Chelsea are drawn with Roma, Bordeaux and Cluj, in the group stage of the champions league. My first reaction is that of relief. In the group stage, all that you need is two beatable teams in the group and we’ve got three (arrogant, right?). The toughest group Chelsea could have got is, with Juventus, Atletico Madrid and Zenit. Now look at what we’ve got. Way way better, isn’t it? Simple conclusion – Chelsea and Roma will progress and there won’t be any upsets. Just impossible. Now let’s look at the other groups.
Group B has Inter, Werder, Panathinaikos and Anorthosis Famagusta. JM must be smiling. Inter will cruise even with the away results. Werder taking the second place. The team from Cyprus is there to give guaranteed points. Ibrahimovic has a good chance be the top scorer of the competition. Group C has Barca, Sporting Lisbon, Basel and Shakhtar Donetsk. The question will be, who progresses alongwith Barca and I think the answer will be Shakhtar, don’t ask me why.
Group D now. D for Death? It’s Liverpool, PSV, Marseille and Atletico Madrid. Oh I love this group! That’s exactly the kind of group I wanted to see Liverpool in. In the last season, Liverpool started very poorly in the group stages and got themselves out of jail later on. Even in the qualifiers this season, they were plain lucky. If their form continues this way, they’d drop out. Anyways, I’m kind of sure that Atletico would top the group. The second place could be a three way battle where I hope to see Marseille edge out Liverpool.
Group E has Man Utd, Villarreal, Celtic and Aalborg. This looks like a tough group but I think Man Utd will have no trouble. Villareal to take the second place. Celtic will go down fighting, again. Good luck to Aalborg. Hope they get a point. Group F is another tough group. Lyon, Bayern Munich, Steaua Bucharest and Fiorentina here. Okay, you’ll disagree here. I think it’s gonna be Bayern and Fiorentina. Bayern are disappointed at their recent European performance and Fiorentina will make us take notice in Europe as well as Italy.
In Group G, we have Arsenal, Porto, Fenerbahce and Dynamo Kiev. The Arsenal fans would call this the group of death but I won’t agree. If you can’t beat Porto, Fener or Kiev, you don’t deserve to call yourself a top club in Europe. This Arsenal team have had some very poor away games. If they don’t sign any new player by the end of this transfer window, I’d put some money on them not progressing. Expect a strong Fener to cause a ripple. Need to see if Quaresma stays at Porto. If yes, they can be a serious opponent. I’d love to see Porto and Fener progressing.
Finally the Group H that has Real Madrid, Juventus, Zenit St Petersburg and Bate Borisov. Pretty staight forward. Madrid to top and Juventus to follow. Zenit might be missing Arshavin by then. And Bate? C’mon, let’s end the discussion here.
Chelsea have got a good draw. On paper, Chelsea are far superior to their group stage opponents. There are no long distance travels. The farthest is to Rome and that’s ok, we’ll get used to the Stadio Olimpico, before we get to the finals. More importantly, no pointless travel to Russia and no sub-zero temparatures. If you see Arsenal’s group, they need to travel to Turkey and Russia and play in hostile or unfamiliar environments.
The group stage games will be played on 16/17 September, 30 September/1 October, 21/22 October, 4/5 November, 25/26 November, 9/10 December. I haven’t checked in the betting sites but I think Chelsea will start as the favourites for the champions league, just like in the premier league.
In the UEFA club footballer of the year awards, Chelsea have swept three out of the four awards. Cech has won the goalkeeper award and that beats me. Clearly, it should have gone to van der Sar who kept clean sheets in the quarterfinals and semi finals including one at Camp Nou. And to top it all he won the penalties for his team in the final! The defender award is to Terry. This one also puzzles me. Last season was nowhere near the best of Terry and especially in champions league, he wasn’t shining so much. The midfielder award went to Frank Lampard. Completely agree. No better choice than Frank. The forward award goes to Ronaldo?! He scored in final allright, but he wasn’t the best in the last champions league. The best forward of the last champions league was Drogba. Period.
