Sunderland 2-3 Chelsea | 83 points, third place and a golden boot!

The Premier League is over, finally.

As we come to the end, there are two pluses for us from the Premier League. One is, we finish third which means we don’t have to play qualifying rounds for next season’s Champions League.

Two is, it is a Chelsea player who got the golden boot of the Premier League.  Plus, I have this little satisfaction that we gathered 80+ points in the league.

Full marks to Nicolas Anelka who managed to score 19 goals in this difficult season. I’ve been one of his biggest critics all along. He has pissed me off to no end at times. He’s been downright frustrating as well.

Once Guus the magician walked in, I’ve started to see a transformation in Anelka. More commitment, more efforts, more desire and hunger and more importantly better attitude.

Congrats to Anelka. It’s quite a feat to get the golden boot in a league where you have the likes of Drogba, Lampard, Ronaldo, Torres, Gerrard, Van Persie, Adebayor, Berbatov, Rooney etc.

Special mention to Ashley Cole. I’m delighted for him. This season, he has eliminated Arsenal from the FA Cup and he has thrashed and ripped them to pieces at their own backyard where the goons booed every single touch of his.

He must be pleased. And now, this goal. He said only a couple of days back that he wants to score more goals for Chelsea and he started that today. I’m sure we’ll see that side of Ashley Cole next season or next weekend if I’m a bit more greedy.

For the first time since 02-03, Chelsea has finished outside the top two. In other words, first time in Roman’s era. As Jose Mourinho once said, there are champions and there are others. As long as we are not the champions, the place in the table is only of academic interest. But the rules and regulations have clearly shown why 2nd and 3rd are no different while 4th is really a step down.

From that perspective, as long as we are 2nd or 3rd it must be fine especially after our mid-season collapse.

Back in January, if you had offered me a third place in the table, I’d have bitten your hands off. Scolari left us in such a state where we would have ended up between Everton and Aston Villa instead of Liverpool and Arsenal. Roman made a timely intervention to save the season.

The objective of this season changed from champions to Champions League spot. Hiddink has achieved just this plus a fantastic run in the champions league halted only by UEFA. Also, as a bonus he might even win us a trophy next weekend.

It’s a short post today. I’ll sign off now. In the next few days and weeks, we will discuss various things such as the new manager, players to go out, new players to come in, short term tactics, long term strategy, transfer rumours and football news from the rest of the football world.

We’re just a match away from another trophy. Here’s hoping that the boys will finish the job this weekend.

Cheers! Enjoy!