We were surprised from the word ‘go’. Let’s look at how Chelsea prospers – attacks from the flanks primarily from the full backs, Drogba being at his best, Lampard connecting with Drogba, some interesting runs from Malouda – this has been the story for many matches now. The weaknesses are Anelka’s form, one of the midfielders certainly being useless, our centre backs struggling in the air, our defence being shaky at set pieces – again based on the recent matches.

Now let’s look at how Jose Mourinho knocked us out. He surprised us straightaway with his team selection. As far as I know, nobody, I mean nobody, expected that Inter team to start and in that formation. I don’t know if Chelsea had trained and prepared for the possibility of facing Eto, Milito and Pandev as the front three. The full backs were not in the attack because Inter played with three strikers. Our full backs were always concerned of their positioning as they were worried about the three high quality strikers in the Inter line up. It is a risk that JM took and it paid off.

Drogba’s significance was considerably brought down by Inter’s defence. There were always many men on Drogba – some being tactical and some being physical – but getting the job done. They kept Drogba quiet. They absolutely did. If you look at which of the two Chelsea players Inter respected the most, it was Drogba and Lampard. While Lampard was not as heavily marked as Drogba was, his options were seriously cut down, making him to do only the harmless sideway passes. Malouda did escape Inter’s defensive vigilante.

The one period where Chelsea dominated was the last five minutes of the first half, because Inter played like all JM teams do. When you have won the first leg at home 2-1, and you’re 0-0 at the away match at 35-40 minutes, the one thing that you have in mind is to end the half with 0-0. That’s what Inter tried and that’s when Chelsea got stronger. That was a mistake from them. Luckily for them, they didn’t have to pay for it.

We should not have started with Anelka. That’s bloody clear and easy. The man’s mind is not on the pitch. Anelka being so out-of-form and so many chances falling to Anelka – is that a coincidence? I call it tactics. It’s an age-old tactic for God’s sake. Reducing the effectiveness of the opposition by allowing their weakness to show up and play up. Inter were all right to give the ball to Anelka. It is not a guaranteed tactic. It was a risk. It was a risk worth taking because, on current form and track record, the probability of Anelka hurting Inter is much lower than Drogba doing the same. It was a risk JM took and it paid off.

Also, Inter were trying chipped passes all night. JM knows that we’ve become weaker in the air and that could be something to be exploited. Of late, see how many times Chelsea players have come second best in aerial battles in key areas. In the second half, Inter repeatedly drew Chelsea defence forward and attempted to chip it over the defence, because our defence has been shaky in air and there’s a third choice keeper to be beaten in a one-on-one situation. Drawing Chelsea forward was a risk, one that may not always pay but JM took the risk and it paid off.

JM left Mario Balotelli at Milan because of disciplinary reasons. In a match of this kind, he is a great player to be sitting on the bench. But he was left behind. JM didn’t like his behaviour and did not want ‘anything’ to affect his preparations for this big match. He took a risk of not taking him and it didn’t hurt him. Probably, it worked in their favour as they could keep the focus on the match. He also distracted the press from a great scoop on Mario. He focused on where he should. These are little details but they make a difference. Contrast this with the fact that John Terry going out of form because of his personal issues but we continue to play him. A little break for JT would have helped him as well as the team. It takes a huge personality to tell someone like JT to sit out until he sorts out.

I still think Ballack starting the match was a blunder. It almost looked as if we had won at Milan and were trying to hold the lead. Joe Cole should have started. I know that Joe Cole did fuck all in the second half but still I’d have given more time to Joe Cole than to none to Ballack. I’m not the biggest fan of Joe Cole but he is no Lionel Messi. Joey needs some time to get his feet moving and start making an impact. The way the game was poised when he came on was not the best timing from his point of view.

Also, look how similar the Man City match and this Inter match are. Ask yourself who learnt more from the Man City match – Jose Mourinho or Carlo Ancelotti. If I look at the Inter match, it was a match that JM wanted to win and that was bloody obvious. I didn’t see anything in Carlo’s team selection or tactics that told me that we badly want to win the tie. Once Inter scored at the 78th minutes, hand on heart, how many of you thought we’d score two goals in the next 12-15 minutes? How many of the Chelsea fans gave ourselves the chance? I don’t think even the players wanted to give themselves a chance. We lost the match when Eto scored and that’s bad for a team of Chelsea’s european stature.

We could have finished Inter off back at Milan. When you have Carlo playing Malouda as the left back – he was not sending the right message and was only hurting our chances to pound them. I absolutely blame Carlo Ancelotti for this defeat. I won’t blame anyone else. He made some wrong decisions. He did not prepare our team well enough. The buck stops with him. As they say, victory has many fathers by failure has none (or one).

Some seem to think that I was suggesting we sack Ancelotti. That’s a load of bull. Either you don’t understand or you don’t want to. I never suggested that Carlo should be out. My stance with managers is always the same. I’m game for stability in management provided we see some hope of a better future. I never got it with Grant or Scolari. I believe that the team has, on the whole, improved under Ancelotti. With Carlo, I think he is a top manager. He deserves to get his time. I’d love to see him here for many seasons if the team improves under him and gives us the hope. But that doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t say anything when he makes blunders and knocks us out of the champions league first round against a team that’s weaker than ourselves. While we are champions league favourites, Inter are not even favourites to reach the quarterfinals. They were to be eliminated at the group stage dammit! Rant over.

With that rant out of the way, let’s talk about the premier league match today. You might think it is stupid to have talked second time about a match that was over. The matches against Wigan, Man City and the two legs against Inter are very key. Sam Allardyce has already said that he’s looking to find patterns in these matches to find the chink in Chelsea’s armoury. I won’t be too worried about Allardyce. Anyway his team is no match to Chelsea . . on paper . . oh my God, it’s only on paper. Let’s see how it turns out on the pitch.

We travel to Ewood Park in a very interesting day of football. It’s made interesting not because of our match but because of mid-day kick off at Old Trafford. I don’t have to tell you how important the result of this match between Man Utd and Liverpool could be for Chelsea. A draw or a defeat for Man Utd is a massive boost for Chelsea. I hope Torres scores again and inflict a damage to Man Utd.

