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We all live in a David Luiz world . . .

| Mar 25, 2011 | 71 comments | 3,333 views

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He is a cult hero already! You’ve got his kinda curly hair wigs at Stamford Bridge. You’ve got songs for him. You’ve got loud cheers for every piece of action from him. Yes he is a hero, he is the darling of the fans. David Luiz. How many players get this cult status in the first few weeks in a new club?

Now I know what’s the fuss about David Luiz. Chelsea had long been trying to sign David Luiz. I was so obsessed with the signing of David Luiz only to find the official message on the Benfica club website that all talks with Chelsea FC had broken down and that he would continue to be a Benfica player. And you know how upset I was. Then, the Fernando Torres rumour got stronger and the pain of not signing David Luiz was gone.

When the Fernando Torres signing did happen, I was reporting it live (!) on twitter and had practically ignored the fact that a certain David Luiz could still come in. So when that news on the signing of David Luiz arrived, I was like, ‘Oh really? most welcome’, because I was so into our number 9. I had no idea of what David Luiz would become.

We all knew that he is a good defender and very brazilian in that. After these rumours, I also watched some of his videos to see what’s he really like. I read Benfica blogs, forums and any junk in internet that had ‘David Luiz’ in it. All that pictures, videos, blogs and profiles still haven’t done justice to what David Luiz is really like.

In just about 2 months, he’s created an impact like no other new player has done in recent times.

What makes David Luiz special? Why is he a darling of the crowds?

Brazilian skills

Luiz is very skillful for a defender. I must say I love his tackles. When Luiz is in the zone, I watch him with this ‘what’s he gonna do now’ kind of feeling. He’s very capable of making timely tackles and that makes me curious to see what’s he planning to do. Not just his tackles and stuff, also when you see how he marks his man, how he tracks and pressures his man, you can see that he’s quite wholesome with the art of defending. If you see some of his attacking runs, you can see that, for a central defender, he can beat his man.

British bulldog spirit

Oh yes, he’s got that in tons. Fans love it when their players give it all. They love it when they see that their players get stuck in and refuse to give up. David Luiz scores all 10 points here. He never seems to give anything less than 100%. In fact, there were occasion where I thought that tackle/ball/pass is out of reach for David Luiz, and then he comes in like a superman and takes things under control. And he seems to do that often.

Plus, he takes no sh*t. He seems love a challenge. I think this is the key in his settling down in English football so easily. He’s ready to fight. He’s ready to take it to the opponents – be in attack or in defence. I just loved the way he dealt with Rooney. We know how much of a rowdy Rooney is, but David Luiz just beat him in his own game because he seemed to like that challenge.

Portuguese cleverness

Well, this is a tricky topic. There is a thin line between sportsmanship and being clever. David Luiz has the cleverness of an experienced defender. He knows when to do things and when not to. He exactly reads the minds of the referees. There are occasions where he goes wrong and gets punished. But on the whole, it’s because of this cleverness, forwards would hate to play against David Luiz. He’s a very good defender and on top of that, he knows how to get away. That’s a dangerous combination.

Stamford Bridge heart

He can’t speak English. He’s got curly hair. He gives it all on the pitch. He’s like a wall in the defence. He pisses off opponents. He scores goals. And his goal celebrations are wiiiillldddd. The fans love him. And he loves them too. He can excite the crowd. He can get the crowd going for us. He is a Stamford Bridge hero already!

So much so, that we have this David Luiz song (heard in Chelsea Football Fancast), that’s meant sound like the announcement of the team sheet, in the tune of ‘yellow submarine’:

Number one, Luiz
Number two, Luiz
Number three, Luiz
Number four, Luiz
Number five, Luiz
Number six, Luiz
Number seven, Luiz
Number eight, Luiz
Number nine, Luiz
Number ten, Luiz
Number eleven, Luiz
We all live in a David Luiz world, David Luiz world, David Luiz world
We all live in a David Luiz world, David Luiz world, David Luiz world
(and then it goes, Number one, Luiz . . . )

46

Chelsea 2-0 Man City | Samba Time!

| Mar 20, 2011 | 46 comments | 2,649 views

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Chelsea fans have been gifted with something to do during the upcoming international break.

They can dance the Samba on the Fulham Road.

Chelsea’s two spectacular new Brazilians broke open a tight game against Manchester City at Stamford Bridge and led their team to an emphatic victory.

