So, Chelsea supporters, you’ve had a tough time of it recently. And now you’re off to meet Napoli in the Champions League, hoping against hope that this will be what brings your club back from the brink.

Well, in case you’ve been hiding under a rock, I’m here to tell you — this tie just might not be the simple one you’re wishing for. If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll know that Napoli won’t be that easy to beat, particularly at home.

At first glance, it looks as though the partenopei are in a “crisis” similar to Chelsea. After all, they’re in sixth place in Serie A, and were just beaten by league newcomers Siena in the Coppa Italia. And yes, it really hasn’t been a fun season to be a fan of Napoli, unless you like frustration, roller coasters, and the fear that you’re about to have a heart attack.

The club wasn’t prepared to play in three competitions, and Coach Walter Mazzarri made some questionable decisions with the rotation of players.

But this is a squad that rises to the occasion, and hosting Chelsea will certainly be a reason for them to show off. Mazzarri won’t be present on the touchline, after shoving Nilmar during the 2-0 win over Villarreal, but that doesn’t mean his presence won’t be felt. He’ll certainly make sure that Napoli put their best faces forward.

Hugo Campagnaro is a doubt after limping off in the 3-0 victory over Fiorentina on Friday, but there are no other injuries or suspensions to deal with.

That means the starting XI should be predictable: Morgan De Sanctis; Gianluca Grava, Paolo Cannavaro, Miguel Britos; Christian Maggio, Walter Gargano, Gokhan Inler, Camile Zuniga; Marek Hamsik, Ezequiel Lavezzi; Edinson Cavani.

And of course it’s the front three that the Blues should be worried about: the Three Tenors, The Trident, and The Holy Trinity. A search through the matches in which Napoli have struggled reveal that these are the ones in which one of the threesome were dropped. Those who give the partenopei just a glance believe that it is Cavani that holds all the cards, and while it is true that the Uruguayan is a talisman of sorts, without Hamsik and Lavezzi, the system simply doesn’t work.

The two that support Cavani may not have his goal tally, but if Chelsea concentrate simply on stopping El Matador, they won’t be very effective. Hamsik, despite often being criticized by those who rarely watch him play, has the vision, is the one that reads the game and can execute the perfect pass at exactly the right moment. When he’s rendered ineffective, the entire team suffers. Then there’s Lavezzi, who can terrorize with his trickery, and whose pace will certainly frighten much of the Chelsea defense.

This isn’t to say Cavani won’t be a worry. He’s more than a simple poacher, a striker that relies upon service from the rest of the players. He certainly has a nose for goal, but Cavani invades the entire pitch, running back to defend before appearing in the box to head in a cross or nudge the ball into the net. With Chelsea’s backline looking so shaky as of late, it’s hard to imagine a scenario in which the partenopei don’t create multiple goal-scoring opportunities. And we haven’t even discussed the threat of Christian Maggio on the right wing — whichever makeshift left-back steps in for the visitors — won’t be prepared to handle his speed.

So, how to break down the partenopei? Overwhelm them in midfield and cross your fingers that the Chelsea defense is up to the task. And, of course, there’s Didier Drogba and Daniel Sturridge, whom I presume will be starting for Chelsea, the thought of which makes me anxious. The Napoli three-man backline has also had a tough time of it recently, and if Grava starts in place of Campagnaro, it will be even weaker.

The Blues certainly have more than a chance in this tie — if they can overcome their recent performances, that is. And, if they bring earplugs to drown out the noise of the San Paolo. That will be enough to get even the most experienced knees shaking.

This introduction to Napoli was contributed by Kirsten Schlewitz, who is a Napoli and Aston Villa fan, and contributes to 7500 to Holte and SB Nation Soccer. You can follow her on Twitter here @7500_Kirsten.

Never in recent memory has a player divided opinion amongst the Chelsea faithful as much as Salomon Kalou.

The West Brom match however, may have been a tipping point for many who’ve otherwise sat on the fence until now.

Generally regarded as poor against Stoke, grumbles were heard when his name was announced in the starting line-up, with questions of ‘why?’ and ‘how?’ Malouda didn’t set the world alight against Stoke, but he did fare better than Kalou.

But start he did, and as soon as he’d played a bad pass parts of the crowd got on his back, which increased with every bit of poor control or mistake he made there on in until Villas-Boas took him off in the 35th minute, to some ironic cheers.

