Chelsea started with an attacking line-up. It showed that we were going to take the game to Man Utd and would be looking for nothing less than a win. I must say the quality of the game was disappointing. To call this a premier league classic only undermines premier league. Neither teams were able to make any meaningful attacks. Possession was lost very very cheaply. Not many clear cut chances. Horrible refereeing. The best moments of the game were Sturridge’s trickery for the first goal, Torres’ cross and Mata’s finish for the second goal, brilliant tackles by Ivanovic and Cahill and a very smart header from Hernandez.

Yet another game where Torres creates a beautiful goal rather than scoring one. He got one good chance which he fluffed by taking too many touches before losing the ball. His current confidence level is such that he needs to be 100% clear that his shot will make it, like he’s taking a penalty. He’s not in a frame of mind to take risks which one would do while in form. At least, his cross was one of the best we’ve seen from a Chelsea player this season. And Mata’s finish was sweet. Should be up there as one of the best Chelsea goals this season.

I thought Gary Cahill had a very good match. He was very aware of how the game moved and also of the movements of his colleagues. It’s not easy to get drafted in and debut at home against Man Utd and play with such ease. Well done. Malouda was in a very passive mode. He was involved in a few chances but if he’s playing this submissive role it takes all the bite off his contribution. I wanted him to play as aggressively as he plays plus good decision making and team work. He was very passive.

Petr Cech’s reputation for not being a penalty stopper didn’t improve. I don’t know what’s his penalty record. In all these years, I don’t remember seeing him stop a penalty. Yeah, there could have been one or two but you get the point. If I were AVB, I would have Cech practice penalty stopping hundreds of times before a Man Utd game because it’s certain that he’d have to face penalties. Our defending for the third goal was terrible. This small boy Hernandez has the reputation of being a poacher. He’s like Inzaghi. He’s a clever fox. You have all the defenders in the box and not one was marking him closely enough. That was terrible defending. We made light of referee’s work.

The one thing we did achieve clearly is to negate Man Utd’s wing attack. We covered the flanks well enough to stop Man Utd from attacking through the wings. Thanks to Malouda in particular. Later in the second half, Romeu came in to have his worst Chelsea game to date. Just don’t know what happened to him there but I’m sure he wants to forget this game for his contribution or the lack of it.

This is a game Chelsea should have won comfortably. I wasn’t fully sure even at 3-0 as I knew Man Utd would get a life line or two or three or four or five from the referees. If anyone says Howard Webb is the best referee in England, I’m gonna scream. Expect Fergie and the Man Utd fans to hail this as a great comeback. Expect media to talk about this being one of Man Utd’s legendary combacks and a possible hair dryer treatment in the second half which changed everything. Yup, there could have been a hair dryer moment in the second half. Fergie smashing Howard Webb’s head with a hair dryer in the half time. Yes, it seems to have done the trick.

We are now possibly 5 points below Spurs and 2 points above Newcastle. Still a very dangerous zone. A win here could have made things lot better. I haven’t yet come to terms that I need to be following the results and progress of Newcastle United.

AVB has been drawing a lot of flak of late. Thoughts ranging from ‘he’s still the best guy to manage us’ to ‘he’s out of his mind’. He’s under pressure and it shows. You can call certain decisions as a result of naivety. I’d call them as a result of pressure. At 3-0, he wanted to protect the lead. He didn’t want to take anymore risks. Instead of bringing Romeu for Sturridge, if he had brought on pacy Lukaku for less-effective Malouda, we could have made a statement. We might have pegged them back. Instead we allowed them to have the ball and invited pressure. I don’t think this was a naive decision by AVB. May be he thinks he’s not in a position to take risks. Exactly like Torres. Doesn’t quite realise when he can take risks and how much.

Remember, if Webb had not signed for Man Utd, AVB could have registered a big win against Fergie at a crucial point of time. I feel for AVB. His misfortune keeps mounting. But patience won’t. He spent the whole January buying a central defender and buying players that won’t be used by us this season. Now that, is a problem. Ignoring that we have issues in attack is a problem. For all our defensive fragilities, we have not conceded too many goals. It is our own lack of goals that’s hurting us. So to not buy an attacking midfielder or wingers and to send Josh on loan smacks me.

I’m still confident that we would make it to the third spot. I expect Spurs to lose their way and us to find ours. We enter the period where big teams play like big teams. This is the period where Chelsea always puts in amazing run of games and the pretenders lose the plot. Let’s see how the next few weeks go. Before I leave, let me tell you that a sub-standard Liverpool team finished fifth but won the champions league against all odds. Miracles do happen. KTBFFH!

I’m a big supporter of same treatment for events and incidents inside and outside the penalty box. It’s sometimes sickening to see the fouls during set pieces that don’t get called because they are inside the box and the referees seem to think it’s okay for such things to happen in the box. If anything the rules for the incidents inside the box should be tighter. So, this is a penalty. And for all the pushing and shoving that denies our players during set pieces, we need more such penalties to offset.

The game had a fantastic backdrop in the form of John Terry vs Anton Ferdinand racial abuse incident. There was a big aniticipation on what would happen in the handshake ritual. Will Anton and Terry shake hands or not? Will the whole QPR teams refuse to shake hands with Terry? It’s quite clear that JT’s handshake list is becoming shorter by the day. Being the captain, leader and legend, he needs to be more careful and wary of his on-pitch and off-pitch behaviour. He’s not proven guilty but being aware and careful would have saved him and the club a lot of time and effort and focus could just have been on football.

I learnt that the hand shake ritual has not been around for 100 years like I thought (remember seeing it in B/W clippings). Rick Glanville corrected me on Twitter that it’s been around only since the introduction of champions league. Some people think it’s a waste of time. I’m not one of them. I quite like the handshake ceremony. There’s an element of personal touch there. Quick eye contact, smile and a handshake is a good way to start the game.

It’s like how I want the long walk for the penalty shoot outs to remain. There’s a thought that the penalty shoot outs can happen like normal penalties with team mates standing around. But I think it shouldn’t be the case. Part of the magic of the penalty shoot out is that lonely long walk and the pressure and adrenaline that it builds. You will have arguments for and against these things but I’m firmly in favour of handshakes and long walk shoot outs.

AVB has made some important observations. He wants us to notice that we have improved defensively. I agree. Our organisation in defence has improved and it hasn’t had any impact on our attacking side. It’s just that our attacks don’t seem to have the killer instinct about them. Anyway, this is what he says:

It was a good solid display defensively. To be fair this January we have shown we have organised ourselves a little better in defence, not conceding so many goals, and it is repaying us. We look more organised and solid and when we scored we managed to hang on to the match.

