It was rather fitting that on the night when the late John Sullivan’s family were in attendance, Chelsea should be rescued by the man they call Dave.
Sullivan was the genius behind Only Fools And Horses, the creator of Del Boy, Rodney, Boycie and Trigger, and a lifelong Arsenal fan. He would have been 67 on Monday.
One of his running jokes was that Trigger, no matter how many times he was corrected, mistakenly referred to Rodney as Dave.
Discussing Del Boy’s impending fatherhood, Trigger tells his pub audience: ‘If it’s a boy they’re going to call it Rodney.’ Pause. ‘After Dave.’
And so it was that when Cesar Azpilicueta arrived at Stamford Bridge, the players took one look at that name, with its many syllables, that p straight after the z and the tricky cuet sound near the end and decided: Dave.
So Dave it is, and Dave it was who, at the moment when Chelsea could have surrendered three points in the final minute, came to the rescue. Bacary Sagna’s header was not the most powerful, but it was downwards and goalbound, and there would have been precious little time for Chelsea to get back into the game had there not been a protector at the far post.
And that protector was: Dave. He launched the ball upfield and Chelsea survived. He certainly won’t be invited to Arsenal’s Christmas party next year — unlike the man he replaced at full-back, Ashley Cole.
You’ve got to hand it to Jose Mourinho. He knows his way around matches like this. It is 10 games and counting without defeat against Arsene Wenger and despite that late escape, had Chelsea not got a point here justice would not have been done.
No comments:
Post a Comment