8.[D]. Chelsea v/s Fulham[PREM]

Date : 30/09/2007
Time : 19:30 hrs IST

Chelsea Starting Line up
Cech; Belletti, Ben-Haim, Terry (c) (Alex h-t) A Cole (Malouda 76); Maka, Sidwell; J Cole, Shevchenko (Pizarro 53), Kalou; Drogba.

Manager: Avram Grant

Fulham Starting Line up
Fulham (4-4-2): Keller; Baird, Hughes, Bocanegra, Konchesky; Davies, Smertin (Murphy 81), Davis, Seol (Bouazza 72); Healy (Kamara 67), Dempsey.

Manager: Lawrie Sanchez

Refree : Martin Atkinson.

Crowd : 41,837.



After a very good performance against a decent Hull City team , a lot was expected from this new look Chelsea side . It was not just the win but the way Chelsea played against Hull that excited me, they were always on the attack . True, it will be difficult to do the same against a very disciplined Fulham defence.

66 games on a trot without defeat at Stanford bridge.We being the only team to do that in the EPL history, I just wish Chelsea can do it for another 100 matches :) .

I desperately wanted to watch this match , but for some strange reason STAR Sports was telecasting the Kingfisher open and ESPN coming up with the boring Wigan v/s Liverpool match ( maybe more than the match they wanted to see whether Torres would start :P ) . Leave that even the India - Australia match at Banglore was washed out . well lucky Aussies :P (Australia had scored 307 from 50 overs and India were 9/1 from 2.3 overs ) .

So I can only comment on whatever I read from the Chelsea FC official site .Good thing for Chelsea was the return of Drogba , with no goals from the last 3 premiership match this was a morale boast to the team ,But we were missing Essien and the in form Wright Phillips coz of injuries .

Chelsea attacked from the start , but with the misfiring Sheva in front we missed some very good chances . I feel Sheva should play deeper into the opponents defence , with his quick turns and great instincts to get into scoring positions ,he will be more successful .

Well it looks like Chelsea failed to score again , though they created some good chances , add to that the injury to Terry (He may not play against Valencia ) and the Red card to Drogba , Chelsea have fallen way back from the lead .

Chelsea failing to score from 4 premiership match looks shocking.With no goals coming from Lampard from the midfield , the pressure is on our Strikers . Sheva booed by the Chelsea supporters on his 31st Birthday may have been a little hard for him to take , considering the God like status he enjoyed at Milan . I still feel that he can be a success with Chelsea , he just needs to be playing a little deeper .

Chelsea have scored just 50% of the available 24 points . and currently are placed 7th.

I dont know how Grant will cope with the tough Champions league encounter against Valencia at the Mestalla . I want to see what the starting 11 would be ?

I just hope that the Chelsea supporters keep supporting the team,the Manager and Roman during these tough times .




Chelsea Goal scorers in the Premiership

Pizarro - 1
Maluoda - 1
Essien - 1
Lampard - 3
Drogba - 1

7.[L]. ManU v/s Chelsea [PREM]

MANU Starting line up
Van der Sar; Brown, Ferdinand (c), Vidic, Evra; Ronaldo, Carrick, Scholes, Giggs; Rooney, Tevez (Saha 78),
Mike Dean(midfielder,defender,forward)


Chelsea Starting line up:
Cech; Ferreira, Ben-Haim, Terry (c), A Cole; Mikel, Makelele, Essien; J Cole (Pizarro 75), Shevchenko (Kalou 59), Malouda (Wright-Phillips 68).


Referee: Mike Dean.

Crowd : 75,663.

Normally when ManU met Chelsea ,the mind games between Fergusson and Mourinho would start atlseat a week before the match . This time around the media was after the shocking departure of Mourinho in midweek.

So, first match for the Chelsea first team coach Avram Grant against their arch rivals Manu and that too at the Old Trafford .

Grant started with a very defensive lineup, 4-5-1 with sheva as the lone striker , and playing Mikel,Essien and Makelele together . with cole and malouda getting a chance to play in the hole behind Sheva.

The match started with the usual intensity which is very common between these arch rivals .
Sheva showed some of his old form in the first 20 minutes which had given him a God like status at the San Siro .

Chelsea looke to domintate the possesion ,Makelele and Mikel playing a vital role playing in front of the Chelsea back 4. This is when in the 32' Mikel was send off . a really poor decision by Dean
Till now it was 12(Manu with Mike Dean) on 11(Chelsea) but now it was 12 on 10 . still Chelsea played with lot of determination .

