Saturday morning, I woke up at 8, bright and early. I knew this was going to a special day.
Coventry City, a team that I had been rooting for all season, was taking on my beloved Chelsea at home in the first FA Cup tie of the day.
After a quick shower, I slowly made my way to our usual meeting point—my cousin's house, which was conveniently round the corner from me.
I was the last one to turn up. Puzzled, I asked what time everybody else arrived since it was still only 08.30 am.
To my surprise, they had been there throughout the night. I clearly remember, leaving them to go home at 11.15 the previous night. We had been playing FIFA '09 and apparently everybody else stayed and played on through the night.
Kick off at Ricoh Arena was 12.30, and since Coventry is only a 20 minute drive from Birmingham, it meant we still had some time to relax and keep playing FIFA.
At 11.30, we started to make our way down to Coventry. Since none of us drink, I thought we had time to zip past the Uni and drop in an overdue assignment.
Just about made it in time, as they close up the office at 12 o'clock.
Now, that was out of the way, we went straight to the ground.
Just as we were pulling up the Tesco car park, I was amazed at what I saw. Never had I seen such a huge police presence at Ricoh Arena.
The last time, that I saw anything close to this, was last season's home game against Leicester—a game Coventry incidentally won 2-0.
The noise level was extremely high and there was a certain buzz around the ground, which wasn't surprising given that the glamorous Chelsea were the visitors.
Ricoh Arena was sold out for the first time in its history. All of the 31,407 tickets were snapped up, moments after they knocked out Blackburn in the previous round.
Just before kickoff, news that Essien and Carvalho were on the bench brought about loud cheers and set the tone for the day.
Chelsea started the game really relaxed and comfortable. Patience built up, which has been a feature of Chelsea's play this season, was frustrating their Championship opponents.
It didn't take long before the chance of the game came our way and not surprisingly, it fell to the in-form Drogba.
A long hoof of the park by Cech was controlled well by the Ivorian, and he rolled Turner all too easily before putting the shot just wide.
A touch of class and surely a sign of things to come and with 15 minutes gone, Chelsea took the lead through none other than Drogba.
Coventry skipper Scott Dann allowed himself to be robbed by Drogba who went on to round the keeper and produce a superb finish from a tight angle.
Chelsea continued to dominate the rest of the half but with no real clear-cut chances. Coventry, on the other hand, offered practically nothing going forward. Although, it wasn't through lack of trying.
Leon Best, Clinton Morrison, and especially Freddy Eastwood tried their best, but it just wasn't enough.
Half time brought one change. Quaresma replaced Kalou, which everybody around me found odd. Malouda, who hardly had a touch in the first half, kept his place, while Kalou who was in the heart of everything that Chelsea was doing was taken off.
An odd decision indeed, nevertheless Quaresma continued where he left off at Portsmouth. His first touch was a lovely cross that Drogba nearly managed to turn in.
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