The best of times
George Best is regarded as one of the greatest footballers to ever spring from this island, but how does he rate against the international competition?
Tony Cascarino, 07 Nov 2005
Well, that’s Chelsea’s season gone pear-shaped. Two dropped points at Goodison and a humiliating League Cup defeat to a side that, added all up, cost less than Michael Essian. It’s obvious that Jose Mourinho has to go!
Sorry for being facetious, but that’s the only way to react to the so-called experts who’ve been prattling on about Chelsea suffering a “wobble”. A draw and an early exit from a second-rate cup competition won’t stop the average Premiership side shitting themselves when they have to go and play them.
Yes, Everton imposed themselves physically, but that didn’t stop Chelsea scoring two good goals, the second of which was ruled offside by a referee who I’m sure cringed the TV replay afterwards and realised he’d got it wrong.
Any team that tries to “rough them up” will soon discover that Chelsea are more than capable of being physical themselves. It’d take a brave defender to continually clatter into Didier Drogba, and no better man than Michael Essien to slow down your playmaker with a couple of slightly-too-late tackles.
The only scenario in which I can see Chelsea being caught is if Manchester United do the double over them, which is possible, and then win all of their remaining games, which is highly unlikely.
Whether he admits to it or not beforehand, Alex Ferguson knows that anything less than three points against Chelsea on Sunday and it really is ‘game over’.
Given that a draw’s of absolutely no use, I think Alex will do what most other teams haven’t when they’ve played Chelsea, which is go 4-4-2. They need Rooney in the middle with Van Nistelrooy rather than out on the wing.
Giggs is a big loss, but they’ve still got the pace of Park and Ronaldo to test the Chelsea defence, who’ll be told by Mourinho to avoid giving away silly free-kicks in the final third. If they do, United have the quality to punish them from dead ball situations.
At the time of writing, that greatest of Old Trafford legends, George Best, is seriously ill in hospital. Hopefully I’m not penning an obituary, but either way I’d say the same thing about him, which is that in terms of natural ability he had it all.
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