Married To Torres?

February 24, 2012

Oh Fernando. You were, and quite possibly still are, one of the most talented strikers in football. The performances shown for Atlítico Madrid, the Spanish national team and, to the greatest annoyance of all Chelsea supporters, Liverpool, have proven this point. But then why do you fail to replicate these performances for our beloved Chelsea? Is it just a dramatic loss of confidence? Failing to settle in a new town?…

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FA Youth Cup: Nottingham Forest 3-4 Chelsea

February 22, 2012

Chelsea’s remarkable FA Youth Cup run continued in the most unlikely of circumstances as they turned a 3-0 half time deficit into a dramatic, late, 4-3 victory. First half strikes from David Morgan and Jordan Palmer-Samuels sandwiched a Nathan Aké own goal to leave Eoin Jess’ boys 3-0 up and firmly in control of affairs, but an astonishing second half saw Lucas Piazon get a foothold in the game before…

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Power and Responsibility

February 22, 2012

An inevitable consequence of a spell of poor form or a season where expectations are not being met is the media’s take on the cause of the maladies. Typically, the woes will be attributed to dressing room discontent and the notion that the manager has ‘lost’ his players, no longer commanding their respect. True to form, this is currently the case with Andre Villas-Boas and Chelsea. The club’s worst season…

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A Question Of Philosophy?

February 21, 2012

The next few months may well prove to be the most important of the Roman era. There are grave concerns from the terraces that this may be the season where the continual mismanagement of the club finally backfires spectacularly. The squad is bereft of the quality needed to truly challenge for the title. The robust presence of the old guard has all but faded with the likes of Cech, Terry,…

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Spotlight On: Napoli

February 21, 2012

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…

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Reserves: Chelsea 3-2 Fulham

February 20, 2012

A much-changed and much younger Chelsea Reserve team won a hard-fought local derby against West London rivals Fulham on Monday afternoon as goals from Romelu Lukaku, Ismail Seremba and Patrick Bamford secured a 3-2 victory. Fulham twice responded from behind with strikes courtesy of first-teamers Kerim Frei and Pajtim Kasami but were undone late in the game by Bamford, who won a disputed penalty kick which he converted to mark…

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The Loan Report: February 13-19

February 19, 2012

A highly productive week on the loan front, perhaps the most impressive of the season, saw Gael Kakuta’s finest hour in the professional game and a goal for Kevin de Bruyne amongst a number of positive events over the past seven days. After sitting on the bench away to Carlo Ancelotti’s PSG in midweek French Cup action, Kakuta was restored to the Dijon starting line-up for the weekend home match…

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Diplomatic Immunity: Birmingham City

February 19, 2012

An occasional series of open discussions with opposition fans. They can say what they like about Chelsea and I promise not to be rude back to them. Number 4: The Blues v The Blues Meet Bill, aka Jasper and a hundred other names. He won’t tell me how old he is and won’t say when he became a City fan. But he just couldn’t stop when it came to other…

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Under-18s: Chelsea 1-3 Southampton

February 18, 2012

One of Chelsea’s youngest Under-18 line-ups of the season went down 3-1 on Saturday morning to a Southampton team who got their business done early. A pair of talented England Under-17 internationals did the damage as the Saints were three goals to the good inside eight minutes. First, a free kick from the right was beautifully delivered by Luke Shaw and headed home at the far post before Shaw himself…

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FA Youth Cup: Chelsea 3-3 West Ham United (AET, Chelsea win 5-4 on Penalties)

February 15, 2012

For the second round in a row Chelsea kept their FA Youth Cup hopes alive courtesy of a penalty shootout after a dramatic 120 minutes against West Ham United. Lewis Baker’s opening goal highlighted a sterling first half performance by the Blues but they were pegged back shortly before the break. Islam Feruz restored the lead but Blair Turgott drew the Hammers level again before Elliott Lee’s stoppage time strike…

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