Time to dig deep

More than half the season gone and it has been one hell of a ride for the Blues from London. From the brilliant start to the season to the talk of potential invincibility in the Premier League to conceding five goals against Tottenham, from having a huge lead in the league points table to only being top cause of an alphabetical advantage.

The solid base of our squad has helped us tremendously so far this season, a close knit team is one of the most important aspect of a successful season. Two of our new signings, Cesc Fabregas and Diego Costa leading the assists and goals chart in the league shows how good Chelsea were in the summer transfer window and with a world beater in Eden Hazard, the attacking aspect of our team looks absolutely secure at the moment. The defense looked a bit iffy at the start but as the season has progressed the performances have become better. Yes, there are still improvements to be made to the right side of our defense but pretty sure the coaching staff will sort it out real soon. The Nemanja Matic factor has helped the back four gain confidence. With Matic in front of the two CB's the entire team looks so secure and its no surprise that our first defeat came in a game where Matic was suspended. We have the likes of Costa, Hazard and Fabregas in our team but personally for me Matic is the heart of this team.

With us still going strong in four competitions its time for the squad depth to come into play. The games coming thick and fast wont be easy and we will need to grind out results putting in lots of effort compared to our fast, free flowing football earlier on in the season. The fitness trainers and coaches will also have to put in their fair share of effort to keep the players fit. We have so far been very lucky with injuries this season, hopefully we will make it through without any major ones.

There's still many games to go but this time we will have to be our best right from now to May to keep Manchester City at bay in the league and also progress in the other three competitions and with Jose Mourinho at the helm I am pretty sure we are in safe hands after all its January we have lost only twice this season, we definitely should feel secure and happy.

Come on you Blues, time to dig deep and win trophies.

 

Madness !!!

It was indeed madness as Chelsea took on Everton at Goodison Park yesterday, nine goals in a premier league game, that rarely happens. Goodison Park is always a tough place to visit and come out with flying colors but Chelsea started off brilliantly, in fact brilliant is an understatement. Diego Costa who was reportedly injured started the match and scored in 36 seconds from a perfectly weighted pass from Cesc Fabregas, probably the signing of the season. Within a couple of minutes Ivanovic doubled the lead, well he can surely play as a striker (pun intended) if ever we need one it seems, brilliant in the opposition box. Everyone thought it was game over at that point only but credit must be given to Everton they didn't give up and even after going two down they came out all guns blazing troubling the Chelsea defense a lot, not many teams are able to do that against the best back four in the league. And ultimately their hard work did pay off right at the stroke of half time when Kevin Mirallas headed a ball beautifully past his international teammate. Conceding a goal at the brink of the interval surely didn't do any good for Chelsea, they started the second half slowly with Everton mounting on the pressure, although the first goal scoring chance of the second half did fall to Diego Costa, one on one against Howard, who should have been sent off in the first half itself. The referring was below par to be honest, definitely far below Premier League quality. The game was at a knife edge and tempers started flaring up, Fabregas & Mirallas, Costa & Coleman, things started to heat up and then came the mad period of the match, five goals in ten minutes, Chelsea went 3-1 up courtesy a Coleman own goal and immediately Everton replied with a goal from Naismith, Chelsea again scored through Nemanja Matic and immediately the former Chelsea man Samuel Eto'o narrowed the gap for Everton with virtually his first touch of the ball and within a minute Ramires again restored the two goal lead for the Londoners. Madness, it was sheer madness for those ten minutes of the game. Ultimately it was the man who started things off who finished it as well, Diego Costa scoring after a brilliant back heel pass from Mikel, can you believe it ? Mikel provided an assist. Unthinkable. It ended 6-3 to Chelsea but have to say hats off to Everton as well, as Roberto Martinez said in his post match presser not many teams will score three against Chelsea this season. Jose Mourinho summed up Chelsea's performance perfectly saying Chelsea did make some defending errors but were simply brilliant whenever they had the ball. They played to score, they scored.
In a game of nine goals you would think that the goalkeepers had a nightmare but for me Thibaut Courtois' brilliant save from Mirallas' shot when the score was 5-3 was extremely extremely important at that point of the match where there had been five goals in ten minutes. And for everyone who thought Costa will be a failure in the Premier League, four goals in three games, time to eat up your words.
Three wins out of three, eleven goals scored. Fantastic start to the season Chelsea.

