This could be a historic night for Chelsea. If we manage to win this tie, for the first time ever, Chelsea would make it to the finals of the Champions League. It can’t be a tougher task than to knockout Liverpool at Anfield. Well, it’s tough but certainly possible. Arsenil eliminated Liverpool from two competitions at Anfield, one of which was humiliating like hell. The task on hand is not to beat them by a three-goal margin like Arsenil did. All that we need is a draw or a score loss with one goal margin.
Bad news once again! Carvalho is out for this season. Jose must be very upset. It was always his idea to go for another centre back in January, but the conflicts with Roman meant that we signed none in January.
He is definitely out. He has injured his knee and it is a big blow for us. He has been our best defender this season – it is as simple as that. We lost at Liverpool in the Premiership without him and we go to Anfield again without him. But when we lost in the league we had to play Paulo Ferreira at centre-back. We have better options for centre-back this time.
Probably, he suggests that Khalid could make his return as the centre back. In Terry’s absence, Carvalho was doing a Terry as much as he can, now I hope Terry does a Carvalho in his absence. This is becoming more like the Maka-Essien situation or call it the Essien-Mikel situation, if you want to do justice to Terry. Ashley Cole has been sufficiently rested ahead of this game while Diarra should take up the right back role. Diarra has been off colour of late, but I rate him highly and he has too much quality to disappoint us too often.
Talking about quality and disappointment in the same line brings me to Sheva. Though he is meant to be man for the European nights, I doubt if Jose would pick Sheva. Jose might again go for a 4-3-3 with Joe Cole and Kalou on either sides of Drogba. As always Drogba picks himself, but I would only hope that he does not get cautioned. Sometimes, Drogba has this nagging behaviour of disturbing the keeper or arguing with referee, which he overdoes and ends up getting yellow cards. Most of his yellow cards are not due to fouls in active play. He should keep his temper in check tomorrow night and can even be subbed if and only if, we go 2-0 up or something. Once we are on the defensive, you’d expect Drogba to drop deeper for defensive duties and there is a high chance of him getting a yellow there. Joe Cole too, will face suspension if he gets carded tomorrow. Ballack has also been ruled for whatever’s left in the season. Ballack’s performance have to be rated better than Sheva’s and in fact, he has been improving steadily as he gains more and more confidence.
Mikel’s emergence has been wonderful for Chelsea. Some players had their opportunities this season – Khalid, SWP, Hilario, Kalou, Diarra, Bridge etc. If I’ve to rank them based on how they have taken their chances and performed, I’d say Mikel, Bridge, Kalou, Hilario, SWP and Khalid. In a season where most of the times we had either Terry or Carvalho missing, Khalid could have become a real star, but he didn’t. When Cech and Cudicini were out, Hilario had a dream start but his limited quality exposed him soon. When Joe Cole and Robben were missing, Kalou and SWP could have cemented their places in the wings, which they quite didn’t. Bridge has had some great performances and he is really unlucky that he has someone like Ashley Cole in his squad. While Bridge can be an almost equal back up for Ashley Cole, it can only be almost. When Essien was out due to injury and Maka not quite at his best, John Obi Mikel made the best of the available opportunities and truly has shown all of us why Chelsea were behind him so much and justfied his price tag and settlement we had to have with Man Utd.
Reina, Agger, Carragher, Gerrard, Kuyt, Riise, Mascherano – all were rested in their weekend loss to Portsmouth. Players like Zenden and Alonso were so crap in the first leg that Rafa had to criticise those unnamed players who he thinks, did not play like it was a European night. Liverpool might start with Crouch in the centre and Kuyt and Bellamy on the wings. I see Sissoko taking Alonso’s place. I dont think Rafa wants to see Agger getting skinned by Drogba once again.
I dont think Liverpool will attack too much. They know that they cannot afford to concede and Chelsea are most dangerous in counterattack. May be they’ll go gung-ho in the second half. Whatever they do, we should not sit back expecting a 0-0 draw. If Liverpool are not able to score, every passing minute will add to their pressure. Liverpool’s comeback from 0-3 to win the champions league was truly phenomenal. Full credit to their will to win. But when you’re in a corner like that, you have nothing to lose, you give your all and if you have the champions’ luck, you might even come out successful. Still, I’d put the probability to doing such a thing at 5%. Now, the chances are 50-50. They can’t throw all that they have and see the match going out of your control.