Finally, SWP moves to Man City. It’s not just a win-win situation, it’s a win-win-win situation. That is, for Chelsea, Man City and SWP himself. This has come a season later than it should have. I feel sorry for SWP that he couldn’t come good at Chelsea. He has been a very lovable bloke all along and a thorough professional. My heartfelt thanks to him and I wish him all the luck with Man City. By the way, that’s third player this season that we’ve sent back to his previous club!
My patience is being tested with this Robinho transfer. I’m getting tired of waiting for him. C’mon, even SWP is gone, the Chelsea mega store has started selling Robinho shirts and what else needs to happen before he appears in blue?!
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Obviously Chelsea are going to cruise through the group stages even though Roma have signed few more players (namely Baptista and Jeremy Menez)…..the other teams in the group aren’t just good enough. The UEFA awards to the best goalkeeper and defender shocks me too because i thought they would favor the team that just won the Champions League and also the points which BC just mentioned ………but i’m really happy that the awards went to our players …..and by the way .. why the hell are we selling robinho merchandise ???……….i just don’t trust Calderón……. i hope the plan doesn’t backfire….
rumours are saying that calderon is sooo furious bout the merchandise that he is reconsidering selling robinho.
i am sooo pissed off, why didnt chelsea wait a day or two to release the merchandise!
@ BC these were my prediction!!!
Goalkeeper: Cech — there is no way ill pick Van Der Sar over chech… even if im wrong…
Defender: J terry
Midfielder: Essien (lampard)
Forward: Ronaldo
my group pick :
Chelsea
Roma
Bordeaux
Dynamo Kiev (Cluj)
BC …. Dynamo Kiev is in Ukrainian sir
i like you points for the most part!!
I think that french team will give Pool a lot of problems ….!!! they will struggle….maybe they wont even make it
@ BC my bad on that one …. i did remember its in Russia!!
Group A : Chelsea & Roma
Group B : Inter & Wender
Group C : Barca & Lisbon
Group D : Liverpool & Marseille
Group E : United & Villarell
Group F : Lyon & Bayern
Group G : Arsenal & Ferb
Group H : Real and Zenit
@6. Mark im not too sure about : Group D : Liverpool & Marseille what about A. Madrid…. they have a stronge attack,Group H : Real and Zenit ….no Juve….I think your wrong…
this is looking bad. chelseafc have stopped the robinho selling shirt thing so it seems like calderon is angry and may have stopped the deal.
robinho would come to chelsea ….and there’s nothing anyone can do about that….lets continue selling his merchandise…even b4 he comes…let us start gettting our money back….i love the champions league draw
Farewell to shawn. Thanks for years of dedicated service. Guys, have an idea- belleti can be tried as a holdin mid
Denver – You’re right. Dynamo Kiev is an Ukranian team but I just gave a motherhood name by referring to the Russian landmass, to indicate the distance. The team in our group Cluj, is a team from Romania.
i love these draws, liverpool are certainly going out at the group stages, they may be missing our boy alex but don’ forget that PSV eindhoven knocked arsenal out in the 06-07 competition
as for the awards, BC, i think that the award isn’t just merited on match ratings in which cech is higher than van der sar because he is making more challenging saves, but on stats as well
the way i understand it, although drogba was the competitions top scorer, man utd scored the most goals and ronaldo was the pivot of their attack, what probably cost drogba was the red card in the final
lampard wins hands down for the drive he put into our team and the crucial goals he scored, as i understand he also has a high pass completion
Terry is voted over other defenders for character, and although not at his bed, Terry didn’t have nearly as many blunders as ferdinand. Terry is a monster, the amount of injuries he sustained yet kept playing, and he also contributes to the lower number of goals we conceded, which is effectively, why cech beats van der sar
with united’s so called perfect defence, how many shots does van der sar get to save? with terry, or more so carvalho not at his best, look how many brilliant saves cech made to keep us going, yeah we lost on penalties, but which players provided the better show? that answers why we won 3 out of 4.
as for our swp situation, the question is now, will any of the released players haunt us, will scheva find form in milan? will swp become the ultimate winger again? will pizaro score goals on the efforts of tap ins like he used to?
and yeah, we are all annoyed about robinho, its gone on too long
Rumour has it, Real Madrid wants Didier Drogba in the Robinho deal. It seems they are now demanding £24m + Drogba for Robinho. Sounds crazy! Robinho is a great player but he is certainly not Drogba + £24m. No way! I don’t mind Drogba being part of the deal if we get a real good striker in the next couple of days. Can you find strikers of Drogba’s calibre in the market, available in reasonable price?
