Down to the business end of things

The end of the season is near.  We are out of the FA cup, out of the Champions League and six points behind United in the premier league.  I hate to say it, but it's over.  We can hold onto second and shove it to the Gunners, but thats about it.  United will probably end up lifting the cup for the godknowshowmany-ith time.  I mean if we get really really lucky and united drop some points and we beat them at Old Trafford then we will be back in business.  But I just don't see that happening, especially now that Rooney has found some form.

But anyhow, last week we posted a rather nice 3-1 over West Brom.  It's nice to feel a win after our rather terrible Champions League form.  Losing to United always hurts more than any other loss.  But thats just the way the game is, you take your wins where you can get them and go home and nurse your injuries when you lose and try to come back stronger.  But if United lose to Arsenal and we beat them again in a couple weeks time we may just have a chance.  It's a small one, but it's all we got.

A tentative prediction

As there was no Premier League action last week I have decided to make a tentative prediction on who will come out on top in the bottom and anywhere in between.  The only issue is that I can't, it is all so damm tightly contested that this season could go anyway.  While United are still five points clear both Arsenal and Chelsea have a game in hand and Chelsea also have a visit to make to Old Trafford.  All of which could be potential game changers.  Meanwhile there is a tight battle for the last two Champions league spots between Chelsea, Manchester City and Tottenham all of whom are five point within the other.

Meanwhile the entire bottom order is one huge cluster f***.  The difference between the last nine teams is a mere five points, with four teams at 33 points and two at 32.  And it could easily go any one way.  The way this season has been going I would not be surprised to see top flight veterans Aston Villa booted out of the Premier League.  Hang on to your seats, this is going to be a fantastic last two months of football.

9 games to go, can we pull this off?

We have 9 games left in the season, we are four points behind Arsenal and nine points behind leaders manchester united with a game in hand and a visit to Old Trafford coming up.  Can we pull this off?  I don;t think so, but God I hope so.  

Last week we took in Manchester City at the bridge, they beat us the last time we met and this game was a must win for both teams.  The first half was hard fought, with both teams aiming for first blood.  City attacked relentlessly, but the Chelsea defence repelled them time and time again.  The Blues went through the first half with few attacks and fewer real attempts on goal.  

The second half was much the same, but Chelsea got a bit of rhythm and was able to attack more frequently.  And in the 78th minute we got our breakthrough.  Drogba gave David Luiz a fabulous assist from a free kick and Luiz beautifully tapped it in.  It looked a bit like this:

http://imgs.sapo.pt/sapovideo/swf/flvplayer-sapo.swf?v7&file=http://rd3.videos.sapo.pt/Stpz1atRPzNTNjBW5LJs/mov/1&movref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.eplmatches.com%2F2011%2F03%2F20%2Fchelsea-vs-man-city-highlights-3%2F

With just over ten minutes to go, Roberto Mancini's men knew that it was time to step it up a notch, but this also left their defence vulnerable to counter attacks.  And Ramirez took advantage of that vulnerability to give Chelsea a second goal in injury time.

http://imgs.sapo.pt/sapovideo/swf/flvplayer-sapo.swf?v7&file=http://rd3.videos.sapo.pt/cVsownfGqE34ksTGwfv5/mov/1&movref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.eplmatches.com%2F2011%2F03%2F20%2Fchelsea-vs-man-city-highlights-3%2F

Good times ahead? Maybe? Maybe not.

The last few weeks have given the world some amazing football.  Top notch games were played in the Premier League, the FA Cup and in the Champions League.  In the Premier League, Manchester United suffered two back to back losses to big teams; namely Chelsea and Liverpool.  Now while I admit that the Chelsea game could have gone either way and that certain decisions that went in Chelsea's favor also gave us the game.  But Liverpool thoroughly trashed united 3-1.  It was awesome to watch.  I was crying tears of joy.  But props to Liverpool for completely turning their season around, it's hard to believe that this was the team that was in danger of being relegated just a few months ago.  Even after losing Torres they've proved that they deserved to be one of the Big Four of English football.  But I digress.  While I'm happy with Chelsea's recent victories, the team seems to be held together by spit, prayers and favorable decisions made by referees on the field.