We have a striker

We finally have a striker. After a frustrating couple of seasons moaning about our strikers we finally have an awesome one in Diego Costa.
In a game where we didn't perform upto expectations in the first half the second half was completely different. What an attacking display we saw from the Blues in the final 45 minutes. Oscar started it when his shot hit the post and came back out. Leicester also had very good chances of their own but Thibaut Courtois showed why he is being selected ahead of a brilliant Petr Cech. With a couple of great saves the Belgian no. 1 kept Chelsea in the game, he was outstanding throughout the game and had a commanding presence in the Chelsea box. That's what a young goalkeeper like him needed in his first couple of games with the English giants.
As far as the goal scorers are concerned it was Diego Costa again on target getting his second in as many games in the premier league. And Hazard sealed the points a few minutes later with a brilliant run and finish beating the Leicester goalie. Chelsea had many chances in the second half the best ones falling to Oscar and Fabregas, while Oscar's effort came back of the post, Fabregas' chip was brilliantly saved. Kasper Schmeichel deserves full credit for his goalkeeping efforts today. Oh by the way Arsenal fans should know that Fabregas now has 3 assists in 2 premier league games for Chelsea, must be hurting the gooners.
The best moment of the match for me was Drogba coming on though, what an ovation he received. The "KING" is back where he belongs.
Many Chelsea players had a good game but the best player I felt was Ivanovic. His role in the first goal was extremely important and he was brilliant at both defending and attacking set pieces and was very good as a full back. Will be very interesting to see Luis, Azpilicueta and him fighting for the two full back positions throughout the season.
We got three points even after having a bad first half. Came back very strongly in the second half. That's what Champions do. And oh yes we finally have a striker who scores.

The start we needed

It was indeed the start Chelsea FC needed to the new season. The 2014-15 english football season is back and Chelsea kick started their campaign away to newly promoted side Burnley. An already strong Chelsea squad grew even stronger during the summer with signings like Filipe Luis, Diego Costa & Cesc Fabregas among many more who returned from their loan spells.
With such a strong squad all us Chelsea fans frankly didn't think Burnley will pose a big threat but we all know that these were the type of sides we struggled to get past last season and our worst nightmare came true when Burnley scored first out of nowhere. It was brilliant strike for the goal, simply not savable but the chance came about because of a defensive lapse where the Burnley goal scorer was left completely unmarked inside the penalty box. This certainly wasn't expected from the best defense of last season, but since that goal the back four looked quite solid with Matic there helping them out by continuously intercepting passes from the opposition. Matic's mantra seemed like it was intercept & pass and he carried that out brilliantly throughout the game and him being so strong defensively also helped new signing Fabregas to move further up the field and create all sort of havoc with his precise passes in the opposition box. The link up play between him and Oscar was a treat to watch along with the runs Hazard was making. Eden Hazard was simply too good accompanying Schurrle and Costa upfront.
After conceding early in the first half we saw a Chelsea that we haven't seen in quite a while. There was some sublime attacking football. Pinpoint passing, calm finishing, from getting a perfect strikers goal to equalize to taking the lead through one of the best team goals it was simply awesome football from the Blues. The run from Hazard, the pass from Fabregas, the run and finish from Schurrle, this will be up for the goal of the season competition I am sure. Pretty confident we will still be talking about that perfectly weighted first time pass from Fabregas even at the end of the season. The third goal scored by Ivanovic also came from a Fabregas corner giving him his second assist of the game and also the Man of the Match award for his commanding midfield performance, Arsenal fans must not have liked it. We didn't get any goals in the second half but Chelsea dominated possession and were pretty solid defensively. We saw one great save from Courtois in the second half, the Chelsea goalkeeping future is bright Thibaut looked unflappable throughout the game.
Overall the Chelsea machine looks well oiled and up for the season. The defense will get stronger as the season continues and the midfield & attack will command the league. It was indeed the kind of start we needed to the campaign.

