Every team will have a game that goes down in their clubs history and shall never be forgotten. A game where you are filled with so much pleasure and glee that you don’t know whether to scream, laugh or cry. It could be a cup final win, a last minute winner to secure promotion or even a survival Sunday win that keeps you in the division. It was none of these on Sunday, but QPR beating Chelsea will be remembered forever more in QPR’s history and gifts them the bragging rights they have wished for ever since being relegated 15 years ago.
A game that ‘experts’ predicted could even go into double figures in favour of the visitors, could not have imagined what was going to unfold Sunday afternoon. An expected routine victory for Chelsea was replaced with a game that finished with seven bookings and two red cards for the visitors, two FA charges and a police investigation into accused racism from our ‘England captain’ I won’t go into it, because nothing has been confirmed yet. Oh yeah, and one of QPR’s most famous victories which has completely changed the mood around W12 and reinstated belief that QPR will be around for more than one season. Before Sunday I said I would be over the moon with two points from our upcoming four fixtures but now am looking at earning four from four. Our new confidence and belief will help us this weekend against Tottenham when trying to gain another point against another Premier League title contender.
Despite the aftermath of the game being focused on arguments and differences of opinions about a game that contained questionable refereeing decisions, accused racial abuse and and a shock victory. Something everyone can agree on is Chelsea played extremely well with nine men and some might say they were unlucky not to get anything from the game. Despite having nine men for the entire second half they still managed to dominate possession at 58.3% and somehow managed to pass the ball around more often than QPR despite being two men light. They had a total of 453 passes of which 368 that were accurate (81%) compared to QPR completing 247 of their 328 passes (75%) this is an incredible statistic considering QPR had two extra men.
Despite Chelsea staying in the game, they didn’t create too much to threaten Paddy Kenny’s goal. Anelka should have scored late on after beating his marker and powering a free header from 6 yards straight at Paddy Kenny, which he did very well to hang on to. Helguson should have won it for QPR late on, after a great in swinging ball from Barton beat any Chelsea player but on the volley, Helguson could only blast over. It was a tight game and I have no doubt if it was 11v11 the score may have been different. They were two unquestionable (yet Chelsea fans may disagree) red cards and if they had been given the other way around I would have had to say fair enough ref, they’ve got to go. It was QPR’s spirit that carried them over the line, the players knew how much this game in particular, meant to the fans and put 101% into everything. They really worked for the team and club, all bar one of the players, I shall not mention but every fan on the planet knows who I am referring to.
The key for QPR was the three in midfield, Derry, Barton and in particular Faurlin won the game for QPR they were ALL fantastic. It was about time Barton started earning his money, and really was brilliant on a day that included a lot of confrontation. Against all odds, he avoided it and kept his nose clean the whole game on a day where it would have been easy to lose his head and get sent off. Faurlin is so underrated for me, his tackling, aerial duals and passing were incredible (81% of his 47 passes were accurate) I believe he is the key for QPR in the middle. After starting the season in incredible form he had shocked many football fans considering everybody had written him off as ‘past it’. Derry had two ‘off’ games before this weekend but returned to his best and stopped Lampard from even being noticed, in fact the only time Lampard was noticed on the pitch was when he was throwing his arms up in the air after Derry had won a tackle or outplayed him. I seriously hope Derry has returned Lampard to Stamford Bridge after keeping him in his pocket the whole of Sunday afternoon.
QPR recorded three very unlikely points and the belief around Loftus Road has returned. Three tough games await QPR but there is belief they can get something from a couple of them. I believe with another good investment from Tony Fernandes in January QPR will be more assured of retaining their premiership status for another season.
