@$#*%! Stunned! I’ve never seen anything like that in my years of watching football! Absolutely unbelievable! Such a heart-stopper! Quality of football was in fact poor but what a great advertisement for football and in particular premier league brand of football. What a win. Man, I need a week for this to sink in! This was a fantastic match because we ended up winning the tie. Otherwise, this could have been the worst night for a Chelsea fan, worse than the champions league night, I’d say! Not a great performance by Chelsea but what they achieved was a fantastic result.

Bad things first. We conceded four goals. Aurelio’s goal was a brilliant one. Very very intelligent goal. The penalty was a foul but I have seen these things not being called. Ivanovic was fouled in the box by Carragher and I’ve seen those being given. Lucas got a lucky deflection which must have been a bit embarrassing for himself. Great work by Kuyt for the last goal while the Chelsea defence did nothing but watch like in those Scolari days.

Superb contributions from Drogba, Lampard, Anelka and Malouda. I feel this was Anelka’s best big match performance to date. Malouda is a completely different player nowadays. He’s improved since his new haircut. I don’t think there could be something else to his improvement in form or probably it could be Hiddink?

Now our side of the story. It all started with that goal from Drogba. That was a very good cross from Anelka but full marks to Drogba for attempting a shot. Not many strikers would have attempted a shot from that angle. Most would have tapped it on the defender to get a corner. Not Drogba. His shot surprised Reina and with so less time to react he could only palm it to the net. It was this goal that brought Chelsea back on its feet. As a fan, I knew that Chelsea are not going to let this go now, not when Didier is finding the net. The second goal was a cracker. That was Alex at his very best. He did not seem too concerned about shooting at the top corner because he had such a powerful shot that’s simply unsaveable. Carvalho bowing down to allow Alex’s shot was an quick indication but it was all over in a flash. It was certainly in Reina’s arms length but as the commentator said he’d have lost his arm if he had tried to stop it.

At 2-2, it was surely our game but we had to kill the game. Ballack made a superb pass to Drogba. And unsurprisingly Drogba controlled the ball with ease in the Liverpool box and passed in to Lampard. He doesn’t miss those. I particularly loved the way Drogba let the defender fall flat on the ground while he passed it at ease to Lampard. He also did that to Carragher as he always does. Last 5 minutes of stoppage time. 3-4 was very scary. We had to score for various reasons. One is we needed to be sure of the progression. Two is we can’t be losing at home to Liverpool. Three, the last goal of such a game had to be ours. In cam Frank Lampard with a great shot that had Reina watching and Rafa crying. Game over. Truly this time.

Great stuff by Hiddink. Though we started poorly, he was quick to react and brought on Anelka for Kalou. He could have easily brought in Mikel but he knew that the solution is by scoring goals and not just by trying to stop them. Second half was way better. I started seeing Chelsea get fouls and free kicks much more. That looked like a game plan by itself. Only in the second half, we started showing some intent to score goals. Good response from Hiddink.

We were angry because we didn’t start as we planned. We know playing against Liverpool, a good team with skilful players, you cannot give them a lot of space. We did, we dropped back too much, with false safety backwards. That’s more or less a tactical thing. I think the focus is also on the duels. We lost too many duels in the first half and that’s not good, you cannot go into a duel and then not have the right reaction, so tactically but also mentally. We said this is not the way we go into this second half. That’s why I like to work with this team, this team reacts, and we know that we can score. Happily we did early in the second half.

Last laugh: “the satisfaction of ultimate triumph or success especially after being scorned or regarded as a failure”. 2-0 up at Stamford Bridge under half hour. So what? May be they shouldn’t have celebrated so much so early. Luckily, I’ve recorded this match. Every time I see the Liverpool players and fans celebrating, I’m gonna laugh out loud.