Ramires has picked up an injury – extent yet to be known yet. In any case, he could be missing about four weeks which means it can get lot worse. In a way, it’s our curse I think. We send Josh on loan, we get Essien back and we see Ramires is out. We have no one to replace Ramires because what Ramires brings to our team from the midfield, there’s no one that can do well. Ramires brings us searing pace. He’s our fulcrum during our quick counterattacks. He’s so super fast that earns crucial fouls and penalties. I don’t see Essien doing that. He’s a different kind of player. As such our attacking play was slow and lumbered and only recently we had started to pick up some pace in our movements. Now that Ramires is out for a few weeks we need to ensure that we don’t become a slow team once again. Luckily, January is not over yet!

Meanwhile, in the space of a week, Liverpool have managed to eliminate the Manchester teams from the domestic cups. In the context of this season’s progress, it’s quite an achievement. This actually helps both Liverpool and Manchester. If there was any doubt, with both teams having gone out of champions league already, the Manchester teams will only be contesting for the title in May.

Spain is getting very interesting. Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid still comes second best to Barcelona in head to head encounters but with the results this weekend, Real Madrid are 7 points clear of Barcelona with 20 games having been played in la liga. If you see how things normally work out in Spain, this is a massive lead. Rumours are back that Jose would take a job in the premier league this summer. Don’t think he would leave Madrid until he makes Real Madrid the champions of Spain. Let’s see.

Couple more days for the manic transfer deadline day. Not sure if Chelsea are still looking to get one more player in this window. Too many names have been linked to Chelsea but AVB doesn’t seem to even half-suggest that he’s still on the lookout. Rumours or not, I’d still be following the transfer deadline day news with hope – even if Chelsea says that we’re not in the market and publish a picture of the empty safe. Let’s wait and see!

This game also had a unique record of no fouls committed by either teams in the whole of first half. Not even one foul. That’s like FIFA 12. While this can be seen as a positive thing by some, I’d rather have some fouls committed by Chelsea and play in a way that would have the opposition commit some fouls. The way I see it, fouls are a result of an intent. If you make a number of successful tackles and commit no fouls, that I’m happy about. Lack of intent towards closing down and tackles can also result in fewer number of fouls. What’s special about this first half is that there were a number of successful tackles but either teams and still there were no fouls. Good show.

What went wrong? Same old probing with half decent efforts and bad finishing. Can’t help but think we should be creating lot more chances than we are managing to do now. We started with a 4-3-3 with Sturridge and Mata on either sides of Torres. I’m still of the opinion that we should play 4-2-3-1 and keep Sturridge on the bench and bring him on in the second half. 4-2-3-1 will allow Mata to move to the centre and have more of the ball. I know Sturridge deserves to start but he does tilt the balance of the starting eleven and hence we don’t get the best out of our starting eleven.

Not just that. We have actually no impact players that can come in the second half and make . . . well . . . an impact. Yesterday, we had Lukaku coming in and showing glimpses of his talent. That was heartening because since his promising debut all that we had seen of him till then was his lumbering around with poor movement. With more time on the pitch, he must start showing why he’s considered as a talent by many top teams. Sturridge and Lukaku can be players that can have an impact in the second half. Both are pacy and both could beat tired defenders in the second half.

Going back to my point on creating chances. Though by numbers we outplayed Norwich in terms of possession, passes, shots etc, I think we failed to create enough number of clear cut chances. Yes the finishing could have been better. There are games where, if you hadn’t scored, you’d say ‘we should have killed the game in the first half’ and that’s because of the clear cut chances we create. I don’t think we are creating enough. See strikers have this conversion ratio. They’re are not going to convert every chance. But the team needs to create enough chances that we get a goal at any conversion rate. To not score against Norwich is downright poor.

In the absence of touchline hugging orthodox wingers, we are still dependent on the full backs to give us width. And you know what, thanks to our full backs, there were 4 successful crosses yesterday. That’s right. Only 4 successful crosses over 90 minutes against Norwich. Not over yet. That’s 4 successful crosses out of 39 crosses made. Doesn’t it occur to you that the success rate on crosses is terribly low? Meanwhile, even Norwich managed 4 successful crosses but needed only 16 of them to get this.

Here are our crossing stats in the last few matches (successful crosses / total number of crosses)

Chelsea vs Sunderland – 8/24
Wolves vs Chelsea – 6/24
Chelsea vs Aston Villa – 4/40
Chelsea vs Fulham – 13/36
Spurs vs Chelsea – 8/20
Wigan vs Chelsea – 1/19
Chelsea vs Man City – 3/22

It’s quite obvious that our cross success rate (crosses received by a Chelsea player) is better when Drogba starts and is in the mood. The games that Torres plays the crossing rates do fall. Torres wants the ball at his feet and he’s that kind of player. And our crossing has been poor for seasons now. Why would we play in such a way that we cross 39 times while Torres has started the game.

And this is why I don’t like us to play 4-3-3 when Torres starts. If we had played 4-2-3-1, we wouldn’t be delivering so many crosses and with three attacking midfielders we’d be passing to Torres’ feet more often.

Mata has been our best player of the season and when he doesn’t get things right we look really awful. Yesterday was not one of his best days. Had poor touch, made poorly weighted passes, missed scoring chances and missed to create great opportunities. I’ve been saying this for some time now. He needs a partner in the midfield. He needs a player who has the first touch, both feet abilities and the vision like him. That’s where a Modric would have done wonders. Or Josh.

Josh made his debut for Swansea yesterday. Came in at centre midfield. Played 25 minutes. Made 25 passes with a 96% success ratio. Remember he is not eligible to play against us next week. That’s a pity. We would value such players better as an opponent than as our own player.

AVB has made a number of changes back and forth in the formation, line-up etc. But he still needs to settle down with his plan A and plan B. In the initial few weeks, you could see Chelsea looking to play differently but now there seems to be a resignation to reality. With so much pressure from inside and outside, the results are taking priority and there’s definitely some anxiety and that’s quite visible. Chelsea are not playing confidently. Every goal results in a relief rather than a celebration. AVB’s style is meant to release the players from the invisible cage and let them play free and take their own decisions on the pitch. I haven’t seen that in action yet. January is not over. Couple of players could be coming in.

Good decision by AVB to not play Gary Cahill in this match. Allows Cahill to train with his new team mates and settle down before making the debut. The last thing that could have happened for him was starting against Norwich and making a howler. The media would have started asking if he’s of Chelsea quality and all that. Torres must be thinking – ‘if only I had done the same thing for my debut’. Compare this with Torres situation. Highly expensive and high drama switch from Liverpool and happens to play against Liverpool on his debut for Chelsea. Had he scored that night, he could have been a different player. That’s how much confidence impacts players.

