Matches, Premier League - Written by BlueChampion on Monday, December 31, 2007 23:35 | 997 Views | 36 Comments | Add Comment
Fulham vs Chelsea | 01-Jan-08 @ 12:45 UK
Wish you all a very happy new year. As always, let’s hope that this year bring us more joy and prosperity than the bygone one. What a match on the new year day! The West London derby kicks off around noon time tomorrow. Though they are in relegation zone, they’ve got a new manager, who got them a precious away point last week.
Cech, Cudicini, Malouda and Shevchenko are still out. I’ve come up with a 4-1-4-1 formation for this match. In defence, I’d play Paulo Ferreira in central defence instead of Ben Haim. Our defence would be protected by Mikel as the holding midfielder. It’s not clear yet when the players are leaving for ACN. We should be making the best use of whatever time available from the players leaving for ACN. Central midfield should be manned by Essien and Ballack. Malouda is still mysteriously injured. Probably this is the best opportunity for Sinclair to make a start. I really really hope that he starts. This boy’s got pace, power and skill. If he doesn’t get to play even now, probably he should be on loan.
Fulham could manage only two clean sheets so far this season, of which one was at the Stamford Bridge. This thing called ‘impressing the new manager’ is always there. Players do give that extra bit when there is a new man, that is if they like to play under him. So I discount the fact that they are in one of their worst runs ever in their premier league history.
Man Utd plays Birmingham which means we have to win today. I’m just pegging ourselves to the second place team as that’s our objective is to improve from third to second in the table. It’s just 4 points between us and Man Utd which looks like a weekend’s worth. If Chelsea wins and Man Utd lose in a weekend, we’re almost there. So simple it may sound. On the other side if the reverse happens, we’d find it tough in the next 6 weeks with new players and all that. It’s almost certain that Grant is going to get a bunch of 3 or 4 players this month.
The rumour has been about Anelka all the while. Personally, I’d prefer Berbatov over Anelka any day. Berb not only scores loads but also creates for others. He can be more difficult to mark due to his skills whereas Anelka is more about pace and finish. For our kind of game, Berbatov would be a better bet. His agent has spoken to the media that Berb is looking for a club that could match his ambition. If we make a move, that could be interesting for both sides.
BBC Sports predicts a 1-1 draw, but I’d go for 0-1 win for Chelsea. How much ever Fulham tries and whatever be the injury list at Chelsea, we have superior quality that should take us through 4 out of 5 times. Again, I’ll be happy if Sinclair starts and happiest if he scores.
You know what, I’ve become a football manager. Now you should get curious and read this.
WISH YOU ALL A GREAT & PROSPEROUS 2008
36 Comments
1. Niko
2. CFC
@BC, happy new year.
well we go into new year against fulham, expecting a thrilling match against the team in relegation zone, since we are not anymore boring chelsea, we are the entertainers, expecting a lot of goals,(from chelsea). seems like A cole is back from suspenson. sheva still out.
Seems like chelsea has almsot signed anelka. and berbatov wants to move to a bigger club, do anyone see a chance chelsea going for berba ?
3. Quark
Go Pizarro!!!
4. Michael Mariens
Hi Guys
I haven’t visited this blog for a few days now!
As the days grow longer the more I see myself visiting this website less and less and yes you guessed it less!
I didn’t bother to watch the Chelea vs Aston Villa game but I saw the highlights Chelsea continue to struggle against Villa.
I also didn’t bother to watch the Chelsea vs Newcastle game but I saw the highlights and that goal should have been disallowed Kalou was clearly off-side the LINESMAN must have been watching another match!
PLEASE REQUEST:
Can anyone please tell me, why I should still be watching Football?
5. Den
i will go with a 4-3-3, sinclair came on against newcastle and when he came on he inpressed so he shl strat for me.
—————-Hilario—————–
–Beletti–Alex–Ben-Haim–Bridge
—————-Mikel—————–
——–Essien——Ballack——-
—Cole——————-Sinclair
—————Pizzarro———-
Prediction: 4-0 to chelsea
6. CFC
@ BC well sun sports has reported CHELSEA will make a £26million swoop for Dimitar Berbatov this month. wud be brilliant if its anywer true, but its sun after all so i doubt it very much, and some other paper has reported anelka wud be signed before saturday.
