Matches, Premier League - Written by BlueChampion on Sunday, August 31, 2008 18:22 | 1,670 Views | 146 Comments | Add Comment
Chelsea 1-1 Tottenham | Still on top, Robinho gets closer!
We are still on top of the league thanks to the goal fest in the Pompey which feels like a year before. The first match we won emphatically, the next match we struggled but we won, today’s match after all the huff and puff we could only draw. Any predictions for the next match? Worry not, this is not a doomsday post. I see only one problem - our apparent weakness up front. With one quality finisher, we could have won today’s match by a margin. In these type of derbies, you can’t expect to get a dozen chances. You get one and you gotta finish it.
You think I’m putting the blame squarely on Anelka? Yeah, somewhat. When you play as the only striker, you take a lot of responsibilities, especially that of scoring. In this match, neither team had too many chances. The best chances of this match came from outside the box, with individual efforts. In such a match, if you get the chances like Anelka got, you gotta finish them. Tell me, if it was Drogba or any other quality finisher in place of Anelka, would we have won the match? Forget about finishing his chances, he was crap otherwise too. Had no positional sense, lost possession, muscled out too easily and in short, highly ineffective. One good thing about him being garbage today was Franco do Santo’s debut at Stamford Bridge. I wonder why Scolari had to wait until the last 4 mins of regulation time. Anyway, I’m glad it happened.
Of course Kalou was also guilty of wasting a chance. But I’m sure if Kalou had played Anelka’s 86 minutes, it would have been more eventful. I know Kalou is not a great finisher himself but he does something worthwhile, creates something useful and is more value for time than Anelka. Do you guys know that Wenger secretly made an offer for Kalou which Scolari rejected?
Franco was a fresh breath of air. He looks very impressive but he did not have too much to do but I noticed one thing. He was in the right areas at the right times. If Scolari has not seen enough already he should see in the training if Anelka still deserves a role in the first team. I generally hate these international breaks but I’m relieved this time. When we’re back, we’ll have Drogba.
Scolari came up with a couple of surprises today. First one was the 4-1-4-1 formation. Contrary to general perception, he thought it’s okay to change the winning formation. I didn’t mind that. I always believed we have the players to play any formation. Scolari’s second surprise was to play Belletti and that too as the defensive midfielder. He played well, really well to his credit. But I think this 4-1-4-1 formation has been one reason why we are not able to play a more attacking game. We certainly could create more chances with our 4-3-3 than in a 4-1-4-1. In the formation we used today, we were always going to get less chances but we should have been sharper than today to take them and make them count. Knowing that Anelka couldn’t hit a barn door, we should have opted for a more attacking 4-3-3.
I thought Lampard had a great match. He movement and passing were brilliant. He was unlucky not to have scored with that delicious chip. He did hit wide a few times but I thought he was very good otherwise. Deco was good but wasn’t what we’ve started expecting of him. May be that early yellow card kind of toned down his game. Essien was a disappointment today. He must have felt bad himself. He was nowhere near the Essien we know and in fact was very poor. I doubt if he was fully fit because I haven’t seen Essien being outmuscled so easily. Bosingwa made his hattrick of superb performances.
Scolari is not too worried about this result:
We know that we lost two points today but in the Premier League it is impossible to win three, four, five games in a row, because the other teams are strong and have good quality. Seven points in nine, if we make this at the final surely we are first. For the last two or three seasons, [if you achieve] 75 percent of points, you will win.
We used the long ball too much and made mistakes. We need to try to work the ball more. Okay they closed, but with high balls we don’t have the players for this. What I said afterwards was we needed to work the ball more, if we make mistakes not a problem, but try. High balls we win one time and lose eight. They felt the pressure for the fans, to need to win, and it is difficult to think inside the pitch. I
understand this.We need to respect Tottenham, they are a very good team. They played very well and sometimes it’s impossible to win. They played the same game as Chelsea, and had five players in midfield. They touched the ball very well, and it was an interesting derby. A draw is a normal result. We had more chances but made mistakes with the final shot.
