Premier League - Written by BlueChampion on Saturday, August 25, 2007 13:55 | 9,753 Views | 29 Comments | Add Comment
Chelsea vs Portsmouth | 25-Aug-2007 @ 15:00 UK
This is certainly not the best of times to play Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. The morale of the Blues must be really at a high with 7 points from 3 fixtures which includes a difficult point at Anfield. Also add to this the Chelsea master stroke in the transfer market to kill off the Daniel Alves saga. The way I see it, Juliano Belletti = Middle finger to Sevilla.
Juliano (or Giuliano for some) Belletti is 31 years and that fact does not excite too many fans. We should also realise that Chelsea has set firm sights on Daniel Alves and sooner or later, he would be our player. It could even be in January or next July, whenever. Sevilla has made a mess this whole Alves offer. Jose does not want Sevilla to take us for a ride and at a certain point, shows his middle finger to Sevilla and brings Belletti out of his magic hat. Jose says:
Juliano brings what we believe we need. He has played for two of the biggest teams in the world - Brazil and Barca. He is a pure right-back, not an adaption like we had so many times with Lassana Diarra, Michael Essien and Shaun Wright-Phillips playing there.
While this looks like a incredible last minute scoop, I think this deal must have been arranged quite a number of days back. Something like a derivative transaction. We’re interested in Belletti, but if we get Alves we won’t buy Belletti otherwise we would buy him for 4m pounds. Like Jose said, always the quality and price of a player (dig at Sheva?) determines his value. Belletti for 4m pounds is a fantastic deal unless Alves is 9 times the player than Belletti, in the same position. There is an age difference but that’s allright. We would surely buy Alves for the long term, but at our price, and looks like we are ready to wait.
He’s at it again! Jose talks about reducing his squad size from 27 to 26. Surely, he does not expect a repeat of 06-07 in terms of injuries.
Our squad is a very balanced one. We have two players for each position and the right-back position is a position where we have more than two. For the interest of the players, because everyone likes to play and not just be part of the squad, if clubs show a real interest in one of our players and our player shows interest in leaving for a better situation, that is okay. But it is not a drama for me to keep 27 because they are all good players, they are useful and the season is long.
His love for Paulo means, probably it would be Glen Johnson to help Jose achieve his ideal squad size:
Paulo is a player that I trust very much. Paulo is with me for six consecutive years and everything that I have won, he has won with me. From the defensive point of view he is a safe player. The reason why I wanted to bring in a different right-back is Chelsea, this season, is a different team, as everyone can feel. There is a different philosophy of playing so I felt I needed something different on the right, but no doubts, Paulo is a player that I love and I trust.
Back to our match today, Jose has a huge squad to choose this eleven from. Now we’re missing only Ballack, Ricardo and Bridge. Ashley Cole could be a doubtful starter and I dont think Jose would risk him, if it’s a 50-50. Sheva is back, Terry is fit, Alex is ready and in fact, Belletti can start too. It appears that Belletti could make his debut with Chelsea straightaway as he is already match-fit and eager to play.
I’d put Alex and Terry in the centre, with Tal moving to the left and Belletti making his debut at the most talked about position at Chelsea. As I’ve completely hooked on to the 4-4-2 with wide players, my middle four would be Essien, Lampard, Malouda and SWP. I just can’t believe that I’m picking SWP over Joe Cole, match after match. He was not particularly successful at Anfield last week but he was the man of the match against Germany in the mid-week match. Basically he is playing well and deserves his place. It should be Drogba and Pizarro starting and Sheva making a second half entry for Drogba, if we’re well placed, or for Pizarro, if we’re chasing shadows.
Outside of Chelsea news, Fergie does not want to see Liverpool let off and Man Utd look at Berbatov. From a Man Utd point of view- with a match at Old Trafford against the Spurs, it can at least unsettle Berb even if no deal is to be done. Roy Keane keeps impressing and this time with his signing of Andy Cole. Cole won’t play against Liverpool today but here’s hoping Roy to come out with a point or is it asking for too much? The match of the day could be Arsenal vs Man City. This is a real test for Man City as they travel to the Arsenal’s Grave and would face some kind of good opposition. If Man City wins this match, I would start taking them seriously. I know they might top the table with 12 points if they win this one, but still I’d support Man City for this match, for some obvious reasons!
