Tottenham vs Chelsea: What Happened?

Now I have had nearly a day to recover since the FA cup semi final against Chelsea so hopefully my views will be slightly more balanced and not as emotional. The game was full of drama and incident and provided us with many talking points, firstly I would like to congratulate Chelsea on their place in the final, now I won't be supporting them against Liverpool nor against Barcelona but I will congratulate them still. Also there is great news on the Fabrice Muamba story as he has been released from hospital and looks set to make a full recovery. In light of everything I am going to say this is far more important and is brilliant news.

I am going to start before the game and some appalling behaviour by segments of the Chelsea crowd. Before the game there was a minute of silence to remember the victims of the Hilsborough tragedy. Now as the minutes silence began there were segments of the Chelsea crowd that start making noise and chanting a large amount of unedifiying stuff. To be fair to the club they immediately apologised, but there are a few points I would like to disagree with. The club argued it was a minority, let me say from first hand experience of being at the ground it was more than a minority. Now all clubs have segments of supporters that maybe go too far at times and push the limits (yes Tottenham fans are definitely included!) but Chelsea seem to be among the worst. The Chelsea fans are renowned for openly singing about Auschwitz and the Holocaust and also sung racial abuse at Anton Ferdinand earlier in the season. Now the more I see and hear about Chelsea fans the more I am disgusted by them. Now lets make this clear I believe there are two sets of fans at Chelsea. Firstly there are the family fans and the recent supporters some of whom seem to have discovered their Chelsea links since Abramovich, I have no problems with these fans and I hope they enjoy their day at Wembley in the final but there is also another set of fans at the club. These are the fans who made themselves known in the 70s for their hooligan behaviour and their links to the Far Right and I believe it is this segment that is responsible for the bad behaviour at the club. I do not believe these roots have disappeared from the club and I think it will be irresponsible to act like they have. Chelsea really do need to clamp down on them hard and remove them from the game like any clubs with fans guilty of similar offences.

Now as a Tottenham fan I will always inherently hate Arsenal and that will never change, but begrudgingly I have to admit there are things about Arsenal that I do respect. They play a very exciting open brand of football, do not seek to live beyod their means and also have a very loyal fanbase and fill up a big ground week in week out. Therefore I do have to sort of respect them even if this year it is extremly painful that they have gone past us in the league and I am having to take a lot of stick. Now the more I think about Chelsea, there is little that I respect. Their recent success has only come about because of their money and was built around a negative style of football, their fanbase is poor (they failed to sell out last night!) and I think the behaviour of their fans are disgusting at times. There is little with Chelsea that I can actually respect and therefore when I look at it logically and take away partisanship I find my hatred for Chelsea actually bypassing my hatred for Arsenal. You can see that I am not necessarily a big fan of Chelsea at the moment.

Now onto the game itself, now first half I actually thought Tottenham played quite well and were the better team and would have led but for the width of a post and a point blank clearance from John Terry from a Van der Vaart header. However a wonder goal from Didier Drogba on the verge of half time gave Chelsea a lead. Now Chelsea certainly started better in the second half and Cudicini was forced into a great save early on from Mata. From the resulting corner Cudicini then made another good save before a goalmouth scramble ensued. The ball then broke to Mata who fired it goalwards, the Tottenham defence looked like they had done enough to clear the ball but the ref adjudged the ball to have gone over the line and gave the goal. Now the more I see this the stranger the decision becomes, there is no way the ref can possibly say for certain that the ball has crossed the line and give the goal. In fact the replays are quite conclusive in showing the fact that the ball did not cross the line. Now I am still not a fan of technology, I believe it will slow our game down and will start a slippery slope. Yesterdays decision was just very suprising because no-one could really see what was going on and therefore could not make a decision and therefore it was not only a wrong decision but an illogical decision as the safe and correct decision would be to not award the goal.

Now this goal certainly changed the game and Chelsea continued to press forward, however Tottenham managed to strike back when Parker played a through ball to Adebayor who held off Luiz before rounding Cech who promptly took him down, however Bale was there to knock the ball in and half the lead. Now I don't quite understand the advantage rule because anywhere else on the pitch if a foul takes place and the ref plays the advantage he will then come back and punish the player guilty of the initial crime. This does not seem to be the case with these decisions and it seems like when a goal is scored that is seen as punishment enough and no further action is needed. Now I don't know the rules on this but I would be intrigued as to know what the actual laws are. Now this seemed to bring the game back to life, but to be fair from this point onwards Chelsea closed the game out well and goals from Ramires, a stunning strike from Lampard and another from Malouda gave Chelsea a 5-1 lead as Tottenham pushed forward and a place at Wembley.

A lot of Chelsea fans and the players today have accepted that the second goal was not in but feel in the great scheme of things it was not important, I disagree. There are certain moments in a game which are crucial and will affect the rest of the game, this was one of these moments. At one nil down Tottenham were very much still in the game and most certainly would have attacked the game in a different way. they certainly would not have been as gung-ho going forward leaving spaces in behind for Chelsea to exploit and score their goals, so lets make it clear if the goal had not been given the whole climate of the game would have been different. Now would Chelsea still have gone on to win, maybe would Tottenham have come back maybe either way we will never know.

Anyway this is now over and as angry and disappointed as I am there is nothing I can do to change what has happened and at least let me credit Atkinson for admitting he got it wrong and apologising. However Tottenham now have to pick themselves up as they are still in pole position to get fourth in the league and a Champions League place. Given where they were a few months ago it will be a disaster if they do not qualify for the Champions League. Harry's man management skills are renowned and this is the time where he really needs to show these abilities as no doubt the players will be feeling very low at the moment. He needs to pick them up and remind them that this season could still be a success but that they need to pick themselves up quick starting against QPR next Saturday.

Yesterday I was not too disappointed with many of the players, for instance I thought Parker had a good game in midfield and Adebayor actually looked quite threatening and it was the best I have seen King for a while. However Gallas was poor yesterday and got the run around from Drogba, Ramires was too good for Benny and Modric again disappointed, both Bale and Lennon did not really do enough either. Bale seemed to have the beating of Bosingwa so it was disappointing that he did not beat him more often. Anyway this team has not become bad overnight they are still a very good side with very good players and they must not let their heads drop. Sure at the end of the season there may have to be a clear out but until then they must rediscover their form and get that fourth place in the League.

Lastly I believe the fans are crucial. Now Tottenham fans are renowned for being fickle at the best of times (for instance a few months ago everyone wanted him to stay, now quite a few can't wait for him to leave!) but it is important they stay with the team. The fans must continue to stay behind the team and spur them on, the players and the club are going to need the support of the fans if they want to get fourth. The fans need to remember we have had quite a good year not as good as we may have hoped but still a good year and that if we finish fourth and get back into the Champions League the season should still be treated as a success. Therefore lets stay behind the team anc cheer them on to fourth place. COYS!