Why Has It Gone So Wrong This Season?

Before the season started, a total of 7 trophies were available for us to win. The Community Shield, The UEFA Super Cup, The Club World Cup, The Capital One Cup, The FA Cup, The Premier League, and of course, The Champions League. It is now January, and we failed to win the first three available to us, as well as crashing out of the Champions League in the group stage and failing to reach the final in the  Capital One Cup last night. The Premier League race is between the two Manchester clubs now, so we only have the FA Cup available to us. This simply isn't good enough, we're supposed to be the Champions of Europe for Christ sake! And with 60-odd million pounds spent in the Summer, I, and many others, thought we would have done far better than this at this stage of the season. I'm going to suggest a few reasons why I think we have failed to live to our expectations.

The Board
Roman Abramovich should be known as a club legend, the man changed our club, and I am very grateful. People who claim to 'hate' him, are clearly saying this out of anger after a rant about the club, or they are just an Arsenal fan. Either way, Roman changed us for the better as a whole.
However this season, Roman and co decided to sack Roberto Di Matteo in November. The man had such an emotional bond with the players, and sacking him the night we lost 3-0 to Juventus in the Champions League must have done the camp huge damage. It was the wrong time to sack the man that led us to the greatest night in our history, Abramavich, Gourlay and Bruce Buck should have given him a season to decide whether to take him on permanently. It was just a bad run of form in my opinion.

Roberto Di Matteo
I hate to say it, but leading up to Di Matteo's sacking, Chelsea were so, so poor on the pitch. After such a promising start to the season, it all went down hill for the Italian. Failing to win in the league in four games wasn't acceptable, and a poor Champions League run didn't help those matters.
Robby's failure to rotate the squad proved costly, as many player looked fatigued on the pitch after playing two full games week in, week out, and he was very attacking minded, losing concentration on the back four.
I don't agree that Roberto is a 'lucky' manager. He did show glimmers of hope during his short stay at Chelsea. I think we should have given him a longer time to prove this.

Rafa Benitez
So the club legend Roberto Di Matteo gets sacked, and in comes the man we all love to hate. Rafa Benitez. The fat, Spanish waiter himself, famous in West London for his remarks about the Chelsea fans (we haven't forgotten!). I'm not a fan of Benitez, and it would take a lot of persuading for me to become a fan of him. Maybe, a Premier League title, or persuading UEFA to let us back in the Champions League.
I was surprised when he was appointed, and didn't want to leave the media speculation leading up to it. He put Liverpool in a mess before he left, and he didn't do Inter many favours either.
We have failed to reach a stable run of form under Benitez. Our away form has been excellent, and you can't fault the man there, but we need to make the Bridge a fortress again. However, I do not feel Benitez is a very good man manager. He may know the game inside out, but that's only half the job. Look at Mourinho, Ancelotti, Di Matteo even - They were three successful managers at Chelsea, and they all had a great relationship with the team. Rafa however, does not.
I'm all for squad rotation, and the lack of it proves costly. However, resting our best players for a Premier League tie to QPR, and saving them for a cup game is just ridiculous.

The Players
It's easy to blame the manager. We all do it. Well, us Chelsea fans do, seeing as we're so used to it by now. Some would say we signed too many similar players in the Summer, in Hazard, Oscar, Moses and Marin, as well as already having Juan Mata at the club, whilst others would simply say that the squad packed with new players simply need time to gel. We were wrong to let Raul Meireles and Micheal Essien go, as we are terribly weak in the double pivot role, especially now Mikel has gone to the African Cup of Nations. Neither Ramires or Lampard suit the role very well, whilst Meireles and Essien do. If we had one of these players, we could play Ramires further up the field, where he did so well for us last season.

Defensive Tactics
Coming into this season, Chelsea favored the exciting attacking formation of 4-2-3-1, with 3 attacking midfield players supporting the lone striker.
The defence has been slacking. I've realised that when the opponents attack, the two full backs would squeeze in with the centre backs, almost making four centre backs, with the two in the pivot role chasing the ball down. Nowdays, all I see is the two centre backs defending, with the full backs staying close to the winger.
This is a drastic change in our defensive set up, and I think it has come at the wrong time, especially as we are currently playing without the powerhouse Mikel in the double pivot to help support the centre backs.
Our successive years under Mourinho were built on a solid defensive set up, and I'm sure all Chelsea fans would love to relive those days. Granted, John Terry has been out for the majority of the season, but Cahill and Ivanovic should be able to do the job.