7. True Blue Fusion
@BC
You stole my words……….i don’t want villa,etoos and the like………………just a pure berbatov………….exceptional class……………and a god damn pure finisher like huntelaar……………..
8. True Blue Fusion
Even ruthless media feels for this guy…………review of newcastle game fom the mirror
So, you’ve inherited a club in turmoil, and lost just two games out of 22.
You’re six points off the top of the league, have a belter of a Champions League draw, and you are also in the Carling Cup semis.
And all this with a team missing its entire spine. At any other club, in any other league, you might expect a bit of respect.
Instead, you take off two tiring players and have your intelligence questioned by thousands of your own fans, while the bloke standing next to you is applauded by supporters who were demanding his sacking four days earlier.
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Welcome to the mad world of Avram Grant. Welcome to Chelsea.
The irony that substitutes Scott Sinclair and Claudio Pizarro, whose arrivals brought the choruses of “You don’t know what you’re doing”, played key roles in the ridiculously offside winner by Salomon Kalou may not have been lost on Grant.
Yet the Israeli takes it all on the chin with a calmness and stoicism that explains why he was asked by Roman Abramovich to replace former boss Jose Mourinho.
And as Sam Allardyce justifiably fumed at the scandalous decision by assistant referee Mike Cairns that cost his side a point, Grant simply suggested the real Chelsea fans were the ones who kept their own counsel. “I think the fans feel excited like everybody else,” said Grant. “They saw we were playing good football and were thinking it would be 3-0 to us. Then suddenly it was back to 1-1. They want to win.
“The fans have been sending me letters and reminding me what happened last Christmas, that because we had injuries we couldn’t cope and lost too many points.
“I think they were just excited at the situation. But I’m not complaining about the fans or their support. They are behind us.”
Not too sure about that one, Avram. The truth is that if Chelsea won the Premier League and Champions League Double this season, many of them will give eternal thanks to Mourinho.
And if they lost the first on goal difference and the other on a penalty shoot-out, you can bet your bottom dollar that they will all to a man blame the Israeli.
Mourinho deserves his place in the hearts of every Chelsea fan. He took a club that viewed under-achievement as a birthright and turned them into the dominant domestic force.
But in his last 14 games, Mourinho picked up 25 points, five fewer than Grant in his first 14. Last Christmas, with an injury list that pales to insignificance compared to the one the Israeli is suffering, Mourinho’s side blew the title.
On Saturday, only Michael Essien - who scored the first of the three ugly goals that summed up the contest - and Joe Cole of the starting XI would be guaranteed a place in Grant’s first-choice team.
No Cech, Terry, Lampard or Drogba. No Makelele, Carvalho or Ashley Cole either, with Shevchenko also missing.
All that explained the defensive uncertainties that should have been exploited by Obafemi Martins in the first half and eventually was as Wayne Bridge’s desperation to prevent either the Nigerian or Nicky Butt prodding home saw him put through his own net.
But after carving out a host of chances in the opening period - where Michael Ballack looked increasingly assured - and missing a series of close-range headers in the second, Kalou was somehow allowed to stab home from a starting position at least three yards behind the last Newcastle defender.
Grant, whose casualty count mounted with Florent Malouda facing another month out after aggravating his knee injury in training on Friday, accepted the gift without a murmur.
“I want this sort of luck when we play s**t, to win the game,” said Grant. “This one we deserved to win anyway but after so much bad news, it was good to win like that.
“Given all the problems, it shows the spirit we have. Sometimes you talk about that but don’t show it on the pitch. I can’t pretend it was great football but you could see the team wanted to win and created chances.
“We missed too many easy ones. If you look at the last two or three years, what made Chelsea champions for two years and United champions last year was that they were teams that didn’t miss chances.
“If you want to be top of the table, you have to score a greater percentage of chances than we do. If we’re going to win the title we have to become more clinical. You cannot fail to hit the target or score from five yards or seven yards, like we have been doing.”
