CHELSEA boss Jose Mourinho said the Blues needed just five points from their remaining five matches to clinch the title after a pulsating goalless draw against Arsenal at the Emirates maintained their 10 points lead at the top. Two wins from their remaining fixtures will give the Blues an unassailable 83 points, one more than 3rd place Arsenal could realise.

Second-place Manchester City – currently on 67 points – cannot get more than 79 points even if they win their remaining four fixtures. But should Arsenal – also on 67 points – win their remaining five matches they will garner 82 points, same as Chelsea if they got no more than Mou’s calculated five points. In this scenario, goal difference would then be used to determine the league champions as it was done four seasons ago when Man City pipped Man United to the league crown.

 

But both managers – Arsene Wenger and Mourinho – wouldn’t be sad with this recent stalemate, though both would have desired victory before kick-off – Wenger because it would be his first success over Mou in all 13 meetings and also keep a faint hope of a possible Arsenal title success alive while a Blues success would have left Mourinho’s team needing just one more win to wrap up the league crown.

The Emirates draw leaves Wenger still looking for his first victory over Mou who now enjoys seven wins and six draws against the respected French tactician.

The match might have been a barren draw, but it was a very thrilling stalemate especially in the first 45 minutes when the two sides appeared to go for it. Arsenal had better possession but Chelsea created the best chances. And the talking points in this half alone were more than we had in two UCL quarter-final clashes between Juventus and AS Monaco.

 

Ref Michael Oliver, one of my favourite refs, had a torrid first half to be honest, even if Blues captain John Terry graciously said he thought the ref got all the calls right: “The referee got all of the decisions right I thought,” Terry said, while Mou refused to be dragged into any debate about the officials performance in the match, choosing rather to give them pass mark, though he observed “they could make mistakes here and there.”

Back to that frenetic first half, there were four penalty claims, three for Chelsea and only one for the home team.

My take on those four claims is that only one of them should have resulted in a penalty – the David Ospina foul on Oscar. Yes, I can understand why Oliver didn’t blow for a foul initially as he probably wanted to see if the ball would nestle in the net. But as Hector Bellerin cleared it from goal-line, I expected the ref to bring back play, award a penalty to Chelsea and book the Arsenal goalkeeper at the very least. I was shocked that nothing happened!

But without making any excuse for the ref, I think his assistant who was on the side of the incident also didn’t help situation because he should have been fluttering his flag furiously once Ospina knocked out Oscar without making contact with the ball. His failure to do so probably created some doubt in the mind of Oliver. But there is no doubting the fact that it was a STONEWALL PENALTY FOR CHELSEA!

As for the other three calls, I totally agree with the ref and his team of officials. Oscar went down very easily when he felt a touch from Bellerin and the ref was right to ignore his appeal. But another very controversial one was when Cesc Fabregas went down in the box, claiming to have been fouled by Santi Cazorla. The Blues player was booked for diving and I agree with the ref.

Of course, opinions are divided sharply through the middle on this very one. For example, Sky Sports analysts Andy Townsend and ex-Arsenal and Chelsea midfielder Emmanuel Petit both initially disagreed on the ref’s call – Townsend said it was a penalty while Petit said it was a dive. But both eventually agreed it should have been a penalty in their post-match submissions.

However, one man who maintains his stance like me is former Spurs and Newcastle Utd midfielder Jermaine Jenas who told BBC Radio 5 Live:”Santi Cazorla hangs a leg out but he pulls it back at the last minute. There is a dive by Cesc Fabregas and it’s a booking. There is a small amount of contact, but Fabregas made a lot out of it.”

That’s exactly what I saw too. I saw Cazorla hang a leg out and Fabregas desperate to ensure contact which he slightly achieved as the Gunner midfielder had pulled back at the last minute.

Finally, I agree with Oliver not to award the penalty against Gary Cahill who accidentally blocked a goal-bound shot with his hand. I think it would have been a very harsh decision had it been given, especially in the wake of having denied Chelsea a blatant one early on. Unsurprisingly, all the pundits whose views I got on the incident agreed with the ref on this one as well. What do you think folks?

WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THIS SEASON’S PFA PREMIER LEAGUE TEAM OF THE YEAR?

 

THE above is the official Professional Footballers Association’s team of this season. But expectedly we all have our views on some choices and some omissions.

The first that struck me was the absence of a Manchester City player in the PFA’s starting XI. Yes, City have had a very underwhelming league campaign this term. But would that be enough reason to ignore the league’s joint top scorer Sergio Aguero?

I also found the inclusion of Liverpool’s Philippe Coutinho absurd just as the omission of Chelsea’s Cesc Fabregas. Without a shred of doubt, Coutinho has been Liverpool’s best player in a very poor season. But if we were to pick midfielders in his position on merit, the Reds magical Brazilian may not feature among top three players in his position this season.

Such names like Fabregas who is the league’s lead assist, City’s David Silva, Tottenham’s Christian Erikssen or even Swansea’s Gylfil Sigurdsson would come to mind before Coutinho on account of their overall contributions this season.

In the defence I disagree with the choice of both Cahill and Southampton’s Ryan Bertrand. Rather, I’d pick Cesar Azpilicueta for Bertrand and Soton’s captain Jose Fonte. Even Liverpool’s Martin Skrtel might be considered ahead of the Blues centre-half.

But if you think I’m the only one thinking this way, you may have to read the thoughts of Times football writer Alyson Rudd on the PFA team: “I am slightly staggered that Southampton are under-represented in the team of the year because they have the best defence in the league and have impressed everyone this season.

“To reflect that you could probably not put a striker in but you could put a defender in and I would put Jose Fonte in.

“And no Cesc Fabregas is astonishing. He has the most assists and it’s over the whole season – not just the last six weeks.”

So this is how my 2014/15 Premier League Team of the Season will line up:

GK: DE GEA (MAN UTD)
RB: IVANOVIC (CHELSEA); RCB: FONTE (SOTON); LCB: TERRY (CHELSEA); LB:AZPILICUETA (CHELSEA)
DMF: MATIC (CHELSEA); RAM: FABREGAS; LAM: HAZARD (CHELSEA)
RF: SANCHEZ (ARSENAL); CF: D COSTA (CHELSEA); LF: AGUERO (MAN CITY).
FORMATION: 4-3-3
MANAGER: JOSE MOURINHO (CHELSEA).

From the above, it’s clear that I disagree with the PFA on four players: Cahill (Chelsea), Bertrand (Soton), Coutinho (Liverpool) and Harry Kane (Tottenham). Do you agree with my team or do you go with the PFA’s choices? Why not give your own team and let’s compare notes?