Okay, this was a month where we just shouldn’t have dropped points but we have. We need to beat Swansea next week. Just no excuses. If the North London clubs were to lose today, there’s a small consolation and damage control. So far, it’s Manchester 13-3 North London. This is indeed a Super Sunday. No matter what happens, I’d be happy. There’s no such thing called a best result today. Oh yes, there is – if all four of them manage to lose. See you later!

It’s only fair to say that we’ve been . . . lucky! Yup, luck had deserted us for a few months. In exactly those months, we chose to defend in methods unfamiliar and the result was a nervous hovering in the fourth spot. Looks like we have made some tweaks in our defending methods as we are dropping slightly deeper with the fullbacks not operating as full time wingers. And now, luck seems to be back. All these three wins this month could have ended in draws and we wouldn’t have been able to complain (yes, including the ‘massive’ 4-0 win).

See I’m quite convinced that 4-2-3-1 is the way to go. Let’s admit this – we don’t have one orthodox winger in our whole squad, not even one. And we should get Mata to get involved more and for that he should be playing in the middle behind Torres. This is one reason why I’m not quite missing Sturridge. With Sturridge in the team, we are forced to play a two striker formation or three-man forward, considering that Torres should start every match. So actually I’m quite pleased that Sturridge didn’t start

It’s no surprise that the goal was created by Mata and Torres – two of our four best players in recent times (Ramires & Sturridge being the other two). No one in Chelsea delivers dangerous crosses like Mata and crossing is not supposed to be Mata’s strong point. You’ll be surprised to know the proportion of Chelsea opportunities are created by Torres. We’d love to see him at the end of these opportunities and taking advantage of them but at least he’s been the creator for many of them.

At this rate, Torres would probably have more assists than goals. On the other hand, Lampard and Ramires will have more goals than assists. And this is the story of Fernando Torres at Chelsea. His midfielders are scoring or getting into scoring positions than creating goals for Torres. Out of frustration, Torres has started to drop deeper and he, being a very skilled footballer, has been creating chances for others.

El Nino too needs some luck. There now have been a number of matches where he’s produced MOTM performances but still don’t manage to hit the net. His volley yesterday was brilliant. Though he couldn’t get the goal, what was heartening was that he had the confidence to go for the phenomenal volley. While Chelsea has started seeing some luck, Torres needs a bit of that too. He had a very good game over with some cracking shots and a couple of valid penalty shouts turned down.

What’s worrying is our refusal to commit into tackles. Too often we were defending as if the attackers had an invisible and unpenetrable one-metre radius around them. We were chasing them, we ran alongside them, we attempted to steal the ball cleverly but we didn’t commit into tackles when it mattered.

It’s strange that we’ve managed a cleansheet in a game like this. That’s the irony isn’t it? There were games where we conceded a nothing goal despite dominating for great periods of time. And then games like this where we allow a number of opportunities, even until the last second, and still claim a cleansheet.

Couple of great stories yesterday. Michael Essien was on the pitch. It was a pleasant surprise! I was expecting him to be on the pitch only for the champions league knockout rounds. Either there was a wrong assessment somewhere or Essien is desperate to get back on the pitch before a midfielder is bought this January. This was the first match Essien got to play under AVB. Since Essien got injured, we have got three new players who can operate in the midfield – Mata, Meireles and Romeu. You can even add Ramires to the list. Essien’s midfield colleague Mikel and Lampard are no longer starters. Hence Essien’s re-introduction to Chelsea is going to be interesting. Isn’t it odd that we have multiple options for defensive midfielders and hardly any for the creative attacking midfielders.

The other big story was Josh McE’s half-season loan deal with Swansea. I’d love to see Josh play regularly in the first team as I think he has all the qualities that we are missing in our midfield. And I also think he can be a fantastic partner for Mata. But then if we are not going to use him, it’s such a waste to keep him on the bench. Last season, we had a problem upfront and right at the time we needed strikers, we sent Sturridge on loan. We’ve then said a million times that if Sturridge had not gone on loan and if we had used him, he could have had an impact on our season. I see that happening with Josh now. It’s good that Josh got Swansea. They play good quality football and a player like him should fit perfectly well there. Hope Josh gets a lot of time with Swansea. I simply want to see the boy in action.

Gary Cahill was in the VIP box to watch Chelsea win at home. By the looks of it, might only be a matter of time before the official announcement arrives. AVB had said that we could sign two players this month. Cahill being one, we should expect the other one soon. I have a feeling that it would be an attacking midfielder. I don’t see us going for another defender. With Essien coming in, we have a lot of options for defensive midfielders or central midfielder options. In attack, we have one striker too many for our single striker formation. So I see us going for either an attacking midfielder (read Moutinho) or a winger (read Hazard).

We are doing okay now. Deserved or not – wins and cleansheets are with us. What’s undeniable is that we’ve got some kind of momentum building up for us. If we beat Norwich and Swansea this month, we could be a very good position as there are some key matches among and involving the top six which could see us improve in the table. Stay tuned. Take care now. Bye bye then!

We need to remind ourselves that the transfer window is open because there’s hardly any business. Yeah I know, the big transfers don’t happen in January. Only that Chelsea have made transfers worth £100m or more in the last three winter transfer windows. So far the big transfer news is the re-signing (resist your temptation and don’t read it ‘resigning’) of Thierry Henry with Arsenal. No doubt he’s a great premier league player. He’s also a player I love to hate. Huge respect for him but never liked him. I’m sure he will be useful at Arsenal this time around too.

But consider this: Arsenal FC have gone and installed a Theirry Henry statue in the stadium and Henry re-signs for Arsenal. So he will be walking past his statue as he comes in for another session of training. How odd is that? There is already some fears among the fans of Henry that if he fails in this stint the last memory of a spent force or a fallen giant that cut a sorry figure. I’m guessing he will do well if he has a very clear role – a role that will support and not lead the attacks.

@StupidFootball “Wow. It looks exactly as I left it!”- Thierry Henry on seeing Arsenal’s trophy cabinet.

We have also been waiting for Harry Redknapp to sign David Beckham, haven’t we? Looks like Beckham was going to PSG to unite with Ancelotti but that has died down. He’s still a free agent though. Just wondering how will Chelsea operate with someone like Beckham with that crossing and longpassing ability! Meanwhile, Ganso was rumoured with Spurs but Redknapp has quashed all that with a strange rebuttal. Harry says he doesn’t know who Ganso is! He’s quoted saying “Ganso? I have never heard of him. I don’t know him, where does he play? What position? I don’t get to Brazil much. We got Sandro from there but other than that, no”. How sad is that?