Now on to the Champions League.  Arsenal and Barcelona fought out their second leg at the Camp Nou and it was a great game to watch.  While I have no stake in this game I genuinely feel bad for the gunners, they did not deserve to go out that way.  Van Persie's second yellow was the most bullshit decision ever made.  And it turned the tide in a relatively equal game to favor the Catalans who then proceeded to smash the Gunners into the rocks and left them to ruin and rot.  Not that I"m taking anything from Barcelona, they were amazing and Messi and Iniesta terrorized the Arsenal defense with relentless vigor.
On another note, I am happy to announce that Tottenham have gotten into the next round of the Champions league by shutting out Milan's attack and holding to a nil-all draw and White Hart Lance to give the Spurs and 1-0 aggregate over the Italians.  And maybe it wasn't the best game of football ever played, it was fun to watch from a neutral point of view at least.

And in the FA Cup, United decided to add to Arsenal's sorrows by pummeling them again and again and again.  I didn't really care who won, but the knowledge that Arsenal would have to go another year without a trophy just made me laugh so hard that my stomach hurt.

A cracker till the end

On Monday Frank Lampard’s goal from the penalty spot was not just a goal for Chelsea but a goal for Arsenal and Manchester City as well.  Chelsea’s two to one victory over Manchester United has breathed some life back into this Premier League title race.  And while Chelsea may not have a shot at the title, at least we can try to drag ourselves into third place. 

The game itself was a cracker.  Both teams went at it from the get-go.  I regret not being able to watch the first half because of class but I ran all the way back to my dorm once it was done, and what did I find?  Chelsea down a goal to nil.   I nearly cried then and there.  But I stuck it out and was well rewarded with one of the best games I have seen in a long time.  Both teams pushed relentlessly, for United Rooney and Nani were a dangerous combination that looked threatening in front of goal and came rather close on a number of occasions.  In fact Chelsea’s latest acquisition David Luiz spent half the game stand so close to Rooney you couldn’t be sure whether he was marking him or simply had a weird fetish.  And Chelsea’s attack was a bit more varied, we saw a lot of action of both sides of the wings as well as some nice penetrating pushes down the middle.  And this clearly helped as in the 54^th minute Luiz decided to take a break from guarding Rooney and successfully took a crack at goal.  And everyone in the world who was not a Manchester United fan started jumping for joy. 

The game continued in much the same way after the goal, the only real incident of note was when David Luiz gave Rooney a nice knock form behind, which should have been his second yellow of the night, but for some reason the ref went on with the game without so much as batting his eyebrow.  This caused quite a stir amongst United fans and their manager Sir Alex Fergusen and gave the rest of the world something to laugh about. 

In and around the 70^th minute Chelsea made a rather crucial substitution, Malouda out – Zhiakov in.  And after bringing some much needed energy to the left wing, the young Russian was also nice enough to get us a penalty.  Yay!  Again the was the usual screaming and shouting about the legitimacy of the decision and considering the ref’s track record for the game, they had every right.  And even I, a die hard Chelsea fan think that it was not a penalty; but I’ll take it.  Boy oh boy will I take it.  And take it magnificently Lampard did. 

Of course that did not mean United were down and out,  they haven’t wont he title half a million times for nothing.  They fought back like a wounded tiger.  Fierce and deadly.  Each attack seemed like it would bring an equalizer for the league leaders.  But Chelsea held out with the use of some hilarious time wasting tactics even as the game went into “Fergie” time.  Like I said, we may not win the race, but burn me if we don’t try.

A slight deviance

Last week I wrote about Arsenal's victory over Barcelona, a victory that was no doubt well deserved, but it made me forget another match that was played the week before; AC Milan vs Tottenham Hotspur.  Now Ac Milan is a well established team, they play in Italy's Serie A and regularly appear in Italy's top four.  Tottenham on the other hand have spent most of their time just outside of England's top four, they have been often upstaged by the "Big Four" but with the recent fall of Liverpool and the potential fall of Chelsea ( I hope it won't happen but I'm a realist) two new spots have opened up at the top of the Premier League, one spot has already been filled by Manchester City and Chelsea and Tottenham are fighting it out for the other.  Anyhow, Tottenham is a respectable team with quality players and great teamwork.  And now they may be set for the big time.

Beating Ac Milan has proved to the world that Tottenham is serious about their intentions of becoming a major club.  Don't get me wrong, both teams played quite well, but I doubt anyone really expected Tottenham to win, they were the underdogs.  But they did and the Champions League just became more interesting because of it.

