Today our lads make their annual pilgrimage to the land of grim, ready for physical fight in the now common battle ground of Ewood Park. Chelsea welcome back Alex from injury, with the Brazilian likely to partner Terry in the centre of defence, which will likely see Ivanovic moved to right back. Neither Lampard nor Ramires are yet fit, with the former expected to return for the Liverpool match and…
Never an easy place to go, Villa, as our record over the last ten matches shows. Yet with two strikes of the woodwork in the second half, should we have come away with all three points? The team lined up as Ancelotti had stated a day before kick-off, with options for changes limited at best due to the withdrawal of Didier Drogba due to a virus, Lampard still not recovering from his…
As the injury problems at Chelsea finally looking like we’re over the worst, yesterday brought more bad news in the shape of our super striker, Didier Drogba, due to a fever. With Benayoun now looking like he’ll miss the majority of the season, and with Kalou, Alex & Lampard all still not yet ready for first team action, the Villa match sees us play something of a ‘weakened’ team for…
Sometimes I wish I was a betting man, because Drogba scoring against Arsenal is now, it seems, pretty much a forgone conclusion. It was no surprise then, that in the 39th minute, up stepped our super striker to do it again, and deflate Arsene Wengers pre-match bravado that this would be the year they beat us. Every season it’s the same, it’s becoming as iconic as Liverpool’s ‘we’ll win it…
The only thing I love more than beating Arsenal, is listening to the musings of their slightly senile manager. Unless he didn’t see it, that is. A lot has been made of our physical strength, and whilst we are the tallest and heaviest team in the league, with Arsenal being the shortest and lightest, it’s disingenuous of Wenger to suggest that’s all we have in our Arsenal. When asked about…
As one 100% record ends, another continues with a second win in our Champions League Group ended with a 2-0 over French Champions; Marseille. With Drogba serving his now customary early competition suspension, and with Lampard, Kalou, and Benayoun all unavailable due to injury, it was important to get off to a good start. As it was, a goal didn’t come long after kick off, when John Terry knocked in…
The Champions League returns to SW6 this evening with the visit of Marseilles, former club of our enigmatic striker; Didier Drogba. The Ivorian hitman will however be absent from proceedings, serving his now almost traditional ban from the opening stages of the competition. However the links don’t end there, with Marseilles manager, Didier Deschamps, a former player on the Chelsea payroll. Deschamps signed in 1999 and made 47 appearances for…
Well that didn’t go entirely to plan, but then as we know from the Mourinho years, when a team sits back and defends for all their life is worth, it’s always difficult to break down. There were times we attacked and City had no less than six players back, often seven with the three mid-fielders sat in front of their back four. Anti-football? Maybe, but with over £250,000,000 spent on…
Saturday at 12:45 will see our boys head north to the home of Manchester City, in what many are describing as our first real test of this season. That may be true, but it’s also a chance to settle a score from the last one too. City, as if I need to tell you, took six points off us last year and despite this and well over £100 million invested…
Four goals in the first half, both the Chelsea and Blackpool supporters expected a lot more, but they never came. With no Lampard, Terry or Anelka in the starting line up, this was never guaranteed, especially against a team that likes to attack, yet Chelsea got off to the perfect start, a corner from Drogba flicked on at the near post by Ivanovic for Kalou to volley home within 90 seconds of…