Chelsea Save The Day: 5 To Watch

Chelsea save the day: 5 to Watch
Sometimes, when all your predictions go wrong, you can bask in the glory of the winning choices being the best for sport. So it was this weekend.


Chelsea duly came up with the goods against Aston Villa in the FA Cup semi final – even though the 3-0 scoreline flattered them and referee Howard Webb’s reputation took a further nosedive as the only man “not to recognise penalties when they are obvious”.


AP McCoy’s win in the Grand National ended 15 years of waiting for our greatest jump jockey to triumph at Aintree which he did on the joint favourite Don’t Push It – thereby creating two satisfactory scenarios: intense personal satisfaction and a drubbing for the bookies.


Northampton Saints were on the end of a mauling in Munster in the Heineken Cup but the Irish rugby side are masters at lifting their game for the one-off matches so no disgrace there.


You see how any disaster can be turned into a sporting triumph?


Here’s another one. Lee Westwood played magnificently in the Masters and Tiger Woods threatened briefly but in the end the best man won – American Phil Mickelson whose personal journey has taken such an awful twist this year with his wife and his mother undergoing treatment for breast cancer. So it is with deep joy that he came through to win his third Masters.


And if we are honest - and not a Spurs fan – can we not be well chuffed that Portsmouth, relegated, broke and at one time on the verge of oblivion, reached the FA Cup final with a stirring 2-0 win over favourites Tottenham on Sunday.


Sport’s a great leveller – someone once said.