Chelsea's pride will have been bruised by a defeat by Swansea City last night which caused them to tumble out of the Capital One Cup at the semi-final stage but the club's image has also taken another sore one; television cameras picking up a bizarre incident between Eden Hazard and a ball boy, in which the Chelsea winger is seen kicking the kid in the ribs.
It was a moment born out of frustration m'lud, but the reaction was still excessive. It was late in the game, Chelsea still trailed on aggregate and the ball boy had been slow in giving the ball back; Hazard tried to snatch it but knocked the youngster on top of the ball, then attempted to boot it out from under him and caught the boy in the process.
The Belgian will likely be remorseful and an apology is certain to be forthcoming, as will a ban following the red card he picked up in the aftermath. South Wales police also intend to interview the ball boy about the incident.
It will be remembered as an unfortunate moment, not least it served to overshadow what should have been – and what was – a very special night for Swansea.
"I've since seen it after the game. Hazard is a great player. When he sees the images I think he will regret it" said Michael Laudrup, the Swansea manager, who was careful to reassert focus on his side's victory. "I can understand all the frustrations when you are behind."
Chelsea were in need of a kickstart having fallen to a 2-0 defeat in the first leg of this tie, yet Hazard probably took it all a bit far. The extent of his punishment will be decided by the FA but Swansea will be able to consider the impact of making it to their first major cup final in the Welsh club's 100-year history.
They will face Bradford City, a side that has dispensed with two Barclays Premier League clubs in the competition already this season, and will find succour from a tie which seldom looked like getting away from them.
Wayne Routledge and Michu – who has signed a new four-year contract – went close for Swansea, while the visitors failed to engineer a revival.
Swansea win 2-0 on agg
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article