"Let's Do The Timewarp Again..."

There's been a fair amount of hysteria about this game from numerous other quarters, so I'm going to try and curb the urge to stalk George Graham until I can remove his head with a blunt butter knife, impale it on a stick, then yell "No no, George, your head FELL off" down his neck.

I feel better already.

I can remember the late sixties and seventies well enough, particularly games against the Leeds of the Hunter-Bremner-Giles-Cooper era, and the tackling was every bit as ferocious on Saturday as it was then, (remember the 1970 Cup Final replay ?) with the minor exception that in those days it was LEGAL.

I can understand that Leeds are so poor that the only way they can get a result is to stop in-form teams from playing, and that it involves intimidation and physical violence, but what I can't take is that sanctimonious prick Graham trying to deflect criticism by accusing the Chelsea players of diving. It's difficult to stay on your feet when you're being scythed down from behind with over the top tackles every time you get the ball.

Even if you're not a fan of Chelsea, you'd have to admit that Franco Zola is one of the players in the Premiership who you'd think of as a "sportsman", in other words he doesn't habitually dive around every time an opposing player comes near him - he doesn't need to. I've never seen him stay down after a tackle, except when he's been carried off afterwards. On Saturday he was repeatedly chopped in the first 20 minutes by the atrocious Radebe, never complaining until one really vile tackle that you could feel from 30 yards away. He stayed down for a couple of minutes while trying to recover, but what killed me was the sight of several Leeds players sledging him as they went past, the half-wits.

George Graham is a good coach, but if he's happy with the way Leeds got their point, then I feel sorry for him. I wouldn't swap my job for his for 10 million a year.

Most people will know the facts: Leeds had two players sent off before half time, Chelsea couldn't get past their 9-man defence in the second. It was a dour match, enlivened for me only by the Bovril at half time.

There was an Italian in the row behind me who started off by irritatingly asking anyone who would listen why Vialli wasn't playing, it was an outrage, Vialli was a true genius, etc. etc. You know how people look at each other when someone's being a pain in the arse - a small shake of the head, a raising of the eyebrows and a wry smile ? As the match went on, however, this bloke provided an increasingly interesting view of the proceedings, and turned out to have a good grasp of football tactics (something that's at a premium, judging by the sort of remarks you usually hear).

When the match kicked off the Italian went very quiet at the sight of the murderous tackling that was going on, until a lull caused by an injury. He then announced in a plaintive voice that "I think Leeds have not come 'ere to play football", which got an ironic laugh from everyone in earshot. He spent the rest of the match pointing out incidents that proved his theory to the hilt, but in an interesting and informative way. The guy had obviously come to see his countrymen play, and had no particular allegiance to Chelsea, so it was revealing to see the game from his point of view. He was very chuffed when Vialli came on for Nicholls, that is until Vialli had been playing for 10 minutes or so - he just looked puzzled after that.

I won't bother going into details about how many chances Chelsea missed, etc., as to be honest there weren't that many clear chances created. Duberry's flying header, brilliantly saved by Martyn, was the exception.

What pleased me was Chelsea's refusal to be intimidated by the Leeds players' tactics, they actually gave pretty well as good as they got. There's a toughness about Chelsea nowadays that's been lacking until recently. They also tried everything to break the deadlock, with Graeme Le Saux, Bob Di Matteo and, to a lesser extent, Franco Zola alternately using the space down the left wing created by Leeds being 2 players down. Unfortunately, Franck Leboeuf and Dubes didn't seem to notice them often enough in their distribution, unmarked and waving frantically for the ball as they were - Le Saux in particular was wasted. More often than not, our midfielders were pumping the ball into the channels that Vialli wasn't running into (!)

Old Land had nothing to do except stay awake, unlike last weekend when he pulled off at least two saves that were world class. The defence were never really troubled, but it's nice to have Duberry back, I think he inspires confidence in the other players, and his header so nearly turned the game. He appeared to be playing as a centre forward for the last 15 minutes, and looked good. Leboeuf was OK without being spectacular, Frank Sinclair had a good game (he's blossoming under Ruud), the rest were good without shining like they have for the last few games, hardly surprising seeing as Leeds so effectively killed any attempts to play football. At least we didn't give it away in the last few minutes as we have in the past.

To the Leeds fans who chanted "you're not very good" at the Chelsea players at the end of the match (which they celebrated as though they'd just won the Cup !!): You are the saddest bunch of arseholes I've ever seen. You should have added: "You're fucking useless and don't deserve to be in the Premier League" when your own team went past. It says something when you're chuffed about a performance like that.