Similar display as the earlier leg. Almost the same number of shots but four of them hit the net this time. Drogba’s goal spree continues and confirms us the top spot in our group.
I didn’t see the match. The text I read about the match tells me we completely controlled the game and Rosenborg hardly got a sniff at the goal. Rosenborg can still get eliminated if Schalke beats Rosenborg in the final leg in December.
I did get to see the goals though. Drogba scored the first one pouncing on a rebound. It was a 30 yard shot from Joe Cole that was parried by the keeper, and Drogba took control and finished it brilliantly amidst lot of challenges around him. Second goal was a mini goal mouth scramble at the end of which Drogba saw the ball at his feet which he finished with authority. For the third Alex took a long direct free kick, where the ball bounced more than once and took minor deflection on its way to the bottom left corner. For the fourth one, Essien smashed one from the edge of the box which was again parried by the keeper only to see Joe Cole tap in at a near-open goal.
Drogba will keep scoring but we need to see Sheva and Pizarro among goals soon. We should see Sheva and Pizarro start in the Valencia match at home. Drogba must have been looking for his champions league hattrick when Avram subbed him at the 68th minute. I guess that was a good decision. The match was already in the pocket so it makes more sense to allow Sheva, Pizarro and Kalou. In fact, he brought on all these three in a space of 5 mins.
Avram Grant after the match:
I told you from the first time, we want to play positive, attacking football and I’m very happy with what’s happened. We have played better from game to game, tactically and good attacking football. We are in the next round and it leaves us in a good position. We are playing good football, and scored four goals. I think we also created many more chances. Most importantly we qualified to the second round, even after we dropped two points in the first game, so I’m happy with that.
Nothing that you did not expect. Almost the same text – ‘we are playing positive football, we are playing good football, we are scoring goals’. Read that last line, that silly cunning line – ‘we qualified . . even after we dropped two points in the first game’. C’mon, it’s getting way too stupid, Mr. Grant! To draw the first of six matches is such a handicap in progressing to the next group? Liverpool lost the first three and are on course to qualify. Now that’s something worth mentioning. At this rate, Avram is certainly not going to win the trust of fans or even the Press.
Last season too, we topped our group despite having mighty Barcelona and Werder Bremen (they just beat Real Madrid tonight) along with us. This season again we top the group and as you know the biggest advantage of winning the group is you get to play the second leg at home in the knockout round. Also, you’ll get a second placed team of any other group, well, that can be tricky. Arsenal finished second this time and Roma too. We still have to see which other teams (may be Liverpool, Real Madrid etc) finish second spot and be a probable challenge.
For now, let’s just look at the West Ham game.
44 Responses - Add your comment!
We looked awesome. Great performances from just about everybody, especially Drogba and Cudicini.
The team played withh fantastic chemistry. I want to say it has something to do with playing Makelele and Essien behind Lampard, but we looked better than I have seen in some time. Fantastic.
somthing that crosed my mind
its the first time they play with blue after few games
it looks better in any sence
BC
you are borring!!!
not much about the great game ?? only about what avram say
any manager of a good team as yours would tell you he wants to win any game no matter where,
13 games the guy dosent lose and you are all over him , what will happend when he loses??
i bet that will be the longest post ever.
Why do people expect Grant to give them some insightful commentary? Its not his job to enlighten the fans or the newspapers, its his job to make his team play as best they can. He repeats the same thing? So what, if you want a detailed analysis there are enough blabbermouth writers who’ll no doubt give it to you.
BC is right. Avram needs to stop with the attacks on Jose. Although congrats to Chelsea!
very good win!!! cheers
BC is spot on, its the same diatribe from him after every game – he kept his mouth shut a little against Derby but opened it wide again here because we managed to beat a frankly dire Rosenborg who allowed us acres of space to move and pass and control the game.
Derby were tougher opposition at the weekend than this rabble. But yet again we are playing much more attractive, attacking football then we ever did under Mourinho and his new way is the right way to play – does the man ever change the record?
And I see he carries on about the dropped points against Rosenborg as if this was some enormous handicap to us winning the group but totally ignores the fact that Chelsea dropped another 2 points against Schalke in a poor display under HIS stewardship when we could have secured qualification – but of course that would be his fault and we have to try and blame Mourinho for everything while we can.
Drawing against Rosenborg did not really hamper our chances to qualify unduly, but according to Grant its a miracle we made it through.
We had the same number of chances in the game at Stamford Bridge as here but lousy finishing and no Drogba/Lampard plus a much sturdier Rosenborg cost us a win then.
I saw the entire game tonight and as Ray Wilkins said after the game that he felt that whether it was under Grant or Mourinho the result would have been no different the team could attack at will because the opposition just let them do it and he thought it was a very impressive performance.
