I have finally experienced the full wrath of Mumbai university. That means more work than a certain Norwegian refree had at a London theatre some days ago. With exams lurking menacingly around the corner, I will certainly not be able to write something meaningful for a while. But then, I had to get this off my chest.

Football is a funny game. I’ve watched so much of the game at a young age, that I often wonder if I’ve seen everything there is to be seen. I’ve consciously cut down on my football time in the recent past, catching only a few games every once a while. But then, the overall response to the Chelsea-Barcelona semi-final has evoked the ire of the  one-time football purist in me. There was a time where I used to vociferously fight for my opinion when it came to football matters, voicing my opinion on worldly popular forums, fighting for my stance against highly experienced people. Won some, lost some. But learnt a lot. Mainly to have a rational view about things. There I learnt a very important lesson. People on the internet will always be wrong. You might cry hoarse. Fight for justice. Fight for rational thinking. But you’ll be chasing a chimera.

Thus, when I met a lot of people who ‘blamed’ Chelsea’s defeat on the bald Scandinavian, I just shrugged my shoulders. More like, been there, seen that. No strength to retort. There’s one fact that is absolutely certain – Chelsea lost because they did not have the fire in the belly to score a second goal and kill the tie, they fell, whined, barked, argued while the Catalans were disciplined and worked tremendously hard off the ball to retain possession. As I always maintain, the hallmark of truly great teams is to nick a result when they are not playing well. Not to their potential. Everyone wins on their glory days. Winning when playing poorly is what separates the wheat from chaff. Ask a certain Alex Ferguson and he’ll point to a certain Frederico Macheda.

Let us take one argument at a time.

i) Chelsea derserved to win.

They did not have the quality to score away at the Nou Camp. They did not have the quality to score a second deciding goal. They did not have the mentality to finish the game with 2 strikers. You deserve a lot of things. But you have to work towards them. Chelsea deserve to have another shot at the Champions League. They’re free to try next season. Its a simple equation. Any team that scores goals deserves to go through.

ii) Chelsea f*cked Barcelona in the a*se

Last I cared to check, semi finals are played over two legs. In the first leg at the Camp Nou, Barcelona had 19 shots on goal in comparison to Chelsea’s 3. 10 corners in comparison to 2. 59 percent possesion. Barcelona bossed the game. And if I can stick my neck out,  they “deserved” to take a lead to England. But, their inability to score was their bane. Chelsea are a very good team. And as I say about good teams, they got a result when the chips were down. Perhaps, they failed to understand that Barcelona were an equally good team. And they had no divine right to go through at home just because they had surprised themselves by keeping a clean sheet away from home.

Chelsea fans are being very myopic in their view. Out of the 180 minutes of the tie, Chelsea dominated for about 70 minutes. Barca for 110.  There is a feeling that Chelsea outplayed themselves. By claiming to have lorded over the tie after dominating it in minority, one is actually conceeding that Barcelona is a better team and that 70 minutes of domination over them is the highest that they could ask for.

iii) We lost to the ref

For me, there were two very strong penalty shouts and at least one could have been given. Especially, the Pique handball. But again, the Abidal red was a disgrace. The refereeing was poor. But it wasn’t the cause for Chelsea’s defeat. It was their inability to match Barca’s hunger and ineptitude to finish. A top of the Premier League team like Chelsea wins at least 5-7 games a season to the ref. You don’t bring the house down when you lose a couple. If you want to know what losing to the ref is like, then ask a West Brom or a Sunderland or a Hull.

Chelsea did lose to the ref – their dignity, the following of any neutral supporters and any sense of sympathy that one could have towards them.

As one Oswin Diniz says very eloquently on his Facebook :

I don’t understand all the fuss about Drogba grabbing a TV camera and saying ‘Fucking disgrace’ live on air. He should be applauded for giving an honest assessment of his performance.

Given that I support a ’smaller’ club, I sometimes consider myself to be on a higher moral plane than most other fans. Put it down to vanity. Yes, you are free to disagree. The problem with most fans I guess, is that they want to support a winning club rather than wanting their favored club to win. Supporting a losing club, suddenly becomes a taboo. Most fans have seen their club win trophies at domestic and European levels. And a sense of false pride has crept in. Nobody has a divine right to win on past glory.

It would be nice to see more and more fans putting their hand up and criticise their teams, their players & managers and accept their faults and imperfections. Accepting one’s shortcoming isn’t really a sign of weakness. This isn’t really a tirade against Chelsea football club. Although I have no real respect for the club as a whole (I don’t really like their footballing philosophy. Period.), I would love the likes of Lampard, Essien and Ricardo Carvalho to be in my team. Three Chelsea players who are honest triers. This is more of a disgusted moan towards majority of the “Top 4″ supporters. Do not try to malign the whole footballing world to justify the shortcomings of your own team. Feel happy that you don’t fight relegation every second season. It’s fine to lose at times. And there’s more to the footballing world than tending to egos of overpaid footballers.Most clubs in the world never play in a Cup final at any level. Their fans yearn for a trophy for decades together, a Cup final if not a trophy so that they could take their grandchildren out for a Cup final treat. Not surprising that most fans fail to realise this dream.

If Iniesta would not have scored, I assume, Barca would have taken disappointment in their stride, won 2 domestic competitions and would have ended the season with some cheer for their fans. No funny comments. No snide business. No mudbaths.

The way I see it now, Chelsea will end the season without a trophy (Everton, help here). And when 10 years down the line people will rave about Guardiola’s first season in charge – Chelsea fans will still feel cheated. Howard Webb is incharge of the FA Cup final. Be ready for fireworks. Because a certain team in blue wants to have their cake and eat it too.