Attacking Tactics
It's a well known fact among Chelsea followers that Roman Abramovich wants easy-on-the-eye, fast flowing attacking football, like Barcelona's famous tikka takka style of play. The lone striker for most of the season hasn't been getting the ball enough, and lacks support in front of him. Well, for most of the season that striker has been Torres - so we can't get a proper insight into this. We also fail to adapt to change formation. When we are on the back foot, the formation is all over the place, and sometimes we fail to get back into this formation, for example the Arsenal game at the weekend.

Torres
I don't like to single out any player, but I honestly believe a lot of this is due to our number 9. Fernando Torres. He just doesn't suit the team at all, and he's not a very good player anymore either! He isn't direct enough to suit the style of the three men behind him, and I think if we had Demba Ba for example playing there since the start of the season, we would have had a lot more success in this campaign. I'd love for Torres to find form and become a great player again, but I've lost hope.

In conclusion, this just simply hasn't been our year. With only the FA Cup left to fight for, a top 4 finish will look about it for us this season. Hopefully this is just the start of a second Chelsea revolution with the young squad needing time to gel, and a huge boost for them would be to win the legendary FA Cup.

Hazard 'kicks' ball boy? Jog on..

So my Twitter feed, Facebook timeline, my phone and every sports news website just exploded with the news that Eden Hazard has 'kicked' a Swansea ball boy after pushing him to the ground. It's amazing how one thing can be blown out of proportion so quickly, and that the fact of the matter can be exaggerated so badly by many of the leading UK newspapers.

80 minutes in, and Chelsea are frustratingly still 2-0 down on aggregate with no signs of getting a goal. A few players are getting frustrated, keep trying to break down the strong Swansea defence... and failing. The ball goes off for a Swansea goal kick, and the ball rolls towards a Swansea ball boy, who looks about 16/17. After theatrically falling on top of the football, the ball boy now fails to stand up, resulting in time wasting. Eden Hazard is eagerly trying to get the ball, but the ball boy shifts his body to stop Hazard from reaching the ball, which is under his body. Hazard pokes his foot underneath the ball boy to try and kick the ball out from underneath him. The Swansea fans go wild as the Welsh ball boy rolls over with some very poor acting. It's clear to say he didn't do drama at school. Hazard picks the ball up and runs to pass it to the Swansea keeper, Tremmel.

At this point the ball boy was proper milking it. Proper milking it. He's rolling on the floor, trying to tear-up his eyes. He's acting as so Cantona fly kicked him in the chest, remember that United fans? Forgotten about that one tonight haven't you! The boy was clearly time wasting, which frustrated me. He then acted like Hazard kicked his ribs, which frustrated me even more. The guy's 16/17 for god sake! Man up! Oh, and Hazard got sent off.

This is the thing that intrigued me though..

This is a tweet from the ball boy's Twitter account, 3 hours before kick off. He's admitting that he is planning to time waste. I think Swansea should ban this lad from being a ball boy in the future. It's ridiculous how the media have blown this up to look like some aggressive attack by Hazard, which it really wasn't.

I think it's fair to say that this Charlie Morgan is an idiot (I've decided not to swear on this blog). I think a lot of people on Twitter are exaggerating dearly, mainly because they are fans of rival clubs. I feel sorry for Hazard, he's going to get a bad reputation for this.

Football wise, we drew 0-0. I'm disappointed we didn't make it through, but credit to Swansea, and to Bradford. It's always nice to see an underdog in the final, let alone two. Let's go win the FA Cup!

Swansea vs Chelsea 2nd Leg Preview

Dreams came true last night at Villa Park for Bradford City as they beat the odds to become the first fourth division side to reach the final of the League Cup since Rochdale made it in 1962. I'm sure Phil Parkinson and his Bradford players will be watching tonight's game eagerly to see who they will face at the new Wembley come the 24th of February.

