For those of us with great passion for the round leather game – football and especially the English Premier League, we have witnessed all sorts of emotions in the past and present. This is a game that breaks barriers and makes every Nigerian become 1 despite our ever present ethnic sentimentality. I love this game so much and I don’t waste time before telling whoever cares to listen that if not for book and my seemingly slim stature – I would have given Zidane a run for his money. And if you don’t know, I play football very well and will accept a challenge if you are not sure.
The hottest topic on the soccer scene today is Chelsea’s loss to Manchester United yesterday. I am proudly BLUE and am not ashamed to profess it. Before last year and at the start of a new English Premiership campaign, we always knew that if Man U do not win, then Arsenal would win. It has become so entrenched in our mind that we barely envisage the possibility of another club winning and the testimony is there. Between 1992-93 and 2003-2004 seasons – Man U won 8 times while Arsenal won thrice. The only distraction was in the 1994-95 season when Blackburn Rovers won.
The greatest critics of Chelsea will attest to the fact that the Premiership has become more interesting and competitive since the duopoly of Man U and Arsenal was broken by Chelsea last season. We have even started seeing a situation where clubs like Wigan Athletic are giving the big boys a run for their money, they currently lie in second position ahead of the perceived big clubs.
It is a big surprise to even see my very good friend GS, who used to hiss at football suddenly become an Arsenal fan and automatically a Chelsea enemy- though not surprising is the no 1 Chelsea enemy in the world in person of my special friend (Tope) who went to the extent of predicting that Chelsea will not qualify for the Knockout stage of the Champions League. This hatred na wa o!
Football is serious business and I love Jose Mourhino, he is a great guy and I will always tell people that we should wait till we reach some levels of success before judging highly successful people. I do not like arrogant people, but note that the Sir Fergussons of this world, with all their grey hairs have said a lot of obscenities in the past. Then it used to be a fight between Alex Fergusson and Arsene Wenger, now the focus has changed – isn’t it more interesting.
I was very proud of Chelsea yesterday even in defeat. Why? Because this has shown that the Blues are the team feared and revered by everyone. Who would think that Chelsea will lose to Man U and it will make all the major headlines – how things change, it used to be the other way round before.
No matter what people may say… the fact is that the beat goes on and we will continue riding high. We migh have turbulent times – but we will conquer at the end of the day. And whoever says that winning 10, drawing 1 and losing 1 out of 12 matches is a mean feat, let him come out and talk. We are very happy to lose to a side like Man U and not to West Brom or Middlesborough.
It is a very common occurence for people to tend to hate champions. To close this, I should ask the question – Why are champions detested?