Heard of the phrase ‘exceedingly exceeded the expectations’? The expectation was something like a 2-0 win. A 4-0 would have been ‘exceeding the expectations’. Who’d have guessed that we’d score seven? This was the first premier league match since the Africans left. And we were supposed to be struggling in the absence of Drogba and Essien. But we chose this day to almost get Chelsea’s best ever top flight victory. Sunderland were depleted but let’s not take anything away from Chelsea. It was simply a scintillating performance that sent out a clear message that we’re back in form.
To be honest, when we were leading 2-0, I was reminded of the Everton match. Chelsea playing great football, completely outplaying the opponent, scoring a couple of goals inside 20 mins and looking to sweep the opposition away with a huge score. In the Everton match, we got complacent and unlucky which resulted in a very unfair 3-3 score at the end. In this match, there was nothing outisde the script like that. At no point in the match were we ready to take the foot off the gas. Beautiful, professional and ruthless – champions’ stuff.
Every now and then you have such Chelsea matches where it’s very hard to name the MOTM. Even in this match, you can come up with at least four players who fully deserved to be MOTM. Anelka scored a brace and more importantly scored the first goal of the match. That was a brilliant finish by Anelka set up by a beautiful touch by Ze German. All through the match, Anelka appeared to be very sharp and hungry. Didn’t look like he was playing after a month’s gap. Then there was Ashley Cole, who was the prime architect of our 4-0 lead by half time. And that goal by Ashley Cole!
Many have compared it already with the famous world cup goal by Dennis Bergkamp. It looks pretty similar but Bergkamp did it with more grace and ease. But come on, Bergkamp is a legendary footballer and we are talking about one of his best goals. Now, to compare an Ashley Cole goal with that goal says a lot about the quality of the goal. With Essien and Mikel not being there, I was thinking that the full backs might play a less attacking role but Ashley Cole was all over the left hand side yesterday.
Malouda was brilliant too. After the poorly-translated and mis-quoted interview in a French magazine, to start for Chelsea and produce such a performance must shut the stupid journos. His goal was also such a great goal. There were too many great goals in one match! I think Malouda’s goal must qualify as a nominee for the Chelsea goal of the season. He ran almost half the pitch dodging 3 to 4 Sunderland players and finally despite being marked and blocked, lashed a powerful right footer. For a left footed player to score such a goal shows the confidence the player has. Then there was Frank Lampard. A fine performance capped with a brace. I was waiting to see the kids, especially after we were 4-0 by half time, but Carlo didn’t bring them on, unfortunately.
The disappointment of the afternoon has to be Joe Cole. In fact, he played well but he missed two glorious chances, one of them was the first chance that fell for Chelsea. I felt sorry for him. This was a perfect match for him to get a goal or two. Again, he played well and did help his team a lot but a couple of goals would have done a lot of good for him. The other disappointment was the two goals that we conceded. All through the match, Jones was winning the ball in the air with ease and Bent was able to get through to the box fairly regularly. Both those goals were poorly conceded but the seven goals that we scored kind of swept them under the carpet.
Earlier, Stoke City spoilt the revival party for Rafa Benitez. I watched only the second half of this match and I thought Stoke deserved the result thoroughly. Rafa can cry about the penalties that weren’t awarded. How many times he was gifted with penalties that weren’t, at Anfield? When Maxi came in for Liverpool, I was thinking about the penalty that was given to Liverpool against Atletico at Anfield, thanks to a trademark stoppage-time stunt by Gerrard. What goes ’round comes ’round. I was hoping to see Man Utd draw but they came strongly in the second half. Let’s see if Bolton can do it to Arsenal today. All’s well for Chelsea.
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Great post BC I was also disapointed that no young players came on I would have liked to see Gael Kakuta or sturridge in action.Does enyone know when Franco Di Santo will be back?I wonder if Carlo will buy any players this Month?Anyway great perfomance by the team,and I hope we land Aguero.
THE SEASON WILL BE BLUE!!
@ above : Franco’s loan deal at Blackburn has been extended until the end of the season.
I do hope Ash hasn’t taken too bad a knock. He pulled painfully while celebrating his goal. Anyway,if he has, it would be good in a way because I’m dying to see more from Zhirkov…18 million we paid for him and he doesn’t get a game.Such is the quality of Ash. I liked how the players responded being put into a 4-3-3 again. Malouda’s crossing throughout the game was top notch. With better finishing, we might well have had a double digit scoreline. But a great game anyways. Does a lot to assure everyone that thougn the Africans are very important, we can prevail without them.
so happy for chelsea and wat a team performance!!!!!! but at t same time lets not get carried away ,chelsea lost so many points after t stunning win at t emirates….let them post three four wins together
again ——chelsea (yesterday)>>>>>>>wowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
Chelsea’s 4-3-3 has been very effective when the opposition does not defend like lions. When they do defend like lions, our 4-3-3 slightly over-elaborates in attack and goes out of ideas soon. So, I’m not suddenly in ‘seventh heaven’ because we scored seven goals with the 4-3-3 system against a weak Sunderland defence at Stamford Bridge. Anyway, like Malouda said, we do play in different formations in the same match.