I’m still in Europe, in a part where I don’t get to see premier league matches on TV. I’ll have to find a nice pub today, probably one where I could find a lot of fellow-blues unlike last weekend. Hope it is a nice and enjoyable match (scoring early and taking lead types) and I think it can be a safe 2-0.
[tags]Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Jose Mourinho, Rafael Benitez, Alex Ferguson, Manchester City, Belletti, Alves, Sevilla, Shevchenko, Ashley Cole, Alex, Pizarro, Drogba, Lampard, Terry, Stamford Bridge[/tags]
29 Comments
1. stimpej
2. Torohi
TBH on the left? I didn’t know he was that versatile.
I would probably pick Paulo to play there myself.
Either way, commonsense dictates that u remove all Pompey players from your squadgod team for this week Ha!
(i had campbell in my team until recently)
3. Blues_Godson
hi BC..how’s europe?hope you’re having fun out there….where exactly are you in europe?england i guess…anyhow you should stop pver and have fun at the nothin hill carnival okay…i hope chelsea wins on a cool note and it would be nice to see belleti play his first match…am sure sevilla are really biting their fingers cos of their been greedy and i hope they reconsider next time we come to negotiate for alves..i hope madrid wouldn’t have bought him buy then….i wouldn’t miss the arsenal mancity match and i hope the whoop arsenal big time….
KTBFFH…
4. SH.IBRAHIMI
i think we will win 3-1 ( SWP,DROGBA,PIZZA )
5. RomanHoliday
Well Chelsea want another left-back they can have me for free !
As long as I am LEFT BACK at the Bridge Bar with a beer and a giganic telly !
LOL LOL LOL
Here we come Portsymouth TWO NIL at the Bridge Tonight !
GO GO GO
6. Blues_Godson
i think if Arsenal can pay 7million pounds for diarra,he should be sold cos he has indicated that he wanted to leave following the success of my countryman…MIKEL
7. RomanHoliday
And I am a good right back too !
Be RIGHT BACK from the Loo ….. to catch the GOALS we’ll score !
8. Johnarejr
Fox Sports here in the US won’t show this match. So, I will check out the Arsenal vs. City match and root for the Gooners. There is no way Chelsea should be second to Manchester City.
I’m glad we have a proven right back in Bellenti. Respect to Barca for not jerking us around to get him. I hope they and Real Madrid whip Sevilla big time for their greed.
I have nothing against Portsmouth. Their fans are hillarious (ALLWAYS LOOK AT THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE vs Norwich in ‘05 and WHERE HAS YOUR TITLE GONE vs Chelsea last season). But, Chelsea ought to score big at home.
9. blueboy
1 Petr Cech
5 Michael Essien
22 Tal Ben-Haim
26 John Terry (c)
3 Ashley Cole
24 Shaun Wright-Phillips
12 John Mikel Obi
8 Frank Lampard
15 Florent Malouda
14 Claudio Pizarro
15 Didier Drogba
Substitutes: 23 Carlo Cudicini, 35 Juliano Belletti, 33 Alex, 10 Joe Cole, 21 Salomon Kalou.
10. Cashif
SWP man of the match?????? He only played for about half an hour or less and the only thing he did was jink in between a coupla guys to fizz in one shot. THAT WAS ALL.
11. foreverblue
i dont know why is sheva not even on the bench??? i think he played for ukraine in the mid week friendly…
12. Nihongo Blue
awesome… frank must have read ur blog BC.. ever since that article he is firing all cylinders… in the last few minutes y was drogs just heeling everyting i dont know? i feel he is over used… all balls directed to him and amazingly wins most of them..
13. maysam
Arsenal 1-0 Man City : good result for us.
Shmichel should be proud oif his son. he is a great talent. he saved a penalty , he could score versus Arsenal . at the end he was so sad that you thought that game was a final game. I like this kind of players.
Liverpool 2-0 Sundeland . no surprise . Torres played very well he could score several times but he was unlucky or Sunderland was lucky.