I’m very impressed with this response from Scolari. He doesn’t seem to be too concerned with the result, in a good way. He sounds unruffled. Also, I thought we played too many long balls in the second half. There’s no harm but when we have Anelka as the lone striker, that’s the last option I’d think of. He says we ‘win one time and lose eight’ (does Portuguese decimal system have only 9 numbers?!) but if it was Drogba, the ratio would be much better. But I’m happy that he recognised this thing and also another one - that we made mistakes with the final shot, by that he means finishing. I liked the part when he said ‘they felt the pressure for the fans, to need to win, and it is difficult to think inside the pitch. I understand this’ - very nice of him to say that.
Elsewhere, SWP scored a brace against Sunderland today. I saw the goals. The second one in particular was a great finish. Lovely SWP, playing full of heart and passion. I love this guy. C’mon, have a great season boy!
And now here is the Robinho daily digest. Robinho arranged for a press conference today to again let everybody know that he wants leave Madrid and that he is thinking only about playing for Chelsea. With this self-arranged press conference, he has broken his relationship with Madrid to such an extent that his staying at Madrid is completely wasteful for them. Real also published this no-brainer announcement about Chelsea and Robinho in their club website. Chelsea FC responded without wasting any time. Looks like there’s still one final twist in the story. If Madrid still stay stubborn, Robinho has an option of buying out his £40m contract; Or Chelsea can pay that money and structure Robinho’s wages to factor that. Strangely, I’m more confident than ever (a complete turnaround from yesterday’s belief) that he’d be a Chelsea player tomorrow.
Cool it guys! The next match is only on 13th of September. There are a few very interesting world cup qualifying matches (incl Croatia vs England) until then. So we go to the international break as league leaders. And when we’re back with club football, we’d have got back Drogba, Ballack, Essien, Mikel and Robinho hopefully!
146 Comments
1. IwasMissingJose
2. CJ - 16yrs Blues Fan
I’ve mentioned this before….. we need plan B, we need to know how to play with physical closing down tackles, we have not learned at all….. I’m glad that Bent got the lucky goal…. if not, I would not appreciate the “1-0 oh well that’s 3-points” game. If it meant that we lose a derby to Tottenham and learn how to play better….. then we ought to lose today! I’m not sure if anyone realized, Chelsea cannot dribble…. we can push ball forward and run to byline…. we can push the ball from left to right…. but around defenders, drawing them out, skipping past the marker….. nope, nothing…. we cannot dribble. That just add value to Robinho’s 28 million pound proposed purchase. Benched Anelka, he is obviously on low form, or worse, took over Sheva’s disease. Totally disappointed today, not because we lose, because WE NEVER LEARN FROM OUR MISTAKES……
3. MiguelC
Belleti as defensive midfielder?Rubish.Kalou should have come in earlier to provide more passing options.Deco had a day to forget and was too back in the field to make “deadly” passes.
There really wasnt any guys upfront to pass to.Only Bosingwa in right but not enough.
Too many defensive midfielders and too few attacking ones.Still on top of league table tought so not everything bad.
4. sule
Did you see that guys am disappointed with today’s match.Can somebody tell me if Big phil will succeed at the bridge it’s getting worse day after day.Don’t you think that we need Mikel as soon as possible.
5. Denver
guys this is why we need another flair player…. for the days like these when deco has a bad day ….lampard can’t create very well against good teams. the fact is who the hell is our back up plan in case this Robhino transfer does not come through.
bosingwa didn’t look good(comfortable) to me…..why not try Ivanovic
the team looked toothless
6. Nick
Roy Keane started off his career as a right back before moving on to a holding MF role…maybe Scolari thought the same of Belletti
7. MiguelC
Yeap, but after Ramos substitutions Kalou should have come right in.They were clearly holding the score and putting 11 behind ball.Midfield was crammed and needed more options to pass to up front.