Essien, who could not miss his sitter after a fortunate ricochet off Kalou, believes the title could return to the Bridge despite the carnage that will force a major spending spree next month, headed by Nicolas Anelka.
“We are still in the race and anything can happen,” said the Ghanaian. “We have to keep believing that we can do it, we have to work really hard and try to win our matches.”
And Grant predicted: “If we’re in the same position as we are now when the players come back from Africa and their injuries, then it will be very good for us.
“If we’re there I think we can win it. We need to show, like we have done, a lot of spirit and character, and also, when you show good football like we did in the first half, to score the goals and not create problems for ourselves.”
Do all that and maybe, just maybe, the Stamford Bridge fans might chant Grant’s name. But don’t count on it. Avram isn’t.
TBF - I will say ‘Welcome to the world of Chelsea FC’. The treatment to a legendary manager who won us back to back titles was not any special. For all that he did for us, he was sacked unceremoniously. After 6 trophies if that’s how we are going to treat JM, Avram should be prepared for anything. It’s his choice (or plan) to get to this hot seat.
If you respect and believe Mirror, I have nothing more to tell you.
10. gaffer
truebluefushion do a search and read the comments made by the fans in this very blog same time last year. no one spared jose then and no spares avram now. if jose got that kind of stick, avram will get crucified, rightfully so.
11. True Blue Fusion
@BC
*The treatment to a legendary manager who won us back to back titles was not any special. For all that he did for us, he was sacked unceremoniously.
didn’t the god[for you] said that he chose to leave cfc by mutual consent………….and didn’t you bring out a guardian article………….what’s wrong in my using the mirror………….if you can believe in the likes of guardian then what’s wrong in my using the mirror………………..and anyways it has no controversy or breaking news.
*After 6 trophies if that’s how we are going to treat JM, Avram should be prepared for anything. It’s his choice (or plan) to get to this hot seat.
i refrained from using the term before but now i have to…………….3 trophies[2 carling community shield]are mickey mouse cups………man u and le’ rse play their third string team…………..the likes of 11 Sinclair………..pool’s plays 1 2 3 rd string…………………………but in mickey mouse cups we play with our best 11………….1st string and that too against the like of wycombe at Stamford
that leaves three trophies……….full credit but it’s not extraordinary with the cash he had to spend and the winning team created by rainieri………….
what jose brought to cfc………..u want to know
1.players bought at inflated price………read drogba,essien,Mikel and SWP…………now we can’t get a player without shelling out ridiculous amount of money even if we want to.
2.no flair or creative player wants to come to Chelsea………..except those who are nearing their career end……………and want to earn[read ronaldinho,ballack,shevchenko]………..Ricardo kaka has officially stated that in epl he will only like to play with man utd or arsenal[yes the same team which has won nothing for last 3 years.]……….he did not even mention Chelsea as an option…………..even guys like modric have decided to stay at their club just in hope that barca will come calling in summer when they replace ronaldinho and deco………or wenger may be interested………….have you ever heard of a player who says i dream of playing for Chelsea except the Africans[no racism intended] or those who don’t have a chance of making to a big club.
3.with his stupid comments and post match conference…………he has made us an object of ridicule……………………laughter and mock…………with comments like”better team lost”
12. Jo
therefore…in other to attract exciting creative talents like modric vander waat…we need to start playing beautiful football….and the team need a change…b4 buying…players need to be sold to guarentee more playing time….if berbatov were to come…drogba can be sold…
berbatov can play wif sheva…if chelsea were to do this…maybe it shows tt chelsea are determined to change their way of playing…chelsea have to play gd football for every match…and winning…nt by a small margin…this will then inspire other creative players to come chelsea so they will be able to add on to the flair…
13. Jo
the worrying thing is tt how chelsea packed creative players into their midfield when their midfield are filled with gr8 players already…mikel,essien,lampard,ballack,makelele..how modric//vanderwaat/the russian guy fit in…unless chelsea were to sell some of the midfielders…but who to sell….maybe playing 4-5-1 helps….
