Chelsea's Surprising Award Dominance Leaves Champions League Draw in Shadow

So the Champions League draw has taken place and has thrown up a few tasty-looking clashes.

Celtic and Manchester United fans will look forward to their respective club’s clashes. Group F will be strong with Atlético Madrid, Lyon and Bayern Munich all vying for qualification to the knock-out stages.

The toughest group, however, looks to be Group H, with Spanish champions Real Madrid up against Juventus and FC Zenit St. Petersburg.

The draw was, as usual, broken up by the presentation for the best player awards for the previous season in the four generic positions—goalkeeper, defender, midfielder, and forward.

I sat gobsmacked at home as Chelsea dominated the awards. Granted, Petr Cech probably deserved to win the best goalkeeper award as he is brilliant for Chelsea. But can somebody please tell me how John Terry and Frank Lampard won the awards for their respective positions?

I just cannot comprehend how the man who cost his team the trophy in last season’s final can be “the best” in his position.

Manchester United conceded only two goals in the knockout stages of last season's Champions League, so surely with them as the eventual winners of the competition the award should have gone to either Rio Ferdinand or Nemanja Vidic. The latter especially had been particularly solid and resolute at the back.

As for Frank Lampard's win, he isn’t even the best midfielder on his team, with both Michael Essien and Michael Ballack probably being in better form than Lampard last year. Steven Gerrard should have won this award in my opinion, however.

And just for the record, Cristiano Ronaldo won the top forward and overall player award.

In the same awards last season, the honors were dominated by previous winners AC Milan, and rightly so. With Chelsea receiving yet another favourable draw (think Olympiacos, Fenerbache, and Liverpool last year, as well) in the group stages this year, this all seems remarkably intriguing.

Perhaps Ambramovich’s Roubles have influence beyond that of prising Robinho from Real Madrid. What can I say, I love a conspiracy theory!

Thoughts below, as always, on anything to do with the recent Champions League draw...