BlueChampions - The Blog of the Champions of England!

Is this a successful season for Chelsea? We have won the Carling Cup and we are in the semifinals of Champions league and FA Cup. We are just three points off Man Utd in the Premiership with 6 games to go. I’d say this has been a very good season for us even if we are to get eliminated in all tournaments from the current stage. Given the circumstances, a Chelsea fan should be pround that we are still in with the chance of a quadruple with just about 4 weeks to go in this season. Any team that plays with the third choice keeper and their captain/top defender for a few months could be seriously impacted but not Chelsea.

Some good news as Jose Mourinho and Petr Cech won the monthly awards for best Premiership manager and Premiership goalkeeper respectively. Still the rumours on Jose leaving, are surfacing again to such an extent that Jose had to ban his agent from talking to other clubs. Now that Ronaldo has signed a new contract with Man Utd, the Press is left only with one big running story of Jose’ future at Chelsea.

Relax guys. Meanwhile, Jose has been handling this issue, like playing a game of chess. First up, he has made this a very good season for Chelsea, leaving less to be complained on performance. Secondly, directly or indirectly, he has informed the whole world that all the players are behind, including those who he had punished for indiscipline or poor performance. Thirdly, he has announced in very very clear terms that his heart and mind are in Chelsea and he would like to see out his contract and stay until 2010 and even extend further if possible. Moreover, he has raised his voice about bringing Crespo back to Chelsea this summer as he expects Drogba and Kalou to be absent in January 2008, whereby he confirms that he has plans of staying for another season. And now he has even forbidden his agent to talk to other clubs. By doing all this, Jose has put Roman in very tough spot. If Roman still wants to sack Jose this summer, it would be a very highly unpopular decision with the fans, players, press and even rivals.

Unlike many teams/managers, we are very busy playing in so many competitions not as also-rans but as favourites in all. In response to Rafa Benitez’ remark on Jose not being friends with the managers that beat him:

If I was on holidays and only playing Champions League matches, I would answer and would think how to make it nice. But I’m not on holidays. Since January, every game is a final for us, but they have had time to think about this kind of thing because they have only had the Champions League. I have no time and have a big game on Sunday

To suggest that Rafa is on holiday when compared to Jose, is outrageously funny. Jose is unbeatable, not only on the pitch but also off it. Pure class.

Okay, we have a FA Cup semifinal against Blackburn at Old Trafford. Beating Blackburn tomorrow is of utmost importance and to do it in Old Trafford would be real fun. We have won a cup, we are somewhat in the final-equivalent in Premiership, so if we proceed to the final of the FA Cup, we can ourselves to be in all finals except champions league where again have a great chance to be in the final.

The last match between Chelsea and Blackburn had some quality goals and a clean sheet:

[video]http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/4SnVyvHSEsabJ7NbG[/video]

Though we have had good success against Blackburn this season (three wins and all clean sheets), this game has to be taken seriously. This is a crucial semi-final but I would still expect Jose to rest Lampard and Drogba. After all this is a knock-out match. If at all things don’t as expected, Drogba can always come in at the 70th minute and score in 78th minute. Blackburn are a good team with lots of spirit and have clear objective and play for it. Benni McCarthy, protege of Jose Mourinho, is the man to watch as he can produce moments of magic like he did against the French no-hopers (read Arsenil). No Robbie Savage means no broken bones for the Chelsea players.

The exponentially improving Obi Mikel says that faith is single most key factor in our success:

We’ve already got one trophy in the Carling Cup and are on course for the other three. It has never crossed our minds it is impossible. Even when some write us off, we have faith in ourselves. We are fighting in these competitions and our target is still intact – to win them all. People were also writing us off before our trips to Barcelona and Porto, yet we came out on top. We’ve been in this situation many times, but luckily we’ve the experience and strength to be able to do that and it has helped us on many occasions. We believe that, even though we are away in the second leg against Liverpool, we can still score goals. We have the belief we can get through no matter where we play. Our will to win is the key.

Forget the line-ups, forget about the form, forget about where we are playing. This Chelsea team has not only more belief and faith in themselves but also more hungry for success than any other team. In this stage of a season like this, the ‘hunger to win’ is the factor that can bring more success than any other factors such as form or players or whatever. Watford to beat Man Utd (what’s wrong in wishing so, especially when Jose does not rule out a Chelsea vs Watford Final) and 2-0 for Chelsea.