Saturday, August 8, 2009

Darn...no new transfers

There you have it folks. Carlo Ancelotti has confirmed that there will be no new faces showing up at Stamford Bridge this summer, unless it is an absolute necessity. Alas, it brings to an (almost)end the hopes of Ribery, Villa and Co.

read the full story at Chelsea's Official Website

Friday, August 7, 2009

Rumor: Essien plus Cash = Pirlo????? really????



So news around the tabloids is that Michael Essien has been included in a deal which will bring Pirlo to Stamford Bridge. I have to say i am quite baffled if this turns out to b true. Pirlo, while being a really good player, is into his 30s, and quite frankly, has nowhere near the power and pace possesed by The Bison. Essien adds a new dimension to our team and his versatility has proved invaluable countless times. He is just 26 and should be entering the prime of his career and is already tested in the Premier League. Selling someone in exchange for a player who is untested in the PL, might take some time to adapt, is probably past his best and could turn out to be another Deco is quite dumb. What do u say about this exchange (if true) ??? leave your thoughts below

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Reading 2-2 Chelsea FC

Who needs to play 90 minutes when it takes only two minutes to score twice. Well anyway, last night saw an inspired performance from a Reading side who, coached by former Chelsea Reserve coach Brendon Rogers, nearly pulled of a shock victory over the Blues. Somepoor defending by Ashley Cole gave Jimmy Kebe the opportunity to put reading ahead, followed by a Scott Davies free kick after Terry brought down Long on the edge of the area.

Chelsea were playing quite well and had pressurized Reading enough but lacked the final finish. They raised their game in the second half with the arrival of Malouda and Alex in place of Deco and carvalho but couldnt find a way through. Finally Kalou and Sturridge were brought on to replace Drog and Nico, and a Mikel through-ball saw Kalou break the offside trap and slot the ball home.
Reading away
Chelsea pressurized again from the restart and it finally paid off when Bosingwa was fouled near the touchline and the resulting Malouda free-kick that followed was turned into his own net by Alex Pearce(under pressure form our own Alex)

2-2 the score and Carlo would not have been pleased with the lack of finishing, Anelka's deep play or the manner in which the goals were conceded

discuss your thoughts on the game below

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Liverpool-Chelsea: The Take


Cech - The Petr Cech of old times is back. Kept goal brilliantly and probably had little chance with Torres's goal
Ivanovic - Superb game by the Serbian. What a time he chose to register his first goals for the blues. Ripped apart the Zonal defense of Liverpool and contained Riera well on the flanks
Alex - Caught ball-watching during the first goal but got his act together and defended rather well the rest of the game
Terry - Solid game from the captain, but looked troubled at times against Torres
Cole - Linked up well with Malouda to give the right-sided players of pool a tough time.
Essien - Guardian of the cage that Gerrard was trapped in. Excellent game.
Ballack -Put in a decent work rate and created a few chances that Drogba could have converted easily. An ok performance
Lampard - Superb in attack and set-pieces. Delivered well for Ivanovic's second goal and played wonderful through balls for Drogba. Jittery in defense though, losing the ball a few times unnecessarily
Malouda - The frenchman has returned to form at just the right game. Created two goals and was a threat throughout
Drogba - Didnt have his best game. Troubled the pool defense but his finishing was uncharacteristiocally poor. Had he taken only a couple of his chances, let alone all four, there would have been no need to play the return leg at the Bridge
Kalou - Impressive performance. Kept the Reds defense on its toes, dribbled and passed well and even tracked back to defend. Good game form the Ivorian.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Deja Vu


So a magical night awaits us all at Anfield tonight. Lets hope we can repeat the famous 4-1 victory we had a few years ago, heck i'd be happy with even a 1-0. Tomorrow will be the day Chelsea players will have to be at their very best, no matter what their form over the season they have had. They are up against an in-form Liverpool side who are still challenging for three competitions (when has that ever happened before???) and have their work cut-out for them. Chelsea fans(and even pool fans for that matter) must have now gotten quite tired of seeing each others faces by now and probably know all about each other, but this time there is one difference, Liverpool are the side to beat and will provide them with probably the sternest test of their recent encounters.

Chelsea have a new manager yet again, Guus Hiddink being the fourth who will pit his wits against the Spanish waiter Benitez, after Mourinho, Grant and, most recently, Scolari. We havent won away in the Champions League since November 2007 against Rosenberg, and tonight the boys need to put in one hell of a performance if we are to emerge with a result.

Team Talk

Call it a selection headache, or a gamble, but the team selected by Hiddink, and the tactics chosen, will make a great impact on the outcome of the game.

First, the midfield. With all of our central midfielders available, two of them in Lampard and Essien, have their places guaranteed. Of the other three, the selection depends on the strategy used by Hiddink. He could opt for either Mikel, to negate the threat posed by 'Stevie Me', and allow Lamps and Essien to push forward in attack. Or he could use Ballack/Deco in attack with Lampard and play Essien in the defensive role. This might affect the balance of play but Essien is no doubt capable of handling Gerrard! A final change could be using Essien in defense, although i doubt that will happen, given the Bison's form and threat in front of goal.

In attack, Drogba is certain to start, the man described as a pain in the butt by Liverpool stopper Pepe Reina. He could be partnered by Malouda, who had a fantastic game against Newcastle on Saturday, linking up well with Ashley Cole, and either Kalou or Anelka. Anelka might be a more suitable option o the night given Kalou's lack of finishing skill and his understanding with Drogba, which has resulted in a few good goals this season.

