Chelsea vs Tottenham
Chelsea 3 Tottenham 0
A massive Derby and a massive win for Carlo Ancelotti's Chelsea to maintain the blues 100% start to the season and setting a new club record for straight number of wins. Chelsea were excellent in all areas of the pitch even though there
were some defensive lapses early on in the first half when Cech had to at his best to make saves from current hot-shot of the premier league Jermain Defoe, and Huddlestone. Jenas just missed the target with a good effort. These early chances for Tottenham were the wake up call for the team and Chelsea responded through Jose Bosingwa who saw his superb shot strike the crossbar. Had it gone in, it would have left a red-face Carlo Cudicini, coming back to the bridge after leaving for Tottenham last January having served nearly ten years at the club.
After about half an hour or so there was a shift in the quality of Chelsea's play and passing. The team started to cross more but due to some great defensive work by King and Bassong, Drogba was kept quiet. But they couldn't stop one of the smallest men on the pitch from scoring. Ashley Cole got on the end of a Drogba cross to nod the ball home thus ending Spurs resistance.
The big talking of the match came early in the second half when Robbie Keane was tripped in the area by Carvalho for a clear penalty which was not given by Howard Webb. Even though Spurs can claim injustice in it, they were quite lucky when Corluka pushed Ballack when he was just about to head the ball home before the Keane incident. In face of it, the two incidents even out. Spurs conceded minutes after the penalty incident with Lampard pulling the ball back after a Drogba shot was parried away by Cudicini for Ballack to smother it home. Drogba then scored a lucky third for Chelsea to complete the rout.
The huge negative for Chelsea out of this game must be Drogba's injury. It looked worse as he had to stretchered off with nearly 10 minutes to go. Ancelotti must be hoping that it is not serious as it first looked as with the home game against Liverpool looming a fit Drogba is essential if we are to maintain the 100% start to the season. Next up it is the local derby against QPR in the Carling Cup and Wigan in the premier league followed by the big one against Liverpool on October 4th.
Chelsea 1 Porto 0
Nicolas Anelka scored the only goal of the game on a rain soaked night at Stamford Bridge against the Portuguese Champions, FC Porto. The game hardly matched the performance shown by the players in our last five straight victories which have taken Chelsea to the top of the table. That could have been probably down to the rain soaked pitch and to a much larger extent, Didier Drogba who was missing due to the suspension awarded by
UEFA for his protests after the Barcelona semi-final last year where Chelsea were subject to much debated injustice.
Even though the game was not beautiful to watch there were plenty of chances created by both the sides and thus requiring Petr Cech to be at his best to keep Porto at bay. The best of the chances for Chelsea fell to Lampard and Kalou with both their headers requiring the error prone Porto goalkeeper, Helton to be at his best. But the most important chance fell to Anelka, who after seeing his shot saved by Helton slotted in the rebound in the tightest of the angles.
In the group stages it is all about winning hence the performance would not have worried Ancelotti too much. But the team has to certainly improve if progression in the latter stages of the competition is a must.
Peter Kenyon is to leave his post as the chief-executive of the Club at the end of October, it has been announced. Though he certainly did great things for Chelsea he will be best remembered for constantly stressing the fact that the club will be self sufficient every year but never really coming close to achieve. His departure from the club was inevitable ever since his diminishing role in the club starting with the sacking of Scolari and Arnesen's promotion to sporting director in the beginning of summer.
There has been constant speculation linking him to Manchester City after the sacking of Scolari. Some of the good things he will be remembered by Chelsea are his involvement in making Chelsea a European force within what seemed a relatively short time as he was the main man behind the signings back in the Mourinho and Ranieri days.
Chelsea Transfer Ban
Chelsea have been sensationally banned from signing new players until January 2011 after being found guilty of tapping up the reserve team sensation Gael Kakuta from Lens when he was 16 year old player under contract with Lens. Chelsea are the next big club after AS Roma were banned for a transfer window for poaching Mexes
from Auxerre in 2004. But Mexes was over the age of 18 at the time of transfer and therefore deserved to get a one transfer window ban for tapping up. But for the transfer of a 16 year old does a two window or a one year ban makes sense ? Further there are several clubs which sign players in large numbers under the age of 18 for a nominal fee go unpunished. The best cases so far are against Manchester United getting Federico Macheda from Lazio in similar fashion and the biggest of them all, Cesc Fabregas from Barcelona when he was also 16.