Meanwhile, our Ewood Park fixture is no less important. With just 9 matches to go and no clear favourites for the title, every match is a final (sorry for the cliche). I hear that both Cech and Hilario are back in training but Carlo may not want to risk them in this match. Plus, Turnbull did very well in the Inter game. By the way, why is that our goalkeeper injuries are always in pairs? Why is that we always have to play the first choice or the third choice goalie every time? By the way, Paul Robinson is not playing today so that’s an opportunity for us. Di Santo wouldn’t play against us because of the loan rules.

I don’t want to see Anelka start. Even if Anelka starts and scores a hattrick, the feeling that I have NOW is that Anelka should not start. The chance must go to Sturridge or Kalou. Ballack must not start as well. My team for the day would be Drogba, Kalou and Sturridge as the frotn three. Malouda in left midfield, Lampard in the right and Mikel in the centre. The defence would be Terry, Carvalho, Ivanovic and Zhirkov. Turnbull on goal. In this team I suggest, we have ball players and dribblers while we also have gritty players like Lampard, Mikel, Terry and Carvalho.

We won the last leg at the Bridge 5-0. This match today is highly winnable. We must just go at them with force and settle the issue. The last thing I want us to do is to give Blackburn too much respect than they deserve. More after the match. I expect Liverpool to hold Man Utd while Chelsea beat Blackburn by 2-0. I want no heart attacks. I just don’t have the health for nervy finishes. Please, please put Rovers out of sight by the first half. Will this be a super Sunday?!

TSO was right. He doesn’t lose at Stamford Bridge. He said he will kill Chelsea and that’s what he’s done. Not many teams do a double over Chelsea in champions league knockout stages, not even Barcelona. The team he put out against Chelsea was a surprise. Starting with three strikers, he ensured that the full backs are always busy and worried. Even the way Inter played this game must have been surprise to some. Lazy journalists were saying that Inter will park the bus but they played intelligent football. They played out the first half playing second best and came out to hit us back in the second half.

Here is the declaration from Jose Mourinho:

We were the best team by far. Chelsea is a great team, we know that and my team came here knowing very well how they play. We knew if we did not control the game by having the ball we would have no chance. We had the ball and we created the best chances and we should have scored before the goal. When we did score, Chelsea were completely out of the game. I thought everything was superior, not just our tactics but our attitude on the pitch.

Carlo Ancelotti paid the price for sticking with the out-of-form Anelka. The Frenchman has been playing poorly for three months now. Why would you start him for such an important match as this? Purely on form, Kalou deserves to play ahead of Anelka. As luck would have it, the best chances fell for Anelka, whose rustiness and lack of sharpness meant corners and goalkicks instead of goals. Ballack starting the match was also a surprise. When we need to win a match at home, I’d have started Joe Cole in place of Ballack. Carlo’s choice of Ballack over Joe Cole showed that he was under pressure.

Carlo had no choice but to admit that we were second best:

We didn’t play how we wanted. They put pressure on our midfielders so we had difficulties playing. Inter played a very good game, with strong defence and good counter-attack. We didn’t play how we wanted. We were a better team in Milan but we were not able to repeat that performance.

Why would we not play how we wanted? That’s like nearly admitting that he was outclassed and outwitted.

I thought Turnbull was very good. He was very calm and composed. His command of the area was very assuring. Not one moment I thought we’re going to concede because we have a third choice keeper. In fact, with whatever little I have seen of him, he seems to be technically far better than Hilario. I think we should continue with Turnbull even if Hilario is ready.

The pressure must be on Ancelotti. Not because Chelsea has been eliminated but more about the manner of elimination. We had an away goal to start with and had the luxury of playing the second leg at Stamford Bridge and all that we needed was a 1-0 win. It is the manner of losing and drawing that’s painful. I’m unable to say this Chelsea team gave their all to win this tie. I’m not doubting their commitment but I just feel that Carlo could have got much more from this bunch of players. You wonder what’s missing and why are we weaker since Jose left? The key thing is our hunger and desire to win. The never-say-die attitude of the players and win-or-die attitude of the manager – this is what we are missing now. With Jose driving out Carlo from Italy and Europe, questions will be asked.

As a fan of Jose Mourinho, I’m happy for him. I’m happy that he got his result. If he was trying to send a message over to Roman, I think he’s done that well enough. He didn’t stay on the pitch for the final whistle. I liked that. He does want to run around the Stamford Bridge pitch hugging his Inter players and consoling Chelsea players. There is still a part of him that’s Chelsea. I love that part.

I celebrated a lot in the dressing room once the game was over. I love Chelsea, this stadium and this people but I am a professional and who knows I could come back here in the future as the manager of an English club.

I wish that English club is Chelsea. For the rest of this season’s champions league, I’d support Inter. Hope Jose wins title and stamps Wenger along the way.

But where does this leave us? There’s a premier league title to be won with just 9 matches to go. While elimination from champions league is never a good thing, this at least means fewer matches to play. More focus + less fatigue + less injuries + the opposite for the rivals = premier league title for Chelsea. Let’s head over to Ewood Park. Reaction time . . .

This is a big match for various reasons – TSO’s return to Stamford Bridge, the Ancelotti vs Mourinho thingy, Inter’s progression at the expense of an English team, the crossroads of Chelsea’s season etc. I fear TSO. I truly fear him. I have this feeling that he would have this match played to his script. There would be only one thing on his mind – progression, it’s not goals or a win or the manner of win, it’s just the progression. While Chelsea is certainly superior to Inter in terms of ability and experience, no one understands the strengths and weaknesses of this Chelsea team than TSO himself.

Having joined Inter, he was asked if he would fancy facing Chelsea in the champions league for which he responded, “If I happened to meet them, I’d kill them”. He is a Chelsea legend so he will get all the respect and love, he absolutely deserves it. He has also said that he doesn’t lose at Stamford Bridge. You’re basically telling JM that all that he needs is a draw to proceed to the next round and give him a couple of weeks to prepare and expect him to lose? I’m worried.

Meanwhile, Ancelotti has something to prove. Since JM arrived in Italy, the managers of Milan, Juventus and Roma have been replaced. Now Carlo has a better chance to give one back to JM. With a team like Chelsea at his disposal, a win at home against Inter is a highly possible result. It could be a personally morale boosting event if Carlo manages to knock JM out of champions league.

