Sunday 15th April - Saturday 21st April: A Week to Cherish

How many did we score?

It's easy to forget what a week it's been for Chelsea after today's result. But as you can probably gather, I'm here to make sure you don't. 
Another great week in the Di Matteo era; wins, wins, wins and a draw - where was this all season I hear you say, the question that footballing world is trying to answer (slight exaggeration). Of course back then we played the high line or the medium block with tactics that no one really understood. Attack really well but defend we did not, now it seems the opposite. Defend, defend, defend it seems as preparation for the Barcelona game at the Camp Nou starts (please, Real, tire the Barca team - you know you want us to play you, Jose). Nevertheless, we still march on, happily and unscathed. Relief all round. Let's look back on the week that we should cherish:

• Sunday, 15th April - Tottenham Hotspur 1-5 Chelsea (FA Cup Semi Final)

Will anyone really forget this? You know, other than those Tottenham fans who didn't even stay to see the fifth goal go in? You can see the match report but let's talk about everything else. It wouldn't be far fetched to say that "underdogs" with most predicting a Tottenham win. It makes you really think, have they ever seen Chelsea at Wembley in the FA Cup? We're invincible there - literally! The king of Wembley is Didier Drogba and the princes are Frank Lampard and Florent Malouda. It's a kingdom so dominated by Chelsea that decisions fear against going against us. Example numero uno - Juan Mata's "goal, no goal, I have no idea". You cant take anything away from the other goals either. Didier's will be the one in most's memory but for me the stand out goal was Lampard's. The pure emotion he showed after scoring it, was amazing. The man's a legend and can still play no matter what some Chelsea "fans" may say or what the media says. You could see how much it meant to him and just how much he loves this club. Still he doesn't get enough credit, unfortunately. Life goes on and he continues to prove the doubters wrong, the best way of getting your own back. Win number 1.

• Wednesday, 18th April - Chelsea 1-0 Barcelona (Champions League)

What can you say about this match? A revenge match? A match filled with irritation at the FA's idiotic timing of the FA Cup semi final? A chance to put things straight? Well, on the night, to me at least, it seemed like a Champions League semi final with both teams knowing exactly what the other's going to do. It wasn't your usual Chelsea-Barca, it had a proper ref for one! We sat back and defended. I wouldn't say we parked the bus, just put it in first or second gear... Anyway, the tactics were referred to as going back to the Mourinho tactics. Now, is defending well a certain manager's tactics? Just because we knew how to defend doesn't mean they're "Mourinho's tactics." How many times have Jose's Real tried what we did vs Barca but completely capitulated? Many times. A goal once more from the Drogs. Lampard dispossesses Messi (that makes the goal that little bit sweeter), pings in a pin-point cross field ball like only a few in our team can to Rambo. Rambo chest controls it forward, runs and runs till he loses his footing but manages to get in a low cross that Didier scored. Didier's continuous falling was irritating and it seems to have affected him since he's now got a knee injury. Another game, another goalless Messi against Chelsea. Mr Guardiola and his star team just don't like playing the Chels. Win numero dos.

• Friday, 20th April - Chelsea Youth 4-0 Blackburn Youth (FA Youth Cup Final 1st Leg)

It wasn't all about the first team this week. We may end up with no trophies for the first team this season but the youth team have already got one hand on the FA Youth Cup. They pretty much destroyed Blackburn, and it wasn't even their best performance of the cup! To be fair we were under pressure (!) for the first 20 or so minutes but a Nathaniel Chalobah goal out of nowhere really put us in front. Great work from Amin Affane. The second was a great team goal; from Kane to Piazon to Baker to goal. Lewis Baker scoring a great goal from the edge of the area. The second half added another two goals with mister Chalobah once again involved. A ball from Baker to Chalobah in the middle of the Blackburn half, and a great through ball from the latter paced perfectly between two defenders ended up with a Feruz finish. The youth team don't do easy or ugly goals, that's for sure. And a fourth goal just topped it all. Similar to the 3rd, Piazon dribbled near the edge of the area and played a through ball to Feruz who had the slightest of touches to divert it into the net. 4-0. The youth team play the second leg at Ewood park on the 9th of May where if they don't suddenly get awful, will win the FA Youth Cup. They're a great team. So much skill and offer plenty of entertainment. Thank you, Adi. Win number 3.