Chelsea come into this game on the wrong side of a 2-0 scoreline, after a disappointing result at Stamford Bridge a fortnight ago. I think we played well in that game, and created a lot of chances, it's just a shame that we couldn't convert those chances *cough*Torres*cough*. The Liberty is a hard place to go to, but statistics show that we are in better form away from the Bridge - and I'm sure the travelling Chelsea fans will create an atmosphere on this cold January night.

Although Swansea have a two goal advantage going into this second leg, manager Michael Laudrup still insists that his team are not favorites to progress, and knows what a strong Chelsea side can do once they are put under pressure. The Swans come into this game in fine form and currently sit a comfortable 9th in the Premier League table after their impressive 3-1 victory over Stoke.
Chelsea also go into this on a high after a 2-1 win against London rivals Arsenal (wooo!) on Sunday, and look to continue their (first half) form to make it 7 straight wins away from home.

Team News
Swansea
The Swans welcome back defender Chico Flores into this game after missing out on their win against Stoke, but whether he will start the game has not yet been announced. Michu has today signed a new contract lasting until 2016, so that should give the Welsh team a huge boost going into this tie.
Probable Starting 11Tremmel; Rangel, Chico, Williams, Davis; Britton, Ki, De Guzman; Hernandez, Michu, Routledge

Chelsea
Chelsea are still likely to be without David Luiz, but reports today are suggesting that John Terry will get his first start in over two months after being out with injury. Ashley Cole put pen to paper on a new one year deal yesterday which should boost the team. Victor Moses and John Obi Mikel are still on international duty at the African Cup of Nations, whilst Marko Marin is still, Marko Marin.
Probable Starting 11Cech; Azpilicueta, Ivanovic, Terry, Cole; Lampard Ramires; Oscar, Mata, Hazard; Ba

Prediction
I think we can win this game, but whether it will be enough to progress into the final I don't know. I can see us winning 2-0 in the original 90 minutes, but what happens from there no-one know, as many factors go into an extra 30 minutes on the pitch.
I'm predicting a 2-0 win in usual time, and then a victory on penalties. Yes, Chelsea on penalties. We've seen it before though haven't we?
COME ON CHELS!

Who I'd buy this January

Well we are 15 days into the mid season transfer window, and we have signed one player, Demba Ba - which I am very happy about! Unfortunately for some, we had to let Daniel Sturridge leave to Liverpool too, and it looks like Lucas Piazon is off to Malaga on a six month loan. I'm hearing rumours of buying players everyday, as well as selling some of our beloved stars. How many of these actually have any truth behind them I don't know, but they're fun to read right!? Based on the rumours and speculation I have heard, I'm going to talk about some of the players we have been linked with in this window.

Marouanne Fellaini
If you haven't read my article on the possible signing of Fellaini, please check the link below this paragraph, however a lot has changed since I wrote it. L'Equipe on the 9th of January claimed that the Everton star would sign for Chelsea 'this week'. Now I don't know what's happening behind closed doors, but I doubt we'll hear the Belgian has signed tomorrow.
However, Fellaini would be a great addition to the current squad. Fellaini could can play in most positions across the midfield and attack, which would be great for us especially with holes to fill as Mikel and Moses are competing in the African Cup of Nations. Fellaini would also add some strength to our physically soft team, as well as additional threat from set pieces with his six foot four build.

Reality - 7/10

Excitability 9/10
David Villa
David Villa is a rumor that has popped up several times over the last four seasons or so. After 8 months out with a broken tibia, it seems as so David Villa is passed his best at the age of 31. However, his best was fantastic, so he is still a very good player, and would play an important if he came to Chelsea. Villa can either play down the wing or as a striker, although I'm sure he could probably fit in just tucked behind the striker too. David has scored 10 goals in his 22 appearances for Barca this season. Villa impressed at both Valencia and Barcelona, scoring a total of 276 goals in his career in 557 games, being used mainly as a wide man.
Reality - 4/10
Excitability 7/10

