Thumping start for the season. Though the Chinese team did not challenge us too much with their fragile defence, Scolari can be quite pleased with this performance. I didn’t get to see the match. I couldn’t even watch the highlights last night as I was trying to ‘upgrade’ my laptop from vista to xp. I did see the goals though.

I’m happy for Kalou. He scored the first Chelsea goal of this season. He is a hardworking lad but he has to really prove to Phil that he can play as a striker which was his natural position in Feyenoord. Today’s goal would surely help him. Just when I make up my mind about living without Lampard, he comes up with a goal like that. Oh, I loved it. If you haven’t watched it yet, watch it right now. He is one midfielder who simply can’t stop scoring. Few more goals in the next few matches and Chelsea FC would be under even more pressure. There are certain players with whose form directly influences the team’s fortunes. Lampard is one of such players. I can’t remember Chelsea losing a match where Lampard was brilliant. Thanks to England missing the Euro, Lampard has taken a nice long break. If he is fit and if he is in fine form, he’s gonna propel Chelsea on his own. All this only if an agreement is reached.

That little boy did score too. If Franco di Santo is showing some promise in the training ground too, I’d stick him up with Drogba or Sheva instead of giving another chance to Anelka. I always thought Anelka is a passer-by. He happens to be in Chelsea at this point of time. He may not see himself here next season unless he does not mind that big undeserving pay packet. Why am I picking on Anelka again? I don’t know. There’s something about him. There is one way he can shut my mouth forever – 30+ goals this season. How many of you would bet on it? SWP had to score when you least expect him. It wasn’t meant to be his show today but still with 4 minutes to go, he scored that goal that none of the defenders were interested in stopping.

Well, everything can’t go as scripted. Bosingwa came limping off due to what is now called as a muscle strain. This pretty ordinary sounding ‘muscle strain’ will be further assessed over the next 24 hours. Sad start for Bosingwa. If Bosingwa does not play next match, who will start, Belletti or Ferreira? Of course both will play as these are just friendlies. The question now is, who actually is the second choice, if Bosingwa is the first choice. Why do we need to have three right backs? Either Belletti or Ferreira should be leaving. I like Belletti better than Ferreira but when it comes bread and butter defending, Ferreira edges out Belletti.

Scolari said this after the match. As the official website put it, he couldn’t resist praising Deco for his part.

I was relaxed. It is always good to win the game but it doesn’t matter much the result, the team is not ready yet. They have some difficulties physically and this they will sort out. I think it is normal for the first game. The players have been training well for two weeks, strong training that is more for fitness than for the technical side. All the players need to make a difference in the season because the season is very difficult for us, but Deco is a fantastic player and in this team I think he helps his friends to play more than they play in the last season. Sometimes he is a different player because his style is different but it’s a style, with all the players together, that is fantastic for us. I think I have players with experience and I think I have some young boys in my team and I have players who have experience in the Premier League.

Looks like Scolari was quite happy. He looks to me like a very sentimental man. He must have wanted to start with a win. Certainly it’s a relief, even for the players. I liked that fact that he played 4-2-2-2. Incidentally, that’s the formation I prefer to play with Chelsea in FIFA08 on XBOX 360. You have two defensive midfielders who can fill in the gaps while the full backs are on attacking duty. Apart from the attacks initiated by the full backs, the other attacks would generally be through the centre, which makes full advantage of the world class attacking midfielders we have. In short 4-2-2-2 is something that can play to Chelsea’s strength. We need to use the two defensive midfielers and two attacking midfielders. This is the best formation to achieve that.

And in transfer news, Real Betis are after Pizarro. Anything over 1 million pound, we stand to gain. We’ve virtually got nothing from him. Let him go. He is a good player who could never settle down in Chelsea’s system and the English league. He may get his touch back in Betis. There is also this rumour that SWP could move to Aston Villa. My feelings are exactly the same I had for Pizarro. The one reason why some players are unwilling to move and other clubs do not approach our players so easily is the hefty pay check. Players who leave Chelsea for second tier clubs will have to accept a pay cut or Chelsea will have to structure the deal in such a way that they get less transfer fees but the salary level is maintained, like they did for Damien Duff. But I don’t see the club doing this little sacrifice for the players who did not offer them during their days. It’s good for Chelsea and SWP himself that he leaves. Otherwise they are wasting each other’s time. Finally, Robinho was reported to have signed a new 5 year contract with Madrid but there is no official confirmation of the same.

I’m getting highly and prematurely excited about Franco di Santo already. I wanna see more of him! Now that we have Scolari, who was the national coach of Brazil, why can’t we get those 16-year old prodigies from Brazil, who otherwise would go to Real Madrid and Barcelona? It’s nice to have one or two of those ‘next Maradona’ or the ‘next Pele’!