It Pains Me To Admit This, But...

Chelsea looks great so far against Pompey.  Roman still makes me sick (the only reason he isn't in jail is that he licks Putin's boots- and he ran away anyway) and their payroll makes the Yankees' look miserly,  but they have played with creativity, offensive flair and joy- in other words in marked contrast to their style under the self-proclaimed "Special One".  The most impressive thing to me is the way that Ballack, Deco and Frankie have meshed- I have loudly proclaimed that this wouldn't work, but based on this one performance it certainly looks possible.  I still hope it goes horribly wrong from here, but score one for pilfered Russian money and all that it can buy.