On the other hand, I won’t be so heartbroken if Chelsea were to be eliminated. While that’s not the best thing to happen, it’s not the worst. With just 9 games to go in the premier league, we need our utmost focus and concentration on the league. If that has to come at the cost of a champions league progression, I wouldn’t mind it. Don’t get me wrong. I want a trade-off, not an excuse. If elimination from champions league means more focus on the league and the ultimately the league title, I wouldn’t think twice let champions league go. Let’s put this perspective. We’re slowly getting ourselves into an injury situation. In these times, with just 9 games to go, the lesser we play, the better.

If we progress, I’ll be absolutely thrilled (at the prospect of knocking out Man Utd in the next round). If we don’t progress, we would have only one thing in mind – premier league title.

Hilario managed to strike a goal kick beyond half way line. He made a good save at the near post. His goal was not disturbed even after numerous Delap throws. He was not confidence personified but compared to his performance in the last home game, he has improved 200%. Alex was pretty good, made some crucial blocks and some smart tackles but I don’t think he was truly tested. Nobody in the Stoke team had enough pace to bother Alex. I was very very impressed with Ferreira’s performance. You can say he wasn’t tested too but I thought he was very good in defence as well as offence.

Ivanovic is a real ‘Mr.Dependable’. I’ve become such a fan of this guy that I’d get a No.2 jersey. He’s a perfect Chelsea player – determined, passionate, has great attitude and more importantly, he gives you this sense of assurance. I love him. Do we realise that he has an awesome throw, that could be second only to Delap. May be he should work on it consciously and make that a potent weapon for Chelsea. The highlight of the match was John Terry’s goal celebration. I thought that was a cracking one. If he had spotted Capello anywhere near, he could have thrown the armband on the Italian’s face. It would have been nice drama, right?

I’m struggling how to assess Anelka’s performance. On one side, he played really well – worked hard, held the ball well, created chances for himself and others but on the other side, he should have got a hattrick. He should get better. We’ve got 10 matches left in the premier league. He should get back in scoring form pretty soon. It’s been some time since Drogba’s scored some of his kind of goals. Kalou was decent. It’s just that his goalmouth awareness doesn’t seem to improve.

Malouda was at his consistent best but it appeared that Malouda did not want to score a goal. He was clearly feeding to Drogba, Anelka and Lampard but didn’t get into scoring positions himself. It was a relief to seem him in the midfield instead of defence. Our midfield of Lampard, Mikel and Malouda was very assured. Mikel was flawless and that goal line clearance (and how responsibly he got there in the first place) was very crucial. Lampard’s back on scoring form. He should have had at least one more.

The Citeh result was very painful. I wanted that result to be the positive turnaround. Before that, I wanted to know how the players felt about the result. Surely, they’re not going to talk too much about it. But here I have a comment that I was looking for, from none other than John Terry:

I thought we played well, bounced back from a disappointing result and performance last week. We needed to show the fans how much that defeat [to Manchester City] hurt.

Our FA Cup semi final would be at Wembley (not at Villa Park as I had incorrectly mentioned before – thanks!) and hopefully we’ll get past Villa in April. We play West Ham at the Bridge next weekend. Three points is what we need. The key is to not even think about the Inter match. Let’s hammer the hammers. KTBFFH!

This is where Ancelotti comes in. This is where he earns his multi-million contract. To have Chelsea fight for the title is difficult task. Any manager can achieve that. In the next 10 matches, Ancelotti needs to prove what he is made of. I know you feel like ranting forever. Use this space. I’ll be back with my views after I’ve calmed down. Keep the faith!

Team selection was a headache as both Ashley Cole and Zhirkov were unavailable. Ferreira not having been registered for the champions league squad didn’t help. I would have played Belletti on the right back and Ivanovic as the left back. By having Malouda play as the left back, our left side of the defence was weaker and also we missed Malouda’s utility upfront. As far as I remember, Inter were always trying to play on our left side, in order to exploit Malouda’s defence. Though their goals came from the right side, they did spend a lot of their possession on our left side. Malouda, credit to him, did decently well in that position.

John Terry played a blinder the day after the news of his affair broke out. He even scored the winner at an away stadium. Ever since he was sacked as the England captain, his form has gone downhill. He was lacking in confidence. Big time. He was shaky and let that pass on to the other defenders and the goalkeeper. For the first goal, he made it easy for Milito. I don’t want to take anything away from Milito. It was a striker’s finish. It was a superb goal. But Terry made it easier for him to take the shot. Meanwhile, Ivanovic was very good. He was one of the few Chelsea players who would get anything past a 6/10 in my books.

We played our 4-3-2-1 with Anelka and Kalou playing behind Drogba. Anelka has been out of form ever since Drogba returned. Kalou is not dependable at the big stage. Even tonight, Anelka and Kalou not being up to the mark hurt us badly. You have an in-form Drogba who just begs for service while Anelka and Kalou just not living up to the expectations. It was the same story in the midfield too. You have a Mikel who was simply fantastic and you had a Lampard and Ballack who were substitute candidates by half time.

We must have certainly had a penalty closer to half time. Kalou was very clearly fouled and we were denied a 10/10 penalty. Kalou could have forced a save by then but anyway he did well enough to ‘almost’ earn a penalty. Our goal was silly one. Ivanovic made a great run but the shot from Kalou is nothing but a cutomary pop at the goalie, which adds one to the ’shots on target’ column but bothers none. Cesar should have saved it rather easily but why would not welcome an away goal! Petr Cech limping away from the pitch was a bit worrisome. I really hope that he’d return for the weekend match.

I think Ancelotti took little too much to time to get his sub in. By the hour mark, you had so many players who deserved to be subbed – Anelka, Kalou, Lampard, Ballack – but still he brought in Sturrdige only with about 10 minutes to go. I wasnt sure what he was expecting. Any Chelsea fan watching the match must have been screaming for substitution, right from the half time. We had to somehow get the ball to Drogba. We just could not do that because that’s what Inter were very good at. They did allow us to connect to Drogba that easily. With Malouda playing in defence, if Inter could switch off Drogba, they have taken much of the goal threat from Chelsea. Inter did it just well enough. TSO’s experience and knowledge was pretty evident there.

