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.