On August 4th, Roberto Di Matteo and Gus Poyet will line up in opposing dugouts for a pre-season friendly between Brighton and Chelsea. The match will precede a Premier League campaign that will feature Steve Clarke as manager of West Bromwich Albion and Mark Hughes at QPR, as well as former Blues coach Brendan Rodgers at Liverpool. The number of former Chelsea players – particularly from teams around the turn…
For the last few weeks I’ve been intending to publish a piece on the merits of keeping Roberto Di Matteo as Chelsea manager. Doing so now might appear reactionary after the excellent result against Barcelona, but if I begin by prefacing the entire article with the notion that his body of work as manager – at least in terms of ‘just’ results – isn’t close to being top of the…
Chelsea’s defence of the FA Cup reaches a pivotal stage at Wembley, with the semi final against Aston Villa. Still smarting from their 7-1 crushing at the hands of the Blues a few weeks ago, Villa must produce something altogether improved if they are to figure in the final come May. For Villa, James Milner is under an injury cloud, as is Richard Dunne, though the former is expected to…