Nicknamed ‘Ivor the Engine’ because of work rate following his £90,000 switch from Fulham. A qualified teacher, he worked as a PE instructor during his non league days. Three of his six goals for the Blues came against Everton at Goodison Park, but he couldn’t dislodge Kerry Dixon and David Speedie. Was sold to Manchester City for £75,000 after less than a year. After hanging up his boots, Davies became…
Comings And Goings For Young Left-Backs
Amongst the media furore about Carlo Ancelotti’s future, there has actually been stuff worth reporting on today. Chelsea are considerably well stocked in the left-back department and today have made decisions on the short-term futures of two of their hopeful prospects. First, in a move which has been rumoured for the past week, Ben Gordon is set to join Scunthorpe United until the end of the season, having spent the…
Carlo – The Way Forward?
We interrupt our normal service of light-hearted travel reminiscence and assorted ramblings for a more serious look at matters at the Bridge. Even Stevie Wonder could see that the defeat against Wolves probably marked a 10-year low point in our history. Certainly there has been no such air of uncertainty about the future since the 2002/2003 season, the last of the Ken Bates regime, when Claudio Ranieri was hamstrung in…
Damage Is Done, But We Need To Move On
Well, that was embarrassing wasn’t it? All the teams around us dropped points last night and we fail to even get a point against rock bottom Wolves. Some say you can’t become a bad team over night, a lot people would argue Chelsea have. In 2010/2011 Chelsea has now dropped as many points as we did in the whole of the 2009/2010 season (29). As champions, this is unacceptable. We…
Away With The Wolves
What would have been classed as a simple match some three months ago, takes on an entirely different look as our woeful form leaves us ripe for the picking. We’ve seen many ‘signs’ that improvement is only around the corner, spells in matches where it’s clicked again and we’re playing as we can, these are all too rare however, and teams are playing us with their tails up. Wolves will…
Battling Borini
Some say that a measure of a man is how he deals with adversity. If you subscribe to that particular view, Fabio Borini has grown up a lot in the first half of the 2010-11 season. The Italian Under-21 forward broke into Carlo Ancelotti’s first team squad last season, making eight appearances in his debut campaign. Labelled by some – including Ancelotti himself – as an interesting prospect, his second…
Late Goal Deflates Chelsea Comeback
When we see Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba and John Terry on the score sheet, usually this is the cue of a big win, but sadly the usual isn’t the case at Stamford Bridge at the moment, as Chelsea were held to a 3-3 draw against the visiting Aston Villa side. Both teams went into the game not in the best of forms and it will be fair to say that…
The Harding Perspective: Aston Villa
ASTON VILLA (H) 02/01/11 Expected Team: Friedel remains one of the more consistent Goalkeeper’s in the Premier League and will present a significant obstacle for Chelsea to overcome. Rarely found wanting, he is decent on crosses and a good shot stopper. His issue remains the amount of times he is tested during a game; Aston Villa tend to allow several clear-cut chances during a game, an indicative symbol of their…
Safe Hands
Most Chelsea fans, whether they’ll admit it or not, almost take Petr Cech for granted. The Czech custodian has been first choice at Stamford Bridge for six years since joining from Rennes, suffering his fair share of injuries along the way, but in 2010-11 he has been back to somewhere near his best form. At 28, he has many, many years ahead of him, but that doesn’t mean that the…
The Loan Report: December 13-30
The final loan report of the year takes in a fortnight of action, as last week’s was skipped due to many matches falling foul of the weather. Nonetheless, there has been plenty to catch up on, so we’ll dive straight in at the top, with Michael Mancienne at Wolves. Unfortunately, the England Under-21 captain has been sidelined since December 4th with a knee injury, one which has led to Chelsea…