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Opinion

Three positives from Chelsea 5 Newcastle 1

8 years ago
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The only thing worse than watching Newcastle get obliterated and humiliated is…knowing that it is going to happen beforehand but as a supporter, having no other choice but to still watch it.

As for having paid £55 for the privilege, plus train, ‘refreshments’…

It is truly mental why anybody bothers anymore, if it wasn’t for the social interaction you just wouldn’t.

No doubt the actual shocking 90 minutes will extensively covered elsewhere but I just wanted to concentrate on three positives I managed to find amongst the carnage of Stamford Bridge on Saturday.

Jonjo Shelvey.

Up to this point we’d had two good two bad – two man of the match performances at home and two away games where he looked as bad as the rest of them.

On Saturday, despite the scoreline, Shelvey impressed me. He was always wanting the ball, even under pressure, and still trying to produce positive play despite the increasingly disastrous nature of the scoreline.

Even when tightly marked and outnumbered as his team-mates went missing, Jonjo Shelvey still pulled a few strings and managed to orchestrate a fair few decent attacks. If it wasn’t for the absolute clowns (Taylor and Coloccini in starring roles) at the back, if Newcastle had kept it at only a goal down then I do think the former Swansea midfielder just might have got us back into the game.

One other player in black and white also deserves some credit.

Andros Townend was, like Shelvey, always up for taking the ball and trying to run with it. How refreshing after years of idiots like Gouffran, Obertan and many others receiving the ball and their first thought is who can I pass it on (backwards) to.

Townsend’s excellent last minute goal was no less than he deserved.

When new players arrive at a club it is usually them that need the time to settle in before you can expect them to perform and their team-mates doing their best to help them get used to new surroundings, Only at Newcastle can we end up in a situation where our two new (decent signings) are having to try and carry Newcastle’s longstanding overpaid underachievers.

The third positive?

Well it has to be the fact that John Terry managed to injure himself only days before Chelsea’s vital potentially season saving Champions League match with PSV.

The obnoxious John Terry (or ‘JT’ as McClaren was referring to him before the match…) was doing the whole macho thing of trying to impose himself on Aleksandar Mitrovic and as usual allowed to get away with far too much by the officials.

How hilarious that he injured himself during one of these oafish challenges.

Like other England ‘superstars’ such as Steven Gerrard who the media idolise, they (the media) just don’t get it why the vast majority of football supporters despise most of this ‘golden generation’, John Terry the prime example but others such as Ashley Cole bang up there with them.

The whole Premier League is the best in the world PR drive and the money and attention that is lavished on them, has made these players think they are far better than they are – the number of world class performances for their country needing less than one hand to count them.

Their collective record of off-field behaviour is shocking as well, an embarrassment to English football.

John Terry missing that penalty, which would have won the Champions League, is one of the great moments of the Premier League era and he is somebody that personifies Chelsea for so many of us.

John Terry – we salute you.

(To feature like Sam, send in your articles for our website to contribute@themag.co.uk – all views those of the author etc etc)

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