Scrappy

It was probably the three most undeserving points for Chelsea this season, but at this stage we will take it. The game against Swansea at the Liberty Stadium turned out to be one of the most poor performance from Chelsea in the entire season. Even though Swansea went down to 10 men very early in the game losing one of their CB Chico Flores but Chelsea made them look like a 12-13 man team. Frankly for the entire length of the match it seemed like we were playing a man down.
The stadium with the least capacity in the Premier League created lots of noise and were probably helping the team like that very much. But that does not explain the mess Chelsea were creating for themselves. Demba Ba who finally got his just third start in the league this season ultimately turned out to be Chelsea's savior, their match winner again. Ironical but Ba has kept Chelsea's hope alive in two competitions in the span of a week. But all that was proved in this game was Chelsea are in desperate need for a striker. Mohamed Salah who started another game for Chelsea was not too bad like some people were saying. He actually was pretty good with the ball and made a few incisive runs to get into goal scoring positions but he seemed to have forgotten his striking boots somewhere. His finishing was below par yesterday. Ramires, what to say about him, he played 45 minutes, I would want to erase those 45 minutes from my memory. He was horrible, to say the least. He seriously needs to get his act together again, Chelsea need every player performing well in these last few games of the season in both the tournaments. Eto'o who came on at half time also was similar to Salah, he just doesn't want to score away from Stamford Bridge it seems, missed a couple of sitters to be honest. The defense didn't have much to do but another clean sheet will help their confidence even more. Petr Cech didn't have much to do but he was asked a couple of questions by the Swansea attack and he was up to it. Made a few very good saves and saved Chelsea from embarrassment. Nemanja Matic, for me the best player for Chelsea yesterday. He was outstanding yet again. He stood like a solid wall in front of the defense and was very good with his forward passes one of which led to the Demba Ba goal, giving Matic his fourth assist in four matches. He has been as expected a superlative signing for the Blues.

It was a pretty poor performance but over the years we have seen Champion teams getting full points from these sort of games to go on and win the title. These three points and the Liverpool victory over Manchester City at Anfield made sure we are still very much in the title race and we are not going away so easily. Win all our remaining four games and hope for Manchester City to slip up in one, that's all that's needed to win the Barclays Premier League once again.

