TWO Chelsea employees that need to take a long, hard look at themselves
Newcastle United’s 2-0 win against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge only contained positives for the Magpies, but I feel that two Blues, midfielder John Obi Mikel and caretaker manager Roberto Di Matteo, haven’t come out of the match smelling of roses and should take a look at themselves and their actions.
In regards to John Obi Mikel, the incident that I’m not happy with is the elbow on Newcastle’s Mr T, Cheick Tiote. Just a few minutes before Mikel and Tiote challenged for the ball in the air, the Ivorian caught the Nigerian in a fair tackle and I don’t think Mikel liked being on the wrong end of Tiote. So when the pair jumped for a header, the Chelsea midfielder clearly led with an elbow, which Tiote took the full force of.
I think it was extremely naughty from Mikel, should have resulted in a red card and the injury to Tiote could have been even worse. As it was, Tiote had to be treated on the pitch for around ten minutes and had a large gash on his face, which he had to have 40 stitches to treat! Luckily Tiote is ok and should be fit to face Manchester City at St James’ Park on Sunday.
To be fair to Tiote, he’s taken it really well and told the Chronicle after the game that: “I spoke to John Obi Mikel afterwards and it’s fine. It was purely an accident from him. If you play in midfield you have to let people hurt you and be ready for it.” I’m afraid I disagree, though. Tough tackling is part of the game, cheap elbows are not.
Then there’s Chelsea’s caretaker manager Roberto DI Matteo, who I used to have a lot of respect for, but some of that was lost when he made his comments after the game. The football world was in awe of Papiss Cisse’s second strike of the night, with many labelling it as the goal of the season, but in what can only be described as sour grapes, Di Matteo questioned whether Cisse meant it.
In his post-match interview Di Matteo said: “The second one [goal], I don’t think he knew what he was doing”. Are you having a laugh Roberto? You’ve just seen one of the greatest goals of the season and you question whether Cisse knew what he was doing! There is such a thing as being gracious in defeat, which would reflect much better on you than being a sore loser.
Anyway, John Obi Mikel and Roberto Di Matteo have gone down in my estimations after their actions last night, at least Chelsea trio Didier Drogba, Petr Cech and Ashley Cole, who had the perfect view from the bench, appreciated how good a goal Cisse’s second was.
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Try telling Steve Claridge that Papiss Cisse didn’t mean it…
Newcastle News 24/7
May 4th, 2012
Two great goals meant or not! What a buy that man has been!
Bad day for us but NUFC’s season has been better than we all thought it would be.
Sour grapes? of course but you lot would have had them also if you had lost.
Re the injury; accidents happen and we wont know whether it was meant or not until the next time they face each other!
Now please lose your next two games. lol
May 4th, 2012
The Gallowgate Gob – One Toon fan that needs to take a long, hard look at himself.
May 4th, 2012
were you at the game? the incident you describe was very different from the reality. chiek tote make a rash aerial challenge not for the first time in the game & was more the culprit. he appeared to go for the player rather than the ball & unfortunately suffered a bad injury. judge by team mates reaction that there wad NO malice from Mikel
May 4th, 2012
Yeah you beat us….well done, think this article is a bit sad though….well done on finishing above us, we’ll have to focus on the FA cup final and the Champions league final…something you’ll never have to worrying about you losers
May 4th, 2012
This article is ridiculous! obviously from another biased newcastle fan! you scored two great goals, you won 2-0 and you have an even better chance to get into the champions league! (although i can see chelsea wining in the final) and yet you still come out of the match with a bitter, biased attitude as if you lost! its pathetic, it’s almost as if you Geordies always want something to complain about! even the europa league isnt good enough for you considering you were in the championship 2 seasons ago! do any of you even play football? i bet you dont know what its like to be in either of theose two’s situations, your just here to criticize! tiote said himself that this sort of thing happens! and fyi beating chelsea’s pretty much reserve team isn’t that much of an achievement (ie no cole, no cahill/luiz ivanovic didnt play at right back, lampard and mata and drogba didnt start, sturrisge plyed on the left etc…)
May 7th, 2012
Europa League is more than plenty and as for what Tiote said, I’m sure he’ll be saying something different behind closed doors.