Couple of strange rumours this week – one on Rooney leaving Man Utd (again) and Man Utds’ desire to sign Frank Lampard! I don’t think these stories are equally absurd. There’s always something or the other about Rooney. Though this could be a fall out of the punishment for his Christmas night-out, I get a feeling that Rooney could be off their books sometime sooner than later – as in a couple of seasons. As regards Man Utd looking to sign Lampard, it was like the ‘now trending’ topics on Twitter. You get any nonsense on Twitter and if you’re lucky you could see that trending on Twitter by millions of people. This Utd-Lampard story was like that. It was nonsense and it was trending.

In Europe, Madrid have notched another big win. This time a 5-1 over Granada. It’s fair to say nobody expected Madrid to be as free scoring as they have been. 61 goals in 17 games. To put this in perspective, when Madrid won the title 5 seasons back, they had scored a total of 66 goals in the league – a tally they would surpass in just half the league this season. It’s particularly interesting because not many expected Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid to play like this. You only need to pull out the articles during this appointment on how they expected Madrid to play under Mourinho. Now, if Madrid keep this goal scoring form, they will create a la liga record for maximum number of goals in a la liga season. Still, the big challenge for Mourinho is to beat Barca – for the title and for the champions league. With Barca at their terrific best, there’s no bigger challenge in world football than to take them on and there’s no one better to go at them than Jose Mourinho. For the record, I’d love to see Barcelona’s era come to an end.

The money is on Barcelona and Real Madrid to win the champions league. They are the hot favourites. But then, the third in the list of favourites is Bayern Munich. Yup, it’s not Chelsea, it’s not Milan, it’s not Inter, it’s Bayern Munich! They are a great team for sure but I didn’t expect them to be ahead of the other teams in the betting odds. I’ve not been following their progress this season. Are they really that good this season?

In Chelsea transfer news/rumours, the Gary Cahill deal has not progressed further. Fee has been agreed between the clubs it’s just that the personal agreements are not done yet. If that’s because of his wage demands, it’s crazy. I don’t think he would get more than what a Paulo Ferreira gets to be in the Chelsea squad. He’s a good player but not the one that might get £80k per week. He’s not in that league yet. I don’t see Chelsea budging to his wage demands. He needs to show that he can be a regular starter and a key player before getting into the £80k bracket. By the way, Bolton are ‘resting’ Cahill for this weekend’s cup match which only confirms that it’s only a matter of time before he signs for Chelsea.

Elsewhere, Marek Hamsik has said that he would be open to move to top clubs and has explicitly included Chelsea in that definition (Barcelona, Real Madrid, Chelsea). Time to print the shirts then!

FA Cup games today. The big Machester derby is back. Wouldn’t it be fun to watch Man Utd get knocked out by Man City again? As a Chelsea fan, these Manchester derbies are turning out to be great shows to watch. For me, any result from the Manchester derby pleases me. If Man Utd are beaten, I go “eat that, you bastards” and when Man City are beaten, I go “aha! you thought you could win everything”.

Later today, we have Chelsea vs Portsmouth. It’s not on TV in India. The manc derby is. Will have to make do with some streams. Now, AVB can play whatever formation and deploy whatever tactics – this is a game we need to win. Given how the league has been going, we need take the FA Cup pretty seriously. De Matteo says this in the club website:

We will play what will be our strongest team, looking at the fitness level of the players. This club has been very successful in the last decade in this competition and we would like to continue this. We are still in three competitions and we aim to go as far as possible and to win these competitions. People maybe think the FA Cup is the best chance but we are still in the Champions League, unlike some English teams, and in the Premier League we have a couple more points than at this stage last season, so we look at it from a positive side and we still have everything to play for.

“Unlike some English teams” – Ha ha! By the way, that was a good spin by di Matteo on the current situation. Since we will be looking at the fitness levels of our players, I’m guessing we will not play our strongest team (on paper). I’m okay as long as Josh McEachran plays. Josh always gets seen on laggy streams, youtube and highlights. Hoping that he gets promoted to high definition TVs soon. Chelsea to beat Portsmouth 3-0. Catch you at BC Shout!

I liked the starting line-up today. We played a 4-2-3-1 with Torres as the lone striker with Ramires (right), Lampard (left) and Mata (centre) behind him. Meireles and Romeu were protecting the defence. I thought this is probably our best formation to get the best from Torres. With Mata moving to centre you could see him getting involved in more attacks than usual. Mata has been our best player this season and he needs get more of the ball and be the hub of all of our attacks. That’s best achieved when he plays in the centre.

The first half was probably more lively than the first halves from recent memory. We were opening up Wolves’ defence pretty regularly. Torres was very busy in the first and last 30 minutes of the match. It was in the middle 30 minutes he went a bit invisible. I must say that Torres’ contribution to the team was superb. His movement was always a problem for Wolves and he also occupies spaces with ease and makes himself available to receive passes. He created atleast 3-4 clear cut opportunities and also aided the goal.

I wonder how long we need to wait for a comfortable Chelsea win. These days every match is a heart stopper. We have made it a habit of making hard work of everything. There’s never a dull moment for the neutrals in the matches involving Chelsea. Today was no different. As soon as we scored, I kinda knew that we were not going to keep a cleansheet. When David Luiz misplaced that pass in the midfield, I thought it was destiny.

When they did equalise, I was mentally consoling myself that an away draw is okay and at least that we aren’t losing. That’s because this Chelsea team has not been resilient. Resilience is something that was in our DNA. If we are beaten or being led, we used to play like a wounded animal. Those days are behind us. I seriously did not expect this Chelsea team to pull out a winner in the last 8 minutes or so. If anything, I was hoping that we don’t concede another one.

Under the circumstances, it was a superb pass from Torres to pierce the defence and let Ashley Cole cross for a Lampard finish. It’s typical for newspapers to scream ‘Lampard rescues Chelsea’ or ‘Lampard saves the blushes’. I’ll tell you what – Torres deserves a lot of credit for his performance today and particularly that pass. The way he was operating in the midfield and creating opportunities for others was like him wanting to show the others how’s it done.

There. Torres does what Lampard is supposed to do and Lampard does what Torres is supposed to do.

Josh McE got 10 minutes. Most importantly, he came on for Juan Mata. I think we can call it a like-for-like substitution. You know I’m a big fan of the boy. So you’re not going to be surprised when I say even if he played only for 10 minutes he was quite useful. He is calm on the ball, makes the right pass and knows which spaces to occupy – the boy’s got a good football brain. Hoping to see more of him. To see Josh play alongside Mata would be such a treat. We will know shortly if Josh would go on a loan or if AVB sees some use for a skillful playmaker like him for the rest of this season.

