The great Chelsea giveaway

Christmas may be over, but Chelsea FC still feel generous to the less well-off denizens of the league. Indeed, the only match they've won since Xmas is at home against nine-man Macclesfield, second-bottom of the league pyramid, while they shed goals left, right and centre. Last night, Wycombe Wanderers became the beneficiaries of Chelsea's charity drawing 1-1 at Adams Park despite the gap of an intervening two divisions and making Chelsea look thoroughly second-rate. The only player Wycombe paid a fee for was Jermaine Easter, scorer of their goal, for £80,000, the same as one week's wages for Michael Ballack.

So, the hike in interest rates by the Bank of England was a big surprise amongst City analysts according to the news. Only one in fifty predicted it (which is what they are paid to do). Yet, earlier this week, the news told of the strong post-Christmas sales and I was thinking to myself, hmm, this seems like a propitious time for the Bank to raise the rates. I should be working in the City.