It’s a victory that puts Chelsea into 3rd place in the Premier League, keeping Manchester United within 9 points and putting Arsenal within 4. It also probably secures a Champions League place for next season.

David Luiz and Ramires were stellar. Luiz covered ground ferociously on defense. City’s £35 million man Dzeko must be wondering what hit him. Every time he thought he had space, on came nimble Luiz to punish him and take the ball away.

And when the shadows were growing long and time was running out in a game that had become a desperate stalemate, Luiz pushed forward and won a free kick. He then gave Chelsea that vital, precious lead when, off the ensuing free kick, he placed a marvelously precise header into the bottom far corner off the cross by Didier Drogba.

Micheal Essien said post-match, “As you can see he’s been fantastic for us since he came here. We need his types of player at Chelsea. He’s done a great job for us.”

Luiz was almost a one man act. Almost.

Fellow Brazilian Ramires was his equal. The 23 year-old new boy ran his legs off. He covered back relentlessly, disrupting City’s midfield. His passing was generally quick and precise. And he flashed what is becoming his trademark; slashing runs forward with the ball that slice open the defense.

It was such a run in extra time that produced Chelsea’s second goal, a masterpiece. Taking the ball near the top of City’s box, Ramires ran past two men to isolate keeper Joe Hart and then blasted a shot to the top left corner. It was only his second score for the Blues but it’s a candidate for goal of the year.

It’s hard to choose a Man of the Match when you have two such strong candidates. So we’ve put a poll at the end of this post asking you to make the selection!

The pre-match omens didn’t suggest such a glorious outcome.

Chelsea executive Ron Gourlay, presumably parroting Roman Abramovich, chose the day of a big match to give his manager a vote-of-hardly-any-confidence. Gourlay said Ancelotti’s future would be evaluated at the end of the season.

That didn’t seem to frighten the Italian boss man. He selected a surprising team that is likely the future at Stamford Bridge.

On the bench were old warhorses Anelka and Drogba. In their places the younger Torres and Kalou got the start. And both had very strong matches.

The opening minutes were fast flowing and exciting as City pushed forward. Fullback Aleksandar Kolarov and imposing midfielder Yaya Toure both came on the attack.

But that didn’t last long. Chelsea’s pace with Torres and Kalou repeatedly exposed City’s defense on the counter-attack. It didn’t take long for Roberto Mancini to revert to his natural defensive instincts and pull Kolarov and Toure back.

After that, the match seemed destined to end a scoreless draw. Chelsea bossed the ball. But with Carlos Tevez injured and City in their familiar turtle mode, neither side looked capable of scoring.

Chelsea couldn’t get behind the City backline and the middle was clogged. Even when Ancelotti finally exchanged Torres and Kalou for the “old” Chelsea of Anelka and Drogba, the standoff continued.

But it must be said that Drogba fought like a warrior to win and hold the ball, covering back with energy. His superb cross along the top of the 6 yard box found Luiz for the goal. He looks like a man with plenty of appetite left.

It was Luiz pushing forward that changed the balance and ended the stalemate. His one-man effort transformed the game. After that, forced to open up in search of a goal, the visitors conceded huge spaces in their own half. And it was in such a space that Ramires found himself with room to run in extra time to seal the result.

This has been a season in which Chelsea’s old guard has repeatedly failed.

In today’s stirring victory, we have seen the future. And it looks good. Fearless Carlo selected young, new players and finally benched his faithful old warriors.

It was a pair of 23 year olds who broke through to get the result.

And frankly, we can’t choose between them. So we put it to you, dear readers, to do our work for us.

You select Chelsea’s Man of the Match!

Man of the Match vs Manchester City

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11

Chelsea vs Man City | 20-Mar-11 @ 16:00 UK

| Mar 19, 2011 | 11 comments | 929 views

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It’s been a good weekend so far. Arsenal have dropped points and Man Utd have dropped one more central defender from their list. The momentum is certainly with us. If we beat Man City tomorrow, the belief would certainly be back. This is one of the most unpredictable seasons in premier league. I’d even say that the champions of this season would be the most underwhelming of all the premier league champions.

