal surprisingly took the lead in the 11th minute when after a ferociously quick counter attack, Walcott broke with lightning pace but almost made a meal of his pass for Bendtner, who saw his first shot blocked by Valdes but scored on the rebound. 2 minutes later, Silvestre [From Arsenal] passed the ball to Messi who unleashed an unstoppable shot into Almunia’s left corner. In the 35th minute, Arsenal’s defence again gets caught up and Messi scores again. Minutes later, Messi got a ball through Arsenal’s defence and was one on one against an onrushing Almunia, Messi calmly hit the ball past him over his head into the net.

Second half Arsenal were decent. Rather Barca slowed down their game. Bendtner hit the post too. However, nothing could stop that genius boy from scoring another, he burst forward with another trademark run, ran past Arsenal’s defence like they did not exist, got his first shot blocked by Almunia, however shot the next through his legs. Stunning. Pure Genius. Pure Class.

Any of you guys who still think Rooney’s better? I don’t.

It’s Barca vs Inter in the Semi-Final. Come this way for all your Comments!

It wasn’t just the result Chelsea got at Old Trafford that now makes them favourites for the Premier League title - it was the performance too.

The ball is in their court now. Manchester United and Arsenal can only hope they stumble somewhere in their last five games, and be ready to take advantage.

The match may have been won by a goal that shouldn’t have stood, but Chelsea were the ones who deserved the three points.

From Carlo Ancelotti’s tenure supposedly being under threat after they were eliminated from Europe by Inter, he is now on course to surpass former boss Jose Mourinho by delivering a league and Cup double to Stamford Bridge.

With no Champions League to worry about, Chelsea only have one extra game between now and the end of league campaign - next weekend’s FA Cup semi-final against Aston Villa - whereas United and Arsenal could another two matches in the Champions League if they get through the quarters this week, one of those games being a trip into Europe.

United must have been relieved when they saw that Didier Drogba was not in the starting line-up on Saturday. It proved to be a brave decision from Ancelotti that ultimately turned into a match-winning one, although it was greatly aided by the fact his team won their previous game 7-1 without the Ivorian striker. Added to that, Ancelotti will have had confidence in his team coping without Drogba following their performances while he was away at the Africa Cup of Nations.

Not many teams could afford to leave the second-highest goalscorer in the league on the bench until the second half. Certainly if the roles were reversed, Alex Ferguson would not have left Wayne Rooney on the bench at Stamford Bridge.

Critics who like to call United a one-man team were given plenty of evidence to back them up at times on Saturday.

Chelsea have shown that they can cope without Drogba a lot better than United can cope without Rooney. In the first half, Chelsea got the ball down and outplayed United, and they were able to switch to a more direct approach when Drogba was brought on. United, however, struggled to cope with Dimitar Berbatov as the fulcrum of their attack. For £30 million, a forward should have more than one dimension to his game, but Berbatov looked as though he missed Rooney immensely and was incapable of leading the line himself.

Of course this is a three-team title race, for the first time in years, but Arsenal’s win over Wolves did little to convince me that they will finish the season top of the table.

Were it not for Karl Henry’s red card at the Emirates, Mick McCarthy’s side may well have held on for a fully deserved draw, which would have almost certainly ended Arsenal’s title hopes.

I still believe that, even if Arsenal finish third, this has been a fantastic season for them. Their young team has matured by another year and gained valuable experience, and they have been genuine title contenders right up until the final part of the campaign.

However, their squad still needs more depth, as the recent unfortunate spate of injuries has shown, and they have simply lost too many key players at this crucial stage to cross the line first..

Come the final day, I can only hope that the title will still be up for grabs and provide a thrilling end to what has been such a competitive season.