Considering the way the game was played it should have ended with a 0-0 draw .All coz of Mike Dean

1. for giving a Red card to Mikel in the 32' .
2.for playing for 4 minutes extra before Half time . during which Tevez scored .
3.For giving a penalty to Manu for a Diving Saha . foolish

Match Ending 2-0 for Manu.

The result didnt show the grit and determination with which Chelsea played, they atleast deserved a draw .. Looks like luck in not on our side ... Even worse Chelsea havnt scored in the last 3 premiership matches .. an now our Goal difference in -1

Peole would have noticed Van Basten sitting with the Chelsea team, was he there to see the only dutch player Van Der Saar ?? I dont think so ... dont know what Roman is thinking ?

Chelsea has got a lot of catch up to do ... if they have to win atleast one title this season


after 7 matches Chelsea 11 points position 6

Goals scored
Tevez (45' + 3)
Saha (p) (89')

Chelsea Goal scorers in the Premiership
----------------------------------------------

Pizarro-1
Malouda-1
Essien -1
Lampard-3
Drogba -1

MOURINHO Parts Company by Mutual Consent

Date : 20 Sep 2007
Time : Some time around 6 am IST.

Yesterday night I saw some amazing scenes on my TV , Yuvraj hitting 6 sixes of Staurt Board . Awesome hitting from the very talented southpaw.The fastest 50 in International cricket coming of just 12 deliveries . :) India will make it to the semis of the T20 World cup if they win against SouthAfrica on Thursday at 9:30 pm IST.

I woke up early in the morning at around 7:30 :P and full of Energy to discuss about the wonderful India - England encounter , I brushed my teath ,had a glass of water and sat in front of my dad to discuss about the India match . My face garnished with joy and excitement. This is when my dad an ardent Arsenal fan with a very mischevious smile on his face broke the news about Chelsea. Jose' Mourinho parting company . The whole Energy ,excitement ,joy just vanished in a flash . Oh my God! what has happened .

My memories went back to the day when Mourinho arrived at Chelsea . I remember his introductory talk with the media , sporting a very cool T-shirt and vert witty answers . He had won 2 consecutive league titles and the much coveted Champions league crown with Porto the previous years . The self titled SPECIAL-ONE made an instant impact with the Chelsea team , winning the League title after a span of 50 years . In all we won 6 titles in 3 years under him , 2 League titles , 1 FA cup , 1 Community shield and 2 Carling cups , but the much awaited Champions League title eluded him , the closest being 2 semifinals against Liverpool ..One of them lost under very cruel circumstances( 1/2 a goal from Luis Garcia) and the second one on penalties .

Without any doubt he was the most successful manager of Chelsea till date . His talent has been never doubted . I would say he was one of the most astute managers I have ever seen in soccer . Very few of them can match him on this front . Tactically very strong and a great man manager,Very good at attacking the opposition team with his verbal provess before any important match . :) . Rijkard has a good idea about this :P .

A Talismanic manager , he injected a good team with a never say die attitude . They would fight every match with the sole aim of winning it . Players respected him, the fans respected him this amazing character. But the way in which Chelsea played soccer under him was always criticized , they called it unmarkatable , they called it dull,but Chelsea scored points , they won matches and very importantly titles .

There were only 2 kinds of people , one who was a fan of Chelsea and the others . With my experience any Neutral viewer never liked to see the way Chelsea played.But for fans like us it was about supporting a wonderful team coached by a very talented coach.

Mourinho put forward a very different 4-4-2 fomation instead of his much preferred Diamond formation from the start of the season , to make Chelsea brand more attractive , but he failed without Drogba and Lampard in the starting lineup. Its hard to understand how such a strong team suffers without 2 players.Its true that they scored more than 50 goals for Chelsea the last season but it doesnt mean that we dont have enough firepower without these players up-front . He always had an excuse whenever Chelsea had a bad match .

The relationship between Roman and Jose' has been well published in the newspapers for the past 7 months , then why did Roman make this decision after 6 matches into the premieship and 1 Champions league match, and a very important match against title rivals MANU at Old Trafford after 3 days ? This is hard to understand ,but without doubt Roman is a very smart businessman ,nobody becomes a Billionare worth around $19 Billion by fluk . Some may say that had he put the axe during the tranfer window -then maybe Terry wouldnt have renewed his contract , the same with Lampard , Malouda might have opted for Liverpool , Drogba might have left the club . All these comes into mind when u think of this incident .