To be fair, no one had covered themselves in glory in the first 45 minutes against West Brom, but the singling out of Kalou by supporters on the day is for me, not on.

Now let me set out my stall. I like Kalou, think he’s a great impact player and should be on the bench. I don’t think he’s good enough to start all the time, he seems to switch off too often and makes mistakes when he has time to think.

He’s very much an instinct player, and that works well in the heat of the final ten mins or when chasing a goal, not when trying to play a tactical approach. Too often he makes mistakes, but he’s not the only one. However if he starts, I will support him.

If he is wearing the shirt of the club I love for 45, 90 or however many minutes on that pitch, I am 100% behind him. I support Chelsea, I am 100% behind the team when they are in battle, I can be as critical or as harsh as I like analysing the ruins of defeat, and as happy as I like reviewing a recent victory.

I would never go to the front line in Afghanistan and say; “You know what boys, not quite working here is it?” Yet I’ve discussed just this with serving friends when they’ve returned.

If he has a crap match then fine, I reserve the right to slate him to high heaven in the pub, in print, to my missus and anyone else, but not on the pitch.

With the current situation engulfing NewsCorp, you’d think Murdoch’s empire would be taking a little more care in their reporting. Sadly not, it would seem.

Earlier today it was widely reported, with the source being Sky Sports, that John Terry had claimed Luka Modric has been ‘disrespectful’ towards Tottenham in trying to engineer a move to Chelsea.

These quotes quickly spread like wildfire and have been repeated ad nauseum across sites far and wide, however Sky Sports has now been forced to print a retraction, and apologise for their mistake.

The statement read; “At skysports.com we have a reputation for the honesty and integrity of our reporting.” – Not sure where they dreamt this up, but they continue.

“Unfortunately we fell short of those standards with our coverage of John Terry’s interview with Sky Sports News on July 19 during which the Chelsea captain was asked to comment on Luka Modric.”

“We would like to clarify that John Terry did not refer to Luka Modric as being disrespectful to Tottenham Hotspur during the interview. “

“On realising our error we immediately removed the original article and published a corrected version which you can read by clicking here“

“We would like to apologise to John Terry and Chelsea for any inconvenience caused.”

Luckily for Murdoch and Sky, it seems that these comments were taken out of context from an interview conducted by Sky Sports News in Malaysia, and not John Terry’s voicemail.

The night after the day before and it’s all still a bit too much to take.

Having clawed back from so far behind, to get within touching distance of retaining the title and then lose it in just 45 minutes of football has left many of us feeling deflated.

In March we were wondering if we’d even make fourth place, so credit where it’s due to Carlo and the lads.  To come back from 15 points behind United after our spectacular mid-season collapse was some achievement; they got us believing again.

Now I don’t want to get into pointing fingers at players, or managers, or the tactics they played against United, we lost and rarely did we look like we would do anything  but lose once we’d gone behind via Hernandez’s first minute opener. Once the second went in, the rest of the afternoon was sorely predictable.

We lost the title mid-season; those dark days in December and January with so many players out, injured or playing with knocks. With benches full of youngsters and no real game changers or options other than the unknown. Games coming thick and fast, with every opposition manager able to all but name the team they would face, all the while praying for the transfers to come.

Those battles took their toll and did the damage then. The recent renaissance that saw us storm back to second was a mere flirt with the title we hold, like a sullen mistress who knew she was leaving, and just wanted that last lingering look.

The facts are plain and simple; this season Chelsea have taken only six points from six league matches against United, Arsenal and Liverpool, after completing a perfect run last time out. Over the course of a season, the points dropped against non top four/five clubs generally evens itself out.  For a loss to Villa away, Arsenal will take one at Bolton, and United at West Ham.

Invariably it comes down to the record against those also challenging for the title that decides where the trophy will end up, and this year we simply have not been good enough in the big games.

If you believe the eulogies being written for Ancelotti in the media after the defeat, then this fact may just have cost Carlo his job.

Champions League aside…

Many said it couldn’t be done, the table now shows that it’s entirely possible.

This has been the season of shocks, and none will be more so than if Chelsea take the charge and win the Premier League this season.

Out of the blocks like a whippet, and striding into the lead until a November slump became a December disaster, and we were hoping, if not praying we could hold on to a Champions League position.