But credit to Liverpool, for fighting the way they did, for playing with that kind of hope and confidence. But no credit to Rafa who was expecting to lose and was repeatedly surprised by his own players. Rafa did not play to win. He wouldn’t even have put a tenner on Liverpool making it. He just thought that he can rest Gerrard and Riera and to have a go with the rest. He was surprised by the two goal lead by half time. And when Lampard put us to a 3-2 lead, he took off Torres keeping the premier league game in mind. Truly, he didn’t have any hopes of getting through. It was his players hope and confidence, plus some typical champions league luck and some poor defending by Chelsea that gave him something to think about.

Chelsea started badly because the approach was incorrect. We were playing as if we were looking for a 0-0 draw. Completely faulty. As I mentioned in the earlier blog, if we do that we’d playing into their strengths and that’s what exactly happened. The thing with early goals is that it really gives the momentum to the opposition and makes us really nervous. From nowhere Liverpool suddenly got this belief that the unthinkable might just be possible. Luckily in the second half, though the quality of football did not improve, the approach certainly was different which is what won us the tie.

I can’t tell you how happy I am. For the second season in succession, we’ve knocked off Liverpool whose only reason for existence is champions league. Annihilating Liverpool at Anfield plus eliminating them from champions league at Stamford Bridge. The icing on the cake is that they were 2-0 up under half hour and all those uber fans must have been on cloud nine. I’m sorry guys. Just in case you can’t see, I’m showing you my middle finger. You’ve been had by the BlueChampions!

It’s Barca in the semi finals. I feel much more confident about the Barca match than I was about the Liverpool match. The first leg would be at Camp Nou on 28 April and the second leg at Stamford Bridge on 6 May. They have Messi? So what? We have Malouda (no smiley here). Barca’s defence is weak and they have not been tested by quality attacks. Barca’s attack is not strong in the air and our defence is strong on the ground. Would be a tough tie but Chelsea would get through to the finals. Mark my words – Drogba and Lampard are the men to watch – as always. For now, enjoy this fantastic result. Have that huge grin on your face! Blue is the colour . . .

Hiddink demolished Liverpool at Anfield. If Chelsea can’t progress to the semi finals tonight, not only that demolition has no meaning but also it reflects on Hiddink’s tactical capabilities. This is a new and different challenge. We can’t afford to concede more than two goals. If Chelsea cannot progress tonight, it then has to be a horrible night for men in blue – the players, the coach, the staff and the fans. That’s because, on paper, it is such an easy objective.

The home match against Bolton has given tonight’s match a new level of expectation. From the Liverpool eyes, if Bolton can score three at the Bridge, Liverpool can. Very simple thought. That’s a premier league match and this is a champions league match. But Liverpool thinks that they are capable of scoring three goals in Stamford Bridge and that’s what keeping them confident about tonight’s game.

The Bolton match was an aberration. It was quite clear to see that at 4-0 at 70 minutes, we thought the game was over. Any team would think so. Hiddink rightfully replaced Drogba for Anelka and Lampard for Deco. The problem was Anelka is not Drogba and Deco is not Lampard. Once Drogba and Lampard went off, we lost control of the match. Bolton grew in confidence and trusted their single biggest weapon – long balls. I won’t blame them. Long ball is football. It’s just that we were defended them poorly. Cech had one of his worst games of recent times. Our defence were no shaky while handling long balls.

In a way, I’m glad that the 20 minute fiasco happened in the match against Bolton. Now all the players would know where complacency would land them. Hiddink would have known the importance of keeping Lampard and Drogba all 90 minutes in tonight’s match. Cech would have realised that he has to be at this best, again. The problem I see is, cunning Rafa would have seen this match. He’d have realised how flappable we were at long balls. Liverpool are masters at long balls. Expect them to test us with a few long balls aimed at Torres.

Gerrard would most certainly play, after his now-routine pre-match drama of will he, won’t he. Mascherano would be back for them as well. We will not have Terry because of suspension. Anelka and Ashley Cole are one yellow away from suspension. I’m okay with Anelka but Ashley Cole not playing a game? I can’t even think of it.

