Why Watching Manchester United and Chelsea Is Better than Watching Gillingham

As you perhaps might have gathered from the headline, I have recently embarked upon a sensational new discovery.

After watching the games from both UEFA Champions League semi-finals, a day later I watched the game I had been waiting for since a long, long time.

I am a die-hard Gillingham fan, and yesterday I saw the highly antipicated (well, highly anticipated by a whopping five whole people... who are actually real) Coca Cola League Two Play-off semi-final first leg clash between Rochdale and Gillingham at Spotland Stadium.

And at 9.37 p.m. on Thursday 7th May 2009 came my epiphany. I realised that for the first time in my life, there are more exciting sporting spectacles going on than just those matches of some lower league team in blue.

Yes, I am refering to the UEFA Champions League, where for rather different reasons, I was glued to the television set watching both semi-final games.

Unfortunately I missed the Manchester United-Arsenal game when it was live on national English television (in the magical form of advertisement-centric channel ITV1), as I was doing other, less important, totally irrelevant and stupid things, such as going to the cinema.

But never fear, Yoosof Farah recorded the game and managed to watch it the next day, shortly before embarking on his adventurous, mysterious and magical journey to a dungeon that goes by the name of "Rainham Mark Grammar School."

And as he watched the multi-millionaires strut their stuff on the carpet of the Emirates Stadium in North London, he was enthralled by beautifully slick passing, venemous free-kicks from a certain Portuguese maestro, and incredibly quick and dangerous counter-attacking play.

It was clear that, as said by Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, "the game was over before it had even started."

Manchester United were by far the superior side at the Emirates, and considering the form shown in West London by their Spanish counterparts, it was an encouraging performance to say the least from United going into the 2009 UEFA Champions League Final at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome.

Speaking of West London, a team's Spanish counterparts, and the 2009 UEFA Champions League Final in Rome, the Stamford Bridge encounter between Chelsea and FC Barcelona was extremely entertaining.

Alright, if you deem it necessary, you can replace "entertaining" with "absolutely hilarious."

On my very trustworthy dodgy Chinese internet channel which shows live football matches from ESPN Asia that I watch frequently, I simply could not take my eyes off the match for one second.

This is partly because apart from Gillingham and then Manchester United, I have an unparalleled passion for FC Barcelona having witnessed such magic myself at the Camp Nou (that's how Catalans say it, that's how I say it, not "Nou Camp") a few years ago. I consider myself one of Los Culés.

And it's also partly because the referee, Tom Henning Ovrebo, had a sensational performance and is famous all over the world now for his refereeing skills.

Okay, lack of refereeing skills I should probably say. It was evident that Chelsea should have had at least two clear-cut penalties, although this number can increase up to six or seven "clear-cut penalties", depending on how ignorant you are and how much you blindly support Chelsea Football Club.

In any case, Ovrebo also probably got it wrong in sending off France international left-back Eric Abidal for Barca, as the contact with fellow Frenchman and Chelsea striker Nicolas Anelka was minimal to say the least.

But I salute the ref, because he was willing to put up with the ever increasing list of death threats and almost the whole of the footballing world hating him, just so he could provide Yoosof Farah with some decent entertainment.

For me, the quote of the century has to be: "A f**king disgrace, it's a f**king disgrace!"by an Ivory Coast international striker who goes by the street-name of P Didier, but you can call him Didier Drogba if you want.

I'm sure you all know about that situation after the final whistle, and yes Mr. Cameraman, we (i.e. the millions watching across the world) were all rather shocked too.

Also, I think the general consensus is that Michael Ballack harassing Ovrebo after the handball decision was again absolutely hilarious.

Although kudos to the ref for doing the sensible thing and trying to flee from the wrath of Ballack; from past experience I know it's very scary when a big German lump charges right up to you shouting his head off.

Anyway, in conclusion some could say the chant "The referee's a w**ker!" (most commonly sung in the Rainham End at Gillingham Football Club) is highly appropriate in this case.

But I think a more appropriate chant would be: "The referee's amazing! He knows exactly what he's doing!" or "We love you Ovrebo, we do! We love you Ovrebo, we do! We love Ovrebo, we do! Oh Ovrebo we love youuuuuu!"

Tom Henning Ovrebo provided brilliant entertainment and it was a joy to watch seeing him kill off Chelsea's hopes of European glory.

Perhaps on a somewhat more serious note, Michael Essien's goal was good wasn't it? A 25-yard piledriver of a volley that smacks it's way in off the completely rattled crossbar always looks good, doesn't it?

And needless to say Andrés Iniesta's dramatic (to say the least) late, late winner was superb. If you watched the game, you would've known it was by far Barca's best shot on target throughout the entire match...

So basically, if for some strange, unknown, totally unforeseen, etc, etc reason, you are in a state of limbo, unsure whether to watch the Premier League or Champions League, or Gillingham FC in League Two, my advice is this: do the sensible thing, watch the former.

I was bored to tears (quite literally you know) watching my beloved Gills' all important clash with Rochdale, and realised better entertainment sometimes lies elsewhere.

I mean what would you watch, some red button pay-per-view game on SkySports 1 that only two sets fans actually only partly bother to watch, or a whole load of action from the UEFA Champions League available on several channels for free?

By the latter, I mean watching sublime skill, slick passing and downright exhibition football in one game, and angry Germans, stupid decisions, unjust dream-dashings, and hilarious death-threat eliciting refereeing in the other.

Anyway, to finish off, here is my quote of the 21st century:

"A f**king disgrace! It's a f**king disgrace!"

Don't you just love the way Didier Drogba completely dehumanizes the referee and calls him "it"? Oh it's hilarious... you certainly don't get that down at the Gills! Well, unless your a fan in the Rainham End, of course.