I like seeing Manchester losing tomorrow. this way , we can forget manchester and just think about Liverpool.
I still believe we had better start 4-3-3.
———————-Cech————————–
Belletti—–Terry———-Alex——BenHaim(unfortunatly)
——————-Mikel—————————–
———-Lampard—–Essien——————–
-SWP————————————-Malouda–
———————Drogba————————–
14. maysam
I predicted : Chelsea 2-0 Portsmos
Terry- Drogba
but it am not sure about clean sheet.
15. manishchandra
pathetic pathetic performance in all departments…i can say this team has only deteriorated in this transfer season…..defence in tatters, midfield average, flanks average after robben’s sale….what to say of strike department,as long as wrestler drogba is there it can be only average at best…all mourinho fans where was defensive solidity of your god today….
16. maysam
i thought the game is tomorrow but it was today :)) chelsea 1-0 Protsmous
Frank Lampard 30
17. Anonymous
chelsea is back where it belongs on the TOP of the table….. im happy with the clean sheet this was petr cech 100th clean sheet….
18. Peter jones
Back to the old chelsea style
19. maysam
@Admnois : I told you mourinho won’t start with Belleti . he is a pro manager.
20. Sami Kaka
I am very proud that Chelsea is top of the log. I would like to see Chelsea and Liverpool the top two clubs in England. But 1-0 to Chelsea, they could have done a little better. But just like Liverpool they could’ve done better than 2-0.
(Just for the record I’m a Liverpool fan).
21. Michael
Are we done with the Arjen Robben saga?
22. TrueBlueInd
Really bad performance by chelsea today..The only positive was that we managed a clean sheet..great performance by ashley cole
We are at the top of the table now..We have to improve a lot to stay there..the players have to put in a lill more effort..the desire n determination is there..maybe a lill something extra..maybe just a lill more than 100% effort..maybe just atht lill extra that seperates CHAMPIONS from the rest
Liverpool look really dangerous this season..Arsenal is displaying some steel as well..
Cmon CHELSEA..
23. Midfield_Decider
Hey guys,
I was just passing by and decided to say ‘hi’ to all of my friends I was forced to leave here and to say “LOL” to all of Mourinho-lovers. Ladu Luck will quit him soon. Mark my words.
24. SH.IBRAHIMI
i dont know what is goin on with Sheva he play in midweek n today he wasn’t even in the bench .. good game but we was lucky in the end when Ashly save a 100% goal ..
25. Michael
I don’t think we’ll win any trophies if we keep on playing this rubbish!
26. cancorus
First it feels pretty good to be at the top of the pile, but i think thats not enough. We have been winning by the skin of our teeth, personally i still think the 4-3-3 system of 2004-2005 season is still our best with our midfield, mikel holding and essien and lamps pushing forward with 2 widmen, shaun and malouda. This system in my opinion allows our midfield to create more chances and come into the match more. We can probably revert to 4-4-2 when we want to close the game and hit the opposition on the counter. Anyways lets see what jose does next, until then lets enjoy the ride at the top.
B4 i forget please can someone tell me how mikel fared, im beginning to like him.
27. scott_sinc
midfield_decider is back with his ‘wisdom’ lol. mate, is this how you lead your life, always so ‘positive’, always seeing the ‘brighter side’ of life, always spreading this ‘positive vibes’ and ‘energy’?
for the records, i dont think anyone misses you here! lol!
28. Johnarejr
I read the BBC’s account of the match and saw some highlights. Chelsea has to stop allowing opponents shots at the goal. Ashley saved the points for us. But, Pompey should not have been allowed too many scoring opportunities.
Pizzaro and Malouda have to make the most of their chances. But, heck it may have been just an off game. Frank is showing that he deserves a good contract. Did we have any major injuries?
I saw the Arsenal vs City match. Poor Shmicael. The kid did all he could. Oh, I’m glad that our guys are on the top of the table. But the gooners were bound to score with the amount of chances they had.
29. Blues_Godson
bad game…but glad we’re at the top of the table…hope we stay there till the end….kanu and utaka had a nice game…good for my country
good blog. can’t wait to see this new defensive line up in action!
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