Chelsea’s 4-3-3 has been very effective !!!:P
It was a ruthless performance. I hope we can mantain this form.
Bravo,Bravo lads! Where was Roman when you wanted him to see this,Im sure he did.We always play beautifully but it always goes unnoticed ‘cos of our complacency but finally the boys got what they deserved.Everyone played for the shirt.The movement?! Omg impeccable.They just mustnt believe their own hype.the boys must just stick their heads down & keep grafting.Im sure they do.now sign joey to a new deal then lets push on.
Great performance. Set up the pace for the rest of this month. As someone pointed out, we have actually played better in absence of DD and company. May be its a change in the formation and the passing football. The pass by Herr Ballack , the goal by Ashley, the performance by Malouda excellent. Elsewhere , Real Madrid has lost and Barca seems to get back to playing their so called beautiful football in the match against Sevilla. To be fair, it was a very good show by farcelona as well and hope these top two teams in world presently make it to CL final!!!!!!!!!!!!
All is well !!!
Great Performance!!! Carlo must understand that 4-3-3 is better than the diamond!!!, 12 goals in two games.
The next two games will be very critical, because arsenal will have the same points than us and United will have 1 point ahead; we must beat Birmingham and burnley
essien injured during training i hope it is not that serious looks like his part in ACN is over
what difference does 3 weeks mean in premiership. take a picture of the table now and see in three week. i sincerely hope we can keep this form going and win all our games.
the euphoria is usually tempting to get carried away by the score line against sunderland and i want to believe we are going up gradually in terms of performance and cleaning out conceding cheeky goals (2 was conceded but after 5 goals it can be expected)
anyway, it was a good result whilst noting how everyone thought January was going to be our achilles heels.
keep the blue flag flying higher.
cheers
One swallow does not make a summer !
KTBFFH !
My prediction was 3:1 to us but what? We got 7 goals, one each for me to see a week off until we play again! But i agree with John Dykes: “It could have been double digits”, yes, John talks sense, and i am sure he is talking about the two missed chances of Joey and Nico’s chance for a hat-trick! Even A Cole’s header early on could have been on target, and his chance for a brace, if he had used his right leg on that wonderful cross. I am not complaining, but we could easily have been something like 11 or 12 goals!
Let us congratulate A Cole in scoring EPL’s 18000th goal, it was such a beauty, a great goal!
I loved Nico and Lampsy’s 1-2-1, Lampsy’s head-turn trick was a sight of utter beauty!
Joey and Malouda were poor in taking corners but they had a good game. I loved Joey’s tackles!
I think we still have some problem with set pieces, and Cech seems not fully decisive leaving his goal line.
But we had a great game, a team work at its best. Nico is the best, he makes all the difference!
About referee, he was good but made two mistakes: in not seeing a clear handball and for not letting us play advantage which would surely have ended in a goal!
About loserfool’s game…in post match interview rafa said 27000 four times! I love this guy, please keep him at Anfield!
Nico’s great goal-bound shot would have been a goal of the month, if not season! The keeper tipped it onto the crossbar!
Nico is peerless!
ok … let’s not get carried away here … 7-2 against a weakened Sunderland is all very nice and whatnot, but we have tougher matches coming up … but you gotta love the scoreline. Now here’s a thought … should Ancelotti try the 4-3-3 more often because we are sometimes greatly deprived of width and the fullbacks can get tired very easily in the game from bombing forward. It seems effective, and we know Anelka’s great on the wings too, so should be no problem with Drogba up centre when he’s back. The other wing can be occupied by Joe Cole/Malouda/Zhirkov. Speaking of Zhirkov, I want to see him get more match time and in a more advanced position than full back. He’s a smart player, should add something new to the team. And also I prefer seeing the likes of Matic or Kakuta or Sturridge play ahead the likes of Deco, Ballack or Belletti, who are excellent players but since they’re old I sometimes get the feeling they run out of energy against stronger opponents … these youngsters should get a chance to impress the manager in games like these!
But otherwise solid performance by Chelsea, apart from the two needless goals conceded. Let’s hope to have a smooth January, with some slip-ups from Man Utd. and Arsenal.
We should have scored so many more goals. Ash Coles goal was amazing and the pass from JT was just world class.
http://www.talkchelsea.net/
Would like to c the likes of kakuta, borini, sturridge and stoch get starts for sum easy games….. all the best chelsea for the rest of the season…. we do not need any more players to this squad… but would definitely like to see deco go….