We all know that Jose Mourinho is an avid student of ‘Art of War’ and also applies the principles of the Chinese classic in his football management. In one of the verses in Art of War, Sun Tzu says:
When you surround an army, leave an outlet free. Do not press a desperate foe too hard.
That’s because, if you press the desparate foes too hard, he might try something outrageous and with his heroic effort might even pull off a miracle. How you apply this in football is what differentiates good managers and great managers. Only someone like Jose Mourinho can put this to perfect use in football. I expect Jose to follow the above principle. Otherwise, if we keep frustrating them without scoring, in front of the kops, they might be forced to pull off something spectacular.
In my opinion, we should not look for that early goal. Yes, I said we should not go for that early goal. If we get a goal, we can always take that but we should not get hyper about the early goal. More than an early goal, what could nerve Liverpool, is a game completely controlled and dominated by Chelsea, something like the first half of the first leg.
Am I nervous about this match . . hell yes! Anything can happen but even if I were a neutral, I’d have said that Chelsea are in a better position to go through. Playing the second leg at Anfield was initially thought as an unfortunate draw for Chelsea. But now, with the 1-0 win at home, it is Rafa and Liverpool who are worried about conceding that heavy away goal to Chelsea. It will be a very tight match. I’ll go mad if we have to pay the price for some poor refereeing. I hope UEFA has no problems in seeing a non-G14 club in the finals with a possibility of winning it. We’ll see that tomorrow. I hope it will be a 1-1 or 0-1.
27 Responses - Add your comment!
Joeblue, just in case you missed my response to you!
1. It is not criminal to point out mistakes. It’s only the language of yours that was sickening. I read you above post. Now you’re talking like a man. Well done.
2. Dont put all the blame on Jose for the poor signings. It was all for Roman, by Roman and to Roman. If you’ve been following Jose since his Leira days, you’d know that he never goes for star value.
3. We could not do much about Gallas and Crespo. They wanted out at any cost. Duff and Gud wanted more first team chances. They were good but certainly I’ll cry if I see them play when we have Robben and Joey.
4. Boula is good enough to play EPL. It’s only his first season which was injury-ridden. He certainly has the potential. Carvalho was crap when Jose bought him.
5. Now you give all the credit to Drogba and Carvalho (how about praising Jose for these two wonderful signings?). Do you think Man Utd would be on top of the league table, if Cristiano Ronaldo was not outstanding for them?
6. Jose is human and like any human he can also make mistakes. If we, Chelsea fans, are not fair in our judgment and assessment of our manager, who would then be?
Here is my script of the game:
we score an early goal within 15 mins.
They try to attack us hard.
We score one more in the first half stoppage time.
Second half, we consolidate and coolly end the match 0-2!!!
how’s this?
IS BALLACK AVAILABLE….,.
ANYONE PLEASE REPLY
I think this game will be very intense and nervous.
Not only we must get a result but also keep Drogba and Joe Cole unsuspended.
If only Carvalho was available I would say that Liverpool had no chance against our midfield of Mikel-Essien-Lampard-J.Cole but now it won’t be easy to keep lean sheet even if we will dominate the midfield.
I heard recently that Robben had recovered. BC, is he not available???
I meant “clean sheet”
I think that should we score one goal, we’re certainly go through. They would need to win by two goals, and even without Carvalho, very few teams can score 3 goals against us. Score at the end of the first half, I say, and a 2-1 loss would be the perfect result.
BALLACK is not available because he underwent a surgery.
robben might be ready for the Manu match only ballack is out for the season. BC’s post says that very clearly. zubinj are you reading?
LATEST NEWS FROM THE OFFICIAL CHELSEA WEBSITE:
Andriy Shevchenko has not travelled to Liverpool with the squad, joining the missing injured list of Ricardo Carvalho and Michael Ballack. But Arjen Robben is back with the squad who have trained at Anfield this evening. There are no other injuries.
The full squad is: Cech, Cudicini, Hilário, A Cole, Makelele, Essien, Lampard, Boulahrouz, J Cole, Drogba, Mikel, Gérémi, Robben, Bridge, Diarra, Ferreira, Kalou, Wright-Phillips, Terry and Morais.
