The moment that handed Chelsea the title

If our season could be summed up by one single decision, it would be the one where the linesman – while standing in the perfect position – declined to raise his flag against Didier Drogba, who was standing several yards offside at Old Trafford. The Ivorian striker went on to score what turned out to be the winning goal, and arguably the goal that won them the Premier league title.

For that reason I find it difficult to admit that Chelsea are deserving of their newly bestowed tag of ‘Champions’, simply because it isn’t true.

It has to be said that they’ve played some vrey good football this year, and today they eclipsed our record for most goals in a Premier League season by scoring eight against Wigan Athletic. That’s the fourth time this season they’ve scored seven or more and is an incredible statistic.

That said, for all the media w*nking over Chelsea and how they’ve blown the rest of the league away; it remains true that if the linesman had raised his flag as he should have done, we would be celebrating our 19th title today, no doubt about it.

There’s also the issue of the terrible refreeing decisions in the game at Stamford Bridge. First Rooney runs clean through and is 1 on 1 with Petr Cech, only for the linesman to incorrectly raise his flag. Next was the penalty incident when Antonio Valencia was hauled to the ground. then last but not least was the free kickand goal incident, which is hard to take for several reasons. Firstly it was never a free kick. Secondly there was a foul on Wes Brown. And finally there was a Chelsea player standing in an offside position.

People talk about decisions like that evening themselves out over the course of the season, but that’s just a myth that the likes of Andy Gray like to peddle because it saves them having to admit that Chelsea have benefitted massively from key decisions this season. When such huge mistakes go against your team when playing against your direct title rivals, it’s impossible for those mistakes to even themselves out, particularly when they happen in both the home and away games.

So despite all the goals they scored this season, the reason they won the league can be put down to that single decision at Old Trafford. Without that we would have each gained a point and Manchester United would have finished the season on 86 points with Chelsea back on 84.

Yes I’m bitter, yes I’m disappointed, but I’m also extremely proud of the way my team have battled on through adversity this season. We lost the best player in the world and still challenged. There isn’t another team in the world that could have suffered the number of injuries we have this season – especially in defence – and still came within a whisker (or more accurately a flag) of winning the title. To come through it with the best defensive record in the league truly is a testament to the hard work and dedication of the entire squad and backroom staff.

With a couple of tweaks during the Summer, we’ll be there next season to take our trophy back.

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