Meanwhile, I was watching the Fulham vs Arsenal game. Can’t believe we lost to this bunch 5-3 at home. The lowest point of this season for me. Anyway, this game at Craven Cottage was very open and was fun to watch – especially because Fulham scored two in the last five minutes to beat Arsenal. We are at fourth now. We have three winnable games – Sunderland, Norwich and Swansea. That’s 9 points and not one point less. Between now and the end of January, when we have collected those 9 points, these are the matches that would have been played – Man City vs Liverpool, Newcastle vs Man Utd, Spurs vs Everton, Man City vs Spurs, Arsenal vs Man Utd, So all that we need to do is to quietly gather our 9 points and get ready for Man Utd on Feb 5. By that time the table could look very differently based on the results of these key matches that played during this January.

While we set out to beat Sunderland, Norwich and Swansea, we might also get some much needed reinforcements this month. We are playing Man Utd on 5th Feb. If we get the new players in the first fortnight of Jan, we could use them in the Man Utd match. Lots of names being linked with Chelsea – Gary Cahill, Hulk, Moutinho, Pereira etc. Can’t wait for the new arrivals.

I saved the cliche for the last – the new year has started off with a win. Hope this is a new beginning and in particular that of a winning streak. AVB can breathe easy for a few days. I can say that about the Chelsea fans too. Let’s win our three matches this months and see how things unfold around us. That’s it for now. Cheers!

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.

Where are we?

All fears have come true. The squad has shown up its colours. The only shining lights are the new recruits – Mata, Ramires, Romeu and Sturridge. Is this a coincidence that none of these players were with us on new year day of 2010? The class of 2005 is not able to keep up with the new demands or the new challenges. They are growing older and have seen half a dozen managers i.e half a dozen ways of training, mindsets, priorities, styles and expectations. Their best years are certainly behind them. If we make no changes and if we finish third, we should be happy. Even if we finish fourth, nothing shameful about it. Man Utd have got a legend managing a young squad. Man City have a seasoned manager managing a super squad. We have a young manager managing an old squad. See, I have nothing against old players. As I keep quoting TSO, ‘there is no such thing called old players or young players, there are only good players or bad players’. Everytime I say ‘old players’ or ‘old squad’, I refer to the individuals or group whose potential and influence keep diminishing and hence do not hold any promise for the future. This could happen to younger players too. Shaun Wright Phillips is an example.

How we got here?

We got here because we won the back-to-back titles too early in the Blue Revolution. We had a smartass manager who could do that and give us a belief that we are building a legacy here only to get fired after winning loads of trophies. Managers kept getting fired but the legacy wasn’t there and our actions weren’t corresponding with our visions of global invasion. It’s a cliche in football that the most important thing is the next match. But what’s also important is that we have a long term view and big picture objective. I’m not saying that lack stability in management was the issue. You could keep sacking managers and let go players as long as you’re clear on the long term goal and all those actions that are being taken fall in line with that. Our investment in youth academy didn’t produce results. Our investment in the transfer market was not with the long term objectives. We have always been short term buyers and bad long term buyers. Either we thought what we doing was right or we did a bad job of doing right things.

Where do we want to go?

I think the desire is to build a legacy. We wanted our quick successes to put ourselves in the European map and we did that spectacularly. Now, based on what we have achieved and gained, we need to consolidate and build the future. This means getting a competent manager that we stick with for a long term and having all our decisions – short term and long term – be guided by the vision that the club has. Roman is quite passionate about football and Chelsea FC. He’s not going to be contended with second place. But this season will test the resolve of the man. Chelsea will not win the title this season. Roman’s reaction to Chelsea’s performance this season will reveal a lot about his strategy and vision for Chelsea FC – in terms of success, profits, identity and brand.

How do we get there?

Understand and appreciate where we are and why we are here. Even for us fans, our expectation levels were set in 2006 and we haven’t lowered the bar yet. We still expect to win the title. It’s fair but we need to realise that we are not catching up to the competiton at all. Man Utd have some very bright youngsters and Fergie is not afraid of playing them and maturing them. Man City have managed to assemble some of the best talents in European football. Both Manchester clubs have taken different routes to their goals but they have a very clear path in which they progress. We are torn between the two roads. It’s a classic conflct – to make or to buy. To buy is easy but expensive. To make is difficult but cheaper. We want to do both. We are neither here nor there. So I’m not sure if as a club simple things like what is our goal and what is our path to the goal is very well established. You might think this is fairly basic but trust me as organisations become bigger and global, only the simple things are given a miss.

If we decide to buy, it’s an expensive battle and we’d never be able to beat clubs like Man City in this game. They are doing to us what we did to the other clubs earlier. If we decide to make, it means we should be prepared to wait. Waiting means providing opportunity for tomorrow’s superstars while we see them mature at our expense. Waiting means going through a drought. And there’s a hybrid solution too – of getting the best of both worlds. Even then, our primary source of supply must be either the market or the academy. If there needs to be an era of Chelsea FC like the Leeds in the 70′s, Liverpool in the 80′s, Man Utd and Milan in the 90′s, Barcelona in the 2000′s, it’s a lot of hard work with a clear vision of the future.

The key to all this, like I mentioned, would be in how Roman reacts to the Chelsea performance in 2011/12. Andre Villas Boas has come in and taken a lot of flak. In my mind, he’s still the guy to lead us. He’s a very decisive manager and that’s exactly what we need for a long term plan. We need a manager who’s decisive, clear and independent. I think AVB is that.

Anelka is gone. So is Alex and Malouda. Lampard’s on the bench. Drogba could be out soon. Mikel’s on the bench. Essien needs to come back and see where he can fit in. There could be reinforcements in January. There could be some serious buys in the summer. AVB could assemble his own team with players with proper ball skills like Mata and Romeu. For me, those two purchases (or the one he wanted to buy – Modric) by AVB are a symbol of what he expects from his players – creative, skillful and disciplined team players. He should be given the opportunity to build a team/squad with players that would suit his tactics and the club’s expectations. AVB is not here to maintain, he is leading a transition here.

Most of us did wholeheartedly say that we would wait for the transition to happen. We didn’t quite know what transition would feel like. Well, this is how it feels like – successive draws, home defeats, huge deficit, big looking small squad – this is how a transition looks like. The good thing about transition is, they don’t last forever, unless it is at Arsenal. Transitions in football clubs are typically a couple of seasons – given than a generation in football now is only about 5 years – Zola, Lampard, Mata – all are from different generations. For us too, it could be a matter of couple of seasons, I mean 2011/12 and 2012/13.