14. Jo
offload——————buy
benhaim Branislav Ivanovic
ferriera alves
sidwell modric/vanderwaat
pizarro anelka
Swp Diniyar Bilyaletdinov
tt should be it…
sheva to stay…with new creative players to arrive at chelsea…sheva will have more chances to convert…
also….no big name replacement for goalkeeper as we got cech and cudicini…2 of the best keepers…
in no time…we can be a team tt play beautiful football…
so we have….Gk:cech,cudicini,hilario
Defenders:belleti,alves,terry,alex,carvalho,Ivanovic,a.cole,bridge
Mid:lampard,ballack,essien,mikel,J.cole,malouda,makelele(agreed to play in some games only),Diniyar Bilyaletdinov,vanderwaat/modric,kalou(to me,he’s a winger)
Forward: anelka,drogba(may be leaving),sheva
best formation/s…4-4-2 and 4-5-1
15. Jo
i agree wif BC’s choice of the starting team fo rtodays match…maybe instead of ferriera at CB…benhaim should play..cuz chelsea has a CB for replacement..y use a RB….surely it will affect ben haim alot…ashley cole to start…he’s back from suspension
16. Blue Champion
TBF - My response to you, for every point of yours I guess.
Well, he is not God to me. He is just my favourite manager. If I start referring to Avram or Roman as your God, I’m sure you won’t like it either. Of course I read Guardian and Mirror and I’ve used both in this blog in fact. I’m just warning you about those magazines. While these blogs admit that these are opinions of the bloggers, the mags like Guardian, Mirror, Sun, Sky etc can be complete trash sometimes. And I never said you’re wrong by using that source. And yes, diplomatically speaking, he left by mutual consent. We all know he was sacked. I’m sure there was a leagal clause which prevents him from talking anything about his sacking. But as it’s the case with any truth, it will surely come out one day.
If you’re going to disrespect the domestic cup by discounting those successes, then why don’t you do it for all managers. In 10 years, what has Arsene Wenger managed to win? 2 league titles and that’s it. Take the records of all managers and count only the league titles and champions league successes, then you’ll know. What can we do if the opponents field a second side. It is their choice and decision? Why should I undermine that my opponent did not field a good team. It’s their problem. Money helped Jose but that’s not the reason why he won. We have said this 1000 times before. JM is not a flash in the pan. He had won back to back titles in Porto, won the UEFA Cup and won the Champions League. Even with lesser money than what Man Utd spent, Jose would have still won the title. I don’t understand this concept of ‘Ranieri’s men’ or ‘Ranieri’s team’. Unless a manager is going to stay long enough like Sir Alex or Arsene, he is going to play with players bought by his predecessor. If it is Ranieri’s team and the team is so good, why did Roman hire JM? it’s not with the players alone mate. It’s how much the coach can motivate the player to give his best and make them believe that we can winners and champions. Are we going to say Schuster won with Capello’s team or did we say Rijkaard won with XXX’s team? That’s a bad argument.
It’s not JM’s fault that players were bought at inflated price. Roman had the money and he flaunted it. He did win the league, UEFA Cup, Champions League with then unknown players. Ronaldinho, Ballack, Shevchenko, Kaka were all choices of Roman or Kenyon but never JM. If you know JM and his history, you’ll know that he never goes for overprices players or superstars. JM was always under pressure from Roman for some reason or the other and one fine day. You want to know why so-called flair players do not come to Chelsea? That’s because Chelsea is NOT a major club when compared to the European superpowers. We are not even a G-14 club. If you think we should be competing with Real Madrid and Barcelona and Man Utd and Bayern Munich, that’s because JM won so much and made us so formidable. That’s why you think as if it’s a matter of right when we want people, they come and join us. No they won’t. Right now, if a player has options of Barca, Madrid, Man Utd and Chelsea, I’d be mightily surprised if he joins us.
I’m a big admirer of his post match comments - mostly brilliant and sometimes unnecessary and controversial. When he says ‘better team lost’, I love that. I simply love that. As said many times by many people, he was our 12th man who could inspire and motivate the players to give their best. You say he made us an object of ridicule. You know what, he made us a formidable team in Europe, who challenged every European giant that came his way. Managers and fans of other clubs were hugely relieved to see his back. Is that because he made us an object of ridicule? They all feared us then. Not anymore.