There were too many Chelsea players getting in the way of teammates. Defense wasnt bad and after all it was a Lampard mistake that gave them the goal.Not much flair from Tottenham and this Chelsea need a plan B against ultra defensive team, Anelka is not bad but has no chance as lone striker against this kind of team.
8. SH.IBRAHIMI
SWP scored 2 goals for City against S’land ..
9. Pensioner
Hi Blue Champions,
I’ve been out all day and so could not watch the match.
Any way seeing that Chelsea FC missed out on signing Ronaldinho, I hope Chelsea FC can sign Robinho.
Cheers
10. trueplatinum
after today’s result, watching the match, it is apparrent we need someone who will not squander chances like kalou and anelka, we need a finisher, would be nice to have someone who creates aswell, robinho not quite the right man but would do fine
11. Jo
first half we played nt bad…but we lacked the chances and finishing…anelka and kalou miss dreadfully…i agree tt we need a finisher…but its abit too late nw…we also need robinho who is a player tt can dribble and hold the ball…
12. Thunder
RealMadrid VS ChelseaFC
*http://www.chelseafc.com/page/LatestNews/0,,10268~1380720,00.html
*http://www.realmadrid.com/cs/Satellite/en/1202741431669/noticia/ComunicadoOficial/OFFICIAL_ANNOUNCEMENT_2008-08-31.htm
13. cancorus
Think Mikel might be on his way to arsenal tommorrow, scolari does not really see him as useful, especially from where i am standin
14. IwasMissingJose
loserpools drew, phew…
15. IwasMissingJose
we still stay top…
16. Ravi
Shaun Wright Philips scores 2 goals for Man City.. He just scored a brace once for chelsea ..
and next up we face a resurgent man city who have scored 6 times in 2 game.s
17. BuildChelsea
68. cancorus ………dude what the hell are you talking about??…………where did you get this rubbish rumor from??…….Mikel to Arsenal ???………are u stupid??…….
18. arnold
we miss ballack badly
19. trueplatinum
what worried me about the arrival of deco, was would he cope with the physicallity of the premiership, today, he is starting to worry me
against teams like tottenham, it would make more sense to me, to play mikel and allow lampard and essien who are both strong, to roam
anelka shows these bright sparks but wastes them too often, i remember watching so many matches from france in the past where he slips up at the final hurdle, anelka can play alone but he uses his pace to get away and make that final touch whereas drogba will prefer to mow down defenders. to be honest, we should play two attackers at a time, at the moment, im liking the sound of drogba and robinho
20. Zola - Legend
Today proved why we need Robinho and why we would have been better off keeping SWP and selling Malouda. Malouda did absolutely nothing when he came on but give the ball away and make a couple 5yrd passes, Now that SWP is back at ‘home’ he’ll show how good a player he is, i don’t think he could cope with the pressure of playing at a top club.
I fear for Di santo if Robinho comes in tho, he will be 3rd maybe 4th choice and i think he needs games to learn and progress, i would have brought him on a lot earlier today cuz he’s tall and a looks a big presence which i feel we lacked today as we could not pass through the spuds.
Positives in Belletti and Bosingwa’s performances. Not sure about Scolari’s comments that you can’t win 3,4,5 games in a row in the premier league it doesn’t sound very ambitious.
21. Mark
At least Liverpool drew with Aston Villa 
22. MiguelC
Deco just had an off day..as well as Anelka,Essien,Lampard, Kalou and Cole.All of them had fair chances to score and failed somehow.
But Deco was almost playing as defensive miedfield, he had to come behind to pick up the ball when what hes really good is providing assists for goal.
DiSanto should have got more than 7/8min to play and Kalou should also have come in earlier thought.With so many players “underperforming” why not give a chance to “young blood”?
Top of the league was the best outcome of a somewhat boring match.
23. Andrew
We need Ballack, Mikel and Drogba back!!