The Chelsea approach for tonight’s game would be interesting. With a fantastic 3-1 win away, how would you approach the home game? If we try to defend all night, we’ll be playing into their strenths and hopes. The only way Liverpool can score three is by keep having the ball and attack all 90 minutes. The only reason why we blew Liverpool out of sight in Anfield was that we took the attack to them. I think that’s what we will and should do tonight. Attack as if we need to score two goals. In other words, play this just like a premier league match. I expect Hiddink to put out the strongest eleven possible. If we keep thinking that ‘all that we need to do is not to concede three goals’ then that would spell disaster. We just need to forget the away result and play like this is the first leg.

From elsewhere, good news coming your way. Ancelotti has ruled himself out say the headlines. When I click and read through it, nothing emphatic there. If someone wants to say a no, they will say NO, right? Interestingly, when asked about the Chelsea job Ancelotti says, ‘May be, Mourinho will go but I, however, am going to continue to coach Milan’. We will have to start a ‘Say NO to Ancelotti’ campaign later on.

Now onto the John Terry’s remarks on Hiddink and Mourinho. Now please get off his back. Terry gave a very very honest response to a question that was posed to him. Also, he spoke in the capacity of the captain of the team. If Hiddink has no problems in remaining as Chelsea coach, there is no reason to bring anyone to replace him – be it TSO or Rijkaard or anyone. You’re hearing this from one of the biggest self-proclaimed Jose Mourinho fans.

If Hiddink turns out to be Scolari (which I’m sure he won’t, cuz there is only one Scolari), then we can talk about it. For now, there is no need to talk about new managers unless Hiddink is really really gone. And, I have nothing to say about the rumours connecting Terry to TSO’s dismissal. If one player can trigger the dismissal of a coach, then the club is in a big danger. That’s a rumour anyway, so I’d move on. But I realise that something went wrong between Terry and TSO but that’s something that happens with the coaches and players all the time.

Back to Stamford Bridge. Liverpool eliminated Chelsea from champions league in 04-05 and 06-07. Chelsea eliminated Liverpool from champions league in 07-08 and 08-09. All square. Chelsea to beat Liverpool tonight 2-1.

I’m a bit busy today. But there has to be some blog right? That’s why I have started typing without even know what exactly to say. So I’ll say the easiest things. We gotta win. Rivals gotta lose. Coming back from a historic demolition of Liverpool at Anfield, we must be running high on confidence, morale and the related stuff. Playing Bolton at home is a relief.

I think Hiddink has restored the home-away normalcy. Normally in football, you have teams performing better at home than away. That was the case with Chelsea until Scolari stepped in. There was a period when I started dreading home matches and wondering why we can’t play all matches away. That feeling is gone. Now, with Chelsea playing so confidently and buoyantly, playing at home would only make things better. At Anfield, Chelsea showed an absolute disregard for the Anfield support. That’s after Torres sent them to dizzying heights after that early goal. This Chelsea team has more focus. All that they care about is what they need to do on the pitch. They seem less concerned about other stuff.

Bolton would pack their defence and would wait for their set piece opportunities to nick a goal. Hiddink’s Chelsea has seen such challenges at home already and have already come out successful. Bolton should not be too much of a worry. The only concern for Hiddink must be the team selection for this match ahead of the second leg of the champions league quarterfinals on Tuesday. He can rest a few players, play Carvalho, Mancienne, Di Santo, Deco, Mikel and the like. If you think we have won the tie against Liverpool, that could be a naive thought. Football can teach you cruel lessons when you take it lightly.

That’s all I can write for now. Here is for a 3-0 win for Chelsea.

Chelsea are back. Well and truly. That was the Chelsea that we all know. Thank Hiddink for that. Liverpool had no clue about what hit them. That was blitzkreig. Chelsea were in their face. The kop must have been shaking in their boots and they must have been relieved that it’s only a 1-3. But they all must know that Chelsea have slain them.

