Wish you all a very happy, prosperous and healthy new year! The ideal script of the day was for us to thrash Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge so we can all say that we are back to our winning ways and that the new year has brought us some much needed luck. As ideal scripts go, we got beaten.

Only hours earlier, Man Utd were beaten at Old Trafford on Fergie’s 70th birdthday so I was all charged up for our game. I guess we don’t need to worry about the Manchester teams anymore. We’ve officially joined the ‘also-rans club’ where we constantly peg ourselves to the league leaders but have no chance on earth to catch them. I don’t care what happens to the Manchester clubs anymore. From now until the end of the season, I’m only going to be concerned about also-rans – Liverpool, Tottenham and Arsenal.

I’ll do you a favour – I won’t talk about the match. I’ll talk about something bigger and more relevant. I’ll talk about where were we, where are we, how we got here, where do we want to go and how do we get there. What better time than the new year eve to reflect on what’s gone right and what’s gone wrong. Also, the idea is to put things in perspective so we don’t get all hysterical and suicidal in these circumstances. So, here we go!

Where were we?

When Ancelotti left Chelsea, the signs of the limitations of the squad were visible – ageing players, lack of creativity, lack of pace and lack of meritocracy. I was pretty critical of Carlo for not getting the best out of the squad. I still stand by it. Granted, we had some issues with our squad but with what we had, I didn’t think he got the best out of it. Best part of the last decade, we were in the top two in the league. As soon as the new Man City emerged, we should have conceded that real title contenders are three and not just two. All other things being equal, you’d find Man Utd, Man City and Chelsea occupying the top three places in different order in the coming seasons. At the beginning of the year, we were at a stage were we realised that Man City are here to stay and if we don’t act quickly, we could lose out. That’s where we were.

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Why always Chelsea? Some of us Chelsea supporters ask, for the past few days every time I look at a newspaper or  Sky Sports News, there is always a “false” Chelsea story.

Yesterday it was Fernando Torres the 50 million man is going to be up for sale in either the January transfer window or the Summer transfer window, it was reported that Chelsea would listen to offers around the region of 20 million of course this was false and later that day Andre Villas-Boas denied this and the press moved onto another “false” story, why always Chelsea?

When I picked up the newspaper today, guess what? The headline read “Furious” Drogba to leave Chelsea next month and Lampard is set to follow him, funny eh? Drogba stated a few weeks ago that he will be loyal to his contract and not leave in January. This is a quote from The Sun newspaper: “The Ivory Coast international has been offered a two-year deal by Chinese club Dalian Aerbin worth £200,000 per week while Chelsea are only prepared to give him 12 months at £125,000 a week” Really? The press is once again attacking Chelsea, why always Chelsea? I very doubt this story is true and it is just the press making another “false” story, Andre Villas-Boas will deny that Drogba is “Furious” and the press will just make another “false” story, am I right? It is now just becoming predictable this has been going on for a few weeks now…

Last week once again I picked up The Sun newspaper and the headline read “Chelsea training bust-up” well something across them lines, immidately I knew it would be The Sun writing another false story, it was reported that an insider said  ”It was unbelievable. The manager would look at a player, tear him to shreds, then move on to the next one. ”For example, he turned to Didier Drogba and told him, ‘You’re a fraction of the player you were last season’. ”Then he turned to the next player and laid into him.”Everyone was stunned, they’d never seen him like this and had never been treated like this before.”But AVB saved his bombshell moment for 32-year-old striker Anelka, and 29-year-old central defender .  Our insider continued: “The manager told Anelka he wasn’t welcome anywhere. ”He was banned from training with the first team, banned from using the training facilities if the first-team squad were using them — and told he would be training with the reserves from now on. ”Then AVB turned to Alex and said ‘And the same applies to you’, and of course Andre Villas-Boas denied this a few days later, another false story, why always Chelsea?

I could go on forever and forever about false story’s regarding Chelsea, rarely I pick up The Sun newspaper and see that they have complimented Chelsea, well I should say hardly never even after the win against Manchester City they claimed that Ashley Cole “taunted” Manchester City and of course it was denied later that day, I now find it hard to believe that the press report an actual true story about Chelsea or even see The Sun compliment Chelsea, I very doubt this will happen and I will be totally shocked if any two of these happen. Andre Villas-Boas has now began having a go at  the press, I guess this makes them want to write more “false” story’s and wind up Andre Villas-Boas even more, I will say this one more time. Why always Chelsea?

The press can continue to write false story’s about Chelsea they’re just making idiots out of themselves when Andre Villas-Boas deny’s these story’s over and over again.

I hope you all enjoyed this more than any other of my posts and if you did or didn’t please drop a comment below, be honest and tell me what you thought of this, is it better or worse than previous posts?

Please feel free to debate about this topic and write your thoughts of “The Press and Chelsea”, is it always Chelsea?

