More thoughts on yesterday ⚽ #ChelseaFC #cfc

we didn’t seem to get refereeing decisions going our way. Lots of minor ones favoured City

Cucarella was daft to get booked for dissent, though

watching the Cup Final on telly I get weirdly emotional during Abide With Me. I didn’t at all in the Stadium. I don’t know why not, but it’s probably just as well

I’ll still have it at my funeral though. Not Angels, not Atmosphere ( either the Joy Division or the Russ Abbot), nor Monty ruddy Python

we looked a zillion times better than we did when City beat us 0-3 at the Bridge

they pressed really well

it was the first time I’ve seen a royal since 1977

McFarlane set us up really well. It worked in that we went to to toe with the best team in the country and only conceded a very good goal

a big name manager is only important because fans and players think it is

…..but that’s probably reason enough why you do have to get one

I used to laugh at Pep’s justification for selling us Cole - they had to sell Cole to get Doku. Doku does now look that good

their bench was quite a bit stronger than ours

Sanchez is a good keeper. He kept us in the game against Leeds, and didn’t put a foot wrong against City

Caicedo is one of my favourite ever Chelsea players, but he looked 50% of what he was earlier in the season

a bloke next-but-one to us was telling the players to shoot all the time. A couple of times when it would have needed a 30-yard backheel

I think we’ve recently paid the price for playing in the World Club Cup last summer. Partly physically and partly mentally.

I wonder if part of the reason that some of the players didn’t get on with Rosenior was because they were a bit fed up, and tetchy, and generally in need of a decent break

we didn’t see any pro Palestinian marchers

we did see some of the Unite the Nation people at Waterloo. Odd coves, as Wodehouse might say. The Christian -type ones were very sinister

I think it was probably called Unite the Kingdom. It couldn’t be more misnamed, whatever.

we were sat near some flag-y people on the train on the way back. Couldn’t help hearing what they were saying….nothing racist, or unpleasant, but just deluded about all sorts of stuff.

They were probably good people in many ways, but the way they came up with weird ideas about things fitted with the notion that Tommy or Nigel are people to trust

I know it sounds patronising but I did feel sorry for them