Reuters Soccer Blog
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Grant was Sunday’s big winner, Mascherano the loser
Avram Grant was being ridiculed last week as not good enough to manage Chelsea, while referees were getting stick for not coming down harder on dissent.
Cue Grand Slam Sunday — when Chelsea virtually ended Arsenal’s title hopes and Javier Mascherano left Liverpool with 10 men at Manchester United following a quite avoidable red card, clearing the champions’ path in their quest to retaining the title.
Grant made a double substitution that changed the face of Chelsea’s match with Arsenal, who were leading 1-0, with the strategy of twin strikers producing two Drogba goals for a 2-1 victory.
As they put it at EPL Talk: “Avram Grant looks as if he’s starting to understand this whole managerial thing…”
Mascherano shows shades of Rattin with petulant display
Javier Mascherano is in a long tradition of strong-charactered Argentine central midfielders going back to Antonio Rattin, and further.
Sadly, his petulance at Old Trafford in Liverpool’s 3-0 defeat by Manchester United on Sunday recalls Rattin’s dismissal against England in the 1966 World Cup quarter-final at Wembley.
