BlueChampions - The Blog of the Champions of England!

Good weekend of football for us! Our rivals have dropped points while we didn’t get to play due to weather conditions. I hate these kind of postponements. But it must be easy for me to say that when all that I have to do is to switch on the TV. But the widespread feeling among the football fans in UK is also around ‘yes there is unprecedented weather but not to an extent to postponing football matches’. Anyway, the fact is the match has been postponed but we don’t when it’s going to be played. I hope that we don’t need to play a match in the mid-week ahead of the weekend match against Arsenal in February.

The weather condition provides another clear advantage to the top clubs. The top clubs, though not all of them, have some wonderful training facilites which can keep the training on even under these conditions. Cobham apparently, has the indoor training centre and the artificial pitch. If Chelsea had played Hull City yesterday, it’s clear that Chelsea would have been better trained and prepared for the match than Hull City. John Terry thanks Roman Abramovich for such fantastic facilities.

We had some good sessions indoors and trained at Stamford Bridge on Friday, all the other clubs are like it so we’re no worse off than anyone else, and fortunate to be in the position we are, so we have to be grateful for what we have at the moment. The main concern was the fans getting to the game up at Hull, for us football has come on now and we’re lucky with Roman coming in, we have the indoor centre and the artificial pitch at Cobham, and the groundsmen have had the pitches cleared up at the Bridge.

The re-scheduling of the match was such a disappointment because I was waiting to see the second choice players in action. The wait is a bit annoying for them as they must be waiting for this match. At least they get the benefit of playing in front of the home crowd when they take the field next weekend against Sunderland. That would also mean Anelka is completely fit. I was not sure if he was fully fit if we had played yesterday. It felt to me like he was being rushed in because we badly need one or both of Drogba and Anelka in any starting line up.

With ‘talismen’ like Essien and Drogba not in the line up, this is also a time for Joe Cole to restore some lost pride. Consistency has always been his downer all through his career. He can make magic one day and the most other days have you wondering what does he bring to the team. He is a darling of the fans because he’s English, he’s our ‘skill player’ and he’s part of our great moments. I like him for the exact same reasons. If I keep my sentiments aside, I have to see the value for money/time that we get from Joe Cole is dwindling by the day. He needs to resurrect his career, right here at Chelsea. He’s back from a long injury allright. For starters, if Joe Cole make an return impact like Tomas Rosicky, the king of all football injuries, I’d be happy. Ancelotti says all the right things about Joe Cole. Carlo says that Joe Cole could do better and also reminds him that Capello would be watching Joe Cole’s Chelsea performances.

For Joe Cole it is the same situation [as that of Anelka], he wants to stay and we want to keep him. We are talking with him but I can say only about the technical question. The economic factor is a question for the club. We have confidence in Joe and he is an important player for the squad and for the fans. The fans like him so I think he will want to stay here. For him it is an important moment because he came back from injury and to play well for Chelsea is important, and the World Cup is important. He has a good mental attitude and is in good condition. To play in the World Cup is good motivation. [Fabio] Capello will look at his performances for Chelsea and he has a lot of possibility to play in the World Cup. He could do better. I stayed out one year with an injury and it is not easy to return. You need to have time to play, to improve. It is not easy to return and do your best immediately. I think he is very close, he played very well the last match against Watford and I think also he found it difficult to play in a new position but now he plays well.

I hope that the confusion around Malouda’s ‘ill-translated’ interview has now been cleared. I have always believed that Malouda cannot be a trouble maker, for his team, his manager and the club. He has been a very good professional. The caveat comes now: he is a French player. Almost all French players get involved with mis-quoted and ill-translated interviews. They seem to love creating the ripples across the football world. There are a few exceptions though. And I always thought Malouda is one such exception. He’s now cleared the air in such emphatic way that you’re never going to publish another transfer rumour involving Florent Malouda.

Nothing that you could read today came out of my mouth. I was really shocked and surprised when I came and we had a meeting at quarter-to-12 when I discovered my words. My reaction was to go and talk with the manager and talk with Lamps [Frank Lampard] and the meeting was clear. I did an interview in France and I said I am here in Chelsea to try to do a career like Ryan Giggs and like Javier Zanetti at Inter Milan, which is why I am looking for the future. I have too much respect for the fans to speak in those terms and for me it is clear, the story finished.

Lovely! Please read Malouda’s full response in the club website.

Meanwhile, both Man Utd and Arsenal have drawn their matches yesterday from the jaws of defeat. We’re still leading the table despite having a match on hand. How much I love to be in the ‘match-on-hand’ situation! Man Utd simply don’t worry me at the moment. They’ve lost that bit of fear factor. Nicking a point or three from Man Utd is not such a feat for premier league teams this season. Arsenal downward spiral normally starts in February/March. It looks like it would start this month itself. Starting from the last week of January, Arsenal are playing four crunch matches in succession – Aston Villa, Man Utd, Chelsea and Liverpool. I think we have left the worryzone of December way behind. It’s all very positive now!