• Saturday, 21st April - Arsenal 0-0 Chelsea (Premier League)

A draw came after a week of wins. Huge changes from the Barcelona game with many rested probably shows that RDM sees the Champions League as the priority over the Premier League. And to be honest, with this result, we're probably going to have to win the Champions League to qualify for it next season. "Same old Chelsea, doing it the hard way!" To be honest, I'd rather win the Champions League than finish fourth. Back to the Arsenal game. It wasn't a classic to be blatant. Not the greatest spectacle, but we had another solid defensive performance. Ryan Bertrand came in as one of the 8 changes and he was one of very few that actually impressed. You wouldn't be able to tell he's only played something like 10 games all season for the first team. He won the Sky MOTM award but he did have to get substituted for injury. Hopefully he'll be okay though. I'd imagine if Ash puts in another performance like he did at home v Barca away, Ryan may very well come back into the team for the QPR game. A draw leaves us in 6th with only 4 games left this season. It's a tough one. With us still having something to fight for in 3 competitions, Robbie's life seems a little bit hard. Rotation, rotation, rotation is the motto he has to go with. A reserve-like team played today and were probably better than a full strength Arsenal and kept a clean sheet. Fair play, but should we have played a "stronger" team so that we could have really helped our top 4 chances? Only Tuesday will tell us. *Update: With Tottenham just dropping points, top 4 still seems possible!*

MOTM and bossed the game

It's been an amazing week for Chelsea and a win on Tuesday would probably make it a whole lot more amazing. Whether that will happen, we'll see. So don't forget what a brilliant week it's been. It might be another season before an FA Cup semi, Champions League semi and Premier League are all so positive in the space of 6 days. What a week, eh!
Wonderful.


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Chelsea vs Barcelona: A Champions League Tale

Jump up and get excited, it's that time again! The Champions League is back and oh how everyone's missed it. Two classics, in fact the two most common games in European history. After the semis Real and Bayern will have played each other 20 times with Chelsea and Barcelona having played each other 15 times. The Clásicos of European football, you could say. 

Another day, another match against Barcelona it seems - this time, it's different - or is it? Maybe the teams aren't the same as they once used to be but Chelsea in Europe is a completely different team to Chelsea in the Premier League. After all, there is only one English team in Europe. (Had to be said at some point)


Here are the best stats of the upcoming match to get you going. Whether they're positive or negative, stay optimistic for the match.

Barcelona have never beaten Chelsea in the Champions League when Chelsea have had 11 men on the pitch.

 That just shows you how key discipline will be for the upcoming match.

In the Champions League Chelsea and Barcelona have played each other 10 times. The record is equal with both winning three and the other four being drawn.

Despite the dominance of Barcelona, we've had a good record against them. Only losing three times when we have had a man sent off. Other than that the record is quite even. Not bad...

Barcelona have not beaten Chelsea in their previous 5 matches. Four draws and one Chelsea win. Chelsea are unbeaten against Barcelona at Stamford Bridge.

Our recent form against Barcelona has been great, however you look at the teams now, and they're quite different to the ones which met face to face in 2009. 

Lionel Messi has never scored against Chelsea in his 6 appearances against them however he did provide the crucial assist for Iniesta's goal in 2009. On the other hand, Fernando Torres has 7 goals in 10 appearances vs Barcelona.

From one man who can't stop scoring to another who finds it very hard, Fernando Torres and Lionel Messi's fate seem to change when they face each other. Whether their records will continue, one only hopes. 
Now onto stats from this year's Champions League starting with the most pointless stat there is!