Hiddink certainly had a plan and it went just as per his script. It was clear that we wanted to score goals and we got them. At no point we looked content. 1-1 was a good score to take home but Chelsea were looking for more. 1-2 is a great score but we weren’t done. 1-3 is a sureshot winning score but still we were looking for more goals. If we had taken some of the easy chances we must have ended 1-6. And that’s not an exaggeration at all.

What I love about this result is that it comes after Liverpool’s results against Real Madrid, Man Utd, Aston Villa and the last minute winner against Fulham. They were winning really big and they had to brought down to earth. Not many gave a chance for Chelsea tonight. And, we tore them to pieces. They did the double against us in the league, when Chelsea were aeslehC under Luiz Scolari. Now we’ll do the double against them in the champions league.

I expected Liverpool to come at us and hit us hard. They even started well with another Torres goal. Chelsea didn’t look concerned one bit. We kept attacking them and creating quality chances. I was doubting if Drogba was drunk in the first half. Missed two sitters. That would have been criminal had we not equalised or could not score more. Couple of seasons back, Chelsea produced a similar attacking performance but got only a 1-0 at home. The wasted chances came back to haunt us. We lost the second leg 1-0 and were knocked out in the penalties. Drogba was lucky that his misses were not that costly.

Liverpool sold Riise and thought they are better off but we brought Ivanovic. I don’t know what were the odds for Ivanovic scoring a brace in this match. Someone somewhere could have become a millionaire overnight. I don’t think Ivanovic getting a brace from corner headers is a coincidence. There must have been some plan around that. For both the goals, you could see Ivanovic consciously moving around knowing that he would be unmarked. I think that’s where Hiddink outthought Rafa tactically. Tactical plans are nice but they would have meant nothing if Ivanovic had not made that movement and smashed those headers. Full credit to the serbian.

For all his sins tonight, Drogba had to score. The third goal was a killer. I loved that one. It had Drogba written all over it. Low cross from the left and you see Drogba sneaking between two defenders in a flash and burying it. It was game over then. They knew that it was all over. They could not produce good chances to save their lives while we were creating at will. Liverpool just could not handle Chelsea tonight.

This was a great team performance. Every single player did his part. Particularly, Essien was brilliant. He muted Gerrard like you won’t see often. We castrated Gerrard and disconnected him and Torres making the Spaniard run around for nothing much. Was it really Malouda or some other player wearing a Malouda jersey? He was fantastic. His runs and play were intelligent and dangerous. His corner deliveries were more purposeful than that of Lampard’s. Kalou was wasteful but he at least kept Liverpool on their toes. Ballack was very good as well. I’m tired of praising Lampard. He had some dubious moments in defence, but in attack, he was top class. Many say that the only negative for Chelsea was Terry’s yellow that suspends him for next match. On second thought, his yellow at this stage was just ideal.

We bossed the midfield. More importantly, we played as a team. There was simply no confusion about the objective and tactics. As a team, I was incredibly pleased with the attitude, composure and maturity shown by this group. We knew how to create chances, we knew how to keep them at bay and we knew how to control the game. I don’t think Cech was really troubled apart from a couple of long shots. This must go down as one of the best away leg performances of Chelsea in recent times.

The tie is no way over yet only because we have 90 minutes to play. Liverpool needs a 3-0 result at Stamford Bridge. That’s a result I have not seen any team obtain in Stamford Bridge in my years of watching Chelsea. I don’t know when was it last achieved. Liverpool may draw inspiration from their 1-4 result at Old Trafford but that’s a different competition altogether. If Man Utd had started knowing that they only needed a draw, they’d have got it. Chelsea’s task is clear and easy. Any draw would do. A goal or two would put them out of sight.