WHAT A TEAM

What a team, what a manager, what a night, what a performance. From being on the verge of getting knocked out of this year's UEFA Champions League after coming in to the 2nd leg with a 2 goal deficit Chelsea made it's famous comeback again.
Having lost the 1st leg 3-1 at Paris they had all to do at the Bridge yesterday. Making a comeback against a star studded team like Paris Saint Germain is never easy but everyone at Chelsea believed they could do it. They believed cause they have a very good team, an out of this world home support and the best tactician in the world managing them, the Special One, Jose Mourinho. He believed in his team, he believed in his players and they didn't let him down. What makes this victory even sweeter is that Chelsea did it without their best player of the season Eden Hazard who got injured very early in the game. But his substitute Andre Schurrle stood up to the challenge and delivered when it mattered most scoring the first goal of the tie. Stamford Bridge was at it's intimidating best ever since that goal as the chant 'we have done it before' echoed round the stadium. Indeed we have done it before and we did it again. Cavani and Lavezzi who have faced this sort of a comeback at Stamford Bridge 2 years back as well must really hate the place now. Starting the second half with a one goal lead Chelsea went all out for the elusive second goal but the crossbar denied them a couple of times. Time was running out for the Blues and Jose Mourinho started making some bold changes. From having no strikers starting in Paris the Blues had three finishing the game at the Bridge. And ultimately it was our most underused striker of the season who scored a typical strikers goal in the dying moments of the match to take Chelsea through to the final four of the competition. Everyone was ecstatic after Ba scored the goal, Jose Mourinho was at his best again, he ran all the way to the corner flag where the players were celebrating and started giving instructions to the players on how to defend in the final few minutes. He of course isn't allowed to do that but he's Jose Mourinho, he does whatever he wants.
When the ref blew the final whistle it was the happiest moment for me as a Chelsea fan this season. We had made an impossible comeback again, you just can't write Chelsea off from the Champions League, we never give up. The master tactician's tactics had paid off, he is in the semis again, Jose Mourinho had vowed victory in his pre match press conference and he got victory. John Terry in his post match interview stated the fact that how well the manager had prepared the team for this match. He said they had worked on situations where they might have to play three strikers together, which they had to. He said they had prepared themselves to play in different manners taking into consideration the scoreline. Fact proven, Jose Mourinho is simply the best.
Every single Chelsea player performed superbly yesterday, all of them, but David Luiz I feel was class apart. He was here, there, everywhere. He controlled the midfield superbly and wasn't found wanting even once. Must also mention Petr Cech's save in the last minute. Many including me had criticized the way he conceded the third goal in the 1st leg but his last minute save from Marquinhos' shot was brilliant. Chelsea dominated the entire game as the match stats show. They were simply too good.

The only bad part about yesterday's game was Eden Hazard's injury, he is the best and most important player for us. Hopefully we will have him back soon tormenting opposition defenses. We will need him big time in the upcoming matches. As for now it's time to celebrate being in the final four of the best club football competition in the world and wait to find out who our next opponents will be. Bring on anyone, we are well on our way to Lisbon.

Ground to make up

Chelsea have some serious ground to make up if they want to go through to the semi finals of this year's UEFA Champions League. Having lost the first leg to PSG at Paris 3-1 it won't be less than a miracle if Chelsea manage to pull off to a result next week at Stamford Bridge which will help them go through. That away goal which came through a Hazard penalty can very well prove to be a pivotal goal in this tie.
As predicted these two teams went at it right from the word go and PSG took a very early lead. Chelsea took a little time to settle into the game but once they did they played some pretty good attacking football against a quality PSG side. This led to the penalty being awarded for a foul on Oscar by his international teammate Thiago Silva. Hazard as always calmly converted the spot kick to get a crucial away goal for the Blues. No team dominated the game, both had their parts to play throughout the 90 minutes and they played it really well. Even when Chelsea went behind by an own goal from David Luiz they didn't back down from playing some quality football. 1-2 away would have been a pretty good result against a strong PSG side but the sucker punch came from pretty much the last kick of the match. Javier Pastore who had come on as a substitute scored a goal from a very tight angle. Well I feel Petr Cech should have saved that shot cause he had his near post covered but somehow the ball managed to hit the back of the net.
Chelsea missed the services of Samuel Eto'o a lot and they will need him fit for the second leg at any cost. The "false 9" wasn't too effective and Fernando Torres was at his poorest best again when he came on in the second half. That guy is seriously low on confidence. Petr Cech had a seriously abysmal game, he could and should have saved both the second and third goals. But he's human, he's a quality goalie, just that sometimes mistakes happen.
Best central midfielder cup tied, best striker in the squad fighting against time to recover from his injury, Ramires suspended, Chelsea seriously have loads of things to workout if they are to manage a good result next Tuesday at the Bridge. But as Jose Mourinho said, even Paris knows it's not over yet. Lets hope we can do 2012 all over again. Lets hope we beat PSG comprehensively and go through to the semi final. And if not, we'll see you next year greatest football club competition in the world.