News - Written by BlueChampion on Saturday, October 20, 2007 13:21 | 1,160 Views | 19 Comments | Add Comment
Middlesbrough vs Chelsea | 20-Oct-07 @ 15:00 UK
Crucial decider at the Riverside today. About 10 points behind and it’s only October. Now every match is a decider. I feel sorry for Avram Grant. May be, he is really a decent coach, but he’s got a real tough job to do. From another perspective, I don’t have to feel sorry for him as he is in his honeymoon period in a dreamland, as far as his ‘illustrious’ career goes. He must be really happy that he is in charge of a team like Chelsea. That must have been lifetime ambition or something, to coach a team of this magnitude.
So Drogba wants to leave, or he always wanted to leave or he never wanted to come here. I won’t despise him. I love Drogba. As I’ve always said Drogba is the true symbol of Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea - the power, the arrogance, the strength, the determination, the directness and the eternally unsung and undermined skills and creativity. I never thought he would continue for long, after his ‘mentor and spiritual father’ was forced to leave Chelsea.
Some of us hated him when he said about his leaving. But I don’t see a problem with what he said. After all, he has the balls to be honest and say what he wanted to say. What about those players who feel the same way and kiss the badge when they score? There are many many players who play for reasons other than the honour of the club’s colours. Most of Arsenal players have said that they would be there until Arsene Wenger is there. Players join clubs to get champions league experience. How much of an honour is it for the club? Let’s get over this. Players are not saints. They join clubs and stay with clubs for various reasons and as they see these reasons disappear or become redundant, they look for a future elsewhere.
Drogba also followed up with a more political statement of the official website:
On reflection, I regret making the comments I made in a recent interview public at this time. I am a Chelsea player and will be 100 per cent committed and supportive to my manager, my team-mates and the club. I will not be discussing my future any further until I meet privately with the club at the end of the season.
Drogba has confirmed that he is here for the whole season while Chelsea FC expects him to see out his contract. So, the common minimum denominator seems to be the end of this season, if not any longer. You can’t really believe these words as much as you would like to. The thoery around the timing of Jose’s sacking is that Roman had decided already to sack Jose. He didn’t do it in pre-season fearing a mass exodus in the transfer window. There’s also a theory that Chelsea FC did not want to see unrenewed season tickets and that’s why Jose’s sacking for done few weeks into the new season. So, it was a combination of football and finances. If there’s any truth here, Avram Grant must have known months back that he would be in charge of Chelsea in September. Here I am talking again about Jose’s exit. May be I’ll never quit talking about this episode.
Meanwhile Avram has responded to Drogba’s comments.
I know that it is not the first time he has said it. But I have not seen him yet. I need to do that first. It is internal business. I cannot tell you anything. I have read many things that were not true about problems in the dressing room. I am very happy with the atmosphere and the attitude of the players.
Again here is where I see the insecure Avram always trying to suggest that (i) things are fine or/and (ii) things were never fine even before he came. I’m sure he would have met him today and discussed with him on this and he’s not going to tell us anything. Avram has an option of taking offence of Drogba’s comments and not playing him but he cannot afford to drop points so he would rather compromise on anything but points.
Coming back to this match, Drogba and Mikel are available after their red card bans. Wayne Bridge is serving his second match of the red card in a reserve match. Terry is out for three weeks and Ashley Cole out for a month. That makes a case for Ben Haim’s inclusion. It could be Carvalho, Alex, Belletti and Ben Haim, at the back. I’d put Lampard at left midfield, Mikel in the centre and Essien on the right. The front three would be the Ivorian rebel supported by Malouda and Joe Cole. Avram should be ably supported by Ten Cate making his Chelsea debut. You can chat about this match in the chatroom as well.
Let’s put this match in perspective. It’s terribly scary to realise where we could be, if we don’t win this match. Villa and Newcastle are just a point behind with a match in hand. If we fail to win today, we would be right there somewhere in the midtable, closely chased by our new rivals such as Reading and Birmingham City. Hoping for nicer things - Drogba to play and score. 1-0 for Chelsea.
[tags]Chelsea, Middlesbrough, Boro, Avram Grant, Jose Mourinho, Roman Abramovich, Premier League, Didier Drogba, Drogba, Terry, Ashley Cole[/tags]
19 Comments
1. motson
2. Owonatty
This will be my team line up for today’s match against Middlesbrough
—————————–Cech——————————-
Belleti——-Carlvaho——Alex————–Ferreira
————Makalele—————
Essien——————————————Lampard
JoeCole Maoluda
——————Drogba—————
Bench :- Cudicini, Kalou, Shevy,Swp and Ben Haim
No luck for Pizzaro and Sinclair
I believe we win by a goal and a clean sheet.
Up Blues
3. True Blue Fusion
@BC
Players are not saint………………..i know of it………..but there’s some decency involved…………..look at henry,robben……….how they left on good terms
4. mike ayad
this is my team
——————-cech—————-
belletti—–carvalho——alex—–ferreira
—————————————–
——————mikel—————–
——-essien—————lampard—–
—————————————–
——SWP——————malouda—-
—————–Drogba——————–
TBF
Drogba was indecent but was honest. Sometimes honesty and eccentricity go together. He said he wanted to leave. He is not the first player and won’t be the last player in football to say that. And please dont compare his interview with Henry’s.
Henry said in May 2006 that he would be in Arsenal for life. He fumed at the Barca players after the champs league, questioned how mysteriously Barca got all the right decisions, asked if referee was wearing a Barca jersey and finally even said that he would not join Barca. Then he kept saying that he was ‘currently an Arsenal player’. Next season, new league, new challenge.
