Chelsea completed their tour of the far-east with a resounding victory over Aston Villa in the final of the Barclays Asia Trophy. This was the second time that the Blues had lifted this trophy, after being the inaugural winners of the tournament back in 2003 under Claudio Ranieri. An early goal from the talented Josh McEachran inside the first minute of the game gave the Blues the lead, and the…
Chelsea began the quest for a second Premier League Asia Trophy by beating their local opponents Kitchee by 4-0 to set up the final against Aston Villa. Frank Lampard opened the scoring the again; then an own goal (again!) doubled the lead before goals from Didier Drogba and Daniel Sturridge rounded off another satisfying night for the Blues. The Premier League Asia trophy was one of the first tournaments that…
Chelsea stepped up a gear in their preparations for the new season after a much improved second-half performance against Thailand All Stars meant the Blues eventually cruised to a 4-0 win. The first half display was again of tireless hard work, without much reward, but the introduction of fresh legs on the hour mark made the final thirty minutes look like a stroll in the park. Another jam-packed stadium was…
Chelsea continued their pre-season preparations with another win under some tough conditions, as the Blues started their Asian quest with a 1-0 win in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur. A controversial own-goal from a Didier Drogba free-kick was the only goal of the game with the under-strength Malaysians giving a hard fight to the Blues. The Bukit-Jalil stadium, having capacity of 90,000, was almost full, creating a great atmosphere…
After a long break, Chelsea returned back to playing as a large crowd greeted them at Fratton Park in their first friendly in public eye, with the Blues securing a 1-0 win. This was also the first chance for the Chelsea fans to see the new boss, André Villas-Boas, in action after the first match against Wycombe Wanderers was played behind doors. On a day when three different Chelsea sides…
In the midst of all the anger and disgust in the manner in which Carlo Ancelotti was sacked, it’s about time we looked underneath the surface and see what may be the reasons behind his sacking. It was hardly a surprising sacking, even though everybody wanted him to see out his contract, deep down this was what everyone had feared, albeit the manner did shock everyone. So let’s recap how…
A day which was suppose to define our season, a day on which we were suppose to forget all the shambles of the previous months, a day which in the end turned out to be another ignominious European night as we failed to overcome a one goal deficit from the first leg at Stamford Bridge. Javier Hernandez gave Manchester United the lead just before the end of the first half,…
Chelsea prepared for their crunch match in Europe with a rather lacklustre win over Wigan Athletic. A second-half Florent Malouda goal proved to be enough to secure all three points and thereby maintaining hopes of overcoming Arsenal in the coming weeks. With a big match coming up in a few days, Carlo Ancelotti understandably rotated his side around and rested some of the key individuals. Frank Lampard, fresh from making his…
As expected, no team came out of the game and say that they were the head and shoulders ahead of the other. Chelsea started in a slow, sluggish manner and were hit hard when Wayne Rooney gave United the lead in the first half, founding it hard to get that elusive equaliser for the rest of the game. Carlo Ancelotti earlier said in his press conference that he has decided…
A spirited Stoke side brought to halt the Chelsea revival, as an impressive first half showing was followed by an abject second half performance which made us work hard to earn a point from the game. Jon Walters had given Stoke City the lead inside the first 10 minutes, but a Didier Drogba strike, his first in almost two months, levelled things up. Chelsea started with their standard 4-4-2 formation,…