Now unbeaten in the league since early February, we find ourselves only three points behind first placed United, with a trip to Old Trafford up next, the destiny of our season lays squarely in our hands. With an identical goal difference, a win will see us take the lead in the title race, then it’s up to us to hold onto it.

The weekend’s football couldn’t have worked out better for Chelsea, and for once many of us will be kind to our Gooner friends, for doing us the favour we so desperately needed, but before that we had to see off the old enemy in Tottenham.

Chelsea lined up with Torres and Drogba up front, with Malouda and Lampard alternating at the tip and left of a diamond, Essien right with Mikel holding, although the two African internationals both switched at times too. Ancelotti opted for a strong defence with Ivanovic at right back, David Luiz and Terry centrally, with Ashley Cole at left back, and Petr Cech as ever in nets behind them.

Spurs turned up at Stamford Bridge without a win on our turf since 1990, yet just keeping level terms wasn’t enough and so Chelsea started the match in determined fashion, knocking the ball around freely and with pace, with Torres looking sharp and confident after last weeks goal.

Drogba went close with a rasping free kick that bounced off the bar, and Torres got onto a ball and tested Gomes, and it was against the run of play though that Spurs took the lead. Van der Vaart found Sandro about ten yards outside the area, and struck well smashing the ball past Cech into the top corner to stun Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea were shocked and took a few minutes to settle, but were then back into striking at the Spurs goal, with Torres looking mostly likely to score, with Essien also going close. Yet it was in the final moments of the half that the officials changed the course of the game.

Frank Lampard took a shot at distance that Gomes looked to have covered. The keeper made a Tiaibi like mistake, allowing the ball through his arms and legs to spin towards the goal line. He dived to pull the ball back, but the linesman made the call that it had crossed the line. Replays since have shown that the whole ball didn’t cross the line, Harry went mental.

Half time came and went and the second half kicked off with Chelsea attacking Spurs, looking for the all important second goal, and Chelsea supporters mocking Gomes at every opportunity, however he then pulled off a good save to deny a Drogba shot from 20 yards, palming it to safety.

Ramires came on for Essien, and Kalou came on for Torres as Chelsea went in hunt of the winning goal. Malouda felt he should have had penalty after a foul by Kaboul but the ref played on, as well as making some odd decisions when our lads were fouled, no doubt trying to atone for his earlier mistake.

His afternoon was to get worse though, when in the dying minutes Drogba charged into the area, holding off two players before shooting at goal, his scuffed shot span across goal where Kalou was advancing and slid home the ball to make it 2-1 and send Stamford Bridge wild.

Ancelotti spoke after the match, stating; “Obviously we would like to win the game with a different situation because today we were lucky, we have to be honest and say this. Looking at the situation on television, we can say the decision was wrong and we were lucky. We have to accept when things are wrong like that but also when things are against us. ”

The Italian added; “In this moment we have to prepare for the next game, which is against Manchester United, and we must win that game.”

With Ferguson in the crowd having left 15 minutes early he will have missed our winning goal, however he won’t be missing the fact that we’re right on his shoulder, and breathing down his neck.

United – we’re coming for you.

Chelsea: Cech, Ivanovic, David Luiz, Terry (c), Cole, Essien (Ramires 56), Mikel, Lampard, Drogba, Torres (Kalou 62), Malouda (Anelka 73).
Goals: Lampard 44, Kalou 88

In around 24 hours Chelsea will again set out on the road to win the Champions League.  We know Roman wants to win this one and it would be nice to do it for him, if no-one else.

Forgive us for not being to excited right now, we’ve seen all this before and after the utter bull we’ve had to put up with from UEFA, referee’s and the media in the past few seasons, the knowledge that we’re going to get royally shafted at some point down the line means we honestly couldn’t care if we went out at the earliest stages.

Drogba is suspended again, neither Ashley Cole nor Lampard made the journey and and Terry is fit to play after a suspected cracked rib, team will be; Cech, Ivanovic, Alex, Terry, Zhirkov, Benayoun, Mikel, Essien, Sturridge, Malouda, Anelka.

We’ll watch the match as it’d be sacrilegious not to, so you can follow us on Twitter for all the team news and match action as it happens.

If you’re that bothered…..

It was never going to be a classic, with the pikey boys from East London looking to kick lumps out of us wherever possible, and the pitch resembling a gypsy caravan site, it was always going to be a battle.