The match is evenly poised. Chelsea at Stamford Bridge is stronger than Inter at San Siro. It’s perfectly possible for Chelsea to get a 1-0 or 2-0 win at Stamford Bridge. A lot will depend on Inter’s tactics. A lot will depend on what result TSO wants in the next leg. If he doesn’t want a win or a goal, we could have a tough night. It’s not so bad, this result. We’ve got a very important away goal and it’s not often we concede at home. So chill out and gear for the weekend match against Man City! If you’re looking for good news, Adebayor just got a straight red! As for me, I’m already elated. You know why? The darling of India, my hero, Sachin Tendulkar made history by scoring a double century in an ODI! It’s been a great day ruined only by my other hero, Jose Mourinho. Anyway, as they say with any two legged matches, it’s only half time and fortunately for us, we’d play the second half at home!

Chelsea’s performance was just enough for the 2-0 result. With the important champions league match up mid-week, I expected Chelsea to come up only with a performance good enough to get three points. That’s exactly what they did. The scoreline doesn’t tell you how many chances Wolves had and how close they were to lead or equalise. When Petr Cech produces a man of the match performance against Wolves, we certainly haven’t had our best performance as a team. Anyway, we’ve been playing too many matches in quick succession plus we’ve been going through some bad press plus we have to play Jose’ Inter in the mid-week. These are good enough reasons to produce a not-so-flashy performance.

Why talk about performance when you have only 11 games to go? All that matters is the result, from now on. Next weekend, we are playing Man City, And, Carlos Tevez could be back by that time. Yes, Man Utd lost to Everton but that means nothing much. I see this season’s title race going down the wire. I truly mean it. Our penultimate match of the season is at Anfield. That shows much each of these 11 matches are important. Next up is Inter. You know what, I think we would get past them rather easily. Not underestimating them. I can’t, because they have a top team and a top manager. But ’something tells me’ that we’re cruising past them. Let’s hope so.

Moreover, there could a million reasons for not updating the blog – might have had a hard day’s work, might have to take my wife and kid out, might have to go to my in-laws, might have to spend some personal time, the internet may not have been working, etc. A good question would be how did I manage to update the blog so regularly before and what has changed now? Well I was doing it at the cost of something – most importantly sleep, personal time, family time etc. You see the difference because I want to balance my time across a few things – of which the blog is one. So I fully understand if Karma or Tanmay is not able to post as frequently as they thought. Easy on them, easy on us. Let’s move on.

Let’s start with a quick coverage of the mid-week champions league games. Milan vs Man Utd was a lovely game of football. That was a match Milan must have closed within 30 minutes. Man Utd shouldn’t even have had a sniff of victory in that match. Sadly, a magical rebound from Scholes upset Milan as they conceded the dreaded away goal. Rooney continued his fine form but the ease with which he scored his brace must be a sad sight for any Milan fan. Milan still had it in them to draw or even win in the final 15 minutes but couldn’t finish when mattered.

East Timor, Tonga, Micronesia, Palau, Sao Tome and Prinicipe, Marshall Islands, Kiribati – what’s common among these countries? Their GDP of last year is lower than what Real Madrid spent on transfers last summer. If you see the backdrop of this season’s finals being in Santiago Bernabeu and Real Madrid’s desperation to win the champions league at home, their away defeat to Lyon is big news. Real Madrid have more ammunition that they need to turn things around but they’re under pressure and in these situations, a stroke of bad luck can knock you out. And that would be a tragedy for them!

I must say Arsenal are the most entertaining team in Europe. I mean, come on, tell me which other team ‘entertains’ you so much, makes you laugh so much and bring tears of joy in your eyes? Arsenal continued to play unintelligent football as they were beaten by Porto. Everytime, in knockout rounds, they get the easiest of draws and still make heavy weather of it. They could have got Inter, Milan, Barcelona, Real Madrid and who did they get – Porto. As Fibreglass found out only this week, they were making schoolboy errors. I’ve been seeing them do this for seasons now.

What did we say about Tom Hennings Ovrebo? What did we say? We said he is either incompetent or corrupt or both. We proved it with photo and video evidence. What were we told? We were told not to find an excuse. The whole world saw that Chelsea were robbed of a place in the champions league finals. Hardly any sympathy for us because it was Barcelona who made it to the finals at our expense. We only got further punished with bans and suspensions. To say it in the style of Godfather’s classic opening scene – “Tom Hennings Ovrebo walked free . . that . . very . . day”. UEFA drafted him back in, in the same tournament where he screwed up, again in a knock out round and unsurprisingly he’s done that again. It’s impossible to get that decision wrong. Granted he wasn’t helped by the assistant referees but if he can’t this offside from where he was, the only excuse he could give is that he is blind.

Now, Fiorentina is not the same as Milan, Inter or Juventus. But what does the Italian FA do? They question UEFA. They challenge them. They put pressure on UEFA. They object and also make their objection loud and clear about standards of UEFA referees. They stand up for a club of their association. It is the president of the Italian FA that’s questioning the refereeing standards in UEFA champions league. When Chelsea were robbed last season, what did English FA do? Nothing. While Italian FA can stand up for Fiorentina, can’t the English FA do the same for Chelsea FC? Would they have done it if it was Liverpool or Man Utd? Sacking captains for sleeping around is all right but I hope they also learn how to protect the clubs that are members of its association.

Staying with the topic of sleeping around, Ancelotti and Ron Gourlay, the chief executive of Chelsea FC, have addressed the players about the importance of protecting the image of the club. In simple terms, they must have said ‘behave yourself’. A timely intervention I’d say. Sometimes, even the obvious will have to be spoken about. Not sure if JT was part of the meeting. Anyways, JT is back for this match after a short leave to fix up things at home. We would not have Lampard, Alex, Deco and Belletti for this match. Same’s the case with medium-timers Bosingwa, Essien and Ashley Cole. That means Terry and Carvalho as centre backs, Ivanovic as the right back and Zhirkov as the left back. Mikel would play probably alongside Ballack, Joe Cole and Matic (well, this part is just wishful thinking).

Anelka has been off colour since Drogba returned. I’m not sure if it’s a coincidence or there is some science behind. Anelka has been really poor to be honest but he’s trying really hard which is why I’d not go harsh on him. But on current form, if Carletto picks Sturridge instead of Anelka, I’d not be worried at all. Drogba is in top form and I’m rooting for him to beat Rooney for the golden boot.

Wolves away is by no means an easy game but that’s a game we must win. When you look at the fixtures for this weekend, you see Everton vs Man Utd, Arsenal vs Sunderland and Man City vs Liverpool. This could turn out to be a dream weekend for us with Everton, Sunderland and Liverpool winning (see how times have changed! In Rafa we trust!). Here’s hoping for a 2-0 win for Chelsea, and heavy defeats, destruction, relegation and bankruptcy for our rivals.

