The emergance of Ramires?

There is no question before yesterday's game one of two of us were slightly worried about how Ramires would fare in the game after let's face it, he got found out against Manchester City. Knowing that Arsenal would more than likely play with three in the middle of midfield to combat Chelsea's formation, I had an idea it would be tough out there yesterday ahead of the game. Well, we had no need to worry after Ramires began to show exactly what he is made of in the biggest game of our season so far.

Yes it was a full blooded derby match against our rivals, yes the game was played at times at a really quick tempo and yes there were tackles flying in, but to his credit Ramires stepped his game up.

He did however start of slightly nervy in the game and lost the ball a couple of times to groans from the Stamford Bridge faithful, but when he got it together he was outstanding.

Up and down the pitch, beating players to the ball and nicking it passed them to another blue shirt and most importantly of all, throwing himself into tackles and winning most of them.

It was a sign of things to come at Chelsea from the young Brazilian who remember has only been at the club for a short space of time, had no real pre-season with us and has been thrown in at the deep end with the injuries to Frank Lampard and Yossi Benayoun.

He deserved his standing ovation as he was replaced late on in the game and let's hope, knowing he has set the standard now for what we expect, he delivers when called upon.

For now, after a mediocre start and maybe slightly unfair criticism last weekend, he is finally showing all of us exactly what he is made of.

Carefree & KTBFFH!