Tunde Sulaiman
2 December 2008
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London — More misery was added to John Obi Mikel's miserable weekend yesterday, when he was named in the 'Premiership Flops of the Week' team. The dubious honour was coming barely 24 hours after he was substituted in Chelsea's stunning 2-1 defeat to Arsenal at Stamford Bridge.
In what was supposed to be the Blues defining moment in the Premiership when they would all but end the Gunners' title dreams by beating them and opening a three point gap over rivals Liverpool (at least for 24 hours until the Reds played West Ham yesterday night) it all went horribly wrong for them with the Super Eagles midfielder being fingered for the slip up.
Although Chelsea boss Filipe Scolari was to blame officials failing to rule Robin van Persie's equaliser off, the Brazilian showed his displeasure with the performance of Mikel by hauling him off in the 69th minute to the surprise of many.
Deco, whom many felt had faded as the game progressed, remained on the pitch until the 81st. However, that was not enough to see him escape making the 'Flops of the Week'.
In fact the Portuguese international was one of three Chelsea players to make the infamous list. The third Blues to pick up the unwanted honour was striker Salomon Kalou. The trio however did not have to travel alone; they had some fine company as former England striker Michael Owen, made the list for his uninspiring play in Newcastle's limp display at Middlesbrough where he had only 24 touches of the ball throughout the match!
Speaking after the Blues' game, a very angry Scolari said: "I want only after tomorrow that he (referee Mike Dean) looks at the TV and the referee and the linesman see they are wrong and they say sorry. That is all I want, no more, because they were not good enough, and they made a mistake."
Television replays definitely showed Van Persie to have been played on by the Brazilian, Denilson, while in an offside position. Van Persie went on to drill his effort past Petr Cech, before going on later, to grab the Gunners' winner with a neat, low finish on the turn.
Chelsea had taken the lead through Johan Djourou's own goal but succumbed to Arsenal's quick double in the second half and fell to their second home defeat this season.
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