Until yesterday I thought that the 3-3 draw at Stamford Bridge against Everton was our worst performance of the season (worse than the 3-1 defeat to Wigan). This defeat could just surpass that especially considering the time at which this has come. While I cannot make a comment about how we played I can tell you this much that John Terry was at fault for both goals. The first one, he allowed Saha to get forward and place a powerful header. The second one was terrible. At the edge of the box, Terry mistimed a jump while Saha collected the ball and punished us. He is always a thorn, Louis Saha. He is such a quality striker when he is on his feet. I remember this goal that he scored against us at Old Trafford. That was a gem. He’s come back to help his ex-club.

So where does this leave us? We’re just one point clear of Man Utd and 6 points clear of Arsenal. Basically the luxury of points is gone and so is the game-on-hand. So from now on the result of every match counts. There is no lead in points that we can afford to drop. This league has been very unpredictable and the trend continues. Fergie must be thinking that he missed a great opportunity but well Carletto must be thinking the same.

It could have been lot better but we are where we are. One thing’s for sure. Leading the table doesn’t matter any more. The teams are so close that positions of the table can keep changing in the next 12 matches. Let’s hope that we go on winning run. That’s all I can say at this moment.

For me, there’s nothing better in football than seeing Chelsea thump Arsenal. That’s right on top. That’s the summit. Any manager who does that for Chelsea and any player who guides us to do that gets my respect. People wonder why I hate Arsenal so much. I must say I find it strange when I see people who don’t despise them. They are pretenders. They are show ponies. Yet they (manager, players & fans) think that they are the Gods of football and the others are just rugby tacklers with no skill. And they sometimes very openly belittle the other teams. See what Wenger said about Aston Villa last month and every team that he couldn’t beat.

I was impressed with Ancelotti’s team selection. In fact, he had picked the very same eleven that I wanted him to pick. No place for Deco or Joe Cole in the first team. Ballack was important to break down their attacks while someone like Mikel is always pure gold against Arsenal. I was hoping that we play 4-3-3 but we played our diamond. Arshavin again played in the striker role, even after saying ‘if Arsenal want to be champions, how can they select me as the striker’. Meanwhile the once-natural striker Theo ‘Treadmill’ Walcott was in the wing. Anyway, I no longer fear Arshavin. Of late, he’s been shite. He’s lost his heart. He’s upset and feels hopeless. All this shows in his football. I was hoping that Clichy starts as I knew that’s where we’ll get our goals.

Chelsea going 2-0 up by half time was not a surprising thing for those who have been following premier league. As soon as we went ahead, I thought we’ll smash them with another couple of goals. But we didn’t. Instead we chose to let them have the ball. The key is ‘we chose’ to let them have the ball. We let them have the ball so we can exploit their fatal defensive weakness which would surely surface a few times in a span of 90 minutes. And especially after going up 2-0 against a city rival, why would play in any other way? Arsene Wenger said in his post match interview that they (Arsenal) were the better team on the pitch. That’s being either a complete idiot or a cunning politician. The fact is, Chelsea never had to get beyond their first gear while Arsenal where throwing everything at us. Chelsea didn’t have to try too hard to beat Arsenal.

The smile on John Terry’s face is back. His header to assist Drogba for the first goal was brilliant. And Drogba’s movement to get into that position was also class. And what can I say about the second goal. Arshavin lost the ball and was simply watching Lampard run with it. Frank ran for about 40 yards completely uninterrupted or unchecked. When Lampard gave it to Drogba on the right wing, I was expecting Drogba to cross it in. Such was Drogba’s confidence, against Arsenal defence in particular, he feinted and dummied his way in and blasted one to the near post to send me crazy. Did you notice that as the ball was travelling in, Almunia had closed his eyes! It’s a shame that Drogba couldn’t get his hattrick. He was a bit unfortunate with the free kick hitting the bar while Almunia had written it off with no effort. Look, if it’s not already, it is official now – Arsenal are Drogba’s bitch.

Ashley Cole was so close to scoring a goal against his ex-club. Lampard and Anelka also missed some opportunities. I thought Anelka was not sharp enough for the occasion and must have been subbed much earlier. As we always do with Arsenal, we bossed the midfield. We dictated the pace of the game and what happened on the pitch. I was particularly impressed with Lampard’s effort. Always fighting for the ball and always putting pressure on the opposition. Arsenal also had a few chances but our defence was mostly perfect and if they let anything in, Petr Cech was there like a rock. The left-handed save that he made to prevent a Bendtner shot was top class anticipation. Ivanovic did leave his zone unattended a few times but Arsenal could not really exploit that space.

The performance by John Obi Mikel today is something the no-longer-young, over-rated, over-paid chicks at Arsenal should take note of. Mikel joined us with a reputation. He had his teenager moments of his career but he has worked hard. He wasn’t thrown at the premier league and champions league just to prove a point. He was instead made to work hard for his spot in the team. His only ticket to the first team was consistent performance. In a team that had Makelele and has players like Essien, Lampard and Ballack, he knew that he had to be really really good to make it. I must I was so so pleased with his performance today. This is exactly how you ‘develop’ a player.

The spot light was on John Terry today too. This was his first match at home since the Vanessa story broke out and the first game since he was removed from England captaincy. How did he do? Bloody great! He was at his as always. Last season he had a patch were Carvalho and Alex were above him on merit. This season he is well and truly back. For me, one of the greatest sights in football is John Terry launching himself horizontally like a rocket, to make a clearance. I saw that today too.

No one can say this man is going through a personally traumatic period. A round of applause to the home crowd that supported him all through the match and nice of him to recognise that by giving his shirt. We expect Terry to be able to play as well as he has, irrespective of what’s going on with him. That’s because of what he is. We are a team of top professionals. We’ve seen Chelsea players play on top of their game like they had no personal lives, even through the tough times.

Okay, trivia question time. At the end of the match which manager said this: “I am completely happy with the performance and the spirit”. I’m sure you’ll get the wrong answer. The answer is Arsene Wenger. After the match, very predictably, Wenger said they dominated the game and all that nonsense. All I can say is he is lying. He is lying to himself and also to the Arsenal fans. Who would in their right mind say that Arsenal dominated Chelsea today? Here is Carlo Ancelotti’s ‘fantastic’ response to the comments from short-sighted Arsene Wenger.