What does FIFA does against them ? They pay a fine, in the case of Arsenal or just forget it, in the case of Manchester United. But to get a one year ban for signing who is now basically a reserve team player is just not fair. That was the case with Chelsea when the club paid a fee of £5 million for Leeds United pair, Micheal Woods and Tom Taiwo. Chelsea have released a statement saying that they will mount the highest possible appeal in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas), who will freeze the ban while the case is under investigation. So there is still possibility that we will be able to get players in during January.
So what does the ban actually mean for Chelsea ? The Club failed to bring in any big names during the summer transfer window, even though they have done well to keep the current stars on board. But with Drogba, Lampard , Ballack, Deco , Anelka , Carvalho all above 30, can the current squad cope for a year without fresh faces remains to be seen. The ban though can be regarded in positive manner because it can lead to some players from the academy coming through, the last of which was John Terry. There are quite a good number of players in the reserves such as Sinclair , Di Santo , Hutchinson and not to mention Gael Kakuta himself.
Image Source: The Sun
Chelsea Transfer Talk: Deadline Day
John Terry has signed a new five year deal which will run until the end of 2013/2014 season effectively keeping Terry for the rest of his career at Stamford Bridge. This comes after a summer long interest from Manchester City who were willing to pay up to £32 million for the England captain. The new deal makes John Terry the highest paid player at the club earning a reported £160,000 a week which is more than Lampard at £141,000 and Ballack at £120,000 a week respectively.
Andriy Shevchenko, the club's record signing meanwhile has left Chelsea to join Ukrainian side Dynamo Kiev on a free transfer. Shevchenko had one year remaining on his contract but after talks with Ancelotti who failed to guarantee him first team football it has seen him return to the club he left to join AC Milan 10 years ago. Shevchenko and the club had agreed to terminate his contract with mutual consent.
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Chelsea 3 Burnley 0
Four wins out of four and a delightful way to head into the international break knowing that Chelsea are on top of the table. In a breathtaking show of attacking football, Carlo Ancelotti's men brushed aside Burnley. Burnley on the back of wins against Manchester United and Everton offered little answer to the crisp passing and movement of the
Chelsea midfield four of Ballack, Lampard, Deco and Essien. The match started in a rather bad way with Lampard conceding possession too easily near the defending third but Burnley forward, Paterson failed to find the net when one on one with Cech. That served as the wake up call for the players and the game never looked back from there. Had it not been for Burnley's goalkeeper, Jensen the game could have produced more goals for Chelsea. Anelka could have scored a hat-trick and Lampard a couple had it not been for Jensen.
Drogba was back to his best and was the creator for the first goal when he passed to Anelka for a tap in just before half time. The breakthrough was crucial as it seemed that Jensen would single handedly save Burnley from defeat. Another early goal by Ballack soon after the start in the second half from a cross by Lampard put the game beyond Burnley. The third goal by a very unlikely source, Ashley Cole was the icing on the cake. After a one two with Lampard, Cole struck in a thunderous volley to seal the three points.
On the negative side, Anelka's lazy game could have caused us losing points against better opposition than this. Anelka could have had a hat trick but his poor touch, lazy play and poor finishing nearly cost us. There were at least three or four times in the match when he was robbed of the ball when not knowing what to do next. There will surely be harder tests than this and if we are to take three points from them as well then there must surely be improvements.
Image Thanks: Skysports.com
Delighted by the start
Three wins out of three for new boss Carlo Ancelotti signals a perfect start to the 2009/10 season. A new formation and new thoughts have certainly got us going but there has to be a caution to the wind after what happened last season with Scolari. Although it has to be said that under the Brazilian we were good even in the early parts of last season only when we scored first. The team lacked character and ideas. That is not the case now though.
We have already fell behind in three of the four matches we have played including the Community Shield and we have won all (Community shield match counts as a win even though it is on penalties). This shows the incredible character Carlo has managed to instill within the team. Our 3-1 win, away at Sunderland is one of the best matches I have seen Chelsea play. The movements, passing and chances created were absolutely world class. On contrast our away win at Fulham was not the best but we were very effective and did not give anything away. All good signs for the future and long may it continue.
The good start for us is made even better by the losses to Liverpool and Manchester United and it would be made even better if Arsenal lose to United this weekend. Liverpool have already lost two games, the same total number of games that they managed to lose during the whole of last season. But it is too early to write any teams off for the title because in the early weeks of the season it is just about getting points on the board. But it is nice to be leading Liverpool by six points at this stage.
When it comes to putting points on the board our upcoming fixtures are certainly helpful at that. After Burnley this weekend, we face Stoke and Wigan, both of which are winnable. The next four week fixtures are completed by Tottenham at home and the big one with Liverpool on October 4th. Going into the Liverpool match with another four wins in the bag would be great.
Image Source: Skysports.com