Typical of Chelsea, isn’t it? Losing to Lokomotiv one day and demolishing Milan a couple of days later. Now, let’s not undermine this win with any remarks like it was a weakened Milan and all that. Couple of points. Firstly, this Milan team is surely better than Lokomotiv. That shows we’ve done a lot better job from a penalty defeat to a 5-0 thrashing. Secondly, Milan were lacking key people in the attack. Whereas in defence and midfield, it was a team that should not have lost 5-0. To beat a team 5-0 is always a great thing. If Chelsea were to field a similary depleted team against a full strength Milan, I don’t think we’d have lost 5-0.

Anelka stole the show today. Now it’s 7 goals plus some assists by Anelka in the pre-season. Ever since I threw my gripe about him in this blog, he seems to be fired up. If there was ever a player of the pre-season award, it’d go to him. Sadly enough, I do remember this match between Arsenal and Liverpool in the 06-07 season. Julio Baptista was pretty much a flop move and the Arsenal fans were losing patience over him. In that match at Anfield, Baptista scored four goals and the Arse fans rejoiced that the ‘beast is back’. And the rest is history, I mean joke, to be exact.

It’s good that Anelka has come up with his goods, while Drogba’s contract extension is being discussed. Anelka’s rise in form is surely going to influence Scolari in deciding on his formation. The frenchman has made it quite verbally clear that he wants to play as a striker, not behind the striker, not on either sides of the striker, he wants to play as the striker. Sheva has not showed any improvement. Now this would be his third season in England and he is 32 years old. Someone needs to take a decision. It could even be Sheva himself. I don’t expect him to score 7 goals in the pre-season, it’s just that he doesn’t show any promise. He is not threatening anymore. I’m sure none of the defenders around are losing sleep at the thought of handling him.

Scolari knows that he’d have some sweet selection problems in a couple of week’s time.

The possibilities are better for the game against Portsmouth than they were before. I am happy because I saw players go up in their level from training and the last game. It was not the normal Milan, they had four or fives players out, big players with quality, but our team played very well and the performance today was better than the four earlier games.

That was the key. That was our best game of the pre-season and luckily that was the last match of the pre-season. He knows that Anelka cannot be benched in this kind of form. Also, Drogba is expected to sign the contract extension soon and be ready for the premier league. When Drogba puts his mind on the task, he is one of the most lethal players around. So, it could mean that Scolari could play a 4-4-2 against Portsmouth or play 4-3-3 and bring on Anelka for Drogba.

This game was important for Anelka but more important for us – the fans, the coach and the other players who will have more confidence in him. Today was good not because he scored four goals but because he played more free and with more quality than in other games. He was playing against a big club and to get four goals against Milan, for his confidence it is fantastic and Anelka today and the last game played more inside the penalty area than before. That is where I asked him to play and where I need him, not right and left as before, because we have one striker and that is Anelka.

Here, Scolari makes it clear that if Anelka is going to be used, that would be as a striker or one among the strikers. It’s nice that Scolari wants to resurrect Anelka by giving him time, role and confidence. The Anelka of Bolton was a dangerous player, a player that you would fear, a real dangerman. Let’s see if Scolari can bring back that real Nicolas Anelka.

There is news that Robinho pleads with Madrid to let him join Chelsea. Now Madrid are in a soup. While they are telling Man Utd not to hold onto Ronaldo against his wishes, they have one player from their club who tells them the same. Of course, Real Madrid would be hypocrites of the highest order. Still I’m quite curious to see how this develops. Well, I’ve also resigned to the fact that Robinho would join us. See, I’m not saying he is a bad player or something. He is in fact a very very good player but I don’t know where would I play him, how often would I play him? On the other hand, if his arrival means SWP leaving us, I’d wait in the London airport to welcome Robinho.

Before I finish for the day, there was this high profile football news that had something to do with India. Anil Ambani of India, the 6th richest person in the world is all set to acquire Newcastle United for 230 million pounds. I’m quite excited about the probable Indian element in the premier league. The net worth of Anil Ambani, is $42 billion. And if you think he is the richest man in India, you’re wrong!

Our pre-season is over. No more friendlies. Not even the community shield. The next match would be the premier league fixture against Portsmout at the Stamford Bridge. Scolari gets a about 2 weeks with his team to work on the strategic side. I’m sure this 5-0 demolition of Milan would have put him at ease after we were shot out on Friday night. At least the last match happens to be a winning one for us. I badly wanted Chelsea to return victorious from Moscow. The wish has been fulfilled after about two and a half months!