Thankfully in Michael Essien, we have the ultimate warrior for such occasions. Strong, quick, skilful and as we found out on Saturday, not too bad with his head either!

Chelsea got off to the perfect start in only the 2nd minute of the game as Didier Drogba, in the absence of West Ham favourite Frank Lampard, took the first corner of the match, crossing a sublime ball in to the box where Essien out jumped everyone to head past the disparing Rob Green to make it 1-0.

It was the perfect start for Chelsea, giving an immediate cushion to what was expected, goal apart, and delivered by West Ham; a physical and high tempo opening with pressure in the middle closing down as often as possible, with ex Chelsea man Scott Parker making most of the running.

West Ham played a narrow diamond formation that allowed us to utilise Ferreira and Cole as the wing backs to provide width.  Ramires, making his full début, showed some good early touches and passing but as the half drew on tired slightly. With Kalou replacing Malouda for this match, the middle wasn’t as cohesive as it had been in games before.

It was again Drogba who turned provider though, with an ambitious 35 yard free-kick towards goal and it looked a simple save for Rob Green, however the calamity keeper spilled the shot and as Upson tried to clear it, he smashed the ball into Kalou’s ankle only for the ball to rebound over Green to make it 2-0 to Chelsea.

West Ham rallied but by half time had nothing to show for their efforts other than a few chances, with Obinna spectacularly woeful hitting a shot out for a throw in at one point and a Carlton Cole goal ruled out correctly for offside. Even Mikel managed to crack the post with a shot Drogba would have been proud of, but it remained at 2-0 as the teams went in at half time.

With no changes for Chelsea, and only one for West Ham at the break (Kieron Dyer, remember him?), the match kicked off again to West Ham pressure being held back by the dominant Chelsea defence, and counter attacking moves as we broke well and often. Ramires had an effort not far off, and despite looking tired as the first half wore on, he seemed to grow in stature as the game progressed.

Kakuta entered the fray on the 75th minute and after initially falling on his backside, then showed some nice touches and was looking to get involved wherever possible, setting up Drogba for a chance that 99 times out of 100 he would have finished, sadly for Didier this was the one time he didn’t. The third goal came after a flowing piece of play saw the impressive Ferreira pick up the ball to the right of the West Ham area, send in a lovely cross and it was again Essien on the end of it who headed home to make it 3-0 and pretty much end the game.

It wasn’t over though, and West Ham rallied. Late on a cross into the box was punched clear by Cech, yet only reached Parker on the outside of the area who coolly lobbed the ball back into the area, over Cech and into the net to make it 3-1, and the first goal Chelsea have conceded in the league this season.

Goal scorer Essien, when asked about Mikel utilising the holding role said after the match; “I really enjoy playing on the right side, it gives me more freedom to go forward and come back and defend and I really enjoy it. It has been a long wait for me and I had to do a lot of work to get fit but that is all over. There are no pains in the knees and I am really happy to be back and enjoying my football.”

The Ghanian added; “We still have a lot to do. The season is very long but we have played some good football and are scoring a lot of goals and we have to keep going like that.”

Chelsea (4-3-3): Cech; Ferreira, Ivanovic, Terry (c) (Alex 81), Cole; Essien, Mikel, Ramires; Kalou (Malouda 83), Drogba, Anelka (Kakuta 75).

London, we love it, but one of the worst parts has to be the continual ‘improvements’ being made to the underground most weekends, that more often than not finds us blues struggling to get to a match, or stuck in the vicinity afterwards.

Ironically these improvements aren’t making it any better for us this weekend either.

With the usual district line weekend fiasco and militant muppet Bob Crows’ extra actions this week, the journey will be even trickier than expected.

The East London pikeys should be ok though, with their caravans not having to run on road, or rail, and not bound by the simpleton strikers self serving stupidity, they should at least fill their side of the ground…. or perhaps not.

Yes the football at Upton Park/Boleyn Ground/Hell on Earth hasn’t been worth paying for recently, say around ten years, but this season has been far far worse for the unlucky ‘ammers’ who under the stewardship of Dr Death Avram Grant, only seem to have blowing bubbles to look forward too. Well, that and giving Frank Lampard some stick, again.

It’s said that our very own Mr Consistency will play after recovering from a hernia operation, and should also be joined by John Terry who has also recovered from an injury that kept him out of the England matches recently. No doubt the thick air and lack of a decent gene pool in E13 will also see our two English stalwarts booed even harder than normal for ‘letting our country down’… damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Damned if you’re Chelsea.