Barcelona brought down.

Arsenal beat Barcelona on Wednesday in a game that will not soon be forgotten.  It was fantastic, end of story.  Both teams fought tooth and nail for this game and it was a cracker. And Arsenal deserved to win.  Wilshire in particular was amazing, the man is 18 and he's playing in front of thousands upon thousands of people.  Can you imagine the kind of pressure he's under?  And we think exams are bad.  Anyway, Arsenal managed to beat Barcelona at their own game; attack, attack and attack.  And it worked.  

But I was hoping Barcelona would win, not because I dislike Arsenal ( I do but that rant is for another day), I simply wanted Barcelona to win so Chelsea could beat them later on.  Wishful thinking, I know, but a fan can dream can he not?

Its over, Bye bye.

We have no chance, I admit it.  I may be a die hard fan but I know reality when it stares me in the face and then kicks me in the balls.  From now on, I shall talk about the premier league in general (or whatever games espn3 shows anyway) and spend some time on the Champions league, cause Arsenal vs Barcelona will be interesting.

So see you next year EPL, hello Champions league, please be kind to us.

Torres. Where does he fit?

I could spend the next 200 or so words talking about how Chelsea triumphed over Sunderland.  But that would be boring.  Torres is far more interesting.  The Spanish striker transferred to  Chelsea from Liverpool for a transfer fee of 50 million pounds and commands a salary of 170,000 pounds a week. 

Now where will he play.  A striker naturally.  But where.  We have Drogba, Anelka and Kalou, all of whom a solid in front of goal.  So who will Torres replace.  Anelka most likely after all Kalou spends most of his time on the bench only coming on towards the end of most games.  I suppose a 4-3-3 with Drogba leading and Torres and Anelka behind him with Lampard, Malouda and Essien bringing up the midfield would make sense.  Or Ancellotti could use the age old Chlesea diamond. With Anelka in the fron and Lampard towards the rear, or with Lampard in the front with Anelka on the bench.

Well whatever formation Ancellotti decides to use, it better work. 

A cameback? I hope so.

Botlon 0 Chelsea 4.  A good win.  And hopefully a win that will get us back into the league. 


Bolton started well, pressing Chelsea players and could have been a threat to the Chelsea goal.  They probably would have scored sooner or later if it were not for Drogba's fantastic goal at the eleven minute mark, from almost 30 yards out that took everyone by surprise. 

Lampard's absence due to injury, may have been a point of concern for some, and the Chelsea midfield was rather uninspired at times, but at the 41 minute mark Florent Malouda managed to squeeze a tight goal in from a rather weird corner.  It was one of those " Oh he scored" type of goals.

Into the second half Bolton continued to press and tried to threaten the Chelsea goal but the second half belonged to the boys in blue.  Around six minutes onto the second half Anelka slammed the ball past Bolton's keeper Jaaskelainen for the third. 

 The game was pretty much over by this point, but what's the point of winning if you can't stick it up to your opponent.  And at the 73rd minute mark, thanks to a great show of power by Micheal Essien and some fancy footwork from Anelka, the young brazillain Ramires found the ball at his feet and knocked the ball into the Bolton net for the fourth time that evening.

Maybe this means we can actually make a comeback.


 http://www.totalsportsmadness.com/2011/01/21/bolton-wanderers-vs-chelsea-live-stream-highlights-24-january-2011/

PS: Do not watch the first to videos, they may endanger your mental health.

Chelsea FC: The Pride of London

Since I did not have the pleasure of watching our win against Blackburn I will not speak of it for fear of over stating Chelsea's awesomeness. And honestly seeing two back to back wins has been nice, considering our dreadful form of late.  Of course on the down side, guess who got injured again?  Lampard. Lovely. Just lovely. If we end up going back to the form we were in a couple weeks ago I might seriously start thinking of changing into a Manchester City fan or even spurs fan, at least the spurs are a London team.  Hell, worst come to worst I might even start to support Arsenal.  I mean, we went from the most feared team in the league, one that swatted other teams away like flies.  Where did that go?  I just hope that we can get it back, because I don't think I will be able to live with myself if I see united lift the cup again. 


Anyway next week I intend on giving a blow by blow account of how Chelsea will(hopefully) thrash Bolton.

PS. I would never leave Chelsea, even if we got relegated.