Barcelona have completed 3,244 more passes than Chelsea this Champions League season.

 This stat of course reminding us that Barcelona like to pass the ball a lot - and we don't.

Petr Cech (43) has had to make 34 more saves than Victor Valdes (9) in the Champions League this season.

This is my favourite stat of the lot. Just shows how little teams tend to attack Barcelona and how much teams attacks us. 

 In total, Chelsea have had 150 shots in the Champions League this season scoring 21 (2.1 per game). Barcelona have had 166 shots scoring 33 goals (3.3 per game).

Despite only having 16 shots less than Barcelona, Chelsea have scored 12 less goals. It's that man Messi who's killer instinct is something only Chelsea can dream of right now.

Chelsea have scored 16 goals at home in the Champions League, Barcelona have scored 15 away from home.

Scary, worrying, who knows?

Chelsea have scored first in every Champions League game this season, the only team to have done this. They have, however, only won 6 of the 10.

So we can gain the lead, but just not keep it. Shame. 

Chelsea have conceded 9 goals in the Champions League this season compared to Barcelona's 7. 

Chelsea have only conceded two at home, the lowest in the Champions League. Barcelona have conceded 3 goals away from home.

Tight, battle of the defences? 

Chelsea have won all 5 of their Champions League home games this season, scoring at least two in each one. 

Barcelona's top scorer is Lionel Messi with 14 goals (42%) whereas Chelsea's top scorer is Didier Drogba with 4 goals (19%).

Barcelona have had 10 different goal scorers, the same as Chelsea.

Fernando Torres and Lionel Messi have both been the highest assist makers for their teams, both with 4 assists.

Chelsea have used a total of 20 different players in the Champions League, Barcelona have used 29.

 Finally, here's a special one:

If you were to add up all the fantasy points gained by all the Chelsea players, it would add up to 555 points. Barcelona's total is 592.

To be fair that's not too bad considering Chelsea have used 9 less players than Barcelona. With the points difference being  37, had Chelsea had 9 more players, each would only need to have gained 4.1 points. Doable, I say.


Well, that was fun. No more stats, promise.

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It's Best To Be Lucky AND Good

Chelsea were both lucky and good in the FA Cup Semifinal against Spurs as we powered our way into the fourth FA Cup final in just six years to play Liverpool. The game had a little bit of everything. Goalpost hit, two brilliant goals, one controversial goal, a worrying injury and even a small fight! But in the end the better team won.

         
The game started off kind of slow and disjointed with both teams having chances early, however Spurs carried the play for the most part in the first half as they had numerous chances but failed to capitalize thanks to a brilliant John Terry goal line clearance and the post being kind to Petr Cech. The game changed invariably with a brilliant goal from Didier Drogba who owned his defender all game long. That goal gave Chelsea much needed confidence and swagger and they never let it go for the rest of the game.

The second half is where all the craziness started. To be fair Chelsea was the team that came out with a sense of purpose and immediately put Spurs on the defence with its aggressiveness. Four minutes into the second half, Juan Mata scored a contentious goal. Replays from some angles seemed to show the ball didn’t cross the line completely but later pictures show the ball did cross the line. Either way with the score line being 5-1 it wasn’t the major cause of the win. Next came the Spurs goal and believe it or not, fortune once again smiled on Chelsea. Petr Cech raced out and tripped Adebayor, who was on a breakaway, now normally this would be a penalty along with a red card on Cech. However, Gareth Bale scored, so that left the Chelsea keeper in the game with no punishment other than the loss of his clean sheet. Chelsea did have a bigger problem as David Luiz hurt his hamstring during the buildup and has a good chance of missing the first leg of the Barcelona match at the very least.

