Fortunate Blues: Luck played its part, says Hiddink

Chelsea manager accepts Terry’s injury-time equaliser should not have stood

LONDON: Chelsea manager Guus Hiddink, while praising the resilience of his team admitted that John Terry’s, goal which saw the Blues save a point against Everton deep into injury time on Saturday, was offside.

“He [Everton manager Roberto Martinez] is quite right, Terry was offside,” said Hiddink. “Sometimes it’s in our favour, I’ve seen it. Oscar touched the ball and Terry was offside but he made a beautiful goal.”

Chelsea captain Terry went from zero to hero, atoning for scoring an own goal by grabbing a 98th-minute equaliser in an extraordinary 3-3 Premier League draw with Everton.



Hiddink’s unbeaten Chelsea record survived after an amazing six-goal second half that saw his side fall two goals behind, fight back to 2-2 and then seemingly throw away the points with poor defending when Everton sub Ramiro Funes Mori netted in the 90th minute.

Just as the visitors were about to hail their first win in the league at Stamford Bridge since November 1994, Terry struck deep into stoppage time with a back-heeled goal that infuriated Martinez.

“Seven minutes of injury time, the last action happens in 97 minutes 53 seconds and Terry is two yards offside,” Martinez told reporters.

Of the officials, he added: “Maybe refs need a bit of help, the crowd should see it. But to have a player two yards off in the box is unacceptable.”

City depth encourages Pellegrini

Manuel Pellegrini believes the all-round strength of his squad could have a key role to play in the second half of the season after seeing his side re-ignite their Premier League title challenge with a 4-0 win over Crystal Palace.

Saturday’s match at the Etihad saw City score four goals in a game for the eighth time this season as they reinforced their position as the leading scorers at home in the league.

“We have to play so many games in January, it is very important to have the whole squad involved in what we are doing,” said the City manager. “To make five changes and to win the way we did today I think will be very useful for the future.”

Ranieri sets Leicester 79-point target

Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri has set his surprise Premier League leaders the target of reaching 79 points this season after a 1-1 draw at Aston Villa. Ranieri said the target for the remainder of the campaign, was to improve on the 39 points they took in the first 19 games of the season.

“Our next target is 40 more points from the second half. I know it is very difficult and ambitious but why not?” said the former Chelsea coach. 

Published in The Express Tribune, January 18^th, 2016.

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