Nobody, including Kyle Walker, expects man of the match Demba Ba!

After such a promising start to his Chelsea career, Demba Ba's faded to barely third choice.  And when you think about it, being the third choice striker at Chelsea is a rather impressive achievement, though not in a good sense by any stretch of the imagination.

Still, lesser professionals may have kicked up a fuss - especially once half-mooted moves to Arsenal or elsewhere fell through in the summer and winter transfer windows - but Demba has just gone about his business while displaying public affection for many of his teammates including Eden Hazard and Samuel Eto'o.  So in light of that, I do not begrudge him this Man of the Match award in the least bit.

By grabbing the two goals (however fortunate) that turned this tie from a good win to an absolute laugher and caused Spurs manager Tim Sherwood to completely lose the plot on national TV, Ba rejoins the ranks of the Chelsea striking trio who have definitely upped their scoring game since the turn of the year.  With the usual caveat of lies, damned lies, and statistics in mind, the Senegalese now has five goals in a little over 500 total minutes for the Blues this season, the best per-minute ratio of any player in the squad.

So I'm watching the reboot of COSMOS and Neil deGrasse Tyson (think Bryan Cox, but way more bad-ass) just reminded us all that the universe (our universe) is quite old.  Not nearly as old as Old Man Eto'o, but pretty old.

Seriosly though, that celebration was legendary, alone worth the 8.3 rating.  Being in the right spot at the right time with the right movement to take advantage of Jan Vertonghen's perfect low cross was just the cake onto which he got to pour the celebration icing.  It was his first goal in almost two months, though the drought didn't feel nearly that long.

Though the goal was very well taken, the rest of Eto'o's performance was a bit of an uneven mess.  Good movement, poor decisions, too much dribbling, not enough linking (though that may have been a tactical hangover from the team having been set up to use Torres), and then that bit of exaggeration to win the penalty kick.

As long as he keeps scoring them, those no-look penalties will not cease to amaze me.  How can you hit the ball right where you want to without looking at it, you magical man from Belgium?!

Maybe you should also try that technique the next time you find yourself facing an empty net, ifyouknowwhatimean...  I do wonder how much his ankle knock affected him, especially when it came to taking on his man directly.