One of the greatest pleasures for me tomorrow if we proceed to the final will be to see the expression on the face of Benitez. It would be priceless! Whenever this fat bloke talks about Chelsea he comes up with the money staff. “With so much money spent they should be winning..blah blah blah” This fat brain has no creativity and imagination even if he is one of the best managers of his time. I wonder what he would say if Liverpool spent as much as Chelsea did.
What fat rafa does not understand is that, with money comes pressure. rafa can go on to be the no.3 or no.4 team season after season whereas with carling cup in the cabinet, in the final of the FA cup, one foot in the champions league finals, close second in the premiership, we still have people calling for mourinho’s head.
Robben is back but is he fit enough to play? Certainly he will not be at the starting 11 but Jose can use him in the final stage of the match if there’ll be need for him. I’m eager to see Joe Cole and Robben together on the field again.
As am I, M_D! How long has it been since Joe and Robben did play together?? It’s certainly a distant memory. BC, do you know what Sheva’s injury is?
Hey guys,
Usually I don’t believe in signs but before the Liverpool game I have found some interesting facts from history for myself.
Chelsea won its 1st European Cup (Cup Winners’ Cup) in 1971 in ATHENS. And this year’s Champions League final is also in ATHENS.
Chelsea’s last European Cup (again Cup Winner’s Cup) was in 1998 and the year before in 1997 that Cup was won by Barcelona. And the last year’s winner of the Champions League is also Barcelona.
Maybe our previous 2 European Cups have embedded signs of our 3rd European Cup triumph which meant to be this year. Maybe it’s just a coincidence. Let’s wait and see.
Joeblue
why are you not responding to me. i’m challenging your statements. Either respond back or agree with we.
M_D you can also respond.
Midfield_Decider , I strongly agree with what you mentioned about Benitez , He always talks about money and signings whenever he wants to talk about chelsea or mourinho , and I am sick of it. because Liverpool really has a good squad and he bought lots of good players and fucked them up like Morientes, Baros, Diof and Cise. he is only looking for excuses.
I really don’t know why Mourinho bought Khaled Blaghrouz, while he is a CD , why should we use Essien?
I really respect Mourinho, I really like him and i am one of his fans, I don’t know how come I want to support chelsea after he leaves chelsea, But But But I believe he is not good at choosing players, you only need to compare the players whom he bough with the players whom Ranieri bought.
Cech,Robben,Maka,Bridge,Joe Cole, Lampard are Ranieri players, you can add Duff and Gronjhear.Duff wanted to play more but I still don’t know why Jesper left chelsea.
anyway, yesterday has gone, let’s talk about the present. I believe we will qualify easilly because we will score first. we will win.
by the way, NO.16 is my comment I forgot to type my name
I believe we will win cos its the only thing left ( aside from the FA )and everyon is hungry for it.
Last time it was 0-0 at Stanford Bridge. This time we are going to Anfield with a major advantage that is not to be belittled.
Liverpool need not score just 1 goal but 2 to win .Even at 1-0 we are still on top cause it’s still only a draw . Anytime in the game tonight Liverpool can be finished off. And also another very important fact that BC made and I second .I think the strategy will be ” Keep the ball .Possesion x 3 “
The clock is against them . Every minute counts for them If we get to the second half without conceding any goals Robben and Cole will surely get goals that will put the final nails into their coffin.
Drogs will probably be the decoy tonight and without Sheva and Ballack we are gonna be much faster than usual mind you.
Did you notice that although we drew with Bolton on Saturday.
The play was much faster without Ballack.( Not to put him down but to state a fact)
Hello Bingo , nice to see somebody trying to prove their points!!!!
UR points r accurate but not wholly correct , my points to each one of urs:
1.Sorry for the language everybody , but we all get frustrated by bad results , and i like to vent it out that way , but u guys dont seem to like it so i promise it wont be the same next time!!!!
2.JM does not go by the star value but the owner does not decide the signings , Glazer does not tell SAF what to buy and what not to , yes owners r big factors in decisions , but JM has already cleared that he wld leave the club the day this starts to happen!!!!
3.yes Crespo had to leave , but Gallas?? Duff and Gudjohnsen wanted moore playing time but why dint they get that???? Robben and Joe r not the fittest of players but still JM hardly ever played them , especially Gudjohnsen!!!!
