85 Unbeaten!

We just about saved our monumental home record in yesterday's 1-1 draw against Manchester United. I along with millions of Chelsea fans(I hope there are so many!), were fearing the worst, an anticipated agony compounded by the fact that Deco and Carvalho had joined the treatment table so recently vacated by Drogba and Ballack even before the Stamford Bridge faithful had found their full voice. Trailing by a goal and then missing sitters like the one missed by Anelka is not something that goes down too well with any football fan. I jumped off my seat in anticipation of an equalizer so many times during the match and then landed flat on my bum that its still sore. But that was much before the equalizer....when I thought we had enough time to get all three points rather than just one. And finally when it arrived I was satisfied but also a little agitated. I knew there was precious little time left to get a winner. Kalou came off the bench and slotted home the equalizer which I'm sure meant a lot to everyone and everything Chelsea but a winning goal seemed to be a far fetched hope at that point. This made me think...was it an equalizer we could do without? If the visiting team had been Arsenal or Aston Villa or perhaps even Wigan, my answer would definitely have been 'yes', (I know you're probably thinking I'm nuts but stay with me) but for Man United, I was not so sure simply because they're the biggest to Chelsea's title hopes in my opinion and any point taken off them is a plus.

However, I said we could do without that equalizer not because I was exasperated with our display on the day, in fact I thought we coped really well without two of our most important players this season, but because I think maintaining the unbeaten home record is becoming a notoriously demanding task for us. We tend to start thinking more about salvaging the record rather than go for the kill when we go down to the visiting team. To me this record seems like a huge bag full of gold that a man is trying to carry with all his might, a man who's tired and hungry. If he gets rid of the load he can hurry up and find a piece of bread before dusk but his reluctance to let go of the gold is draining him out completely.

To put things into perspective, let me show you some hard facts here. Chelsea have drawn four of their last six home games in Premier League, all with a scoreline of 1-1. Last season when we had an unbeaten home run, we drew seven games out of nineteen at home...that is 14 points lost(If only we'd won any two of them!). Here is last season's home league table for the top four:

P W D L Pts
1 Man Utd 19 17 1 1 52
2 Arsenal 19 14 5 0 47
3 Chelsea 19 12 7 0 43
4 Liverpool 19 12 6 1 42

We had by far the best away record last season. Here's the away league table for the top four:

P W D L Pts
1 Chelsea 19 13 3 3 42
2 Arsenal 19 10 6 3 36
3 Man Utd 19 10 5 4 35
4 Liverpool 19 9 7 3 34

Do you see now what I was taking about? Was the home record actually a bottle neck when Chelsea played at home? Was it the reason we drew so many times last season? And is the pattern continuing this season? Answer to all of them, in my humble opinion, is yes.

This season we have already drawn two out of three home games, both 1-1. Away we've won two out of two. Once we lose at home in the league, it'll certainly free up that bottle neck. When the prestigious record is no longer at stake, we can go out and play with more freedom at home. Its an irony that a record we take so much pride in is fast becoming a nuiscance and a luxury we can no longer afford. When we happen to take an early lead, we control the game quite with ease. However, when we go a goal or two down and the opposition starts frustrating us, we start looking to save the record. The thought of losing the record so much overshadows the broader picture, that an equalizer is treated almost as a winning goal. The celebration we saw when Kalou scored that equalizer in the 80th minute was less about getting a goal back but about that of a relief at salvaging the record. Though we pressed again to get a winner, that intensity which lead to the equalizer had gone.

I'd love the record to continue going as long as we make sure we're winning most of those games at home. If the record comes at a cost of 7-8 draws? No, thank you! I'd rather lose and then start afresh!

Rahul