The defense sort of picks itself. Jose Bosingwa is expected to miss the clash due to injury, making way for Branislav Ivanovic, another who had a good game on the weekend. The central defence partnership of Terry and Carvalho should be started and Ashley Cole slots into the left-back role largely unchallenged. They will be backed by none other than Petr Cech, who has looked increasingly confident and solid at the back of late.

Prediction

Chelsea's record at Anfield in all competitions hasnt been great, with only 10 of the 75 games played there have ended in victory for the blues, Liverpool winning 49 and the rest drawn. However, i feel confident that Chelsea have enough firepower in their lockers to emerge with a result to take back to the Bridge next week. I go for a 1-1 in this leg with Lampard and Torres delivering the goods

Monday, April 6, 2009

Newcastle-Chelsea: My thoughts

Cech - didnt have much to do but held his own
Ivanovic - looks promising at the back and dealt with danger
Terry - robust and commanding
Alex - dealt with danger but i still dont rate him highly
Cole - was alright, worked well with malouda but he does ignore some defensive work when attacking
Mikel - in the company of some of the best midfielders, he still learns his tackling from paul scholes
Essien - Energetic and his tireless running was sorely missed while he was injured
Lampard - Right place, right time, fantastic game
Malouda - Finally!!!!! he showed up for the game!!!!
Kalou - His finishing needs some real improvement, cant go about missing one-on-ones
Anelka - Much needed end-product missing....but good involvement in both goals!

Subs:

Di-Santo - some of his footwork was amazing...promising youngster
Ballack - picked out kalou well, who should have added a third

lol

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Saturday, April 4, 2009

Team News: Newcastle United vs. Chelsea

John Mikel Obi returns to the starting line-up after two games out and Branislav Ivanovic is chosen as replacement for injured José Bosingwa at right-back.

Michael Ballack is the one making way for Mikel in midfield with Michael Essien selected to push forward with Frank Lampard.

Up front, Nicolas Anelka will be flanked by Salomon Kalou and Florent Malouda. Ricardo Carvalho and Deco are both back on the bench after injury and recent international action.

For Newcastle, Michael Owen joins Obafemi Martins in attack with Peter Lovenkrands moving to the left of midfield.

There is a heavy ex-Chelsea presence on the bench with Gérérmi and Damien Duff present.

Chelsea will line-up in a 4-3-3 formation as follows:

1 Petr Cech
2 Branislav Ivanovic
33 Alex
26 John Terry (c)
3 Ashley Cole
5 Michael Essien
12 John Mikel Obi
8 Frank Lampard
21 Salomon Kalou
39 Nicolas Anelka
15 Florent Malouda

Substitutes: 40 Hilario, 42 Michael Mancienne, 6 Ricardo Carvalho, 35 Juliano Belletti, 13 Michael Ballack, 20 Deco, 9 Franco Di Santo.

Newcastle are expected to line-up in the following 4-4-2 formation:

Harper; R Taylor, Beye, José Enrique, Coloccini; Gutierrez, Nolan, Butt, Lovenkrands; Owen, Martins.

Substitutes: Carroll, Guthrie, Edgar, Forster, Gérémi, Duff, Smith.

The referee is Rob Styles.



Source Chelsea FC official Website

Friday, April 3, 2009

Looking ahead to Newcastle

welcome to my blog....so we look forward to tomorrow's match against newcastle, with chelsea looking to erase memories of 2 weeks ago when we failed to collect any points at three point white hart lane.

3rd from bottom meets 3rd from top

15 places and 32 point seperate the two sides and 2 interim managers face each other in a must win encounter for both sides. Newcastle need to avoid championship football whereas its needless to say chelsea know they need to win all of their next league games to maintain pressure on liverpool and manchester utd.

Much has been made out of Alan Shearer's appointment as newcastle manager, with him being called the new Messiah and all that crap. let me tell u one thing.......managing your first game against Chelsea isnt the best thing to start off your career, especially a chelsea side looking to shake off disappointment and get ready for a tough game against liverpool(more on that in my next blog).

Team News

For Chelsea the best bit of news would be that most of the injured players are back in training and ready for tomorrow. Drogba and Bosingwa will not be available but are due to be ready for liverpool. In defense, Carvalho is fit again and i'd love for him to partner JT again in defense(lets admit it, Alex is good but he does make some really basic errors at times) In midfield Deco has recovered from his hamstring injury earlier than was previously expected and played a n impressive part in Portugal's victory over South Africa in midweek, where he assisted 2 goals! I'd expect Essien and the ever-present Lampard to start and would love to see Quaresma play the full 90 minutes as his cameos have seemed quite impressive. I'd prefer Mikel in place of Ballack and Essien at right back where he has been quite impresive. Kalou should partner Anelka upfront and I really think Stoch should given a chance to impress, albeit as a substitute, as his contribution against Stoke in our 2-1 win was remarkable

Spotlight Blue - Nicolas Anelka
The frenchman has been overshadowed by Drogba's resurgence and tomorrow will be his chance to prove that he isnt the league's leading goal-scorer for nothing. It will be a vital game for him to deliver the goods while Drogba is out and prove that he can be depended upon!!!!

My thoughts
My prediction is a comfortable 3-1 win for Chelsea. The blues have been content with one goal margins since Hiddink took over but i feel they might come out of the blocks firing on all cylinders and take the game to newcastle, plus we need to ensure we keep up with our rivals in terms of goal difference. I am giving one goal to newcastle simply because of the much talked about 'Shearer effect' and the support of the 50000+ Geordies who will be cheering their team on. We are the best away team in the league and i dont think that record will come under threat tomorrow! Go Blues!!

Who will win the match between Newcastle and Chelsea

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Committed chelsea fan, love music and football