If Roman has the plan and patience, if he could let AVB go about his business and support him where needed, we would be back in the mix for the next season. Same time next year, we could be leading the table by 10 points leaving the Manchester clubs in the dust and proving once again that we are the pride of London. Until then, we need to go through this transition. That’s it for now.

I wish you all a very very happy year and may this new year bring the emergence of the new Chelsea. Have a great day, week, month and year! KTBFFH!

Didn’t this game have 1-1 written all over? I mean even before the game kicked off, there was a 1-1 looming all over West London. We are not a great December team. All season we fight to offset a bad December. We get some winnable matches and mostly home games but still struggle to take full points. Playing Fulham at home on Boxing Day, it had to be a 1-1. I even remember telling my mates the day before that this is gonna be a 1-1.

Either it’s our famous lack of urgency or poor balance in the team or bad finishing or just simply this being the month of December. Have we ever had a good December since our title winning seasons under Mourinho? We have always dropped silly points this month to make things difficult for ourselves. Why did I think that this could be a 1-1?

Lack of Urgency: This is big. I mean, this is BIG. This is also slowly becoming a bad habit. Football is a 90-minute game. For Chelsea, it’s a 30-min game that starts at the 60th minute. It’s just no good enough. You can’t go through your motions for an hour and throw everything in the last half hour and expect to come away with three points, at least not everytime. Fulham enjoyed too much possession, too much freedom and too less pressure – all thanks to Chelsea. Last week, this very Fulham team were demolished 5-0 at Craven Cottage. And here we are, at the Stmaford Bridge, treating them like they’ve just won the champions leauge.

If anything, this was the type of game where Chelsea could have played like they did in August and September. This was the game were we should have played a high line, pressured them into mistakes and choked them to a big defeat. We could have shown all the swagger and style along the way. That was always AVB’s plan A, wasn’t it? For this game though, we chose to revert to plan B – deeper defence, low pressure, allowing possession and wait for opportunities. Very wrong. This was the game where we should have gone and created our own opportunties from the word go. This was the game to remind the league how ruthless we are and how versatile our playing style can be. We chose the plan B and boy, didn’t Fulham take advantage of it?

Poor balance: When the team sheet was announced, I was quite pleased. I was happy that Torres was starting. I was also happy that Romeu is picked ahead of Mikel. It was a very good starting line-up. I was wrong. Lampard’s unfortunate ineffectiveness in the middle kind of ruined the whole balance. With Romeu being a holding midfielder, you don’t expect him to provide the killer balls through the middle. Meireles was not known for it either. And that’s where we want Lampard to come alive. See, Lampard’s role has changed over the seasons. He’s no longer expected to be the goal scoring midfielder that arrives late in the box. He’s now expected to run the midfield and create opportunities – to be a playmaker. Some might argue that he’d never be one. But then, that also shows how much more of him we can see here at Chelsea.

When Malouda came in for Lampard, it changed the game for better. The problem then was you had Malouda left flank and Sturridge on the right flank, Torres and Mata in the middle – all of them expecting distribution from Romeu and Meireles from the centre. They can’t do that while Ashley Cole and David Luiz are on attacking duty. But I must admit, the Malouda substitution was a good one indeed. He brought in a much needed steel and pace – things that this Chelsea team needs very badly. It’s just that we started suddenly throwing everything at Fulham instead of trying to break them down with smart moves. The smart moves are not going to be possible without the right balance in the team.

Couple of special mentions. I did miss Ramires. We needed his pace and doggedness. His absence was really felt. When you replace a pacy Ramires with a slow Lampard, it’s going to show up in the pace of our attacks and it bloody did. Torres had a good game despite again not having great service. He did brilliantly well to create a great chance but couldn’t score. But his assist under pressure was smart work. Also I thought David Luiz had a great game. I don’t think his style has changed one bit. He’s just become more focussed and a bit lucky probably. His defending was a treat to watch. His anticipation was top notch and I love when a Chelsea player dismisses his opponent with his physical play.

Our crosses aren’t great. We do score from crosses but we are scoring only half of how many we should be. With the quality of crosses, more often than not I hope that we work the ball through the middle and then ask myself ‘who’s gonna do that?’. Can Mata be that attacking midfielder in the middle who can give that much needed balance for the team. Think of this midfield – Romeu, Ramires and Mata. You’ll have Mata right behind Torres and also in front of the D for some decent long shots at the goal. So who’ll be on the left wing? Don’t know. That’s why we have the January transfer window. We can nick an orthodox left winger.

I was hoping for two wins out of two this week. Not to be. AVB has felt the heat already. You heard him say that Chelsea are out of the title race after this draw. He didn’t say what’s the revised target for the season. I’m sure we’d all take a top four finish quite happily. Come tomorrow we could drop out of the top four. For the first time in I don’t know how many seasons, we could finish outside of top four at the end of a calendar year. Not a great situation to be in. Very reminiscent of our ‘bad moment’ same time last year. Luckily for AVB, the press has been very kind to him. For the kind of form Chelsea are in, you would expect the press to start the rumour mongering about how dressing room troubles, the mutiny by senior players, the options for new managers, Roman’s secret meeting and what not. None of that is on the papers. Probably, if Man City weren’t this good this season, we’d have got some bad press. There’s two sides every damn thing.

One thing I’ll give AVB is that, he’s been trying a number of things – not everything has got him the success he wanted. But he’s not a ‘let me try the same thing and see if something different happens’ kind of manager. He’s prepared to make changes, he’s prepared to shake things a bit and he’s ready to gamble. I’m sure this Chelsea job has been a great experience for him. It’s here AVB will mature into a top league manager. Like I’ve always said, he’s made some really great decisions already. To name a few: (a) Buying Mata (b) Buying Romeu (c) Buying Meireles (d) Using Sturridge as a regular starter (e) Dropping Lampard to the bench (f) Dropping Malouda to the bench (g) Transfer listing Anelka. There are a few decisions that I did not personally like – (a) Not buying orthodox wingers (b) Not using Torres well enough (c) Not using Josh McE at all (d) Not developing alternatives for Ashley Cole and John Terry (e) Tactical disagreements – aggressive where he should conservative and vice versa. But he’s trying.

We have another game to get through this year. Home game against Aston Villa. Looks like a 0-0 written all over it. Please Chelsea, prove me wrong. Not with a 4-4 or something, with something like a 3-0. And then, we will see how the January transfer window can rejuvenate Chelsea. Hope we end the year on a high. KTBFFH!

Good performance. Bad result. We had to win this one. While Tottenham haven’t managed to put daylight between them and us, Man City and Man Utd have pulled away from the possibility of Chelsea challenging them for the title. Had we won this game, I’d have felt that we are still in the title race, given than we still have an opportunity of beating Man City at Etihad and beating Man Utd at Stamford Bridge. Everytime we drop points, our expectation is that we start a winning streak and hope the other results go our way. It’s possible that other results might go our way but I don’t see us putting in a winning streak that would take advantage of other results.