17. Maysam
I heard that Chelsea wanna buy Berbatov.
but anyway, Happy new year guys.
BC come on! 
Ferriera as CD while we have Haim. No I can believe that Sinclair while we have SWP no way.
Chelsea 2-1 or Chelsea 1-0
————————Hilario————————
Belletti—-Alex—-Haim———————Bridge
———————-Essien————————–
———–Sidwell——-Ballack———————
SWP——————————————Cole–
————————–Kalou————————-
I am sure Sidwell will play tomorrow.
18. Midfield_Decider
Once again, Happy New Year to ya all!
I too think that Berbatov is the best thing that could happen to us in the transfer window. I have watched the thriller between Tottenham and Reading and the guy scored 4. Inconceivable play!
But I would go for both Berbatov and Anelka. Just imagine both of them in Chelsea. Such a frightening act!
At the end of the day we have to get rid of one or two from Pizzaro, Sheva and Kalou, though I like Sheva very much.
19. king blues
chelsea should try and snap up berbatov rather than anelka he and sheva would make a deadly combo even better than rooney and tevez
20. Anonymous
yet another 4-3-3. this is the team announced.
40 Hilario
35 Juliano Belletti
33 Alex
22 Tal Ben-Haim
18 Wayne Bridge
9 Steve Sidwell
5 Michael Essien
13 Michael Ballack (c)
24 Shaun Wright-Phillips
21 Salomon Kalou
10 Joe Cole
Subs: 30 Rhys Taylor, 20 Paulo Ferreira, 12 John Mikel Obi, 17 Scott Sinclair, 14 Claudio Pizarro.
21. alps_alps
oops . . we are trailing in 20 min. fulham are turning the heat.
22. Den
we have to take sidwell off and bring sinclair or pizzarro on
23. Blues_Godson
we are behind now…1-0….goal from penalty caused by j.cole
24. Blues_Godson
chelsea back in the game…1-1…great header form kalou
25. Blues_Godson
its been ages since i last saw chelsea score from a corner kick…..great passing header from alex to kalou and its nice to see kalou score his 7th of the season
26. Blues_Godson
chelsea given a penalty and its been scored by ballack…2-1 to chelsea…go on blues
27. CFC
well, its penalty for chelsea, ballck to scoreeeeeeee,, and he does,, its 1-2 to chelsea. hahahahahaa we are leading now. thats the way to go. well done.
28. CFC
substitution genius from Avaram Grant replacing sidwell for obi, haha, he’s a genius isnt he ? lol.
29. Blues_Godson
dammmmm..great great free kick by ballack….so so close…should have been 3 goals now….men am loving ballack…
30. CFC
Blue godson, absolutely right, hes a class act, may be last year, he was playing abit out of position, thank god we have somebody like him to come in straightaway in place of lampard. and his free kicks are more accurate than lampard probably.
31. CFC
well david healy is coming on for fulham, and chelsea back four has to careful now for the last 10 mins, hes a clever litile fella, he can be a menace at times, making those run.
32. CFC
I am getting frstrated now, we are not keeping the ball well, littile china man is causing few troubles, players just need to calm down, keep the ball and run the clock.
33. CFC
Tal ben haim is playing a dangerous game at times, pizz coming on for SWP, jus a time wasting tactics, well done. run the clock.
34. Blues_Godson
gosh…pazarro blasted a great chance out….guess his confidence aint right yet…..subs been okay so far..
game almost over…3 points in the bag…hope arsenal losses to west ham…sure man utd would win…cant wait for totterham and aston villa game…
35. Den
very important 3 points
36. CFC
we have 3 more points now, not bad for a injury hit team, fulham played well for first half and deservely went ahead with the penalty, but Avaram the genius(lol) made the substitution bringing on obi and it changed the game, we played very well in the second half and got all the 3 points. atleast for time being no more league fixtures for us till 14 jan and we play against the spurs, by that time, sheva and riccy shud be ready. next we play against QPR.
Voy a hacer el ultimo comentario del año y mañana el primer dai del año y juega Chelsea¡¡¡
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