Twelve Nietzsche quotes for Joey Barton to ponder during his suspension:

'If there is something to pardon in everything, there is also something to condemn.'

'Talking much about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself.'

'And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.'

'All things are subject to interpretation whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.'

'Undeserved praise causes more pangs of conscience later than undeserved blame, but probably only for this reason, that our power of judgment are more completely

While it may be a boring cliche to state that a week is a long time in football, it is true that a lot can change in seven days.

This time last week, for example, Chelsea were odds-on to finish as runners-up in a second Champions League final, West Ham were still in the Championship and portly Montpellier president Louis Nicollin was not sporting a red-and-blue Mohawk.

For better or worse, all those situations have changed in the past week, but in other respects the same length of time may not prove long enough to get things done.

It was only seven days ago that Kenny Dalglish was sacked as

In the midst of all the euphoria and emotion surrounding Chelsea over the last 48 hours or so, there has been a steady stream of mixed messages coming out of the club.

Fernando Torres was quoted as saying after the club's Champions League final victory that he was unsatisfied with his role on the bench for the match, and that he wanted to discuss his future role with the club. Those words were leapt upon in many quarters as the Spain striker demanding he be allowed to leave the club, even though they were followed immediately by more words insisting that he was happy at the club.

On Monday it

Chelsea interim manager Roberto Di Matteo is thrown in the air as Chelsea celebrate victory in the FA Cup




Chelsea paraded the European Cup through the streets of West London on Sunday — marking the first occasion that England's capital has become home to the trophy.

The open-top bus made the short drive from Fulham Broadway to Parsons Green on a route lined by an estimated 70,000 fans, while German media reported another 20,000 made the most of their time in Munich by packing out the Odeonsplatz to celebrate before finally returning home.

Of course, this being Chelsea, their celebrations at joining the pantheon of clubs to win the top prize were overshadowed by the unusual situation in which they

As Didier Drogba made the lonely walk from the halfway line to a penalty area inhabited by the imposing frame of Manuel Neuer and loomed over by a teeming mass of red and white, their hostile whistles piercing the Munich night, he embraced an extraordinary alignment of destiny and fate. And as what could well be his last ever strike for Chelsea rippled the net, one end of the Allianz Arena fell deathly silent while the other erupted in utter relief. Outplayed for the majority of the tie, Chelsea, quite unbelievably, were European champions for the first time.

With one swing of his boot, and a

At 7.45pm this evening, when Chelsea's players emerge from the tunnel to a cacophony of noise at Munich's Allianz Arena, it is not just the weight of history, of fate, that every single one of the starting XI will feel resting oppressively on their shoulders, but also nine years of frustration and nearly £1 billion of investment for a secretive Russian secreted somewhere in the stands of this unique stadium.

So private is Roman Abramovich, at his press conference on Friday evening caretaker manager Roberto Di Matteo was unaware of just when he would be visiting his players prior to what could

John Terry: May wear that armband to bed

JT: Captain, Leader, Legend

So says the banner at Stamford Bridge, and the great man's latest act of remarkable self-sacrifice will bear fruit in Munich tomorrow night.

You see, despite his waning powers, John Terry simply cannot get himself dropped. This week's England squad confirmed it.

However badly he is playing, whatever else might be going on, England's brave lionheart remains one of the first names on the team sheet.

Nobody seems to realise that, after a career dogged by niggling injuries he is a cynical parody of the player he used to be.

Nobody, that is, except JT himself, who fell

When King Kenny Dalglish abdicated as Liverpool manager in February 1991, a number of distraught supporters desperately contacted police headquarters for reassurance that the rumours were not true; his confirmed exit from Anfield would, according to the Daily Express at the time, "go down as one of the great mysteries of the game".

After a testing season both on and off the pitch, with the Carling Cup providing but a glimmer of optimism in a season otherwise weighed down by rank but expensive underachievement and unseemly tangles over race, a similar sense of outright bewilderment was absent