I must say I was quite pleased with our performance though. I had written in the pre-match post that I’d love to see us defend deeper and not go gung-ho on attacks. I think we did that. When Chelsea chooses to defend like that they are such a hard team to beat. AVB must have been repenting his idea of playing otherwise earlier and losing some matches which he could have draw or even have won. That’s a costly learning for the boss.

I think AVB has found an interesting balance here. If you take yesterday’s match, Chelsea allowed Spurs to play their football and didn’t pressure high up. Chelsea allowed Spurs to enjoy a lot of possession and build their attacks up. Despite this, Chelsea had more attacking moves, more opportunities and were more dangerous in this difficult away ground. So the balance here is, defending very strongly without compromising our attacking instincts. Normally, the more you attack, the less you defend and the more you defend the less you attack. It’s a matter of mindset. It’s a matter of what you consider as priorities for the game. Interestingly, Chelsea have found a way to defend strongly and also retain their attacking instincts – like the old days.

When the team line-up was announced, I couldn’t hide my disappointment. Why not Torres and why Mikel? I’d never understand these two decisions. Of course, you can come up with pros and cons for not playing Torres and playing Mikel. I must say both Drogba and Mikel did a good job but why are we investing so much time and effort on them? See, we are not even offering a contract extension to Drogba. I don’t see Torres being out of form. If anything, he’s out of sync and he can’t get in sync all by himself. He still doesn’t get good service at the right places. He doesn’t get enough time on the pitch. For Gawd’s sake, he should get a decent run of 90-min matches to get himself tuned to the team and he’s not managed to get that since he joined this club. You can say that Spurs had big burly defenders and we wanted someone like Drogba to deal with them. What’s our plan after Drogba joins Anzhi in the summer? Plus, we almost sound like Torres is new to the premier league and he’s never played or scored against Spurs. This is a guy who took the premier league by storm. There aren’t many players who have been as proficient as has been in the la liga and the premier league – I don’t even know who can compare to him in this measure.

Also, if AVB rated Mikel so well, he would not have bought Meireles AND Romeu, and not send Josh on loan. Mikel is not really the first choice defensive midfielder at Chelsea, leave alone first choice midfielder. Yeah, it’s a big game in an away stadium and all that but Romeu has proved to us that he’s no rabbit. He’s a proper midfielder with an intelligent football brain and lovely skills to complement it. In fact, he’s very unlike what we’ve got. Mikel has done a great job for us. I’m always a fan of Mikel for playing such a difficult role from such young age. It’s never easy. But now, we’ve got someone who can do a better job and can contribute more and better.

Still it’s quite clear that this is not AVB’s dream team. He’s gotta make a number of changes and I expect him to do those in this January or in the summer. You already see that Lampard is not first choice anymore – it’s such a big decision given Lampard’s stature in the club and how expensive he is. He hasn’t been too bothered about keeping a £50m Torres on the bench. He’s made Sturridge a regular starter and it’s paid off. He’s sidelineed Malouda and Kalou completely. Really, he’s made a number of changes without making too much hoo-haa about the same.

The game in itself was a typical end-to-end premier league game. With both teams wanting to win and at the same time not wanting to lose, it was a bit basketballish – if you know what I mean. Both teams had somewhat similar approach to the game. Both teams allowed the other team to have the ball and build up their play. When Spurs had the ball they weren’t trying to rush in whereas Chelsea were trying to build their attacks quicker. Spurs’ passing streaks were longer than Chelsea. Hence the difference in possession stats.

Both Spurs and Chelsea had a strong left side which meant goals coming from the left for both the teams. Bale was buzzing from the go. It was only a matter of time before he was going to score or create. But the goal we conceded was pretty lame. Three defenders and a goalkeeper in our box and we could not stop one Spurs striker from making contact with a not-so-quick low cross. I’ve been writing about Cech’s problem with his close range keeping and this was another example. Meanwhile his save from a deflected shot was just world class. We’ve seen both sides of Cech’s form in the same game.

Even before Adebayor could come into the picture, Bosingwa had Bale coming at zone from about 15 metres ahead and still could not position himself to make it difficult for Bale. Why did not get closer to him to at least induce a mistake from Bale? If it was David Luiz, wouldn’t he have gone for a tackle – clumsy or otherwise – and might have given a free kick instead of making it all too easy for Bale. And the Chelsea fans would be screaming at David Luiz for conceding a stupid free kick in a dangerous area and all that.

Our goal also had to come from the left. Drogba and Ashley Cole did some smart work to see Sturridge make a close range finish. We might think it’s an easy finish but you have to give to Danny for being at the right place at the right time, all the time. We also had some injuries to deal with and had to make a couple of subs in the first half. Ivanovic having to go in the middle of the first half was a real bummer. But Paulo Ferreira came in and did a job. The strange thing about Paulo is that he knows that he’s only a squad player and may even spend a season not playing at all. But whenever he’s called upon to play, he’s done a splendid job. He’s not your 9/10 rating defender. He’s certainly a 6.5/10 and being consistent at that. Of course, he’s been training with the team all the time but it’s quite odd to be suddenly thrown into a competitive match in a difficult away ground and still produce a very good performance against a particularly dangerous and productive winger and wing back. Good job there.

John Terry. The man’s resilience personified. He’s been through adversities like very few footballers have been. Be it the Moscow miss, the extra-marital affair, the England national team issues, his family issues, the racial abuse allegation, his hate-hate relationship with media and non-Chelsea supporters in general – he’s been through a bloody lot. And it takes someone with balls of steel to get through all these adversities and still produce quality performance. Of course, his form has not been great but resilience is not about not going down. It’s about going down and picking oneself up from the dumps and delivering the goods. John Terry has done that time and again. Yesterday’s game was classic John Terry. You almost feel like this man is ready to die on the pitch for Chelsea. That’s how much commitment he puts in. That’s how much you think is at stake. Man of the match for me.

Still two more matches to go to finish this eventful year. We should get 6 points from these two games at Stamford Bridge. And then we have the transfer window in January. Looks like we could be busy next month. We might need a centre back and a pacy winger who can use both feet. The situation that we are in means the minimum that’s expected of us is to win our games – especially the winnable ones. In order to do that, we need centre back cover and some flexibility and options upfront. Once we get a couple of players this January, we can restart our campaign and do our best. From this moment on, the mantra is “do your best, hope for the rest”.

