With Man Utd going on Wednesday to Stamford Bridge to what Jose Mourinho had once earmarked as a “game” of contention for the title, it was ironic how a few penalties finally put an end to Chelsea’s string of championships before the game was ever played.

With Man Utd winning on Saturday (0-1) in the Manchester derby, Chelsea went into their game with Arsenal on Sunday knowing that only a victory at the Emirates would be enough to keep the pressure on Man Utd.

It was fitting that Cristiano Rinaldo provided the means to the sole goal of the game when he drew and converted a penalty from Michael Ball (who also got away earlier with a stomp on the chest of the Portuguese winger). Of course, Van der Saar had to come through with a penalty save of his own (against Vassell) before Man Utd could begin to celebrate.

But surely it was the penalty given away by Boulahrouz (who was also shown the red), that had Sir Alex beaming with joy as Gilberto stepped up on Sunday to slot Arsenal into a 1-0 lead before halftime, and with Arsenal dominating much of the proceedings of the 2nd half, Sir Alex must be thankful that that dread feeling (Essien’s equalizer) that Chelsea started to orchestrate in the later stages of the game has been vanquished for this season with two games to spare.

No matter how the result ends up on Wednesday though, Mourinho and Ferguson will meet one last time this season with another win-only situation on Saturday, May 19th, in the FA Cup Final.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 7th, 2007 at 7:00 pm and is filed under Soccer World, England. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.