It is very hard to take that such a talented coach couldnt live to the high expectations of Roman and Chelsea . Romans dream is to make Chelsea the most marketable club by 2013 .This would be difficult if only around 24000 fans turn up in the stadium with a capacity of 45000, as it could be seen in the last match against Rosenburg at home . To increase their viewership we need to play an attractive brand of soccer,the one played by Barcelona or Arsenal. This kind of football couldnt be provided by a defensive coach like Jose'. He tried to do this but but ...


I wish good for Mourinhos future , he will be on the radar for many big clubs . He now may take up the coaching assingnment of the Portuguese national team , or may go to Italy or Spain.There is a possibility that he might be the coach of MANU after Fergusson retires, he may even return to Chelsea after some time . But one things for sure Mourinho will continue to win titles in his own stlye of play .


Now it needs to be seen who is on Romans radar to be the next Chelsea coach.Whoever be the coach ,one things for sure he has to provide attractive football and atleast 2 Champions League titles by 2013 and EPL dominance . I hope the next big thing for Chelsea does this . :)

6.[D] Chelsea v/s Blackburn (PREM )

Chelsea Starting line up
(4-4-2): Cech; Belletti, Alex, Terry (c), A Cole (Ben-Haim 86); Wright-Phillips (Malouda 56), Sidwell (Mikel 56), Essien, J Cole; Kalou, Shevchenko.


Blackburn Starting line up
(4-4-2): Friedel; Emerton, Samba (Ooijer 90+1), Nelsen (c), Warnock; Bentley, Savage, Dunn (Mokoena 80), Pedersen; Santa Cruz, McCarthy (Roberts 67).


Referee: Howard Webb. Crowd :41,062.


After a very hectic International schedule ,I am back with the EPL :P .

Again Chelsea without Lampard but this time we dont even have Drogba the 30 goals a season machine .

This again looked to be a cracker.I must say I got lot of respect towards Mark Hughes , his young team can be very physical at times,yup u can expect that with Robbie Savage being the heart of their team . A tough nut to crack.

Finally Sheva gets the much anticipated start , he has been in good form for Ukraine scoring a very vital goal during the Euro Qualifiers ,hope he continues that form for the club.One of the most prolific scorers of Europe has not yet proved his worth with Chelsea .

And with Cole also getting the start on the left the Chelsea team looked strong . The start was very good for Chelsea with some very good chaces for Sheva coming from the right flank .


Well I wont mention about the match this time,coz i was really dissapointed to see Chelsea not score again ... Chelsea hasnt scored in the last 2 matches ... sad for a team with great potential.

Match ended with the scoreline reading 0-0 . Blackburn ,very happy to get a point . Chelsea again looked like the team who should have scored ,but somehow they dont . The number of chances Chelsea created was awesome .The Chelsea team in the past never used to create so many chances but they would score from the single chance they would get in the whole match .. If u remember Chelsea scoring a 1-0 victory was very common.

This season though Chelsea have been creating a lot of chances but the cutting edge is missing , maybe a players like Owen or Inzaghi or Nistelrooy or Ronaldo(AC Milan,Brazil) is required . a goal poaching player.

True that we have great quality strikers like Drogba,Sheva,Kalou and Pizarro but I always see them playing from the center of the midfield , we need a player who can stand with the last defender of the opposition defence and can beat the offside trap at will . I would like to see Kalou playing as deep as possible , with his potential he can be the next Zola .

Then we will see more goals from this very attacking and attractive Chelsea team.

Chelsea after 6 matches 11 points and position 5


Chelsea Goal scorers in the Premiership
----------------------------------------------

Pizarro-1
Malouda-1
Essien -1
Lampard-3
Drogba -1

5.[L] Aston Villa v/s Chelsea (PREM )

Date : 2 September 2007
Time : 8:30 IST Aston Villa line up

(4-4-2): Carson; Mellberg, Knight, Laursen, Bouma; Agbonlahor, Barry (c), Reo-Coker, Young; Carew (Petrov 79), Moore.

Chelsea Line Up (4-3-3): Cech; Belletti, Alex, Terry (c), A Cole; Mikel (Pizarro 56), Makelele (Kalou 63), Essien; Wright-Phillips (J Cole 63), Drogba, Malouda. Referee :Mark Clattenburg Crowd :37,714


A tough away fixture with Villa strengthening their squad with some very good acquisitions during the summer . Considering the injury crisis surrounding Chelsea this encounter
looks even tougher . Lampard has been in a very good goal scoring form for both the club and for England . Losing him a day before the match was a big blow for Mourinho

Mourinho started with a very interesting lineup Mikel,Makelele and Essien all starting together ,
hmm is mourinho scared of the villa attacking lineup ?? Alex getting a start , very intellingent ,with his height and size he can easily tackle the airiel threat provided by Carew ,who has been in very good touch recently.