Yesterday night was one of the best Chelsea nights I’ve experienced. Big compliments to Hiddink. He’s working wonders with this team. The very same team that was stamped as ‘old, tired and past their best’ has been now recognised as a champions league favourite and the only team that can stop Barcelona. The spirit and attitude of the Chelsea team is back. I love their confidence, flambuoyance bordering on arrogance.

Message to the Kop: OWNED!

It’s that time of the year again. Champions league night at Anfield. When the draw was made, one thing I was hoping for was a second leg game at Stamford Bridge. My hope is that we would get a draw, preferably a goal draw at Anfield. I guess that would be a great result to take back to London. But matches at Anfield do suck big time. They tend to get unjustifiably lucky at Anfield. I’ll be pissed if they get another one of those 98th minute penalties.

The club website reminds: “Chelsea haven’t won an away game in European competition for over 16 months ago while Liverpool are unbeaten at Anfield in 10 European games.” That sounds a bit scary but what is hidden there is the face Chelsea have certainly drawn away matches in the last 16 months. And Liverpool have been held at Anfield in the last 10 European games. That’s all I need. A draw, a goal draw at Anfield. 1-1 is my score.

Good news around for Chelsea. Didier Drogba is back. He’s so important for the big games, especially the champions league games, especially the ones against Liverpool. He’s got this knack of pissing off the scousers. He loves playing against them and scoring against them. It would be great to see him score a brace tomorrow night and make his crazy celebrations to annoy the hell out of Benitez.

We’ve got a very capable team to reach the semi finals. See the choices for Hiddink. Cech in goal. Ivanovic, Ashley Cole, Terry, Alex, Lampard, Mikel, Essien, Malouda, Kalou and Drogba. And probably, Quaresma for 30 mins . . just kidding. I know he’s cup tied :-) There is still no news about Carvalho yet. Would be great to see him walk into the pitch tomorrow night. Hiddink did indicate that he wants an away goal and he does want us to sit back. Well, that’s the popular thing to say ahead of a crucial away game of the champions league quarterfinals. I think we must play 4-3-3.

Liverpool are only missing Mascherano due to suspension. For two reasons, I’m happy. One, he is a good player and two, I just can’t stand the sight of him. There are very few players that I hate as much as Mascherano. I’m surprised that Gerrard has not picked up his customary injury ahead of this match just put minds in doubt only to reappear on matchday night. He does that all matches against Chelsea. Cheap mind games.

I must admit Liverpool are a different animal now. They now attack. They are not the tactical machine. Nowadays, they attack from the word ‘go’ and they are reaping rewards. They create loads of chances. They have Torres and Gerrard to finish some of them. What’s worrisome about their attack is the pace at which they hit teams. They are always fit and pacy. It will be interesting to see if Rafa allows Liverpool to play the same game against Chelsea. They had some fantastic big results against Real Madrid, Man Utd and Aston Villa. But Chelsea are a different animal too. We have a strong midfield, world class defence and one of Europe’s best keepers.

I can’t wait for this match. This is my script. 15th min. Gerrard sent off for diving. 20th min. Drogba scores, one nil to Chelsea. 25th min. Torres red carded for offside. 30th min. Super Frank belts one in, two nil to Chelsea. 40th min. Terry handball. No penalty. 45th min. Carragher handball. Penalty to Chelsea. Super Frank scores again. Three nil to Chelsea. Zero added minutes. 3-0 at half time.

Rafa hits the referee in the half time and gets sent off to the stands. Local police alerted. Gerrard absconds.

Second half. The whole Liverpool team is yellow carded for arriving in late. 55th min. Di Santo comes in and scores with his first touch. Four nil to Chelsea. 75th min. Xavi Alonso scores an own goal. Five nil to Chelsea. 90th min. Goal kick by Cech straight into Reina’s net. Six nil to Chelsea. Zero added minutes. After final whistle, Liverpool players surround the referee and all of them get their second yellow.

Peace.