When Jose Mourinho won the league title in our centenary year 04-05, he won it by an incredible 12 points. Of course he also set the English football history by amassing 95 points. In 05-06, he won it again and this time by a still-massive 8 points. In 06-07, Fergie won it by a healthy 6 points. In 07-08, Fergie won it again but this time only by 2 points. In 08-09, Fergie made a hattrick and was clear by 4 points. In 09-10, Carlo won it by 1 point. You see how the gap is being bridged and how the competition is catching up on us. This season, if we need to win it, it’s gotta be again by a single point or based on goal difference. But it’s possible.

No team, including Chelsea, is playing in a way that’s worthy of the ‘champions’ tag. And that’s something to take confidence from. We saw Arsenal drop points today with yet another comedy of errors. We saw Man Utd, leaving it so late and only capitalising on a goalkeeper gaffe to secure three very crucial points. We’ve said it a million times now – all that we need to do is to keep winning our matches and see what happens around us.

As it is with the matches at this stage of the season for teams doing catch-up, if we don’t win tomorrow, we might have to settle for a second or third place unless we can churn 9Ws. And we might have to turn a little pragmatic in terms of using our resources for champions league and premier league. As I called it earlier, the customary capitulation of Arsenal has begun already. If we too drop points tomorrow, Man Utd will end up winning the title with a match or two to spare.

Man City, on the other hand, might retain the title belief if they can beat us tomorrow. They have always given me butterflies ever since Carlos Tevez joined them. I don’t think we’ve beaten them to my satisfaction. In fact, we have lost the last three premier league meetings against Man City! So it’s 3-0 for Mancini over Carlo! A good win over Man City is long overdue. Some do think that our poor form was all started by the Man City defeat. Even though we beat Arsenal after this match, it was in the Man City match the cracks started appearing.

Both teams will have a near full-squad to choose from. That means Carlos Tevez and Mario Balotelli will be available. Will be curious to see what formation Mancini plays tomorrow. I guess he will play Tevez as the lone striker and bring Mario late on. Talking about Mario, you must watch this video. Hilarious.

In the last match, Drogba and Anelka just showed how two strikers should play in tandem. It was a very good demonstration of how a strike partnership should work. Carlo could even be tempted to leave Torres on the bench but that would be such a blunder given that he’s slowly getting himself under pressure. If we are playing a two striker formation, I’d go for Torres and Anelka, and would get Drogba for Anelka in the second half and leave Torres until final whistle.

Staying on the topic of strikers, Fabio Borini scored a brace today on is Swansea debut. I had the privilege to watch the second half of the match. The boy is quality. His movement is very clever and sharp. He is neither like Drogba nor like Anelka. Probably, he’s in the Torres mould. Or in his own words, he models himself after Inzaghi and it shows. In the 30 or 35 minutes I saw, he was always hugging the defensive line, always trying to stay onside while leaving his nose offside. He was unlucky not to get his hattrick when he found the side netting after a smart move.

What impressed me the most was this – Picture this. 19-year old Chelsea striker on loan to Swansea. Playing his debut and has got a brace. 4 minutes of stoppage time and it is the 4th minute. In the dying moments, at a time when you might hear the final whistle anytime, he’s got the sight of the goal inside the box. As the keeper advances, he could have gone for his hattrick. But the boy laid it off to Scott Sinclair who was in a better position to score. Scott Sinclair wasted the opportunity. But Fabio Borini’s mindset and composure was truly unselfish and impressive. I’ve started liking him. It’s a pity though that he could be on his way to Parma. If we can’t hold on to a Borini with an Italian manager, it will be sad. Irrelevant but interesting, Bojan Krkic, who’s six months older than Borini, has now had 100 appearances in a club like Barcelona. Enough said.

Coming back to the Man City match, I strongly feel that Torres will score his debut goal for Chelsea. If you’re with me on Twitter or Facebook, you might be aware. The big secret why Torres has not scored yet for us is, he is waiting to score his debut goal on his birthday. And am I not proud to say that I share my birthday with Fernando Torres! Now, go figure!

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Champions League – Our name is on the cup?

| Mar 19, 2011 | 22 comments | 1,254 views

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That’s an arrogant title, isn’t it? Anyway, I don’t care because that’s what I feel. I do think our name is on the cup!

By the way, who do you think hates this draw more? Carlo Ancelotti or Alex Ferguson? I can’t help but feel this is a good draw for us. Looking at the quality of quarterfinalists, but for Schalke, you are only going to get a good opposition to play against. Drawing Man Utd, for me, is much better than drawing the Spanish teams or Inter. In fact, it’s even better than drawing Spurs. I’ll tell you why.

