So. Where was I? Ah, Newcastle. 0-3 and cruising, chow mein being the only difficult part of the day. The room was absolutely buzzing! The 4th goal duly came with 26 minutes on the clock. 26 minutes, 4 goals. Newcastle fans were already fearing the worst, some already leaving the stadium, not able to handle it anymore. That's got to be some record! First half not yet over and the walk-outs have already began! One would have thought we were at the Emirates! (Joke!). But yeah, the first half was brilliant, and it was disappointing that we didn't score anymore in the 19 minutes left in that half. What an absolutely useless team! 4 goals in 26 minutes, 0 in 19 minutes?! There should have been a refund! I jest, ofcourse. There were similar jokes on Twitter, everyone was all jolly.
Second half kicked-off, and we wanted more of the same. But as that football cliche goes, it is a game of two halves! Pretty sure NO ONE would have predicted what happened subsequently at half-time, and it all would not have happened (probably) if not for a moment of madness. Actually, maybe some of the events were predictable. Ofcourse Joey Barton would try his hardest to do something stupid/rile our players. Ofcourse Joey Barton doing something stupid to rile our players would lead to someone getting sent off if they took the bait. Ofcourse one of our players being sent off would increase the pressure on us defensively, us being away. Ofcourse Joey Barton doing something stupid/riling our players, one of them who then takes the bait, them then getting sent off, thus increasing the pressure on us defensively would lead to us conceding goals. Ofcourse Joey Barton being Joey Barton, one of our players taking the bait, then getting sent off, then increasing the pressure on us defensively, then us conceding goals, would lead to us maybe conceding four. Ofcourse... I'll stop there. You get my point.
It wasn't predictable ofcourse, but it wasn't all that surprising in the end. Joey pissed Diaby off. Diaby got sent off. Newcastle pressured us. We cracked. They scored 4. End of. Oh wait! I remember, it was not that simple! First thing to go wrong for us in the second half was Djourou going off injured. Massive blow, he being our best defender since our other best defender Vermaelen got injured all those years ago. Not cool. Then shortly after was the Joey Barton/Diaby incident. I was pretty mad that day. But who was I mad at? I wasn't, and I am still not, too sure. Maybe Diaby for taking the bait? He could have retaliated in a more sensible manner- tackled him equally as badly, but when the referee was not watching. He could have punched him when the whistle went off. So many things he could have done, but in the heat of the moment, do you actually think that deeply? Or maybe I was furious with Joey Barton. He is a hideous creature and him simply being on the pitch is enough to make you angry. How DARE he tackle one of our players so recklessly, especially Diaby with his history of ankle injury caused by a similar tackle? How DARE he be Joey Barton! But well, he is, and he did do what he did. And it did lead to Diaby being sent off. And it did... and so on.
So that was the red card. Then came the goals. A penalty (scored by Joey Barton ofcourse). Then a goal. Then another penalty scored by. Then a screamer of a winner, sorry equaliser, 3 minutes from time. The first penalty. Was that the dodgy one? Well, in my mind right now, BOTH were dodgy! Oh, and after the penalty, Nolan should have been sent off for arm-wrestling Szczesny to the ground, which was in effect the same thing Diaby did! But the end result? A yellow to Szczesny for keeping hold of the ball after the penalty. In all honesty it was all Newcastle at this point, but it could all have ended differently if Nolan had been sent off. Their first goal came after 68 minutes (Diaby's red was after 50 minutes), and less than 10 minutes later, the second one came. Leon Best. I can't remember what the goal was like (and you can't blame me for not wanting to relive it!), but it was a deserved goal. Deserved in the sense that just a minute or so before, they had put the ball in the net , but the linesman flagged someone offside. But they weren't, as Rosicky was playing them on!
It was crazy at that point! Newcastle had the wind in their sails, and we were rocking! It was almost like we were a ship that's been sailing smoothly, and all of a sudden, one wrong steer and we were in the worst weather ever! Were we going to sink? Or were we going to survive, but with our ship severely hit by the storm? 15 minutes more and we'd be at shore! Could we hold on? We weren't helped by the most ridiculous refereeing decision ever! Since when was that a penalty??? There'd be millions of penalties every game if that was a genuine penalty. It wasn't! But not according to the referee. Unbelievable. And who was there to tuck it in, if not the probably-grinning-from-ear-to-ear-on-the-inside Joey Barton. At this point I wouldn't have minded if one of our players had seriously decked him! Well, obviously that would have been highly stupid, but it would have been perfect in that moment! But anyway, he tucked it in, and the pressure on our increasingly fragile "boat" was immense! 8 minutes plus injury-time to score a goal and complete- cliche time- the comeback of all comebacks!
Wish I had a picture of how Club level looked at that point in time! Everyone was probably like me- on the edge of their seats praying like MAD that we'd hold on! But their 4th duly came, Tiote blasting in from long range! The only positive from that game was that the Newcastle fans who had left before half time had missed an UNBELIEVABLE match! all that's left now is for the same to happen to their Emirates counterparts... Not that I want us to concede 4 goals in a miserable first half display, but you know what I mean. But anyways, I digress!
4-4, and with 4 minutes to go, and 5 minutes of time added on, either team could have gotten the winner! Although it would have been cruel on the other side, but we both came close! I think the Newcastle effort was dragged only just past the post, whereas van Persie's brilliant effort was offside. Not that we knew immediately, as we all thought we'd nicked it! But full time eventually came. Who'd have thunk it? Breathless stuff! In all that drama, it totally skipped my mind that Sol was on the bench! He didn't get on in the end, though.
I think it was one of those incredible football games- like the 4-4 at Anfield- where it'd be a pointless exercise faulting one person or the other. It was simply a brilliant game of football, and one that demonstrated exactly why we all love the game. It's unpredictable, and is at its best when there is a complete disregard for the script. It almost felt as if there was nothing we could have done about the game- it was meant to happen. Match of the Day didn't even have it in them to criticise us! It was just one of those extraordinary games that come about every once in a while. And luckily for us, it turned out to be a decent weekend for us, what with Manchester United losing their (fortunate) unbeaten run to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Wait, what? Oh sorry, Wolves at Molineux! See? That was an even worse result than ours! And I think Chelsea lost as well that weekend. It was a generally bizarre weekend, football-wise, and we ended up closing the gap to Man. Uinted by a point! I know, I know, we could and should have closed it by 3, but at the same time, we could well have lost!
Memorable game, though, and I guess that's the whole point of sports. Lasting memories. This blog is pretty long already, so umm, it's high time I called it a day! And oh, I missed hip-hop classes! Well, intentionally, but I was looking forward to it yesterday. Maybe I'll go next week...
I'm going to head home soonish- Chelsea v Manchester United in on in an hour and 15 minutes! Awesome! *Squeaky voice* Come on Chelsea! Bleurgh!
Oh, if I ever say I'm going to an away screening, punch me so hard, that I'll be knocked out until the game is over! ;)
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