I’ve never seen such an easy win in the CL for a long time, Rosenborg were awful and yes we looked great but surely there will be tougher tests that this because they looked every inch the poor side they are meant to be today. They were toothless in attack, let us totally control the midfield and their defence was creaking. Drogba was wonderful as ever, Joe Cole was very good, in fact all the players were untroubled tonight such was the ease of our victory. Rosenborg hardly troubled Carlo or our defence all night such was our dominance.
How they beat Valencia home and away I will never know – not if their performance tonight was anything to go by.
Keep it up BC on your comments on Grant and his stupid digs – at least someone is sensible enough to point out how ridiculous he sounds when he comes out with this bizarre stuff. I like your reviews and your honesty for not banging some kind of drum for Grant no matter what he says or does without examining it first to see if it is fair comment. And with Grant it is hardly ever fair, just constant harping on about how difficult and unattractive things were under Mourinho but are now so much better because of him.
At least when the next stage of the CL comes around in January he can’t blame Mourinho any more it will be on his head the results.
Congrats to the players tonight, they did Chelsea proud.
Good Win AG !
Now I will write something like he says:
The importance , the presence/ the absence and will to win of Drogba and Lampard to Chelsea are very much evident when we compare the two games against Rosenburg .
Bring on Real Madrid !
I was actually quite shocked that Drogba was left on as long as he was. He took a pounding out there, and at various times seemed to be struggling with his back, knee, and hip. I’d have had him off at halftime, personally, once we were three up.
I thought Shevchenko was marginally better than he was against Derby, but he was wasteful on two occasions. Still, he did tee up Essien for the shot that led to the fourth goal, so some credit should be given. Kalou looked god-awful, and even when he got something right (beating his man once), he promptly made the terrible decision to shoot from an acute angle and hit the ball over by about 10 meters.
Totally decent game from Chelsea. The early goal took Rosenborg right out of it, though their fans were in good voice all game. That was nice.
We very easily could have had 7 goals tonight. I don’t know if this is a remnant of the “boring” Chelsea but I am growing impatient with the number of back-passes and midfield triangle drills that go on, even when the opportunity to break out and counter comes along. Sometimes a good push forward is better than waiting for your opponent to make a mistake.
Also, Kalou needs to play less. I can’t help the feeling that he is inhibiting Sheva’s improvement. I see good signs from him, especially the last two games, but his service combined with Kalou’s cockups are clearly driving him, as well as myself, absolutely nuts. I know we want to develop him and give him time with the first team, but he is young and is going to Africa in January. Let the team gel with Sheva up top and perhaps we would be pleasantly surprised once Drogba leaves.
I’ll get to the game in a sec. Firstly though. When will you guys give Avram a friggin’ break?! Stop breaking down every single word he says and give the man some bloody respect! No, I’m not his greatest fan, but for crying out loud he has led Chelsea to 13 games unbeaten in a row, we are the top of our Champions League group and he has put us into a strong position in the Premiership. I’m not saying that Jose would not have done this, all I am saying is that AVRAM GRANT has done this and we should give him the credit he deserves! Instead, BC and most (not all) of the commenters here tear his comments and his good start at Chelsea to shreds. Just leave the man alone and let him be, yeah?
Now, onto the game. Brilliant. Complete domination, only a few times did Rosenborg manage to counter attack us, and what do you expect with the likes of Skjelbred and Youssuf Kone on their team. Makelele and Essien in the centre were pure class, allowed barely anything to go beyond them. I think some of the players, like Essien and Kalou, need to pass the ball more when they are in the attacking position, rather than shoot most of the time. Sure, have a good shot when you can, but sometimes the pass was clearly the better option and we could have won 5-0 or 6-0 easily if they did. The style of football has changed under Grant, I can see a change. Yet there is definitely another, higher gear that Chelsea can play at and I don’t know why they don’t up the anti a little in some games. If we were to play in this ‘higher gear’, sure we would risk a bit defensively, but with JT, Alex and Riccy as our 3 top central defenders, we can risk. And if we did play this football, we would see much more attacking domination, a better to the eye brand of football. Man of match most probably Drogba with the two goals. Oh, by the way, what about the commitment shown by Shaun Wright-Phillips when he set up Drogs’ second! Determined to keep position with that sizzling run. Great stuff there.
avram is a very cunning man. thats what his image is, in israel too.
nubskeh . . . grant has weakened us in the premier league. we never loitered in the 4th or the 5th place under jose.
@ BC ,,now we r into the knock out stages, we can be drawn against any one who finishes second but it cant be against liverpool or arsenal, even if they finish second, i think UEFA has this rule not to draw teams from the same country as well as the same group.
oops! i think you’re right CFC!!
@13…
Under Jose we lost points to Villa, Lpool, Rovers….under new coach we lost points to ManU,Fulham and Everton…points dropped were equal….how can u say new coach has weakened the team….get rid of ur Jose-glasses….
