Chelsea 3 Man Utd 1

There is only one reason Chelsea is doing so well since my last (admittedly pessimistic) blog entry. Over Christmas there is a Polish tradition when fileting fish to keep some of the scales for luck. This was done and the carp that we prepared had this part of its anatomy attached to a Chelsea ticket stub, dried and kept safely on a shelf in the house. Since this was done on Christmas Eve we have won six games on the trot.

Yesterday was strange. It was the first time that I did not feel scared of facing Man Utd when reading their team sheet and genuinely believed a thrashing would be on the cards. We also helped Samuel Eto’o grab his hat-trick by quizzing why Torres had not started. Jose Mourinho has yet again showed us that when it comes to tactics and decision making we should steer clear and instead sing songs backing our team and reminding Manchester United how much the Glazers have been the real reason behind their recent success.

It was a strange reaction to the goals too – a win was almost expected and one did not feel that usual release of tension that you do when you score against the Mancs. Even when the third goal went in the stands seemed incredulous at the ease of the impending victory. However, until Eto’o opened the scoring with a fantastic, curling left footed shot the visitors were superior – Chelsea opened play almost as if they too felt that it would be a walk in the park.

Once Mikel came on and we looked to finish with two defensive midfielders you knew the game was a dead rubber. And apart from Eto’os individual brilliance there was no one who particularly stood out. It was a solid team effort.

Is this the beginning of the end of Manchester United? You can almost feel the reluctance of anyone to say so with the usual clichés doing the rounds claiming that it is always dangerous to write them off etcetc… but you look at their side yesterday and without Rooney and RVP it is hard to see where the creativity or individual brilliance will come from. It is still a name that will attract young blood but at the moment the game is driven by money and they need to invest quite heavily – especially with no youngsters coming through their ranks.

So another lesson learnt – never go against the messiah that is Mourinho. Manchester City is a formidable force for now and towards the end of the season it will most probably be a fight between us and them. Although I reluctantly admit that Wenger has done an amazing job for Arsenal for them to still be top of the league, you do feel that squad-wise they are slightly inferior. Six wins on the spin… Manchester City away is crucial. Please forgive me Jose for having momentarily lost my faith.