Am glad many more of us BC included are realising that nico is peerless truly. He has always had class. What was not these was the hunger and the drive. They seem to be here now. His ball control and movement on and off are incredible.
Fuck fuck fuck fuck
Essien to be sidelined 2 months
ESSIEN….. COULD BE OUT FOR A MONTH…………………………………….
hey BC,
is ‘Shout’ closed or discontinued? I was not able to see the game, so came here and searched for it..
Could you put a link to ‘Shout’ on the home page?!!! would be great on Game day..
Thanks
CFCIR-2 months? where u get that from?
I have said it time and time again….. chelsea = 4-3-3 simple!!
we should just try to bring back Essien for the CL finals
Quoting shy
Press BC Huddle! at the top of this page then you will find it. Plus a lot of other good stuff.
Play the vid its
http://www.chelseafc.com/page/Home/0,,10268,00.html
You know Liverfool has let go Keane, Crouch and wanna get that guy from Sunderland !
Well that guy reminds me of Djibrille Cisse !
Well at least Fat Rafa might be on the way out and Chelsea can get Torres !
karmacw, i would hope in a closely knit foundation like chelsea, nicolas anelka would be priceless not peerless
cfcir, wherever your figure came from, ignore it mate as essiens scan results don’t even get to chelsea until tomorrow morning so who else is going to know otherwise to tell you?
7 goals, good, shame sturridge didnt get in on any of it, good that lampard ballack and anelka scored. Ashley Cole’s goal was a beauty, as good as something involving the worlds elite players
I used to say Ashley assured me in defence but in attack he was clueless which is where patrice evra used to surpass him, nowadays however, quite simply, we have the best leftback on the planet by a good distance
Gunners came back to the top .. Gallas deserved a card for his challenge.. Stupid wenger now doesn’t complain ..
trueplatinum,
Yeah it is “priceless” indeed!
i have feeling this wenger squad is going nowhere.
Too much blah blah from everyone from Arsenal, specially their manager.
Fuck arsenal is on top ,Chelsea must crush arsenal 4:0 at the bridge.
We will teach them a football lesson again
i dont really think anyone is sweating over arsenal, we are more than capable of humiliating them and we have a game in hand. Hopefully, we win with a 4 goal margin next league match because arsenal’s goal difference is equal to ours, the table makes them top because of goals scored so improving our goal difference is key. We didn’t do it when we finished second on 81 points so we need to make sure we are going for big results now.
Don’t you guys ever learn about slating Arsenal?
Do we have a better team than you? No of course not, Ancelotti should be sacked if he doesn’t win the league.
Thing is though we don’t have to play you every week. We have to play you once more, every other game were up against teams who were better than. Some of you can’t even remember this before basic fact. Do you not get tired of being made to look stupid?
Quoting Marc
You are the one who’s idiot right now.. blimey..
See you at the Bridge Marc,and hopfully more,because arsenal Cabot beat Chelsea anymore.
Chelsea lose Essien for six weeks
Michael Essien will be out of action for six weeks after returning from the African Nations Cup with a knee injury.
Essien, 27, sustained the injury in training while on international duty at the tournament in Angola.
The Ghana player arrived back at the club’s Cobham training ground this week and Chelsea’s medical staff carried out an examination of the affected knee.
moan as much as you like, but compare the results of chelsea with those of arsenal in the past 5 seasons and thats all you need. I don’t slate Arsenal for anything other than having minimal english players. Wenger is a responsibility avoiding twit, but he has achieved something with his ideas and monetary rigidness, I do question his tactics…..often, but there you go. If he’s happy to keep being trophyless, he can carry on, I’m much happier knowing my supported team is flexible to change as time demands it,
I know it seems bleek, but having Essien out for 6 weeks as getting off lightly. He was still injured when he worstened things and he could of been out for the rest of the season.
Boys, fingers crossed for a huge win tomorrow, sturridge to score many hopefully.
Fair enough mate, your points are definitly valid to an extent. As a manager and squad in isolation there’s not much I can say about your boys, apart from that we’re more fun to watch
.
I just found found the need to comment because its amusing that all the frustratingly unsubstantiated hot air about my team on this blog thats been passed out as expert opinion has finally blown up in some peoples faces. See you at the birdge as you say!
I wish we could have rooney in our squad,Fucking english lad is going to win the EPL golden shoe.
Rooney is not really english and i would not like him at Bridge, i would rather prefer C.Cole back home.
Can’t argue too much with you either marc mate
Liverpool is the team I do not like and I am so happy to see them struggling this season
I know Rooney looks, walks and sounds like shrek dressed up as a sun bear but I promise he is just an english boy who is unfortunate to have a scouse accent on top of it all lol.