I would have prefered to start with Joe Cole instead of Makelele or Mikel . Chelsea enjoyed a very good share of the possession through out the match ,but still created very few chances .
It was only after the introduction of Joe after half time that Chelsea seamed to create chances.
There was a time during the match when Chelsea enjoyed 80% of the possesion . still Chelsea lost 0-2 . Sad very sad. Maybe the Footballing Gods were not with the more dominant , the more attacking ,the more classy team . Add to this the injury to Drogba .

This match really showed the value of Lampard in this very Lavishly assembled Chelsea lineup.

Chelsea Slipping from the top and only 2 points in front of MANU :( .

Chelsea after 5 matches 10 points and position 3

Goal scorers for the match
-------------------------------------------

Knight (46')(Aston Villa)
Agbonlahor(88')(Aston Villa)

Chelsea Goal scorers in the Premiership
----------------------------------------------

Pizarro-1
Malouda-1
Essien -1
Lampard-3
Drogba -1

Chelsea v/s Portsmurth (PREM )

Date : August 25 2007
Time: 7:25 IST

Players for Chelsea:
Chelsea (4-4-2): Cech; Essien, Ben-Haim, Terry (c), A Cole; Wright-Phillips (J Cole 74), Mikel (Belletti 64), Lampard, Malouda; Pizarro (Kalou 62), Drogba.

Players for Portsmurth:
Portsmouth (4-4-2): James; Lauren (Pamarot 82), Distin, Campbell (c), Hreidarsson; O'Neil (Benjani 60), Davis, Muntari, Taylor (Nugent 82); Utaka, Kanu.

Referee Alan Wiley. Crowd 41,501.

With the kind of role the refree played during the last premiership match at Liverpool , from now on I will never make the mistake of not mentioning about the Refree .

We have always done well againt Portsmurth and the last time they defeated us was way back in 1955 when we lost 1-5 at the Stanford Bridge. And looking at our recent record against them ,a similar possibility doesnt come into the picture . :)

With the clock reading 7:25 the match kicks of . Chelsea look sharp from the start with some good work from Malouda and Drogba , Pizarro just wide. Chelsea trying to take control of the game.

within 4 minutes Portsmurth awarded a free kick, Essien handling the ball . Gary O Neil free kick cleared to safety .

With players like Utaka , Kanu,Taylor and Muntari in their side Chelsea have to be careful of their set-pieces. Their first real chance came in the 7th minute,a weak kick on goal by Taylor on the counter- attack Drogba misses a very good chance to score , ball shot wide of goal :(.

Again some good work by Chelsea from the left,Malouda and Cole combining very well , Malouda attempt hitting the side netting .


Till now Chelsea looks like scoring first , but Portsmurth also looks strong on their counter attack,specially when the ball is with Talyor or Utaka.

Again on the counter attack again a good attempt by Taylor , Ben haim not able to handle the pace and trickery possesed by the attacking midfielder.

Then in the 31st minute a great cross to Drogba and with his immense upper body strength sets up for the speeding Lampard.A full blooded strike by Lampard and a slip from James makes it 1-0 to chelsea


from this point on Chelsea upped their tempo with some really good chances created by Phillips from the right , but with the experienced Pompey defence Chelsea couldnt find the 2nd goal.


Half Time : CHELSEA leading 1-0

The blues should have made it 2-0 within minutes to the start of the 2nd half.. but somehow Pizarro misses out on both of them.

Again Drogba created a good chance for Phillips ,the shot goinig just wide .

in the 59th minute O'Neil misses a very good opportunity to make it level after some very good work by the Pompey Midfield.

after this Pompeys couldnt create enough chances to make it level, inspite of the inclution of Benjani .

The Gritty Chelsea defence again blunting the attacking flare possessed by the Pompeys

After 4 games CHELSEA on top of the table with 10 points

Chelsea Goal scorers for the match
-------------------------------------------

Lampard (31')

Chelsea Goal scorers in the Premiership
----------------------------------------------

Pizarro-1
Malouda-1
Essien -1
Lampard-3
Drogba -1