The game was a tense affair until the 78th minute when it was completely taken over by Chelsea who scored 3 more goals to wrap up a memorable night. The third goal by Ramires exploited his speed when he raced out to convert a beautiful through ball by Mata. The fourth goal was an absolutely BRILLIANT free kick scored by Frank Lampard that sent Chelsea fans into delirium and the fifth and final goal was scored by Malouda. In between all of that Scott Parker took umbrage against Mikel kicking him in the back of the leg and had to be restrained by several players including John Terry. Of course the media will talk endlessly about “that” goal but all in all it was a great FA Cup semifinal by Chelsea filled with great drama, goals, controversy and joy for the blue side of London. It’s sure to be a cracking final against Liverpool on May 5^th! 

Thank you for reading this post I hope you enjoyed it and please feel free to comment and share with others!

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Are Chelsea fans being unfair to Kalou?

What is it with fans these days criticizing some of our own players when uncalled for? I can understand showing hatred to Bosingwa because he does absolutely nothing to convince us otherwise. But what about Kalou? Why is it some of you can't stand him? Well, he plays for the team, he creates chances for the team, he scores, he generously comes on as a sub when called without complaining like Malouda, and he has also been playing well lately. But how come, some fans were so loyal to Torres even before he started to regain his form but at the same time quick to judge Kalou and others? Some treat Torres like a legend, but Kalou like dirt. Some worship Torres as though he has been here for a long time and those same people wish Kalou was sold when he has helped us in the past even though he lacked end product at times. Now, I am not being partial to one nor am I against one but rather, trying to piece together a rational summary here.

Kalou needs to be shown more respect for being
a good team player.

Ask yourselves this, has Torres helped us more or has Kalou? I would say Kalou by a mile, though Torres is slowly paying back now. But what I don't seem to understand is how we can be so loyal to a player who has failed to live up to the expectations in his first year, but absolutely despise a squad player who has helped us a lot? I don't think even a psychologist can answer that. Not only would you despise him, but also change your perspective on Kalou from game to game. Same with Mikel. When he had a poor first half of the season, fans wanted him out. But now that he has been having a strong second half, we are all praising him. Well, it's not just that he has been playing well at the moment, it's also that some of us have started to realize his abilities only now for a young lad. Hope you get the difference here. Back to the original debate, you stood behind Torres when he was poor, you back him when he is in form. But you lashed out at Kalou and Mikel when they were poor but praise them at their best. Well, I think that's harsh and completely unfair.
 

Honestly, had Kalou been receiving the same loyalty shown to Torres, he would be performing consistently well by now. Dont you think so? Also, the emotional pressure of Torres being a £50m buy and failing to live up to his price tag must have had an effect on us fans too and hence the endless loyalty and affection. That's the only explanation I can come up with for the endless support he had been receiving when he was poor. Not that it's bad, but it's puzzling.

Lastly, endless loyalty is good but let us try and show that same loyalty to every player as it would reflect a happier Chelsea family. And for the sake of the club, back the team as a unit and not individually. Back originality too, not just newbies. Remember the past, not just the present. This applies to me as well as I speak from my past mistakes. So, please don't call me a hypocrite. I have the rights to question a player when he hasn't been impressive just like you do, but I have never and never will abuse a player who has given us so much during crucial times. 

I love you Kalou and I for one, absolutely love your dribbles when you cut in. 

Now...about Bosingwa, it really is a different matter all together. Honestly.
Nonetheless, I hope you get my point from this article. This is my opinion and my opinion only, I am not trying to change anybody's view here, but just being reasonable is all. Feel free to leave your opinions in the comments section below.
Thanks for taking the time to read this.

KTBFFH
Vamos Chelsea, Vamos!

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One game every three days in the span of 34 days-That's Chelsea's schedule and why we should be happy so far

Did you know that if you stand on the ocean floor for quite some time, you can have your skull cracked open due to the pressure from the water around you?! That's how immense the pressure down there is and that's how intense the pressure is for the Chelsea players at the moment. And luckily, so far Chelsea have coped well to that pressure.