So what can we expect from this weekend’s match up? Despite the fact it’s so easy to point and laugh right now, we need to take Wet Sham very seriously indeed, there is nothing more dangerous than a wounded animal as we saw with Wigan and Rottenham recently, yes they are rock bottom and yes they are managed by a man who looks like Herman Munster, but their players will be up for this one, and we can expect them to press us hard and high early in the match, much as Wigan did.

With Carlton Cole, Scott Parker, Tal Ben-Haim & Frank Nouble all facing their old club, there will also be extra motivation for them to do well, however with the mighty blues having scored 47 goals in the last 11 Premier League games, whilst only conceding four in return, so long as we weather the early storm then Wet Sham should run themselves out, and our superior quality should tell in the end.

The match kicks off at 3pm tomorrow afternoon, if you are travelling our advice to you is to leave as much time as possible. Check out the TFL website and plan your journey well. Good luck!

With a rather quiet closing of the transfer window, and contrary to many tabloid suggestions otherwise, there were no extra transfers by the club in addition to those of Ramires and Benayoun.

Today the club announced the squad list for the forthcoming season, and with Premier League regulations now stating that only 25 players can be named, with eight being ‘home grown’ should the full 25 be named.

A home-grown player has been registered with FA or Welsh FA club, for a period of three seasons preceding his 21st birthday. Clubs can also name an unlimited amount of U21 players.

With this in mind, Chelsea have named the following squad for the Premier League;

Chelsea’s submitted squad is

1.CECH, Petr
2.IVANOVIC, Branislav
3.COLE, Ashley
5.ESSIEN, Michael
7.RAMIRES
8.LAMPARD, Frank
10.BENAYOUN, Yossi
11.DROGBA, Didier
12.MIKEL, John Obi
15.MALOUDA, Florent
17.BOSINGWA, Jose
18.ZHIRKOV, Yury
19.FERREIRA, Paulo
21.KALOU, Salomon
22.TURNBULL, Ross
26.TERRY, John
33.ALEX
39.ANELKA, Nicolas
40.HILARIO, Henrique

Under 21 players who currently also have a squad number are:

23.STURRIDGE, Daniel
38.VAN AANHOLT, Patrick
43.BRUMA, Jeffrey
44.KAKUTA, Gael
45.BORINI, Fabio
46.McEACHRAN, Josh

Seeing as the club haven’t named a full complement of the initial 25, it’s assumed that Ancelotti will be making use of the youth players as injuries and suspensions take their toll, a policy that we at TheChels.net fully support, given the quality now emerging through the academy.

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Finally it’s here, after a disappointing World Cup and a poor pre-season, we are now back to the main course of the countries top domestic competition.

Chelsea kick off the defence of their title with a late afternoon kick off at Stamford Bridge, hosting former crowd favourite Roberto Di Matteo’s West Brom, in what we’d normally assume to be a formality.

However with our form erratic thus far, and Carlo admitting our players are not yet 100%, nothing can be taken for granted and we must take this game very seriously if we’re to come away with anything.

Carlo spoke yesterday stating; “‘We know that not all the players are 100 percent but we are ready to defend the title, we have fantastic motivation to try to win again and I said last year that we had the possibility to open a cycle and we want to.”

Sadly, key player Frank Lampard is a doubt for the match due to an ankle injury, however Petr Cech and Alex have both been passed fit to return to the side which could see Ivanovic moved to right back in order for the Brazilian to play centrally with JT.

With new signing Ramires unavailable for the match, the line up is largely expected to be that which played against Manchester United in the community shield last weekend, but with Drogba starting up front.

With Chelsea now the team to beat, this season my prove tougher than the last, and Ancelotti has no doubts that we need to get off to a good start; “The start of the season every game is not easy because you don’t know very well the condition of the opponent because they have not played a lot of games, and also we have to pay attention, because maybe when you start the season you are excited and a little bit nervous. It is important to control our emotion” said Ancelotti.

He added; “Last year we had a lot of difficulties and won in the last minute. It is important to start well, one of the reasons last year for our victory was our good start, we won our first games, and for this reason we won the title – we want to do the same this year.”

Let’s hope that today’s match is the first step in doing just that.

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