What's the most obnoxious chant in football? It's a crowded field, you'll agree, and there are plenty unfit to print even in a racy column such as this. But for what it matters, my money's on the one Manchester United fans have going. They don't have the copyright on it, just the current use. It goes: 'we'll do what we want, we'll do what we want - we're Man United, we'll do what we want.'
Plenty of clubs use it, since as deliciously obnoxious chants go, this one has it all. Shameless cheek. Bratty ner-ner. Hubris by the pound. An arrogant implication that the club are above sanction or reproach. Whichever club's fans are singing, everyone else has a right to feel infuriated.
United's immediate inspiration for using this 'we'll do what we want' last night was Wayne Rooney. The ox-necked tyro had dodged jankers for his elbow on Wigan's James McCarthy last weekend.
By avoiding a ban, he was free to play last night and to score a goal that held the match in the balance for 25 minutes either side of half-time.
Rooney's strike was his fifth goal in as many games for United and indicated he is hitting form again almost exactly a year since losing it some time around March 2010.
But even a refreshed Rooney was not enough to see United past Chelsea. And a good deal of the reason was that he came up against a player who has the potential to become as true a legend for Chelsea as Rooney is at Old Trafford. David Luiz has been at Stamford Bridge for a mere month but he dazzles every time he plays.
Some players - Rooney is one, and so is Luiz - excite and energise their teams and their fans simply by being on the pitch. The quality is impossible precisely to define, so I'd like to call it for our purposes 'crazy-ass juju'.
Like sex appeal, halitosis or the drip, you've either got it or you don't. Luiz has it. (The crazy-ass juju, I mean - not halitosis or the drip.) Confidence shimmers around him like a corona. Like John Terry, Luiz is a muscular pillar in central defence. Run into him and you bounce off, as Rooney discovered in a running battle the Chelsea defender shaded on points. But Luiz offers far more than thickset grunt at the back.
Breaking with the ball at his feet, he gives Chelsea a new point of attack. Luiz is apparently ribbed on the training ground for his resemblance to The Simpsons character, Sideshow Bob. It's an entertaining lookey-likey but it also highlights he simply stands out. The mass of curly hair vibes Carles Puyol, another defender with real presence.
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Puyol, of course, is a very different player. For one thing, he scores for Barcelona only once every 49.5 games. Luiz's record for his last club, Benfica, was hardly prolific: four goals in 72 matches. But the way the Brazilian struck Chelsea's equaliser and the frequency with which his driving runs end in the opposition's penalty area suggest that he could improve his scoring ratio.
And then there are the little things. Before he scored, Luiz stood in the United penalty area, before a quiet Matthew Harding stand. Half-turning to the crowd he raised both palms in a gesture of exhortation to the home fans.
Galvanised, to a man they began to bellow - the first serious occasion the United supporters had been dampened.
At the end, Rooney was last of the defeated United players to leave the pitch. Luiz walked off just yards behind him, applauding the crowd as his splendid barnet bounced proudly behind him. His hamstring was packed with ice but he strode about the pitch he'd left after 77 minutes like a warrior.
There was a sense the two rivals shared a little of that crazy-ass footballing juju. Alongside Rooney, the Premier League has a new star. He's David Luiz. He does what he wants.
Follow me on Twitter @dgjones