@11…
great points…..
BTW I have an observation which I think found strong support yesterday….SWP makes amazing runs on flank but he loses all steam just outside box and then makes poor crosses…yesterday his contribution to second goal was more from middle where he could easily dribble past players and then could easily spot other Chelsea players…won’t it be better if he is played as a central attacking midefielder…I think this position suits his play much better and more importantly he can definitely provide more flair to our attack from middle….
lets jst say this blog hardly discusses football any longer, lets just talk about what Avram says and how that contradicts lord of the universe, *yawn*, ppl need to grow up………………
hahahahah I think Avaram is the main topic of discussion now, i dont whom i shud agree with, as BC said, he does keeps talking about this playing good football and good movement, may be its jus his way of expressing things, he probably just wanted to tell, we are playing good football since media always criticize us for playing defensive football, but take nothing away from him, hes a very clever guy and he knows wat hes doing, i would like to see more of what he did yesterday, substutions, giving everyone a chance, when we are winning, keep defence tight and give the regulars a rest and bring in subs. i think after what he said, he has an eye for champions league than the league titile. todays sun reports anelka wants a move to blues and i think he could be on his way to stamford bridge if Fergie didnt pull any strings in between.
Now Man utd are gonna get miguel veloso from sporting, eveyone keeps complaining about chelsea spending a lot of money, i dont see any media crucifying MAn utd . why is that ??? they spent a fortune this season so as liverpoool and rafa wants more money during jan. and did anyone read about adebayor saying arsenal might be tempted to let him go if real madrid came with a 100 million hahahahahahaha, is he dreaming ?lol
the best chelsea game i have enjoyed this season. energetic all the way throughout the match and closing down properly.
would have loved to see us take more of the counter attack chances. Drogba, lamps, essien, J cole were superb.
joeblue the saint. we know about intelligence level. what do u know abt football? go follow cricket.
intelligence level??? where did that cm from?? well Mister mister keep ur mouth to urself and dont put ur head into matters u r not wanted into……….’follow cricket’, for a fact i can tell u that i surely know a thousand times more abt football than u, when i wld want instructions, i wldnt ask u.rest assured. now please get back to whatever u do(if there is anythin in the first place) and stop worryin abt me!!
joeblue you’re very boring . .
Bella:
I would like to hear more from you, Bella.
Bella, why don’t you tell us how come, since you’re a woman that you know your bit about fooball?
I thought woman were puzzled by the fact, that men enjoy watching other men kicking a ball, so why aren’t you reading the latest Celeb Magazine?
I think that your comments are brilliant and we would love it if you beame a regular!
Joeblue:
Joeblue, mate I enjoy your comments always put a smile on face, because you always seem to turn the complete 360 degrees and make a story out of absolutely nothing.
I think you would have a great future in writing as a journalist or even better, why not write novels and you could maybe become at least a tenth as wealthy as your idol, Roman Abromavich?
What happened to Maysam?
Hey thanks Michael and I may just become a regular and I love my football, especially Chelsea football!
This blog is a great place and I like to see that everyone gets on even if they have different opinions to BC – respect that’s the key.
And Nitesh, you’re right playing under Jose we dropped points to Villa, Pool and Blackburn – I don’t argue that but like BC said what annoys me about Grant is that he acts as if he took over a side that was in desparately in trouble down the foot of the table and he has singlehandedly turned it around. Do you know where we were when Jose left us? 5th and 2 points off the leaders which were Liverpool I believe. And now? We are 4th and 5 points off the lead! Some massive change huh? So yes Jose cost us points but so has Grant to Man Utd, Fulham and Everton – so lets be fair here, Grant has contributed just as much to our current position in the table as Jose did for good and bad.
I don’t want to be unfair to Grant about his pre and post match comments but his constant barbs about our poor start to the season and previous poor play grate with me. Jose never carried on about Ranieri in the same way as Grant now does about Jose after every game now did he? Grant has been a very lucky guy in being able to walk in and take over a fantastic team that were only 2 points off the leaders and we were only in September. Jose did not play dire football and I resent his implication that we did. Sure it wasn’t always pretty at times but in the first two years of his reign I thought we played really well generally.
I see Grant is now saying that we should just concentrate of the Champions League – I think this is a huge mistake, I know Roman wants this more than anything but it is a cup competition and we could go out at any time and then have nothing to show for our season. Jose left us in a perfectly GOOD position in the league as I have shown so lets build on that shall we?
All I ask is that Grant stop pretending that we were left in some kind of shambles by Jose when we clearly were not. He did not take over Spurs!!
I respect other people’s views on this blog even if I don’t agree with them well let Grant show some respect to our former manager please, that’s all I ask. And stop saying things that are totally misleading.
As for talking about Grant rather than this game, well it was dull and very poor competitively at least from Rosenborg so what else is there to talk about?
Bella:
What a woman?
