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United Beat Chelsea On Sour Day For Football At Stamford Bridge

The Stamford Bridge clash between the European Champions and Manchester United was a game that said much about both teams, what they stand for and how they react to adversity.

Firstly let’s focus on United. I was wrong. We didn’t set out to defend we went for it, this was 4-4-2 United, wingers, pace, and back to the future as we ripped the sift heart out of David Luiz and Gary Cahill, turned their fullbacks and overpowered their tiny waspish midfield trio with quick passing and speed. Brilliant, for half an hour!

As Chelsea took over, the lack of form of Patrice Evra dragged Wayne Rooney back, and his stupid tackle gave Juan Mata the chance to restore hope. This lifted Chelsea and only some strange body popping saves from our Stray Cat keeper of David De Gea kept them out.

The second half was all about the Referee! One clear red card, one less clear but that ended the contest as Sir Alex Ferguson brought on our returned to form striker in Javier Hernandez who repeated last season and scored the 3rd. Yes it was offside; again the Ref impacted the game. But it’s over and the top 3 continue their neck and neck race!

But ‘race’ is the operative word. Not the running type but the origin of birth type!

Chelsea fans sadly booed Rio Ferdinand from the very start and throughout the game. He had a great game, he wore the ‘kick it out’ t- shirt. He did what was asked on and off the field. Well done Rio!

Chelsea fans were probably trying to show support for their racially guilty captain. But that was ill advised. This is not an issue in which there are sides, you can’t support this guilt in a society free of racism, they were wrong and idiotic.

If Chelsea want to be hated as a racist club then this is the way to go, their owner should come out and show no support or tolerance for this. Remove offenders, take their season tickets and make the clubs position clear.

To make matters worse they have launched a post game attack on the Referee. As if they need more racial news headlines, they are making them.

If these rumours and allegations are true then this will destroy Mark Clattenburg’s career as a top flight Ref. if unproven it will taint him, if false it will send Chelsea to a place they won’t readily recover from. There are no winners in this post game event.

But the game shows United follow their best traditions and play to win when it matters. I’m so proud if them.

Chelsea are sadly mired in controversy and hypocrisy of their own making. I’m so ashamed of them. The measure of anyone is determined by how they react to adversity.

On Sunday we saw the two ways you can go, stand up and be counted or sink into self pity and loathing. United we stand and divided they fall.

I don’t hate Chelsea, I pity them.

By Steve Burrows CBE @ifollowsteve

7 Comments

  1. Think you'll find tht rio was booed because of his reference to Ashley cole as a “their choc ice”. This is a deeply offensive term if you hadn't noticed. It groups all white people together as a single group “their” and implies that someone has to follow racial lines in all disputes. It's a phrase and attitude that belongs in the sewer. If you want to think it is all about John Terry you can but you'd be acting blinded by the same kind of hatred that made rio make that ridiculous statement. For the record it was an excellent and close game ruined by some bad refereeing calls. Love the way you called Torres red card debatable. You must get your red glasses at the same sepcsavers outfit as the ref. don't worry about Chelsea. You're attitude and the FA is just the spur we need to win the league.

  2. Rio was booed which extends the racial dislike, whether thats Cole or Terry, its wrong and your Club should deal with it.

    I said the Torres red card was less clear because Evans touched him, but Torres chose to fall. It was his choice, he took a stride and threw himself down. It was 50:50 and i wouldnt have sent him off but the Ref did.

    If this racism motivates Chelsea then i'd be surprised as there are enough nations and characters in that squad to have different opinions and nobody can believe racism is right, if they have half an idea of the difference between right and wrong.

    This is not about supporting your team, its about conscience.

  3. Steve. You misunderstood what I meant. The racism issue doesn't motivate Chelsea players (as far as I'm aware) or fans at all. We think it is a serious problem and the average Chelsea fan is unhappy that we've been dragged through the mud in this way. Its fair to say that few of us think that terry is a racist and countless character witnesses say the same thing outside of our club. Many of us know people from around the club and training ground and he is a decent man.
    What I mean by motivation is that the attitude of Manchester united fans and the treatment of our club by the FA is something we'll use to get us the points lost on Sunday and more back. If you don't want Chelsea to do well you shouldn't see the events in that game as a good thing. Any team would use that as a way of building and 'us and against the world' mentality.
    I understand you are focused on your team but you shouldn't be making everything out to be about evil Chelsea. We were hard done by but over a season who isn't. I'd expect you to be a little more balanced in how you talk about the game and to be less trigger happy to assume that every action at Chelsea is driven by racism or that somehow we have a bad character.
    Maybe we can agree on one thing – It is never good to have an important game decided by the referee.

  4. Yes we can agree on that but the red card that changed the game was not a Ref error.

    Maybe we can also agree that Chelsea's owner could do worse than state his intentions to rectify the Clubs image, players and fans behavior. Chelsea vs the world seems rather sad doesn't it ?

  5. Steve. I'll have one last try.
    I'm glad that you've softened some of the Chelsea are evil rhetoric but you haven't really got it. Our club isn't racist and neither are our fans or staff. No more than any other club. Our owner is rich and foreign but that isn't particularly unusual and the club is always bigger than the owners, manager and players.
    Nothing you accuse us of is something that other clubs don't or won't do. I don't remember united fans turning on rio because he revealed his true feelings towards white people or other black people. I don't remember SAF telling Ashley young to stop diving last season to win matches or telling Keane and co to stop surrounding referees and trying to scare them to change decisions. All of this is a terrible example to the millions or kids who watch and imitate and I would hate to see it at Chelsea. I won't even mention that all time club hero who ripped his brothers heart out for sex.
    Somehow you still stick to the line that what we do is beneath contempt and that we inhabit a different moral planet to you.
    It's juvenile and silly and you should stop it.
    All the best
    Guy

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