Maybe Arsenal had more possession than us but this is not football, football is attack and defence as well as keeping possession when you need to, and results also. We deserved to win because you when you are two goals up it is important to do counter-attack and we did fantastic counter attack. It was an unbelievable second goal – fantastic movement, fantastic passing and fantastic shooting by Didier. This is football. We did fantastic defensive work because when it is 2-0 and you go to score more it is normal to have to defend. We did fantastic work together for 90 minutes and it was a very good performance. Sometimes you have to show attacking play and sometimes you have to defend.

Half a dozen ‘fantastics’ in one paragraph is a bit too much. Someone should help him with magnificent, superb, amazing, stupendous, scintillating, mind-blowing, astounding, astonishing etc. Hope he gets to use these for the rest of the season. If I were Carlo I’d have said that ‘We didn’t even have to get off our first gear. It turned out to be an easy match’. Let’s remember that Arsenal were gearing up for a reaction since they were thumped by Man Utd last week while we had to play an away game mid-week. Wenger is the worst loser in football. He loses so often but hasn’t learned how to be honest and graceful at defeat. Ignore his comments and let’s hail Carlo. He gets a 10/10 in my books for team selection, tactics, substitution and his fantastic response to Wenger.

So, we’re back on top. Only today, only now, I realise that there are only 13 games to go. I mean, we’re getting so close to the finish line, aren’t we? Out of this 13 matches, we have Everton (A), Man City (H), Aston Villa (H), Man Utd (A), Tottenham (A) and Liverpool (A). That’s six toughies plus the relegation battlers’ last round of fights. We just need to keep winning – 13 wins would do. Good news is, Man Utd have a similar run-in. With the kind of form we’re in, we’re certainly allowed to turn our hopes into expectations. For now, enjoy the win!

By the way, did you send that text message out: “yo alex, we’d been ‘battered’, just as you wanted . . .”

To counter all of those Arsenal positives(ahem) we have a certain Ivorian who haunts Wenger and His School Academy the most. Oh yes Didier Drogba is back and he is back with a bang. Even though he didnt do much in the last match except for the bang, Iam sure Arsenal is definitely the team he wants to be playing against to get back his form. He hates Arsenal, He hates them more than I do, and thats saying quite a lot.

We almost have out full squad to chose from – Essien,Belleti and Bosingwa. I havent missed Bosingwa one bit as long as Ivanovic has been there. Belleti played pretty well in the hole and with Essien gone he would have been my first choice. Hey but wait Mikel is back! Upfront I want to see Drognelka again. No I dont believe that Sturridge should be starting in Anelka’s place. Atleast not against Arsenal. A 65th minute substitution would be sweet. I like BC have been harping this thing all season long that the thing that seperates us from the other teams the most is our bench strength.

We have world class reserve players for every position. Look at this Zhirkov-Ashley Cole(LB), Ivanovic-Bosingwa-Belleti(RB), Terry-Carvalho-Alex-Ivanovic(CB),Essien-Mikel-Belleti(CDM),Ballack-Lampard-Deco-Malouda-Joe Cole(R/L/CM),Drogba-Anelka-Sturridge(CF)..This too is after ignoring wonderful youngsters like Kakuta, Borini, Matic. So Basically what I mean to say is that Carlo will never like Wenger have to say that “Ze Inzuries to ze playerz cozt uz ze match..”. Even if they would I think Carlo is mature enough not to cry like Whinger..

Ok now moving on to the Gooners. Like BC even I think that the only man who we need to fear in the Arsenal line-up is Arshavin. That guy (despite having Wenger as his manager) is class. But of late even he hasnt been at his best. And with him not there I dont really fear anyone else. Fabregas? Well he’s normally been just Gas in previous encounters. Essien wonderfully shut him out of the game last time. We dont have Essien but then lets not forget Bendtner has come back for a reason. Vermaelen(ignore sp) they’re hot goalscorer would I guess be more worried about not turning Ashley’s crosses into his own net. Gallas? Ok lets keep this blog post clean.

And while Wenger has sold his poor man’s Drogba he seems to have found a poor man’s Essien in Song. He’s not worrying me much either.Actually nothing is. How can I be worried? The only proper forward Arsenal had was Van Persie and he’s injured. Eduardo has never been the same. Walcott is struggling. They depend on Arshavin for their goals and he’s not even a natural forward. Arsenal are by no means contenders for any silverware this season. Iam supremely confident that this match belongs to us. Wenger will after this match realise that he’ll be out of contention for any glory this season as well. Now please dont say he’s going to win the Champions League. And I dont think Arsenal will self destruct this season. WE will demolish them.

My Prediction 3-1 to Chelsea.

P.s- Iam not to be scathed if Arsenal fail to score that single goal as well.

Ok guys so that was my first post here. Quite obviously iam no BC. I dont think I’ll ever be able to put up an analysis like he does. But I have done what I could and yes even I do think I got it easy by having Arsenal in my first post.

**KTBFFH**

Did I expect Fabio to come to this decision? Honestly, no. I thought he would retain John Terry as the captain for various reasons – (a) he is the best man for the job and anyone else is a compromise (b) he has worked in Italy where he would have such things and more (c) he is not media’s bitch. Sadly, Fabio has disappointed me. Anyway, I’d like to think that this was not his independent decision, despite that’s how this is being projected. In a country where footballers are expected to be role models who have to be held in very high esteem and have to be shining beacon of moral values, Fabio must have been under intense pressure to give in. I’d have kissed him if he’d said ‘fuck media, John’s the man’.

Well Fabio Capello has made two decisions – Removing John Terry the sinner from captaincy and elevating the team status of two saints to wipe away the stains of John Terry. Though I’m more concerned about the first one, the latter one has to be consistent with the overall theme of these two decisions. Let’s first look at John Terry’s removal first.

There are opinions that John Terry must have resigned himself. No way. As long as he thinks and believes that he is the best man for the job and he can continue to do the good job that he has done so far, he doesn’t even have to think about resigning from captaincy. Plus, for a player like John Terry, if he is on the pitch, he naturally becomes the captain. Armband or no armband, you’ll see him playing the captain.

In the last blog, I’ve said my bit about why this issue must not have an impact on being a football captain. There’s an attempt to make the role of the England captain sound like the role of prime minister or something. By removing John Terry on account of this issue, Capello has set an expectation around what his captains should do in their spare time. While we assume that it is the extra-marital affair that caused this removal, Capello’s communication around the removal of Terry does not clearly explain the decision.