I’m not blaming Henry but Drogba spoke from his heart. May be he was wrong but he was honest. For us fans, he at least cleared up certain things about the support avram has and how the players feel.
For the records, I’m yet hear Drogba utter the words ‘avram’ or ‘grant’!!!
6. mike ayad
why does everyone like piking 4-3-2-1 formations?
The best and most attacking formation is the 4-4-2 which all the entertaining teams use like - liverpool, arsenal and man utd.
When jose promised more attacking play he chose the 4-4-2 and it wasnt too bad either it was very attacking. so i regret picking the 4-3-2-1 so:
THIS IS MY TEAM FOR TODAY:
—————cech——————-
–belletti—carvalho—-alex—-ferreira-
—————————————
–SWP—–essien—-lampard—malouda
—————————————
———–drogba——shevchenko—-
7. Owonatty
Official Line ups.
Chelsea will line-up in a 4-3-3 formation as follows:
1 Petr Cech
35 Juliano Belletti
33 Alex
6 Ricardo Carvalho
20 Paulo Ferreira
12 John Mikel Obi
5 Michael Essien
8 Frank Lampard (c)
10 Joe Cole
15 Didier Drogba
15 Florent Malouda
Substitutes: 23 Carlo Cudicini, 22 Tal Ben-Haim, 9 Steve Sidwell, 24 Shaun Wright-Phillips, 7 Andriy Shevchencko.
Middlesbrough are expected to line-up in the following 4-4-2 formation:
Schwarzer; Young, Woodgate, Riggott, Taylor; Boateng (c); O’Neil, Rochemback, Downing; Tuncay, Mido.
Subs: Turnball, Wheater, Cattermole, Craddock, Lee.
I wonder why there is no Kalou or Pizzaro on bench. I hope for a 1-0 win
Up Blues
8. Sumesh
@Mike Ayad: Somebody just said that 4-4-2 is the best strategy. Yeah right - when you have rock-solid defence with Terry, Carvalho in CB and in form.
Right now, we have neither of them, and putting our money on Carvalho+Alex is a bit far fetched. Don’t you think so, guys?
@BlueChamp: Have you monetized this site? I am a tech blogger+Chelsea fan myself, and I can tell you, non-tech sites like this have big chance of money from AdSense. Try it!
PS: I am from India too…but Chelsea fans are a bit low in India - its Reds and LPool fans all over 
9. Sumesh
Here’s something for all true Blues to consider: (a post in forum)
10. blueboy
drogba scores, lampard assist
cech with a nice save against mido, mido should have scored…
11. Sumesh
Chelsea 1-0 Borough, still.
Drogs scored, with a throughball from Lamps.
12. Sumesh
Chelsea 2-0 borough.
13. Maysam
Fantastic result with a good performance.
For those of you whom labeled me pessimistic, I predicted 2-0 for chelsea this time and fortunately I was right. I had many reasons for that.
Although Boro had not won in his last 5 games, They had scored in every single of them, so we did a great job with our clean sheet while J.Terry and Ashly were injured.
Cech : two fantastic saves.
Belletti : I believe he was better in his first days in Chelsea.
Alex : Unbelievable free kick, wonderful goal. He is gaining his confidence. Some great tackles
Carvaliho: Solid as usuall, he is great.
Ferreira : acceptable performance as a LEFT back. But we need Bridge or Ashly.
Mikel : Great performance, that’s why we did not need Lessana Diara anymore.
Essien : acceptable but not his best.
Lampard : assist the first goal, somewhat calm because of his injury.
Malouda : Not Bad.
J.Cole : run 90 minutes.
Drogba : he scored the first goal , good performance.
Everton 1-2 Liverpool ( Kuyt two penalty kick )
Now I am going to watch Manchester – Aston Vialla
14. CFC
How on earth did everton didnt win a penalty ?
chelsea great win. good for drogba to score after his comments.
and c ronaldo on bench for man utd guess wat 1-0 to villa, agbonlahore wid a header huhuhuhuhuh……………….
15. Rileywo
4-0 chelsea
16. cfc-n-me
Malouda was very poor today, Alex was excellent his goal his tackles didnt put a foot wrong and manof the match for me, we need bridgy on the left never mind ashley, wayne should be out first choice at LB he has excellent attacking skills and last but not least Sheva had 8mins and i know its only 8mins on the pitch but he was poor gives nothin to the game in shape of attackin.
17. Maysam
Th ref in Manchester- Aston Villa game forgot to bring his yellow card so he just showed red card :))
18. CFC
oh this is disgrace now, how can Mr rafa moan when we had a very dubious penalty given and now he’s like ohh its referyys decision and we have to go with it, and the ref denied 2 good very good penalty claims bringing lescott down in box twice, and did u see the great stevie g going to ref and askin to card red instead of yellow, this is total disgrace. dirk kuyt going in with flying tackle and doesnt even get a yellow card but mikel gets a red for going in with one foot challenge even though he did try to pull away from the tackle. the refs needs to be consistant for god sake,
as far as chelsea i think we are playing quiet well with littile passes and movements, bring in some more players during janury, def we need some strikers, sheva plsssssssssssssss stay away from the bench, pretend ur injuredd and get paid , pls don play, absolute waste. If drogs and kalou gone for african cup of nations, who will score goals ??? Pizzaro and sheva i doubt it very much.(Pizz might he’s not that bad infact), but def need some young forward with pace upfront.
19. Middlesbrough vs Chelsea | 20-Oct-07 @ 15:00 UK | Chelsea
[...] (more…) [...]
avram has no excuses of team morale or whatever. he should win and should keep doing it. i want drogba to score and talk to the press after the win! lol!
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