Radamel Falcao
Falcao. I must hear a rumor about this man three to four times everyday. However, it doesn't stop being exciting! Falcao has been linked with a move to Chelsea for a couple of seasons, and has also been linked to Man City, Real Madrid and PSG. The Colombian featured in the FIFA Team of the Year, and thoroughly deserved his place. Falcao has lifted Athletico Madrid into second place in the La Liga, with his brilliant record of 21 goals in 19 games for the Spanish side this season. Falcao is in my eyes, without a doubt the best traditional striker in football at the moment, which means teams will have a hefty price tag to pay if they want to sign him. In Spain, every player will have a release clause, and Falcao's is 55million Euro's, which is a lot to ask for. However, it is more likely we will sign a player with such a hefty fee in the summer.
Reality - 6/10
Excitability 11/10

Theo Wallott
This rumor has died down a lot, but I think it is still worth a mention. I am a big fan of Theo, and have been since he joined Arsenal from Southampton in 2006. He has recently proved he can play on both the wing and down the center in the striker role, having been reportedly tutored by legend Thiery Henry whilst he trains at the Shenley training center. Theo has great pace, and has the ability to finish having scored 14 goals this season, as well as making 10 assists. Despite his good record this season, a few Arsenal fans that I know have been quite negative of Theo, arguing that he is lazy and that he doesn't get involved as much. However recent form has changed this, and if he keeps playing the way he is, he would be a great addition to any team in England.
Reality - 4/10
Excitability 7/10

IscoI haven't seen much of Isco, but I have heard a lot. Last week a lot of rumours broke out from numerous sources such as The Mirror, The Daily Mail and The Metro claiming that we had agreed to sign the Spanish international. Unless it's been done behind closed doors (which I doubt), nothing has happened. New rumours of a summer move however have been mentioned however. Isco is a 20 year old attacking midfielder who currently plays for Malaga (Lucas Piazon looks set for a loan move there, if you catch my drift!). Isco has been described as the best Spanish player of his generation. Stat-wise, Isco has looked average in the La Liga this season, but his performances argue with this. He has been impressive in the Champions League with 2 goals and 2 assists, but with Oscar who is a similar age who plays in the same position, I'm not sure I can see this one happening
Reality - 6/10
Excitability 6/10

In conclusion, it is likely that we will add one more addition to the squad in this window, especially with the latest rumours that Marko Marin is off on loan. Although our team is quite impressive at the moment, a bit more depth would be nice, and depth with the talent to change a game. We need to compete in all the remaining competitions we are in, and a push for 2nd place doesn't look impossible. So go on Roman, open your wallet!....again.

Stoke 0-4 Chelsea: Reaction

For the second time in two weeks, Chelsea traveled away after a disappointing mid-week loss. Chelsea traveled to the Britannia for the Saturday 3 o'clock kick off, which saw us win an impressive 4-0 against an under performing Stoke side. Jonathon Walters scored 2 game changing own goals, whilst Frank Lampard scored his 194th for the club, and Eden Hazard scored a beautiful long range screamer. Chelsea have looked impressive on their travels this season, winning our last 6 games away from Stamford Bridge on the trot. 

Petr Cech was back in the side for this one, having recovered from his injury a week earlier than expected. Gary Cahill's partner was in labor, which saw him becoming the proud father of a baby boy, which saw David Luiz start along side Branislav Ivanovic at center back, as John Terry wasn't fit enough to start. Ashely Cole and Azpilicueta took the two full back duties. Ramires and Frank Lampard covered the two pivot roles, with Bertrand playing in a attacking midfield alongside Juan Mata and Eden Hazard. Demba Ba started up front (thankfully!). Away to Stoke was always going to be a tough game, especially with our absentees, but this starting 11 still looked the better team on paper.

A slow start saw Stoke have the greater share of possession, which made it hard for Chelsea to get into promising attacking positions. Stoke managed to push Chelsea back, but didn't look extremely dangerous going forward. An early Kenwyne Jones strike split our defence, but luckily it was just wide of the far post, with Cesar Azpilicueta putting a lot of pressure on the Trinidadian striker. If he had managed to find the net, we would have had a very tough game on our hand.