Why has Terry been removed? Is it because he had an extra-marital affair? Is it because he had an extra-marital affair with an ex-girlfriend of an England team mate? If it’s because he had an extra-marital affair, it’s not even a punishable offence under law (I don’t mean to be advocating that though!). Why are we so concerned about who these players are sleeping with? If someone should have a problem with that, it must be Toni Terry. And whether Toni Terry has a problem with that and how she responds purely their internal matter. That’s between a husband and his wife. If every husband had to lose his job because he cheated on his wife, half the men would be rendered jobless. I, by no means, accept Terry’s extra marital affairs. I truly do not condone his behaviour. But I only say, as a society we need to be less hypocritical. So what’s next? Are we going to strip someone of his captaincy because he is a bad father or a bad son-in-law?

The argument that Terry has lost the trust of his team mates is very weak. Among the players, they know they are not ideal role models and they don’t want to be. Because, deep down they are all normal human beings with the same set of vices that anyone would have. I believe the respect on a fellow-player or a captain comes purely from the performances on the pitch and not from whether he smokes weed or bangs whores in spare time. There are numerous examples in this very sport for truly remarkable players with tainted private lives. Imagine Diego Maradona being stripped of his captaincy in 1985 because of his cocaine addiction.

So, to conclude my view on John Terry’ removal from captaincy – (a) I’m upset, disappointed and gutted (b) I don’t accept JT’s behaviour (c) I think we should be less hypocritical (d) I believe this incident will have no impact on Terry’a ability to lead his teams (e) John Terry must have remained captain unless there is a football reason to remove him.

I have an important question for Mr.Capello and the FA. How long is this sentence or this disqualification? How long should Terry carry this baggage of sin? At what stage or at what milestone John Terry can become a captain of the England team again? What should he do? Or is he permanently disqualified from being an England captain because he had an extra marital affair? The fact that he had this affair is not going to change. So how will he become a captain again? If the trust and respect that he is supposed to have lost because of non-football reasons is to be earned back, should be doing community service or something?

So now, let’s come over to the second part of the decision. Rio Ferdinand (now stop laughing again) is the new captain. Stevie-Me is the vice (captain). Fabio has put his faith on two people who have never ever slept with anyone other than their wives/girlfriends. Do you think Fabio must have asked Ferdinand and Gerrard this question – “Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, that you have never slept with anyone other than your wife/girlfriend since she became so?” Let’s get an undertaking from them so that we can save a lot of embarrassment when Rio is caught shagging in a brothel while he had to be taking a drug test and when Stevie-Me is caught punching teenage girls because they refused to change the music in a pub.

So how did Ferdinand fare for Man Utd last week? Oops . . sorry, he didn’t play because he was banned for four matches for violent conduct. What an irony! So the man who missed a drug test (which is a far serious offence from a football point of view than an extra marital affair) is a good example and an inspirational leader? The man who was caught on CCTV punching around in a pub is a better role model?

Rio Ferdinand, on current form, should be struggling to start for England. And he is now captain? Lucky him. Just when his blunder ratio is increasing, he becomes captain and thanks to that, he retains his place in the team. And Stevie-Me is probably having his worst season of his career. Liverpool are an embarrassment this season, the season of the world cup. They are not even in the knockout stages of champions league and unlikely to make the next season’s champions league. If this is how much a player like Gerrard can inspire a Liverpool team, there is no merit in his selection as the vice captain. Look at his body language. He’s lost it man. He knows he’ll never touch that premier league trophy in his lifetime. And that ‘hopelessness’ is just all over him.

Now Rio will be under extra pressure because every time he makes a wrong move, every match that he draws or loses, every time he sees a voluptuous chick, someone will raise this question – is he the right man for the job? Did Capello make a mistake? Media does not take sides. It is not convenient for them to take sides. So if Rio is caught for drunken driving sometime next month, expect a media wave against Rio too. The question how bad is ‘bad’ will be back.

There is some real hope for England in the World Cup 2010. This time the hope is not a media-hype but a hope built on the performances in the qualification stages. A hope built on the credentials of a world class manager and a set of top class players starting to work as a team and deliver on the pitch. In this backdrop, Fabio has made a big decision that could have a real impact on England from the knockout stages. When England trails by two goals at half time in the world cup semi final, Capello would know that he’d die to have a John Terry leading the team than anyone else. That’s the time he would realise that he must have dumped the media and let Captain John do what he does best.

Let’s be aware that there are a lot of people who support the retention of JT as the captain of England. Also, there are a few brave journalists who have raised their voices against the hypocrisy of the blood-baying public and the press that loves character assassination. The Italian media is laughing at the English hypocrisy (what is John Terry – a footballer or a priest?). My support towards John Terry is not only because he is a Chelsea man but also because I truly believe that he is being victimised and the treatment of the whole matter is insane, hypocritical and disgusting. That’s what I thought when this happened to Tiger Woods. And that’s what I’d say even if it happens to a Sachin Tendulkar or a Roger Federer.

I hope John Terry would be able to come through his personal issue which has now become a professional issue as well. If there is a man that you can trust to make a turnaround, it’s gotta be John Terry. May he get all the strength to deal with this situation. One way for him to show his middle finger to his detractors, is by winning the premier league trophy and the champions league trophy for Chelsea. And yes, he’s gonna do it. C’mon John, we know you can do it!

The first 11 I was elated to see Didier back. Riccy over Alex was spot on after the latter’s sloppiness in the last match. But as much as I admire Zhirkov, I was very uncomfortable to see him for Ashley (may be Ashley’s sore ankle was nagging him), otherwise the first 11 was the best we could ever field this time!

My own little account of the observations of the match:These, in my opinion were mediocre performers:

Cech is still not decisive on leaving his goal line and his command over aerial balls needs to be improved!

Ivanovic, his defending was bit too risky and I was afraid that he would see his second yellow and wished he was substituted, but it didn’t happen and I was kept worrying. Nor did his marauding forward reap as many good crosses as we expect off him. However, he had one good shot on target!

Deco’s decision with passes was bit risky. His pass across our own D area to Riccy and a poor through ball to Drogba to name a few. Also he seemed quite lost on the ball and eventually lost possession at crucial times. His shot, at 36th minute was good, though. He was the best tackler of the night!