See I told you I’m back! Probably I’m back at the right time. With December looking so busy for Chelsea, the blog’s gotta be equally busy. In our fight for the third place, there’s no bigger game than the one against Tottenham tomorrow. This is another one of those ‘must beat them’ games. Having beaten Man City earlier this month, a win against Spurs would put us right back in the mix. I think an opportunity to beat a surging rival is the best way to address the gap so this game is quite timely. A defeat against Spurs would put us 5 points off them while they would also have a game in hand. That’s effectively 8 points off the third placed team in the league. A defeat is unthinkable right?

I’m always nervous when we play Spurs. I’m quite okay about the matches against the Man Utd, Man City, Arsenal or Liverpool – but it is the game against Spurs that does something to my heart beat. Spurs have a very good squad and are a dangerous team. In fact, I do think they have been underachieving despite having a good squad/team. On paper, this Spurs team is better than Arsenal and Liverpool. There’s no way they can finish below those two teams. In fact, I get this feeling that this season’s top four would be exactly as it is now – hopefully not in the same order. I do see Arsenal and Liverpool dropping out of top four with Man City and Spurs replacing them.

The last Chelsea manager to win at White Hart Lane was Jose Mourinho. Now that must tell us something. It’s not an easy place to go and play your expansive style of football. Spurs are pretty quick and sharp and can hurt you if you mess around too much. Chelsea has been messing around too much indeed. In fact in the last few matches, I see some hints of pragmatism from Andre Villas Boas. He’s either learning from his experience or has proved a point to someone in terms of what this team is capable or not capable of. In any case, pragmatism is good. Especially in a must-win game in a difficult away ground.

Chelsea don’t have any problem of regulars missing or being doubtful except that David Luiz may still not be available. Depending on which side of the fence you’re, this can be a good or a bad news. Personally, I’m a fan of David Luiz and his brand of football. He is such a live wire that I’d love to play him every single game. Of course, he’s got something to learn but he’s got the raw talent and huge potential. Pretty much like Andre Villas Boas himself then. Some of your very unique and special players in football have at some point been very annoying and frustrating. That’s the maturing process. I know David Luiz is not some 16-year old but still he’s young enough for defenders in general.

I’m not in favour of David Luiz playing as a centre back though. He’s best suited to be a right back while Ivanovic can pair up with Terry in central defence. The interesting battle in this game would be Chelsea’s right vs Tottenham’s left. If David Luiz and Gareth Bale do start (both are still doubtful), it could be a great spectacle on that side of the pitch.

It’s becoming quite hard to predict AVB’s starting line-up these days. He’s taken some gambles – some have paid off and some have not. At least, he’s ready to take those gambles. Not that I’d agree with him with each one of those but respect that he takes risks on and off the pitch. In my opinion, Torres must start every single match. Drogba should be a super-sub. Sturridge and Mata are also sure starters. In the midfield, Romeu and Ramires pick themselves. The other slot is Meireles, Lampard and Mikel – in that order. In defence, Terry and Ivanovic in central defence. Ashley Cole and David Luiz as the full backs.

AVB has been relying on Drogba over Torres and the idea did work and paid off. Still I would like to see Torres starting more often. Why would you have our 27-year old proved premier league striker bought for £50m sitting in the bench and play 34-year old over-the-hill player to whom we may not offer a contract of his choice? The more Torres plays the better for us. He is the future for Chelsea, at least for the next few seasons. AVB has come out and said that Torres is not going anywhere and he’s firmly in his plans. So I don’t know why Torres is not getting his pitch time? See, there was a time this season where Torres was in fine form – scoring and creating goals and opportunities and then managed to get himself sent off.

I’ve said this a few times on Twitter – when Torres plays as the lone striker flanked by Mata and Sturridge, we play very good football. And when Drogba plays, we are more reliant on route one football, winning free kicks and the like. For the kind of ideas AVB has, Torres is surely the man. But if he finds Drogba more reliable than Torres then playing Drogba is understandable because AVB is also under pressure because of the recent results. If Torres starts against Spurs tomorrow, I’ll be pleasantly surprised.

The midfield problem is being addressed very well by AVB. He’s managed to pick players on merit. He’s been benching Lampard and Mikel quite regularly now. He’s brave enough to pick a 20-year old Spanish player over Lampard, though in different positions. This is not easy to achieve and this is exactly what Carlo struggled to do. So, it’s clear that AVB’s got the balls to take big decisions. He also seems to know exactly what kind of players he wants which is proved by his purchases of Mata and Romeu and also his decision to use/retain Sturridge in the first team.

So, we do have a good team to take to White Hart Lane on Thursday. Spurs too have a good line up. Adebayor has found his touch at Spurs after an unsatisfying time with City and an impressive stint with Real Madrid. van der Vaart was probably one of the best deals of the season in Europe. He was transferred for about £8m. Look at his contribution and value to the team. He’s the kind of guy that can sneak into our central defence. The hole that we’ve managed to put in our central defence is very famous now for these top players not to observe and plan for. Then there’s the organiser in Modric. You might know that I’m a big fan for Modric and I was hoping that he joins Chelsea. He can split our defence like David Silva does for Man City, despite playing deeper than him. Modric is still their best player even after falling out with the club administration during the transfer window. Then there’s the probability of Bale playing. And then, Scott Parker being himself in the centre of the park. It’s going to be one cracking match.

I expect Chelsea to play like they played against Man City. Cautious approach over the cavalier type. If Chelsea play on Thursday like how they played in September and October, they’d be playing into Spurs’ plan. Harry would love to see us defending up and committing all players in attacks so they can cut through us with searing pace and have a player or two sent off in the process. I’m sure they will let us have the ball and lull us into the feeling of a superior team only to rip us open in a few seconds. I really hope that we don’t play into their hands. Just play like we did against Man City, everything will be fine.

Ah wait! John Terry’s racial abuse allegation comes up to the courtroom in February. If the Suarez incident is anything to go by, it’s quite dangerous for us. These are not identical instances though. I still believe John Terry’s lawyers will establish that he said ‘blind’ and not ‘black’ (still doesn’t make it any noble in my eyes). If John Terry is found guilty, he would have to miss 8-10 matches in Feb, March and April – probably the most defining matches for this seaon. AVB would do well to get a central defender (Gary Cahill?) on loan or even better as a replacement for Alex. Anyway, that’s for later.

Some interesting games tonight with Arsenal, Man Utd and Liverpool playing away while Man City host impressive Stoke. If the Manchester teams drop points tonight that will be a great set up for our game tomorrow night. If things work in our favour, we could be only 6 points behind the table leader, which is not an awful thing given that we’re only in December and that we can only get better. Won’t make it to BC Shout but you can catch me live on Twitter @bluechampion.