I’d rather drop my Robinho dream and let Madrid have him for this season. They will have to have a matchwinner who’s upset and is no longer a fan favourite. Up to them. If Robinho does not move, it may not hit Chelsea that badly. In fact, it won’t hit us at all as we’re not buying him for our problem area or something. Now that SWP is gone, if our wingers are unavailable, we can always play an expansive 4-4-2.
If Ramon Calderon is playing silly games, we should announce that we’re no longer interested in Robinho and give one back to the bastards at Madrid. We have a great team and we’ll win the double with our current team.
13. BlueChampion but bC if that is the case that means we will need a power house CF cause Robinho os too small to England. i hope we dont end up with egg on our faces!! i know they shouldnt have put up Robhino shirts in the megastore before closing the deal ….. every good businessman knows this. You will look stupid!
robinho can deal with epl strength….look at other smaller size players
£24m + Drogba……..Calderón is kidding himself…….If Real Madrid fail to win the La Liga this year it will only be because of this nutcase………while Real Madrid where hysterically pursuing Ronaldo , Barcelona were slowly rebuilding ……not that i care if Madrid win or lose…….my point is that they are delaying the transfer of Robinho only because they can’t find a player to replace him in the squad…..they have only themselves to blame…
Is scott sinclair in the first team ??
if he is in we hav both our wings well covered…
Joe cole and fabio paim on the right
Robinho and sinclair on the left
SEE how it goes than DEV.
wtf…goal.com states tt robinho is staying…RM is too demanding
Madrid putting an hold on the Robinho transfer is a tactic to increase the signing on fee not because Chelsea has started offers his shirt. He will definitely come and we just need to wait and see and if otherwise we are covered for sure.
I don’t want Robinho coming to Chelsea. We’ve got J.Cole and Kalou. Given the chance, Kalou is a spectacular player and he can shine for us. Go home Robinho
robinh will not come to chelsea. chelsea shops stoped to sell robinho shirts.
C’mon robinho…i noe u wan to come to chelsea………….c’mon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
real must be really joking and Chelsea would be really stupid, even if they close this deal. An unhappy guy, struggling for starting eleven would cost us 30 million?
REALITY : NO MORE ROBINHO
i want SWP back
CRY robinho come here?
If we really doesnt come that shirts are gonna be colectors item!!
Grab yours if you can! Hahaha…
i dunnu wat the hell calderon is doing….he lieks to tok nonsense…nw he say tt he has the chance to sign kaka….
£24m + Drogba for Robinho (who would just be “an added dimension to the squad”) ???? Calderon is an absolute nut case, Robinho is not worth so much and everybody knows that. Drogba is irreplaceble, so Real can just f*** off. We can still win the double without the “extra dimesion” coz we have J. Cole, Kalou, Malouda, Scott Sinclair and Paim. We can occasionally pop in some players from the youth squad like Franco Di Santo, Gael Kakuta, Woods, etc. Also we don’t play a 4-3-3, its usually a 4-2-2-2/ 4-3-2-1/ 4-2-3-1 disguised as a 4-3-3, so its not much of a problem. £24m + Drogba would be fine if we get Robinho + Higuain + Drenthe/Marcelo (lol I know this is not fantasy football but what Calderon wants is ridiculous). Also if we sell Drogba (which will nwver happen) with out a proper replacement then we will be in deep trouble as every body knows how good Anelka is. Anyways this will never happen because Chelsea needs Drogba more than Robinho. Calderon is just goofing around so that he can get a better deal by making Chelsea bid higher and I will not be surprised if Robinho signs for Chelsea in the last minute. Even if we don’t get Robinho its not a problem because we have done enough to unsettle him and can get him in January for a lower price. Deco and Bosingwa’s deals were an absolute steal so I guess Peter Kenyon will not be bullied by Calderon and I think £30 mill would be the last bid by Chelsea.