No doubt Wayne Rooney could slot into any team on the planet
I wouldn’t go out of my way to get him but would be pleased if we did have him
Not quite the result i hoped for but we played well enough, clean sheet and fairly relaxed win
ARSENAL FUCKED UP AGAIN . Chelsea must get FA CUP seriously and avoid 2008 FA CUP SHOCK
Ivory Coast is out of ANC ! So that means we’ll have Drogs back soon.
Inter were awesome.. Mourinho knows how to play the big games . So worrying times..
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/european_football/article7000978.ece
Great wrk vjkris!! Feels good to be blue! Keep em coming!
WHERE IS MARC ? They lost fa cup with first team players.Buying Cambell is a fucking joke.I hope he play at the bridge,he will make drogba happy again.
we must keep nico at chelsea give him the contract as soon as possible
For all the wonderful performances from Anelka, he should be allowed to retire in Chelsea. He will be remembered for a long time after his retirement and he would serve as a great role-model for the kids in Academy. Sometimes reputation and respect makes club richer and respected than simply pouring money and i think its time to honour Anelka for his sincere efforts.
I want to applaud anelka for his performance this season, he´s been terrific!
I have always been saying that Anelka is a quality quality player.His skills and pace upfront is what we have bene missing for long.BUt coaches keep putting him behind Drogba in preference and thats beyond comprehension.If Drogba modifies his game a bit to connect well with Anelka then Chelsea will win all that is there at display. Anelka is too skilled a player, he can easily adapt his game as per requirements but same can’t be said of Drogba.If opposition is stubborn then Drogba becomes a marooned man upfornt.If they both start connecting well then it would do world of good for ur but for this onus is on Drogba.He needs to learn to use skills to unlock the dedence or make passes to other players.
Mourinho is roaring …
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1246079/Chelsea-beware-Ive-built-MY-Inter-Milan-team-roars-Jose-Mourinho.html
Quoting IwasMissingJose
You are so right, great post. Respect
Inter : They are really good, and under Mourinho they are at their best. But there is something that they lack which Chelsea have in abundance. DETERMINATION!!! If the score line reads Che 1-0 Inter, then that would be the end of the game. But if it were the other way around, Inter will be under some serious onslaught from Chelsea, and the boys wont rest until they find the net twice or thrice. That is what separates Chelsea from the others. So what, if Inter defeated Milan? We too have defeated ManU, trashed Looserpool and beat the s**t out of Arsenal. So the derby victory will give them confidence. But they need to understand that Chelsea are very different from AC Milan.
Arsenal : There is some sort of an evil jinx in EPL, that allows Arsenal their time at the summit for a week or two. So this is that phase. But then, they are a team equipped with SELF-DESTRUCTION button. So not much to worry. Lets not waste our time and energy on JOKERS!!!
Keep the BLUE flag flying high.
Inter Milan 1-1 or 1-0 Chelsea
Chelsea 3-0 or 2-0 Inter Milan.
everyone is taking about inter
http://www.goal.com/en-india/news/2639/calcio-debate/2010/01/26/1762328/calcio-debate-inters-performance-in-milan-derby-win-shows
Quoting Lampy Lord
If thats your conclusion then you are seriously mistaken. Inter are a team of great determination and they have proved that this season many times with great comebacks. Playerwise we have a stronger squad, and almost all our players, except lampard and ballack, in the attacking side are very fast. Inter have a comparatively slower midfield. Otherwise they are top top team. We really need to be worried. Specially at the set-pieces, coz thats where Inter hits real hard. They have great free-kick takers in form of Sneijder and Pandev. Chelsea´s free-kick takers have not shown so much promise. So we need to be scared and be prepared….
BC
How u doin mate ? Sick ? taking a rest ? Or busy at work ? Anyways best of luck and may u be back writin a bit b4 long !
arseanal is a french team as much as liverpoo is a spanish team! Don’t care non-English teams!
the game of today is a key game because if we win we will back on top!!!!! come on blues, please stop talking about INTER, focus in today game!!!!!
Hey guys dont get worry about INTER.AC Milan defence is like piece of shit.I believe Manchester will give them a hard time at San Siro . Inter is not a Champions league.Barcelona proved this thing in two legs that Inter is not near good standars.I am sure Essien will completly shut down inter midfield.And dont worry abou set pieces,Inter is more weaker in that area than us.
I LOVE YOU JOSE MOURINHIO,BUT INTER IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR THIS COMPETITION.
WE ARE ON TOP AGAIN….. 3-0 thrashing of BC….grt wrk by lamps and malouda..
HOWEVER….. manure jus came out from a 4-0 thrashin of hull and have dumped MANC outta Carling cup….. shud we be wary of them for their habit of a notorious surge in form…..post christmas…(in this case itz a lil latr than post christmas)…but still …..more than worrying about inter…i think we gotta worry about manure..otherwise we cud end up in deep shit… hehe