Ballack seemed clueless and couldn’t pick a team mate well with his passes. And his header on Ivanovic’s cross lacked angle;

Nico was surprisingly not at his best, he was worse than what he was against Burnley.

The opponent’s goal: When most of our players were trying to find their own clever self, we conceded a goal, a cheap one from the defenders’ point of view. I don’t know who is supposed to be marking Mouyokolo, but he had lots of space at his disposal. Was it Ballack or Riccy or Terry? I was really annoyed by the irksome Fagan who kept bothering Cech and ultimately forcing him into a very poor position. Neither Malouda could check Fagan properly, nor could Cech command his space well. After conceding the goal, I was expecting Chelsea to bounce back with brilliance and clever football and command the game, but we couldn’t really find the edge.

Our goal: Drogba didn’t have a good game and I should blame ACN for destroying his form. At some points he was non-existent, virtually. May be he was trying to get back to the CFC’s Drogba from being an Ivory Cost’s Drogba. ACN is a step down for anyone in the EPL! He wasted lots of chances but his goal was “a thing of beauty”, a sheer class!

The average performers:

Zhirkov played quite well but not as much as when he came from the bench, maybe he wasn’t comfortable with Ashley on the bench. Of course he had some telling crosses, but no one could finish it well;

Terry, despite being booed, had a good game and his command and communication with the team mates were at its usual best. His header on 56th minute was awesome and displayed a great neck muscle power to find the target. Terry’s chest balls are so perfect, he does it best;

Riccy had a decent game and his telepathic connection with our captain is simply priceless;

Malouda worked hard but sometimes he worked unnecessarily hard and turned the situation against himself! He turned well and took a great shot, but he could have done a lot more with the chances he got and lay assists for his team mates;

Lampsy was not his usual clever self, but he took few good shots. May be he took too little too many touches.

Drogba was the best player of the night. Despite playing far below his own par, was undoubtedly our best man on the field. His desire and determination was a good sign and it did spread positive energy around. He is also one of the best defenders during set pieces but he also denied what could have been a great Malouda goal. But I am happy that The Terminator is back with a BANG!

Substitutions:
Boss must bring in the substitutes according to the prevailing situation(s), he must inject pace from fresh legs. He seemed pretty dissatisfied with the way things were faring at the first half and even in the second half, but I think that he took bit too long to bring in Sturridge!

I had to wait till the 71st minute when he finally brings Joey on for Ballack. But what seemed like a great decision by our boss was almost futile when Joey proved equally ineffective like Ballack. Joey didn’t use his speed to good effect and he could actually have done a lot better.

Double substitution
Both were absolutely good, because Zhirkov and Nico weren’t contributing as much as they usually could. But I am definite that Sturridge should have been on earlier on. This lad works hard and bothers the opponents often; his work rate is very high. His hard work nearly paid off in the dying minutes of the game when he took a shot on a difficult ball but wastes the second chance which came immediately!
Ashley was better than Zhirkov and on 84th minute, he wasted a great opportunity, I was shouting SHOOOOOOT!

Referee:
At 41st minute, Nico is fouled but he manages to pass the ball and referee allowed advantage. Eventually Lampsy is tripped in the D area but surprisingly Mark Clattenburg, instead of awarding a penalty gives a free kick outside the D! How is this? I need a technical back up on my limited knowledge of the rules of the game. As far as I know, I think it should have been a penalty because the game was on after Nico suffered a foul. But what is the difference? For us, another great penalty by Lampsy or an awesome free kick by Drogba means the same, after all both will find the back of the net! May be Drogba’s race for the golden boot is a step nearer than Lampsy’s 20+ a season goals!

The reaction to the game and few hard lessons learnt: Nothing much magical happened in this game. I am sad that we missed a good chance to go 4 points clear off manure, but recollecting on the type of game we played (and Hull played) I am happy that we got to share the spoil of the match.

We sit at the top with 2 points and if we can repeat our feat at Fly Emirates this Sunday, things should be much easier thence! I don’t care much about opponents or our so called title challengers so long as we keep winning. If we focus on our strengths and develop on it then we are going to get dividends. But defending set pieces is one nagging weakness of ours and needs to be addressed immediately! One clear example, apart from the goal, was on minute 45+1: worryingly, our marking was very bad again. Main culprit was Ballack, he was sloppy but luckily escaped from being punished. I think we need to assure that the man one marks is marked well; Terry marked his man well during this free kick.

We must have a plan B, like Hull demanded with determined offence. Hull closed in very fast and it was to this tactic that we succumbed our own football;

We must improve on capitalising on the chances, we must finish well!

My MoTM is Drogba, it would have been Sturridge if he had more time to prove his worth!

I hope we train a lot and make sure that only the best performers will get into the first 11. I won’t be surprised to see Sturridge on for Nico against Arsenal! I am hopeful, or rather sure that we will keep these hard lessons at the back of our mind and display one lovely and fruitful game of football this Sunday.

Few points:

I wished Terry silenced the home fans like he did at Turf Moor because they were awfully wrong in booing him for nothing done to them.

Drogba’s goal celebration was so sweet, so touching. This man knows how to involve crowd and get them behind the team, he knows how to blend love with the game; he is fantastic!

Dear kindred spirits, please forgive me if i, like our Chelsea, came far below your expectations. I promise to improve and would like to make an excuse that this is my first post!

My blood is blue!

Unfortunately, I couldn’t watch the match as ESPN went off sharp 15 mins before the match. Then I realised that it is an issue being faced by many in India for the last few days. I was only going by the BBC updates and the numerous text messages sent across by my cousin. Purely based on his (he is a Chelsea fan, of course) text messages, I’d say that we had a poor first half filled with nervy defending and purposeless attacks. The second half showed some promise and we should have certainly won with the number of chances we created. Drogba was invisible and lazy until the free kick goal which was taken even before the wall was ready. Overall, the score did reflect the match. Both of us were disappointed but Man Utd will also drop points, you’ll see them do it big time, trust me.

Fergie and Wenger must be quite pleased with this result. This might even have given a ray of hope for Wenger. In a way this result helps as we don’t go to the Arsenal with complacency. With a great opportunity to extend the lead being squandered, Chelsea must know that they need to be on top of their game to ‘batter’ Arsenal and regain and extend the lead. Okay then, let’s wait for Karma CW’s first ever post in BlueChampions then!