Twitter:@Chelsea_Callum

Very good win at home that I didn’t get to see. The match wasn’t televised in India because of the F1 and the cricket that were also going on. That was quite frustrating. I can understand Football being second to Cricket on TV but F1? Streams weren’t any good and I ended up resorting to poor old BBC live commentary. And then finally, some videos from 101 great goals. So, this is not a proper match reaction article. This will be a bit short and plain, all right?

Mixed feelings, really. Very happy with the way we are playing. Nice and fluent football with an end product. We’re getting the goals. Torres is back in form. To be honest, the day and the result was marred by the fact that Torres for got sent off and that he won’t be available for the next three league games. Plus, we once again conceded a nothing goal.

Villas Boas’ team selection: He’s got balls! For a home game, he’s dropped a fit and healthy Lampard and put him on the bench. This move has not only helped the performance of the team but also sends out a clear message that Andre Villas Boas can walk his talk. Super stuff.

Fernando Torres’ goal: Wow! The 50m man is turning out to be a regular entry into the GOOD section. What a well taken goal! See, that ball from Mata is what he wants and that’s the kind of chemistry that was non-existent for him at Chelsea before. And that ball control and finish shows two things (a) the miss against manure hasn’t affected him (b) his confidence is back. Man, the goal was such a pleasure to watch.

Didier Drogba’s come back: Just when we were worried about Torres’ absence, Didier Drogba comes back and scored a brilliant goal. Talk about timing. Such a relief that we would still have a top striker leading our attack despite Torres not being there.

Ramires’ goals: The silent killer. Along with Mata and Torres, Ramires has also had a great start to this season. He’s bit iffy in defending but what a player to have during counterattacks. His second goal was a peach. With Ramires, Mikel and Meireles playing this way, Lampard’s gonna find it hard to get back into the premier league playing eleven.

Torres’ red card: When Fernando Torres scored the opening goal of the match, I thought this was going to be a great day for El Nino. He has been in fine form and you knew that he’s gonna score against Swansea. We he did, in style, but such is his fortune, something else had to happen. His definite return to form and good work had to be undone by something so untimely and unfortunate. I back him to come back from this too.

Is that a red card? I’d say no. Yes it was a two footed lunge. But let’s keep in mind that it was a clumsy one than a malicious one. With that being such a awkward and clumsy lunge, there was no way he was going to cause harm to the player than just blocking him. At worst, it was a yellow card plus some strong words from the ref. There’s still no news of Chelsea appealing against the red card. Good thing is, he should be back for the Arsenal game at Stamford Bridge.

No clean sheet: Why? Why do we concede such soft goals through easy headers? What’s with our defence? While we are getting stronger and stronger in attack, something’s wrong with our defence. What Lampard was to our midfield, Terry is to our defence – Chelsea legend with his best behind him. Terry’s position is safer as he’s the captain of the team and he brings to the table, more than just the centre back duties. But we need to sort this out quickly.

If Torres had played all 90 minutes, he might have been. Due to credit to him to score that all important first goal which made it more comfortable for us. But the man who sealed the game for us was Ramires. Fully deserves the man of the match award.

It was a mixed day but what should stay in our minds is that it’s great result at home and Drogba is back in action. Our impressive run this season continued after the fine win against Bayer Leverkusen. A game where Josh McEachran and Oriol Romeu showed why Lampard’s hopes of getting back into the playing eleven could be slimmer. Suddenly, the squad looks stronger and deeper. I’m only waiting for Lukaku to click properly and we’ll be ready for anything.

Meanwhile, Man Utd dropped points at the Brittania stadium. It was a great game to watch. I don’t want to take anything away from a superb Stoke performance but this is Man Utd without Rooney. Keep in mind that Rooney is out for a ‘few weeks’.

Next week, we travel to the Mestalla. Expect Fernando Torres to start and score unless Boas wants Drogba to get some match time before he starts the premier league game next weekend. By the way, this is a big week in football gaming. Both PES 2012 and FIFA 12 are releasing this week. Have pre-ordered both. Excited!

The date was Sep 25, 2010. Chelsea were on 15 points after 5 games. We had scored 21 goals and conceded 1. And we were 4 points clear at the top. Odds were being cut. Chelsea were expected to run away with the league. And then . . . we lost against Man City and that started the famous decline. We appeared to recover only to lose another crucial match against Liverpool few weeks later to enter into a ‘bad moment’. And that ‘bad moment’ lasted an eternity.

Man Utd are on a similar run now. The traditional slow starters now have 12 points from 4 games with a goal difference of 15 goals. That does not guarantee a win against Chelsea on Sunday. Yes, Man Utd dismantled Arsenal but Wenger’s team was hardly a threat. Yeah Man Utd played brilliantly well but Arsenal produced one of their worst displays in their history. It was a freak result.