24. Denver
BC …. I think you can recall me saying this before…along with other persons on this wonderful blog….. and let me put it in bold CHELSEA HAS THE WEAKEST ATTACK OUT OF THE TOP FOUR… it just does not seem like our attackers have that killer instinct ! like a Torres, RVP, Adybyour, Teves, CR7.
we needed one super striker….. Mario Gomes…was the buzz at one point, i still think he can do the trick (has all the qualities)
25. JoseHoliday
I had my misgiving when I wrote CFC would cruise and ooze class and win. But chins up one little blip does nothing to my enthusiasm.
26. chelsea4life
now all reiterating what people like me have been saying for last few seasons…we seriously lack that cutting edge upfront…and it is not down to striker..it starts right from our midfield….lack of width,lack of forward going players are the basic problems….Scolari is good enough to see these problems thats why he wants Robinho….and he also needs to bring one or two special players from his continent who can teach these English players how to go past players..
27. Blues_Godson
Wen need to know how to get past players once we’re moving forward and thats not just by passing the ball for a one-two..but actually dribbling past…thats whats we lost when robben went to madrid and thats why scolari says he needs robinho by all means…and the other fact is that we need to know how to get back the ball as soon as we loose possession….the match was okay and would have been in our advantage if we had another leather striher up front….cant wait to get drogba back and we should really find a plan B for Deco when it comes to this physical games because he’s really a small guy and can easily be bullied off the ball…
KTBFFH…..
28. Jo
chelsea ned to get robinho…and we need drogba back faster…or hopefully we complete the tranfer season with a swoop for a striker besides robinho…anelka miss gr8 chances tt could have won the game…our wingers cant dribble much…joecole onli…kalou still abit unstable…we NEED robinho…
29. Jo
stupid international break…it screwed up my holiday…this weekend gonna be a boring weekend….
30. Jo
deco gets outmuscled easily i agree…tts one way to stop him…but i think he can move the ball well….his weakness is tt he cant defend well
31. UFOman
Chelsea will make one more final bid for Robinho…
I think this time CHelsea will put a bid that matches RM’s offer. If they still rejected, then it is OFF.
Regards
ELWS-UFOman
32. UFOman
THis website will resresh every 60 seconds to keep update of the final day of the Transfer Window to close.
check it out.
33. UFOman
another LIVE transfer deadline…
http://www.oddspreview.com/read/live-transfer-deadline-day-coverage-010909
34. Jo
thx dude i will be waiting anxiously for the live updates of the robinho transfer saga…hope it will be a gd news for us
35. UFOman
09.53: DEAL DONE! Vedran Corluka seals a move from Manchester City to Tottenham. The agreement is confirmed at Spurs’ end.
36. Elliot
BC - I agree with your sentiments on Anelka. Regularly, he seems to be lost and out of position in his current striker role. Missing the easy tap-in that he had in the 25th minute was almost unforgivable. He needs to be benched.
Also, I was surprised that Joe Cole was taken out of the game before Anelka. I wasn’t expecting that.
37. Jo
yea i thought tt even thought joecole didn’t have a nice game..he still manage to keep possession and help defend…malouda came in but did nth better…anelka looks more threatening but still lack the finishes…how the hell did he miss tt close range chance after belleti provided him wif the nice pass…..
12 hrs more to go to the end of transfer season…c’mon…seal robinho deal
38. MourOfEssien
Even in jose’s first season we dropped points at home to man citi. Its not as tragic as some would want us to think.
39. kobby
shame on anelka,he has done nothing to impress ever since joining chelsea.i think we really miss drogba,and if mikel wants to go let him go cos there are too many star midfielders in chelsea and to me he doesnt compare to neigther ballack,lampard,deco or most of all essien.discuss
40. Desmond - FootballMeeting.com
Ahh man. Woodgate was kind of awesome.
I still think we need Drogba back. Thank God he didn’t go to AC Milan.
41. bluefan #1
last day of the transfer window. nothing on robinho yet but read this:
12.51 Chelsea full-back Paulo Ferreira is in talks over a possible move to Premier League rivals West Ham, Sky Sports News understands.