Drawing Madrid or Barca at this stage would have been dangerous. We’re just clawing back to form ‘after sleeping for 2 months’ as very nicely put by Carlo. Only that I thought we were sleeping for 4 months and not 2. I’m not sure how much we’d be back in form in the first week of April. I’d like to meet the Spanish giants only when the injured players have returned and we are in prime form. The way I see it, championgs-league-winning-prime-form looks weeks away.

Inter are a beatable team, certainly weaker than Chelsea but they’ve found some form under Leonardo. They seem to have been rejuvenated since Rafa Benitez’ exit. They can defend like an Italian team and hurt you when you take your eyes off. Right now we don’t want to play teams that will suck our attacks and counter us. While we are in the process of getting back to form, we need to play teams that play attacking football and allow chances to do out tippy-tappy stuff and score goals.

Tottenham would have been a good opponent but they might really fancy their chances against us given their recent record against us in the league. They might feel that they have a chance. They have fared very very well against the Milan teams. Their champions league momentum and overall club support might be a massive advantage for them.

I don’t mean to suggest that Man Utd are an easy opponent. They are a big team, tough to beat, especially with second leg at Old Trafford. The advantage is that, I think, Man Utd are under pressure and could be cracking. They are suddenly into serious injury concerns. Their defence is totally shattered and they didn’t get to play the same back four for three consecutive matches. Fergie fielded the same playing eleven for two consecutive matches after 150+ matches. He is into some massive act of jugglery. He has surprised me by leading the table given the quality of his squad. I have a feeling that he might just run out of gas come April.

Plus, we don’t need to make long travels. It’s just Manchester. Look at Barca. Having to travel all the way to Shakhtar. Good we avoided it. Helps our league title charge (it’s back on, isn’t it?). And isn’t it great that we don’t need to play the Spanish giants until the finals? If we get through beyond Man Utd, meeting Inter rather than Madrid/Barca is a much better prospect.

Playing the first leg at home might be seen as a drawback. It’s a drawback if we don’t use the advantage of playing at home first and making it count. The defending champions Inter, played the second leg against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, travelled to Russia to beat CSKA Moscow in the second leg, played the second leg against Barcelone at Camp Nou and still become European champions. That’s the round of 16, quarterfinals and semi finals – all second legs played away and still European champions. No mean feat. So my point is, first or leg doesn’t matter.

To answer the question I started with, I think Alex Ferguson must hate more that they are drawn with Chelsea. We’ve got the upper hand over them now with that fair and fantastic win over at Stamford Bridge plus we’ve started a bad run for Man Utd. We now get another chance to derail their premier league as well as champions league campaigns. And I think we are best placed to inflict this on them.

I do feel that we can get to the finals. I’m not being arrogant. I’ve always maintained that we’ve got one of the best squads in Europe and we play to our potential and to the best of our tactical abilities, we can go all the way. Can we win the champions league? Hell yes!

What do you think?

Our champions league campaign!






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34

Would You Want Mourinho back?

| Mar 18, 2011 | 34 comments | 1,561 views

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Let’s play  a game.

We’ll call the game ‘What if?” We’ll pretend that certain things will happen. Then we’ll ask you a question.

What If #1

What if Carlo Ancelotti leaves Chelsea at the end of the season?

Football rumors are, as the Americans say, a dime a dozen. Cheap. Easily found. But rarely true.

That’s how I feel about the Carlo Ancelotti to Roma rumor. It doesn’t make sense. Roma is in the process of being sold. Companies don’t usually make new hires when ownership is changing hands. The Italians who own Roma are in severe debt. So it’s hard to imagine them committing money to Carlo. He doesn’t come cheap.

The American who seems likely to be the new owner isn’t well-versed in football. He may not know Carlo Ancelotti from Fernando Alonso. Why, when he has so much on his plate, would he be courting Ancelotti when the current season isn’t over and he doesn’t have the keys?

And yet. In the world of football rumors, isolated stories come and go like farts at a bean feast. But when a rumor has legs, when it keeps getting repeated, there’s often some sort of substance behind it.

The Ancelotti story has legs. In the past three weeks we’ve heard two stories coming out of Italy. And now Sports illustrated is reporting that Ancelotti and Roman Abramovich have come to an arrangement. That Carlo will step down at the end of the season.