Chelsea were lucky to play some bottom half opponents early in the situation. While we have not really blown them away, I think those games have helped us settle down with the line-up, roles and tactics. Not sure if I’m alone here – I see this Chelsea team improving. It’s not just because Mata and Meireles are playing. But they are a big part of Boas’ plan for improvement.

No matter how Chelsea and Man Utd have played in their last four games, I think this match still starts even. The only advantage for Man Utd I see is that they are playing at the theatre of screams. Rest everything shouldn’t matter so much.

From a team selection point of view, I want this to be a line-up with fast and attacking players. Here’s my team: Cech, Terry, Luiz, Ivanovic and Ashley Cole in defence. Ramires, Mikel and Meireles in midfield. Torres, Mata and Sturridge upfront.

See I do agree that Bosingwa has done brilliantly well of late. I was half-tempted to pick him over Ivanovic at right back. If it was not against Man Utd, I’d have picked him over Ivanovic. Bosingwa has an edge over Ivanovic in attacks and I think vice versa is true in defence. Knowing how quick and dangerous the interchanging Man Utd wingers are, I’d pick Ivanovic.

I wasn’t a fan of having both Mikel and Ramires in the midfield. I see that Mikel’s role is changing. He’s still our defensive midfielder. He’s the one covering the back, when our defenders are on attacking duty. But I see Mikel making attacking runs and getting involved in the exchange of possession and passes in the attack with the other 3Ms – Mata, Meireles and Malouda. If Mikel could contribute to the attacks, his value to the team could be very high. In the hope that he can do this, I’d pick him along with Ramires.

Meireles over Lampard is actually a no-brainer. If it’s down to form, it’s a no-brainer. Meireles has come in and played like he belongs here in this midfield. As of today, he could contribute to our team’s success better than Super Frank.

Upfront, Mata picks himself. Torres should definitely start. After his brace of assists that’s the least he should expect. Torres has got a decent record against Man Utd and he has always been a handful for the Man Utd defence. On the right wing though, I’m unsure if I should go for Anelka or Sturridge. I don’t see AVB springing a surprise by giving a start for Lukaku. He’s not that much of a maverick, as far as we’ve seen. I picked Sturridge because I wanted us to have players that cause them problems and not their young defence and young keeper to settle down. Sturridge will do that role much better than Anelka.

So, my team is Cech, Terry, Luiz, Ivanovic, Ashley Cole, Ramires, Mikel, Meireles, Torres, Mata and Sturridge. All said, let me see if I can predict Boas’ starting eleven. Here we go: Cech, Terry, Alex, Ashley Cole, Bosingwa, Mikel, Ramires, Lampard, Anelka, Torres and Mata.

Good thing is, the pressure is really on Man Utd. Firstly, they are super-favourites after their great start to the season. Secondly, they don’t want to see Man City sitting above them in the league table. Man Utd needs to match or improve City’s result. Now the drama is all about the Manchester teams in premier league and the Spanish superteams in champions league. Chelsea are off the radar. Chelsea can get beaten on Sunday and still continue to mount a title challenge and win it. If Man Utd get beaten, it puts a big question mark over their young team and the city rivalry will put more pressure on them.

Many seem to think that Man Utd will demolish Chelsea tomorrow. I tend to disagree. Chelsea can match and better Man Utd. Of course, Man Utd are the more settled team under a more seasoned manager. Boas’ Chelsea are still work in progress. In fact, it looks more like AVB has his sights on 2012-13 rather than 2011-12. But then, Man Utd never take Chelsea lightly. Fergie’s cautious approach against Chelsea, even at Old Trafford, explains this.

This time though, I don’t think Man Utd play the cautious game against Chelsea. I expect them to go gung-ho at us early in the game. I think Man Utd might want to settle the game in the first 30 minutes. They might give their all in the first half hour with all their pace and youth. If we withstand their onslaught in the first half hour and stay 0-0, we will have a match on our hands.

Andre Villas Boas wasn’t even born when Fergie started his managerial career. Boas was in his nappies when Fergie won his first league title. Boas is less than half of Fergie’s age. Wouldn’t it be some story if he Boas beats him like young Jose did with his Porto team at Old Trafford? Something like the youngest manager to defeat Fergie at Old Trafford? Wonder how Andre would react to a win? I’m loving his dug out antics. It’s like he’s controlling all the eleven players with playstation move attached to his limbs. Would be great to see his reaction if Chelsea do well!

Like I tweeted this morning, my head says 2-2 and my heart says a 2-1 win for Chelsea. What’s your prediction for this game?

What would happen this Sunday?

• Chelsea will win by 2-goal margin or more


• Chelsea will win by 1-goal margin


• Match will end in a score draw


• Match will end in a goalless draw


• Man Utd will win by 1-goal margin


• Man Utd will win by 2-goal margin or more



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