4.You try to liken Boula to carvy but remember Carvy was a CL champion and had played excellently under JM for 2 whole seasons!!!!! Boula has not met with the same fate , JM persisted with Carvy even after his bad performances , but he does not trust his own signing Boula right now , that tells me a lot of his potential seen by JM up close!!!!
5.Yes Drog and Carvy hav been his signings but he has been our manager for 3 seasons , so it is obvious almost all the team players r his signings, but he has been wrong more times than being right(SWP , DEL HORNO , SHEVA , BOULA , FERREIRA etc.) whereas the core of the team is still of Ranieri—– Terry , Lamps ,Joey , Bridge , Cech etc where all his buys!!!!!
And finally UTD. r on top not just cuz of Ronaldo , Giggs and Scholes hav been excellent throughout the season , Rooney has scored whenever needed , their defencive line of Van der Sar , Rio , Vidic , Heinze , Neveille hav been far superior than ours!!!! O’shea has been scoring vital goals , Smith’s return has been sensational!!!!
A team wins when they play togeather and everyone performes when the need arises , a one-man-army as u say of Ronaldo cannot be top at every competition!
And roger that M_D , the fatty is trying to play mind games with the grandmaster himself , do L’pool not spend enough money???? Not as much as us ,but still he has a squad of 30 players and still has been kicked out of 3 competitions and now lets get ready for the final punch!!!!!
Yes, joeblue, the fat ugly man went even further in piling pressure on Chelsea. I guess the man has learned much from Jose, especially after he saw that mind-games do work. And now he wants to use this against Chelsea to win the tie at Anfield. These are his most recent comments on today’s game:
“They will know that Anfield is a difficult place for them.
“And they know full well what pressure they are under to win things.”
“Now they have more difficulties in the Premiership, it’s clear if they are going to win a major trophy, the Champions League is the one they want to win.
“They try to win everything – that is enough pressure without me saying anything.
“They know the pressures they are under, you only have to ask Mr Abramovich what he wants, the Champions League or the Premier League. They know.”
“We have our special ones here, they are our fans, who always play with their hearts,”
“I remember before the game in 2005, the Chelsea players spoke a lot about being ready for the Anfield atmosphere but when the game was played they could not handle it.
“It’s very difficult for any opposing team to prepare to play against 12 men.”
“Our fans cannot give red cards or award penalties but they can ‘score goals’.
“I like this about our supporters because we know they will show they are in the best in the world again on Tuesday night.
“The players can also use these positive memories. I have confidence because playing with 12 men is a great advantage for us.”
“It is no secret we will try to play with a high tempo from the beginning, something we didn’t do in the first leg. If we can keep a high tempo going for 90 minutes, that will be perfect.”
“We did not play to our best level in the first leg, that is the key for me. If we play to our best, we will win.”
I’m very much concerned about today’s referee.
How on earth UEFA could appoint a spanish referee for this game???? Benitez is spanish and half of his squad are spanish too!!! This smells bad.
Yes M_D , i doubt they want a non G-14 team to reach the finals with a good chance to win it!!!! The main thing which worries me is the lack of strikers, Kalou seems more of a left-sided winger to me!!!! And Shev has fallen out with JM big time after not getting a start for today and is rumoured that CFC r hiding this fact by faking an injury for him and leaving him out of the squad instead!!!!
i am hoping for an early goal in the first half to really put the pressure on liverpool tonight.
just a side point: on my mac, ALL the text on this webpage is underlined. can you help bluechampion?
i love this blog. it’s by far the best out there.
i am praying for chelsea to go through to the final. we must be exhausted by now!
If Kalihd steps up and defends well, I believe the game will be ours. Good luck to all our supporters going to Anfield!
Joe Blue, MD, great arguments ,I say
I see a lot of the whole picture cos of you guys.
And Yup this fat Rafa is putting pressure on us but if we play as usual gradually building up momentum and at the same time sniffing out what they’re up to and we can hold out til half time I think we’re gonna make it.
Great Match it will be . But as usual I must say WE WIN ( whatever kind of twists and turns and nail-biting it may incur )
Keep a lot of Faith tonight
vendite case a roma…
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