Wow!
Bella:
Sorry you’re new, so that probably means that you don’t know about KAFDA?
That might be the reason why we all get along!
I’ll be more simple!
KAFDA is the moderator of this blog and if you insult or abuse another blueschampions user, he’ll ban you for a short period!
Hiya there all,
I sat up the whole night and watched the match in Trondheim.
I say : Chelsea was real good that match against a very poor Rosenberg.
I hope we get thrillers in the knock-out rounds cos that match on the whole was boring…..
my…confession….after the first goal… I flipped channels and watched Liverpuddle n Sporting….
I am sorry … I don’t know what devil got into my head or should I say fingers..
Maybe it was AG’s….. hangdog expression
As for football discussions : Joeyblue … buddy u think we need or will get a new striker in January ?
Aguante Chelsea¡¡¡
Se la revanca siempre. Para mi los mejores jugadores son LAMPARD, SHEVCHENKO, TERRY, DROGBA. Lastima que ROBBEN se fue a Real Madrid.
Justo cuando termino el partido tube la camiseta de chelsea.
Espero que gane la UEFA Champions League y la final contra liverpool asi le ganamos 4 a 0.
Vamos CHELSEA¡¡¡
I dont understand the guy above me but if he didn’t write :
Viva Chelsea ,
he could be must be swearing at us .
Kafka do something abt that, we are being assaulted in a strange language !
@26….
did i say that Grant has brought a seachange for positive…no I didn’t…I was just reacting to comment@13 which says team has deteriorated under Grant…so whatever u say for me is just like jumping to the gun….
@ 32′s comment———hey i dont think hes swearing. if anyone knows spanish, might be able to tell, but one thing is sure, hes upset robben left for real madrid ..hahaha
with my littile knowledge of spanish i think hes praising those players but i am not 100 percent sure, why he uses the word son before lamps,, may be hes swearing at them, hahahahhaha, this is fun, i think hes a blue fan..
as per google @ 32 means….
Hold Chelsea ¡¡
It revanca ever. For me the best players are LAMPARD, SHEVCHENKO, TERRY, DROGBA. Lastima ROBBEN who went to Real Madrid.
Just when you finish the match tube T-shirt chelsea.
We CHELSEA ¡¡
UEFA Champions League y la final contra liverpool asi le ganamos 4 a 0.
- i think he means, we should meet liv in CL final and we will beat them 4-0
or vice versa:)
@Michael Mariens
dude i think its the English hons effect on me(thogh i havnt touched my books yet…….ummm)……….lol, anways 1/10 as rich as RA…..wow, why not??
Law, here i come, i get enugh practise for all that argument stuff on this blog and then my dad keeps tellin me i m nt serious enugh…lol!!!
@Joseholiday
mate i really think we need a striker, i mean how long can Drog keep scorin, and what wld happen if he gets injured(god forbid), and when he wld go for the africa nations cup?? My bet wld be on Huntelaar, looks just the kind to hit it big in EPL, but Anelka shld be on top of our priority list, he is the kind of player we need, and hes lookin on top of his game at the moment………………..
@38 completely agree with u, we need a striker, depending too much on drogba, when hes playing, we look like a different team. I am not sure about anelka, not that hes not good enough, hes different class, but hes very much like drogba, if hes fired up then hes unplayable, but he can be very lazy at times, and do we need a striker whose 28, costing around 15 million pounds. but one thing is sure he will score goals, once drogba is back from african cup him and anelka upfront, would be lethal. does avaram grant hav the ability to get the best out of anelka if chelsea buys him during janury has to be seeen.
other option would be like u said, huntelaar, hes class, obviously his name itself has a klass in it, very much like ruud vanister roy, deadly in and around the box and very young, and am sure ajax would sell him if chelsea put a serious offer. have to wit till jan and see who gets the nod.
i think AG is doing a great job with the team. yes, he may not be as flamboyant as JM but he’s letting the team do the talking, on the pitch. Over some period we become the media’s “hate-team”. Harly any good thing was said of us. Now though, we r slightly off the media radar and only catch the attention cos we r playing well. Hope we do the same against the hammers. Go Chelsea
and i still think Sheva will come good, he’s a proven striker through and through.
unfortunately under JM his confidence took a beating . he’ll hit his form soon
finnaly AG diddnt play 4-3-3 and the game was much better. i hope he learned 4-3-3 is less attacking in most of the cases. dont know why he put in 3 strikers at the end the played like crap all of them. anyway im happy we won. Go blues
i mean kalou sheva and pizza played like crap rest of them played great
I have major doubts abt Sheva
He WAS a great player.but now …..
Why can’t he crank up his engine even once in a while ?
Why Why Why not,Why can he not show glimpses f his old self ?
It was suppose to be JM ‘s fault that he was sidelined, depressed, raped whatever….. but what the fook now ?