42. UFOman
Player From To
Peter Gulacsi MTK Hungaria Liverpool (loan to permanent)
Rachid Bouaouzan Wigan NEC Nijmegen (loan)
Tyrone Mears Derby Marseille (loan)
Louis Saha Manchester United Everton
Blerim Dzemaili Bolton Torino (loan)
Sol Bamba Dunfermline Hibernian
Vitor Flora Botafogo Liverpool
Ignacio Gonzalez Valencia Newcastle (loan)
Nadir Belhadj Lens Portsmouth (loan)
Vedran Corluka Manchester City Tottenham
Steven Pressley Unattached Randers
43. Pensioner
Hi Blue Champions,
I think that Chelsea fC should put in a bid on K. Huntelaar!
Cheers
44. Jo
omg i have been waiting since morning and nt a single news about robinho…
45. CJ - 16yrs Blues Fan
Hmmm…. if Robin comes, it is superb, else, it is just not meant to be. All the mid-tables targeting European spot are really stepping up a gear in transfer market, maybe they realized that this might be their year, sensing that the big Fours are having their own individual internal problems… this would be a REAL EXCITING EPL SEASON…. We all know what Chelsea would be with Didier back but can he played all the remaining matches with a newly “fix” knee? hmmmm……..
46. Jo
its 12 am here nw in Singapore…guesss i gonna wait a while longer for the end of the transfer season../hope chelsea at least buy one more player…
47. Pensioner
Hi Blue Champions,
News came out that Chelsea rejected a bid from Arsenal for S. Kalou?
Anyway in other news the fighting over Berbatov is getting quite intense, with Man Utd and Man City and now even Madrid?
Cheers
48. bluefan #1
i read that to. that is great news. if madrid is making a bid (36 mil £) that means robinho is coming!! and berba out of the PL. dont want to se man utd get him.
49. bluefan #1
look at this team
—————–cech———————
bos——–carv——–terry——-a.cole
————–mikel/essien—————–
—-deco/balack———–lamps———-
j.cole/kalou—————–robinho/malouda
———–drogba/anelka/di santo———
ooouchhh. hope alexF is shitting his pants
50. IwasMissingJose
I heard that our chief executive Peter Kenyon is leaving for Man City???
51. Jon Stewart
Man City are throwing cash all over the place now!
52. bluefan #1
18.23 According to Radio Marca in Spain, Manchester City have now made a bid for Real Madrid striker Robinho, who has asked to be allowed to join Chelsea. Reports also suggest Real will make one last bid to sign David Villa, who is also wanted by City, from Valencia. If Real sign Villa, then Robinho could be allowed to leave.
this new city arab owner is crayzie
53. BuildChelsea
yeah right…….like David Villa would leave Valencia and come to a club like Manchester City!!!!………..It’s like their Ronaldinho bid……they offered double of what AC Milan offered and the player didn’t even consider the move…..pointless bidding by the arab owner……dream on city…..dream on…..
54. Pensioner
Hi Blue Champions,
BuildChelsea do you know what was offered to Ronaldinho at Man City?
Or this question is for anyone who can answer it.
Cheers
55. BuildChelsea
@53. Pensioner ………no i don’t know………and wats ur point??
56. bluefan #1
when does the transfer window close, what time?
57. Arun CFC
three more hour’s left
58. Arun CFC
Still No News about Robinho.
59. Jon Stewart
It is actually getting frustrating :P
60. Arun CFC
Dimitar Berbatov is at Old Trafford as he gets set to complete his move to Manchester United. Berbatov has undergone a medical and has been pictured meeting Sir Alex Ferguson and David Gill at the club’s stadium.
61. Den
hurry uppp robinho, there is no chance he still has to fly over from madrid to london and complete a medical even if a deal is truck
62. Jon Stewart
Robinho will ride in Kenyon’s private concorde
I thought Spurs were blocking Man U for Man City 
:(
63. Thunder
its getting worse every match…
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