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Play It Again Sam by Paul O'Donnell  Champions step up when the season is on the line. This weekend neither Man United or Chelsea did that.
Jose Mourinho’s Blues held the cards in their own hand and knew precisely what they needed to do on Sunday; go out and win a match at St James’ Park. A win would close the deficit to Man United to a single point as United had been held to a 1-1 draw with Boro on Saturday. Instead of grasping the ring the Blues produced a tentative performance failing to take their chances and were held to scoreless draw by the Magpies.
If this scene feels eerily familiar, it should. Rewind the clock to Boxing Day. Chelsea holds the lead 2-1 over Reading with less than ten minutes to play. John Terry is missing with injury forcing Essien to play a central defender role. Then it happens; a play that could, in the end, turn out to be the moment of the season for Chelsea.
Ashley Cole out wide and pressed hard by Reading’s up tempo efforts to gain the tying goal passes the ball back in front of goal to Essien. Surprised and handcuffed by the pace of the ball Essien has the intended pass deflect off him and into goal and suddenly Chelsea has two points evaporate and the match ends in a 2-2 draw. Champions can’t afford to give away points and the Blues did just that on Boxing Day. To make matters worse they were in the midst of three consecutive draws dropping six points missing their chance to draw closer to United.
Now they’ve done it again.
Handed the opportunity to close within 1 point with United’s draw on Saturday the Blues simply no longer look like Champions. When this season ends they won’t be.
Back over the holiday period with his team dropping 6 points Jose declared "United have blown it" as you might recall. Now, he’s complaining that SAF’s United are often favored by the officials and if you saw the end of the match at Old Trafford on Saturday you might have the very same feeling for very good reason.
In stoppage time with the score tied 1-1 John O’Shea brings down Lee in the box. No call. No penalty on what was clearly a bad challenge that could have been a huge moment. Frankly, Jose has a good point; SAF’s Red Devils are often the benefactors at such moments in a match particularly when playing at home at Old Trafford.
Jose’s problem is that whining about such things to the press really becomes a negative for him and his team. The real truth here is that he failed to have his team ready to go out and play the game they needed to play to take advantage of the opportunity to gain 2 points on United. He knew, the whole team knew what was required of them on Sunday and they simply didn’t step up to the plate and win those points.
Now "the special one" looks childish and silly. Again.
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