Kalou is going to play as central
Striker..his natural Position…
Not as a winger
tts total madness..calderon is a hypocrite…he said tt a club should nv hold back a player from leaving….but tts wat he did
We should of never sold Robben to Real-it was a big mistake and look at how they treat chelsea, damn it Jose.
@blabliblublu
Kalou is a striker and not a centre forward. JM used him on the wings and also as the second/supporting striker and never as a centre forward.
BALLACK INJURY UPDATE
Posted on: Fri 29 Aug 2008
Michael Ballack sustained a foot injury in the game versus Portsmouth on August 17th.
Despite an incomplete recovery Michael was determined to play against Wigan on August 24th. Unfortunately, since this game he has not been able to train. Full recovery will take approximately two weeks.
kalou is a poacher, would play well of drogba
i think we should abandon robinho, would be nice to have him as an option but id prefer us to give our youth a chance, mind you, scolari has assembled a dream team, he is obviously pushing for silverware this season
give sinclair, paim, maybe even cork a few games i think
33. Xerxes u r correct… We lost our irreplaceable Robben to Madrid, Now they are asking Drogba, No we don’t want Robinho for drogba. We have enough wingers in our team malouda is improving, kaluo can play as a winger, Joe Cole is our best player,then we have Scot Sinclair and fabio paim.
Hi Peter Kenyon we have 2 more day’s left,Still Bastian Schweinsteiger is available…go and sign him…
Robinho has reiterated his desire to join the blues. I hope Madrid let him go as soon as possible. The rumbles should die down quick. He also said the news of him aplogising to the press is a pure lie. I am still very hopeful he will join
ManUtd lost to zenit in the super cup. 2-1
I am very sure that their next match at anfield will be a defeat too . but I will love to see both of them share the points.
WOO HOO!!!!
ZENIT 2 MANU 1
Great News..
my team for spuds:
———-Cech——-
—-Bosingwa——Terry———-Carvalho—-Bridge—–
————————Mikel——————————
————–Essien—————Lampard—————
—Deco—————————————Kalou——-
———————–Anelka——————————
Subs: Hilario, Alex, Ivanovic, Paim, Di Santo, Malouda, J.Cole(if fit), Sinclair(if JC isnt fit enough)
Den
Mikel & Essien & lampard & deco ?! i can’t see Ballack even in subs ?
we have a good team , But with Robinho will be better
RM …pls let robinho leave ….he wants to leave…its getting on my nerves….after awaiting and anticipating robinho’s arrival…all tt they can do nw is say he is nt for sale….
@42 thunder, go on chelsea official website, ballacks ankle pulled up sore after the wigan game. He is out for 2 weeks
Its goin to be another saga lyk daniel alves…next sum robinho will b at man u in th ronaldo deal
Danny messed up Rio yestaday and got a second goal for Zenit.That is further proof that Terry is better than Rio.Rio recent success is due to Vidic new found form.Thats what I have been telling brothers since last season.People think Rio is good becos Vidic,who is on form,have been covering for him.But the games he has played for ManU without Vidic or in which has gone one-one with a striker,have exposed him as an average defender…Den your team for Sunday match is tight.I will go with it.The inconsistent J.Cole can sit on the bench and watch(he plays better when he comes in as a sub).
Its like Ballack,Essien,and may be Mikel,are doubtful for 2morrow match.Who will play holding MF for us 2morrow if Mikel and Essien are out?I would opt for Carvalho.The is our best tackler.My team then would look like this:
—————————-Cech—————————
—-Bosingwa——Terry———-Alex—-Bridge—–
————————Carvalho——————————
————–Deco—————Lampard—————
—J.Cole(if fit not fit,Ivanovic/Paim)—————————————Kalou——-
———————–Anelka——————————
Subs: Hilario, Ivanovic,Paim, Di Santo, Malouda,Sinclair,Belletti,Drogba.