We have played 11 games in 34 days and have had better run of results than we did the whole time before this ’killer' schedule came alive. When was the last time we played so many games in such a short time? Do you know how many games are usually played in 34 days? A maximum of six maybe. Yes, just six or so. But these eleven games vs Birmingham City away, Stoke city home, Napoli home, Leicester City home, MCFC away, Spurs home, Benfica away, Aston Villa away, Benfica home, Wigan home, Fulham away have netted us 26 points from a possible 33 if you count the C.L and FA Cup wins as three points each. In other words, in the span of 34 days we have won 9, drawn 2 and lost just 1 to a Manchester City side who have the best home record this season.

It's not that bad if you give it a thought. In fact, its some brilliant run of form that was lacking before and has come at the most crucial time where we are still alive on three fronts. The boys have kept the momentum going and have played out beyond everyone's expectations even if we won some games the ugly way. Or even if we could have really won a game when needed the most. That's the game against Fulham. I am not going into that now, but rather paint you a picture on why we should be proud of the men in blue and I guess you get my point by now.

In other ways, this schedule is good for our chances of reaching the top four. That's where pressure comes in, and that's when Chelsea play their best -Under pressure. The game vs Benfica at home, would have reproduced that electrifying performance against Napoli had we been under pressure. But we weren't and you could see how the team took it lightly. The boys have a knack of delivering their best performances when truly under pressure and thats well good for the team during the season run in.

Lastly, I know the draw against Fulham really did hurt most of us, we were all gutted that we missed the bus perhaps? Well that chance was literally thrown at our front door and we didn't capitalize as usual. That's where some of the older Chelsea fans would come and say 'same old Chelsea.' Chance given and we choke. Typical. Well, you got to understand a draw at Fulham was not all that bad either. Yes, we should have won during such demanding circumstances, but Fulham deserved their point nevertheless. And also, if past records are to go by, we don't have a good record away to Fulham. So a point is good they say. Well at least they used to, I think? And keep in mind, Fulham like MCFC have had a good home record this season so far.

The reason I wrote this article was to cheer you all up as I witnessed some of the highest mood changes and some distraught and devastated fans on twitter absolutely fuming at the draw against Fulham. So, I hope the above stats and theories do the difference and cheer you all up and help you move on as Chelsea need us the most this coming Sunday and Tuesday. Keep your heads held high as we have nothing to lose now and let's go out there and win! And oh, make some noise!

KTBFFH!

Vamos Chelsea Vamos!

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Don't We Just Love the 82nd Minute!

Another day, another draw. 6th of 2012. On a day where a win really mattered, we didn't win. But who's really surprised.
A day when half the team didn't turn up and the performance wasn't good enough we drew, just. The likes of Torres, Ramires, Meireles and Ivanovic didn't turn up. But (the beautiful thing that is) hindsight will say it's a good result, especially when you look back at the performance. Another day in the life of Chelsea Football Club.




Nevertheless, let's look upwards. Ryan Bertrand, like a London bus waited for a Premier League start for so long then two come along at once. The boy can play a bit, you know. And cross! Yes, you read that, we have a player in the team that can actually cross a football! I think we may have a talent in our grasp people. (Have to stick a few stats in there somewhere!) So, Ryan made 3 tackles which was a joint high for Chelsea (Ramires, JT and Ivan). 92% pass accuracy and had a shot! Don't forget his brilliant crosses too, one of which led to an even in which we should have had a penalty (and everyone will notice how no one mentions this in their match reports).
Also, I don't understand the bashing that Salomon Kalou seems to be getting. He won us the penalty and put himself about. More than what can be said for Torres, but let's not go there right now. Mikel too, he was solid, doing his job. Keeping us at bay-ish for the majority of the game. 


