Title: Chelsea Stories

Author: Allen Dew

Category: Sports

Some people wonder why lots of guys and some ladies are crazy about football; I am going to be honest, I cannot tell you why I love Chelsea this much and I also marvel at the love the Arsenal and Man United fans shower on their clubs. I know few Liverpool fans and I can tell you, they are crazy about Liverpool.

I tell people that the excitement some guys get when they go clubbing and forget their worries for that moment is what I enjoy whenever I watch Chelsea play. Especially this season (2016/2017). Even though football matches are heart-pounding, it seems that the body releases a certain soothing hormone that erases worries during and after the match. I am not a scientist but honestly, as a fan, I feel that hormone.

Shout out to all the Chelsea fans out there, we deserve the glory we are getting this season. We honestly do. No fan should have to go through what we suffered last season; I won't even wish it for Arsenal fans. I remember having discussions with many die-hard Chelsea fans last season and you could see the torture they were going through. Horrible. At some point, I dreaded relegation. Some of my guys stopped watching live matches because of their blood pressure. Crazy experience.

Here we are, matching to the title and playing some crazily fantastic soccer (using my American English). We have been through the wilderness and we are back. It sure feels good; shout out to Arsenal fans, 13 years and counting, hold on guys, enjoy the ride. To Man United fans, let's see what the "happy one" does next season. It will be a waste of time to mention Liverpool and Premier League title in one sentence. To Man City and Spurs fans, touché.

Let me share some of my crazy "football fan" moments with you. It was the evening of 6th of April 2004, my excitement knew no bounds. We had just beaten Arsenal in the Champions League quarter final. No one gave us a chance because of the first leg result (1-1) at Stanford Bridge. At that point in the season, Arsenal had beaten us home and away in the league; so the victory felt really good because we went to Highbury and beat them at home. I left the viewing centre where I watched the match, got into my car, heard a knock on my window and there was a gun pointed at my head. The young man with the gun wanted my phone. I cheerfully gave him the phone, drove home and did not even remember the robbery incident until late in the night. I got home, still excited, made full jest of my Arsenal flatmate because he had been the one having all the good times during that season. It was much later in the night that I remembered to tell him about the robber story; the excitement was so much that it erased all the bad memories.

I can go on and on. Is it that crazy Andres Iniesta goal on 7th May 2009 (very late goal that kicked us out of Champions league semis) or that crazy night in Munich, Germany when the Didier Drogba penalty brought GLORY (the Champions League trophy); my personal opinion is that God saw all our (Chelsea fans) tears and decided to reward us with that trophy which by the way made us the “Pride of London”.

21st May 2008 was another day. We needed John Terry to score the last penalty and we would be European Champions in Moscow. I can still remember jumping up and down my hotel room as Terry made the long walk to take that penalty. The guy slipped, penalty shoot-out continued, Manchester United won the Champions League. I was so dejected that I refused to stay in that hotel for 2 years. What more can I say; the ghost goal from Liverpool (Luis Garcia) that kicked us out of Champions League Semis in 2005, the first time Jose Mourinho was fired in Sept 2007, the day I prayed that Liverpool would not sell Fernando Torres to us (I knew he would not fit in at Chelsea), the mood swings as each manager was hired and fired… I remember it all.

I don’t know why others are fanatical about football but I know what I enjoy as a Chelsea fan. For movie lovers or theatre goers or die-hard Harry Porter fans or guys that go clubbing, multiply the excitement you derive by three and you might begin to understand what WE ENJOY. Sometimes, it’s like medicine to our bones.

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