Sick And Tired.
We went into Sunday’s game at home to Wolves knowing that Chelsea had already beaten “Manure” 2-1 in the early kick off to go six points clear of us in the league. It meant that we had to win
to go three points behind Chelsea and one behind “Manure” with five games left.
The boss made a lot of changes to the team and the most notable absentees were Clichy, Nasri, Diaby and Bendtner as Silvestre, Denilson, Eboue and Eduardo all came into the team. Added to that
we also had lost the injured Cesc, Arshavin and Gallas which all made for a very odd looking team indeed. Silvestre was at left back with Eboue wide left and Eduardo at centre forward and
Walcott got his chance on the right side of our attack.
We started well and Walcott created a lot of problems down the right side but nothing seemed to go right for us in front of goal. Chances were created and missed and Wolves offered very little
threat in response to us. The pace of our game just didn’t seem to be right and everything was being done at a very pedestrian pace throughout the team. I had thought before the game that
Rosicky could have a very important role to play for the rest of the season and he seemed to be the player who was making things happen for us.
As the game progressed the tension grew among the fans and it looked like the vital breakthrough would not come. Even when they had a player sent off for going right through the back of Rosicky
we still couldn’t raise the pace enough to cut them open. Things weren’t looking good and Nasri, Bendtner and Vela were all brought on to try to get that elusive goal. In recent games we have
been scoring a lot of late goals and scoring quite a few of them in injury time too but it really looked like the goal wasn’t coming and our push for the league title would end with a whimper.
The board showed five minutes of injury time and as that ticked down we made one last desperate effort to get that goal. As the ball was passed around the edge of the area it came to Sagna who
put in an excellent cross which Bendtner stooped to head past the seemingly unbeatable Wolves keeper. I was in the supporters club at the time and the cheer that went up was fantastic.
You could feel the relief in the air as we had managed the win with a patched up team against all the odds in the 94th minute.
We are still just about in the title race but we need Chelsea to drop points twice in their last five games. They travel to the Spuds and Liverpool which are both tough games but I would expect
them to get wins in their three home games against Bolton, Stoke and Wigan. There is absolutely no room for error as 15 points from our last five games is the minimum requirement and I think if
we manage that we will finish second at worst with “Manure” likely to drop more points in their last five games.
We get back to the equally important business of our Champions league quarter final second leg away to Barcelona tomorrow night and we go into it with the injury situation getting even worse.
Song is out with a groin problem and Campbell is doubtful too which leaves us with very limited options in defence and probably means we will see Silvestre playing. To be fair to him I thought
Silvestre played very well on Saturday and I can’t remember him putting a foot wrong at left back. His crossing wasn’t great but the defensive part of his game was done well which was the most
important thing for him. I’ll preview the game in full tomorrow and I’ll leave it there for today as I’m still recovering from a very hectic weekend which saw me fail to blog yesterday for the
first time in ages due to social and family commitments.
Here’s the winning goal from Saturday.
And to finish here’s today’s title track from The Cardigans. I am sick and tired of all our injuries and I can only imagine how different things might be if we had a full squad available at the
moment.
See You Tomorrow.