This has an air of plausibility to it. Abramovich has allowed two other men to quit before they were fired, Peter Kenyon and Frank Arnesen. It may be that he has the same respect for Ancelotti as he does the other two men, and is willing to to let him quit rather than fire him.

So despite my wish that it weren’t true, I’m starting to get the feeling that with all this smoke, there might be a fire burning under Ancelotti’s ass.

What If #2

What If Jose Mourinho leaves Madrid at the end of the season?

Since the turn of the century Real Madrid has had 12 managers. That’s more than one a year for the last decade! It’s the exception, not the rule, for Real Madrid to keep the same manager for two consecutive seasons.

Jose Mourinho hasn’t exactly endeared himself to the club. He’s had a running battle with club General Director Jorge Valdano over personnel. Ominously, President Florentino Perez hasn’t publicly backed his manager. Mourinho is winning, but he’s not winning enough to keep up with Barca. In November he was humiliated 5-0 (the worst loss of his career) to the only opponent Madrid fans care about.

He may also be starting to alienate Real’s fans. It’s interesting that Mourinho did not become a sympathetic figure when someone stabbed one of his security guards at La Coruna. Instead the papers wondered whether his non-stop inflammatory talk was responsible. In other words, was he to blame?

It has to be said that with Madrid still alive in two cups and with a second match against Barcelona upcoming, there’s plenty of opportunity for Mourinho to salvage things.

But these are not good trends at a club that has the impulse control of a serial killer when it comes to its managers.

The Question

If Ancelotti leaves and if Mourinho is canned, would you want Mourinho back at Chelsea?

I guess some Chelsea fans will think this is a trick question. Why wouldn’t they want him back? In 2005 it had been 50 years since Chelsea had won its one and only League title. Mourinho did it in a single season. Then he did it again the next year. Add a FA Cup, two League Cups and a Charity Shield and Mourinho had brought Chelsea the greatest run of success in club history.

So it’s a no brainer, right?

Maybe not. Mourinho is celebrated because he brought Chelsea success it had never had before. But we’ve since discovered that he’s not the only one who can brings trophies to Stamford Bridge. Carlo Ancelotti proved that.

Mourinho prefers a style of football that most people find boring. The secret to his success is a strong defense and what he calls “transition.” Mourinho believes that the opponent is most vulnerable at the moment possession changes. That’s why his teams score so many goals on breakaways and long balls. He doesn’t value time of possession. He values quick strikes. His Chelsea teams had big target men upfront. But never a classic midfield creative play-maker — he didn’t need one.

It can be argued that once Abramovich insisted on more attractive football, Mourinho quit because he couldn’t deliver it. Trying to change his style, he had a stuttering start to both the Premier League season and the Champions League when he abruptly quit in September 2007. Yes, there were power issues involved. But usually unmentioned is Mourinho’s inability to successfully deliver what Roman wanted on the pitch.

Mourinho is a selfish man. He puts his own interests above everything else. It’s a myth that he always stands by his players. He’s worried about his own image first and foremost. Here’s what he said in January of 2007.

“In a remarkable and wide-ranging attack on his own team after Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Fulham, Mourinho identified Andrei Shevchenko, Salomon Kalou and Shaun Wright-Phillips as three who “cannot perform at a high level”.”

How about this, in December of 2006?

“…maybe the players are not such good players. What can you do with Paulo (Ferreira), with Geremi? Nothing. The players have no qualities adapted to the game opponents are playing against us.”

Last week, former Mourinho stalwart Claude Makelele put the spotlight on Mourinho’s selfish nature.

“He is calculated, cruel and ambitious. He used to keep players away from the spotlight so he could take all the fame…. He forgot about the players and he just took all the credit for himself. No-one was allowed to be more famous than him.”

Strong words. But with the ring of truth.

And even if he came back, how long could Chelsea count on having Mourinho? He changes clubs like Imelda Marcos changes shoes. He wants to be at the richest clubs with the greatest histories. He’s been making goo-goo eyes at Alex Ferguson’s job for four years. You do the math. The day Ferguson retires, Mourinho be at Manchester United’s door. At dawn.

So with all of that in mind, here’s the question.

If Carlo Leaves, Would You Want Jose Mourinho Back?

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