Slow and steady!

Grrrrrr . . . I couldn’t see this match too. Only the Barca-Bremen was broadcast and even after that Liverpool match was telecast delayedly. I want to get Chelsea TV soon.

Chelsea has comfortably topped the so-called group of death. Jose was particular on topping the group:

The good thing is the first team in the group plays the second game at home in the next round and that can be an advantage. So we have that responsibility.

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Sheva’s finish today would remind us of the vintage sheva of Milan. Few days back, Sheva might have tried to position himself to shoot from his inside foot. But today, his believed in himself and went ahead with his outside foot tap for a smooth finish. Has he hit the road?

Another big positive was SWP’s goal. For once, he has made a real impact with whatever little time he was allowed to play. It was good to see him go for the goal with confidence when he had other options to his right and left. Just when rumours are floating that SWP might on sale this Jan, he scores his first goal for Chelsea.

While asked about his possible move in January, SWP said:

I don’t want to leave. So why should I want to go anywhere?

Jose also said that he does not want to lose SWP:

I am happy for him. He is a special case. He is a boy that deserves to be happy. He is a great professional. Normally he has chances coming from the substitute’s bench for 20 or 25 minutes. It is not easy for him to express the qualities he has doing that.

I am not giving him a lot of chances from the start of matches but talk of him leaving is just speculation. I want him to stay. We know the squad is good in quality but short on numbers. We cannot lose players. We have 19 outfield players for the four competitions we are still involved in – we need every player.

If the answers from him are positive ones then that is good for me, the team and for the boy. His future does not depend on a goal he scored.

The funny situation is that SWP does not want to leave, Jose does not want him to leave, but Peter Kenyon has gone public saying that we’ll listen to offers for SWP. Kinda unclear.
Barca goes through at the expense of Bremen. The first goal by Ronaldinho was a beauty. In such an important match, he had the guts to drive the ball down the ground from a freekick with a perfect awareness of the timing of the jump of the wall. This early goal shattered Bremen’s confidence and Eidur’s goal 5 mins later only compounded it. In the second half Bremen was easily the better team and did a run for Barca’s money.

Some interesting games coming up tomorrow – Porto vs Arsenal and Man Utd vs Benfica, in particular.

These games will have an impact on Chelsea’s premiership title defence. Incidentally, Jose has coached both Benfica and Porto. So, he should be happy for the wins for these Portuguese teams and if they lose, he can still be happy that his rivals continue to have Champions League distraction, which might affect their Premiership performance.

Cudicini is injured and Hedman unavailable for Arsenal game. Would you believe it? Mourinho revealed that Drogba had been tested between the sticks in training. That is Jose Mourinho for you!!
[tags]Chelsea, Barcelona, Arsenal, Man United, Jose Mourinho, Shevchenko, Shaun Wright Phillips, Porto, Benfica [/tags]