Chelsea got into the game after this, with a lovely piece of play resulted in a one on one chance for Frank Lampard, which resulted in Begovic pulling out a great save. I quite liked the one-touch football in this move, so it is a shame that we didn't take the most of the chance.

After a slow first half, the first goal came just before the half time break, with Jonathon Walters scoring his first own goal of the game. Hazard picked the ball up at the edge of the box, who played the ball through to Cesar Azpilicueta who was attacking on his right hand side. Cesar whipped the ball in towards Demba Ba, who couldn't quite reach the ball as it flew past his head. The ball looked to fall to Juan Mata, but Jonathon Walters jumped in the way to try and prevent the ball getting to Spaniard, which resulted in him headering the ball past his own keeper.

The ref pointed to the spot as Cesar Azpilicuta brought down Matthew Etherington in the box, and without many complaints Stoke had a penalty. However, linesman (or lineswoman!) Sian Massey had already called the run off-side, which to the relief of Cesar and the rest of the Chelsea players and fans saw a free kick awarded our way.

Juan Mata whipped in a precise corner in the 62nd minute, which looked to be flying towards the head of Frank Lampard. Demba Ba cleverly blocked the run of Ryan Shawcross which saw Jonathon Walters again heading the ball into his own net as he tried to defend the ball from Frank. It's a shame of Walters behalf, as both own goals were a result of him trying to defend, but even if he hadn't of got a touch of the ball, I think Frank would have converted the chance.

64 minutes in saw a lovely ball played by Lampard, over the head of ex Chelsea player Robert Huth to find Juan Mata pacing into the Stoke City box. With Huth pushing the Spaniard from behind, Mata continued to stay up until Ryan Shawcross cut across the box and slide in an attempt to win the ball, which saw Mata fall to the ground awarding Chelsea with a penalty, and a chance for Jonathon Walters to get his hat-trick. Joking aside, Frank Lampard converted from the spot to see his goal tally for the season reach 8. 

Frank Lampard should have made it 4 as Demba Ba's shot got blocked by Huth, which saw the ball fall to Eden Hazard. Mata played the ball into the head of Demba Ba (I love the way we can play high balls into the box now Ba is in there), who played the ball down to Frank, who's first time volley saw Begovic deny the Englishman yet again.

73 minutes in saw Eden Hazard make it 4, scoring his 7th in a Chelsea shirt. There's not much to say about this goal, other than Hazard struck it beautifully from 35 yards which saw it fly passed Begovic and into the top corner. Hazard had a brilliant game, and topped it off after scoring this.

John Terry was finally welcomed back into the side after his injury against Liverpool, which saw him give away a penalty with ten minutes of the game left to be played. It was the correct decision by the ref as Terry accidently tripped him from behind. This was Walters' chance to redeem himself after the disastrous two own goals. Walters was eager to hit the net, and gave it his all with a powerful shot only to see it hit the cross bar. What a bad day for him, oh well! We don't care!

In conclusion I am very happy with this win. Stoke is a hard place to go to, but we broke their un-beaten run at home, and by four goals. Demba Ba completely changed the way we play in a positive way, with more runs being made on the wing as we can confidently cross the ball into the box where he is. 4-0 was a bit generous, as by the scoreline it seems like it was a completely one sided game, which it wasn't as we both had the same amount of attempts on goal, and the possession split 56-44 in our favor. 

With Tottenham's draw away to QPR, Chelsea climb back into 3rd position and in an automatic qualification place for the Champions League. A 4-0 away win is a nice way to respond from a disappointing mid-week loss to Swansea. Bring on Arsenal!!

Ronaldo v Messi

This article is going to be a bit different for me, and one that I will not be doing regularly for the time being. This article has no relevance to Chelsea, but it is a well debated issue that football fans from across the globe all have a say in.

Chelsea 0-2 Swansea: Reaction

I do not know how we lost this game. We absolutely dominated this game, especially in the first half, but little silly mistakes across the field cost us this one. Not to mention the two terrible mistakes that Branislav Ivanovic made leading to both Swansea goals, and the poor managerial decisions made my interim manager Rafa Benitez.

