Chelsea FC’s Five Most Heartbreaking Moments
By Alex Mosey
4 – Hernandez’s Offside Winner (Chelsea 2-3 Manchester United, October 2012 )
Our next moment of desolation was enough to turn our entire league campaign on its head. With cult hero Roberto Di Matteo having obtained the Holy Grail of club football as interim coach the previous season, Chelsea had hit the ground running domestically with notable away victories at White Hart Lane and The Emirates. With Manchester United’s visit to Stamford Bridge in the run up to Halloween, however, things turned very dark indeed.
Manchester United took an early two goal lead through a David Luiz own goal and Van Persie. However, Chelsea demonstrated their resilience once again and after a sumptuous Mata free-kick followed by a Ramires header it was all square, and the momentum had completely shifted in our favour. Unfortunately, that was to be the last thing in Chelsea’s favour for the rest of the evening…
A poorly timed Ivanovic challenge as the last defender on Ashley Young, and a second yellow card for Torres after he allegedly dived, were both poor decisions which saw us go down to 9 men. Even with such a depleted team, the game was there to be won. That’s until a comically offside Javier Hernandez tapped in what was to be the winning goal. Although Chelsea remained league leaders that evening, the suspensions and frustration took their toll on the following performances which in the end lead us to having to fight for Champions League football until the last day of the season.