But then came the 81st minute. So underestimated yet a fortune teller nonetheless. A brilliant Petr Cech save came (Bertrand was on the line right behind him anyway though) and he blasted the entire defence. You could see the anger in his face at the way the team was defending. Rightly so, especially after the result which came in the beloved 82nd minute. 


The 82nd minute seems to be cursed since the Benfica game. Conceded in the 82nd minute to them, conceded in a similar time period against Aston Villa and Wigan. Then the 82nd minute against Fulham. In the majority of these games, we led 1-0 then sat. Just sat. And guess what, we concede. A resurging pattern it seems under RDM's Chelsea. That's four consecutive draws against Fulham by the way, in all competitions.


There's something more important than all this though. Frank Lampard scored his 150th goal today and was by far the best Chelsea player on show. He's the first midfielder to do this in the Premier League. Legend. Unimaginably, he still gets more criticism than he does praise. It's unreal. 


A 6 day break now, hallelujah! Then we have a cup semi against Tottenham, then Barca. Then Arsenal and Barca. Tough. But still, we have nothing to lose. Let's hope the players are up for those games. If they're not, I'd be worried.


Follow me on twitter - @lauera_n

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Chelsea - Wigan: Did The Best Team Win?

     Ah, the age old debate of possession football. Or as many a pundit would say "the right way of playing football."
Fair to say that the game against Wigan brought up that debate in a less clear manner. Many would say that Wigan were desperately unlucky not to get anything out of the match. Even I would agree, though I think we ought to look at it a little bit closer.




Possession
Chelsea and Wigan shared equal possession. 50%-50%. Fair to say if you watched that game you might be slightly surprised that the two teams shared the possession equally. Wigan controlled plenty of the play, but like Swansea yesterday, it came to nothing. Most of the time anyway. It was all very pretty and well worked, but we all know possession doesn't win you games. Something we shall look back on in a little while...


Shots
Goals are always the statistic that counts, but I would say shots help a bit too. After all, you need them to score! Chelsea had 19 shots to Wigan's 13. Not surprising that Chelsea had more, but quite surprising at the amount that Wigan had. They came with no fear. Chelsea had 10 on target whereas Wigan had 6. That of course means it was 9-7 on the off target front. Watch the game again and you'll see that the majority of Wigan's on target strikes were from distance. That's always preferred when a team's shooting - much less likely to score than if in the box. However, take a look back at Chelsea's shots and you'll see that they were much more clear cut. To be honest, Al Habsi - as last season - had a blinder against us. Another thing to talk about in a little while...


Goals
The only stat that really matters. Chelsea 2-1 Wigan. Now let's be very clear here, the first goal should not have been given BUT Chelsea were on top and had a few shots prior to the goal. Once again we're fortunate against Wigan at the Bridge. We ought to sign up the lino on right! Then, with about 10 minutes left, Wigan inevitably score. Now, Bertrand had a great game, but he could have done better. He got dragged out of position and didn't really know what to do. Great goal. Well done Diamé. But then, as we did last week, we stepped up 2 minutes into stoppage time to score a winner. I'll be fair to the lino this time, when Torres took the shot, there were about 4 players in front of of him and he wouldn't have seen it. Probably. Cue relief


What Really Mattered?
In the end, we deserved to win. They always say the team with the most shots deserve to win and we did win. 
The little while has come. Wigan played great, had plenty of possession and were pretty on the eye. But other than that, what did they really do? Of course the clichés all come out. They were brave, fought, keep going but are people just giving them a smooth ride because decisions went against them and they're a small club. I would say so.
As Swansea did yesterday, they had possession, a lot of build up but no end product. Okay, our performance wasn't great but even then we had more shots, better chances equal possession to Wigan. As they say, big clubs get decisions but I also say, small clubs get sympathy. 
Performance wasn't pretty but it was exciting - at the end anyway. But the stats don't lie. We didn't look like we deserved it, but the stats say we did.
We like doing it the hard way. 
                                                    As always.


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