This is the first time that Swansea won at Chelsea for 87 years, and they certainly did not deserve it. Chelsea set out a strong line-up, with Fernando Torres up front over Demba Ba. To begin with I did not know what was going through Rafa's mind, dropping Ba who scored two against Southampton on his debut. But after thinking about it, saving Demba Ba's energy levels for the away game to Stoke this weekend could be used as an excuse from the Spaniard.

Chelsea started the game brightly, and dominated for the first half an hour. We played beautiful fast flowing attacking football that I'm sure impressed owner Roman Abramovich. We dominated possesion, and always looked like we were about to score the opener. At this point I genuinely believed we would go on to win 3, maybe 4-nil. All of our attempts failed to hit the net, with some poor execution from the likes of Juan Mata and David Luiz. A lovely bit of play came in the 11th minute of the game, when Oscar and Eden Hazard combined together to break apart the Swansea defence to provide Ramires with an exciting chance on goal, but the Brazilian's final shot lacked power and placement and was comfortably saved by Swansea keeper, Tremmel. Another great chance came in the 26th minute, as Eden Hazard attacked the Swansea defence before squaring a pass to the open Juan Mata, who's shot lacked a lot of power and placement, which is unusual for Juan.

The 39th minute was when the pain began. Ross Turnbull passed the ball out to centre-back Branislav Ivanovic. A poor first touch saw the ball pounced on by De Guzman, who managed to shrug off the Serbian and get the ball to the last person Branislav would want the ball to fall to. Michu. The Spaniard hit the ball from outside of the box into the near post, gliding past Ross Turnbull to the Chelsea fan's shock, taking his season's total to 16 goals.

The second half started in the same manner, with Chelsea dominating possesion but failing to convert any chances. Swansea keeper Tremmel kept Swansea in the game again, as a well struck David Luiz free kick broke through the Swansea wall, resulting in a brilliant save by the German keeper. Swansea tried their hardest to stop Chelsea from scoring an equaliser, but it always looked like we would. Much to the home fan's approval, Frank Lampard replaced Ramires 20 minutes before the end, resulting in a huge cheer from the Chelsea faithful. Chelsea were still lacking the final finish, with Chelsea fans singing "We want Demba Ba". Ba finally replaced Fernando Torres 10 minutes before the end. Ba quickly made his presence known, looking like he would score with two attempts immediately. Ba (and nearly every Chelsea fan) thought he deserved a penalty as the Swansea keeper brought him down in the box, only to be wrongly booked for diving. Ridiculous decision ref, I hope that yellow card gets over-turned. I know football involves human error from officials, but it's costing us the game, and possibly even the Capital One Cup.

All hopes of Chelsea equalising with the Welsh team were banished as Ivanovic's poor back pass to Ross Turnbull allowed substitute Danny Graham to intercept, take it round the keeper and extend their lead to two. I jumped out of my seat again a minute after, thinking we had snatched a goal back as Ba scored, only to be called offside. The decision is an arguable one, but to be fair he was offside. Just.

This game angered me. A lot. I think if Demba Ba had started the game, or even came on 10 minutes earlier than what he did, we would have ended up winning this game, or at least going to Wales for the second leg with a draw. We were a lot better as soon as Ba came onto the pitch. We had a target in the box for crosses, who also made runs into the box regularly. There should be no question who our first choice striker should be. This looks the end for Torres. We stood by Torres all this time, but booing him as he came off shows that we have just given up. He's never going to return to the player he was. Ending the game with 64% possesion (71.8% in the second half) and 20 shots should have seen us win this game comfortably. I can forgive Ivanovic, as he usually puts in 110% every week, and rarely makes a mistake, but this is definitely something to work on, especially now he is playing in the center of defence. We played well, and definitely deserved to win the game, but football can be a funny (and stressful!) game.

These are my player ratings. I can go into detail on every one of them, but instead I have opted to rate them out of 10, with 1 being the worst and 10 the best.
Turnbull 4, Azpilicueta 6, Ivanovic 3, Cahill 6, Cole 5, Luiz 6, Ramires 7, Mata 6, Hazard 7, Oscar 7, Torres 2. Subs - Lampard 5, Ba 7, Marin 5.