Wembley Beckons!!

We are through to the final of the Carling Cup where we would meet our dear friends Spurs. We love playing against you to be honest because we like winning and you have hardly disappointed us.
Its for nothing that we sing 'Are you Tottenham in disguise?' ....

Back to the game. It was going to be tough match at Goodison but going into the game with a 2-1 lead from the home leg I was pretty confident that we would do a professional job and get to the finals. Before the match a lot was being made of us not able to sell the ticket allocation but anybody who has been at the match or seen the match on television wouldn't disagree that we outsang the 35000 odd Evertonians. The people who went to see the match deserve special applause. There was an announcement midway in the first half requesting Chelsea supporters to sit down for their own safety. The reply from Chelsea fans : 'Stand Up if you love Chelsea' .... Classic. Away support that is what we have been known for and the supporters showed that in the match.

It was a game in which we were pretty much in control barring a few patches and it was overall a very professional performance as expected. Before the game there was a big surprise to see Ballack's name missing from the starting lineup due to calf strain. Sidwell was more than prepared to grab the opportunity. Makelele was captaining the side and Bridge was at left back and it was good to see him there as Bridge and Malouda had linked up so well in the earlier fixture at home.

Anelka had a good chance in the first half when Malouda played him but he was ruled offside. Everton had a good chance in the opening ten minutes when Lescott headed the ball in the six yard box but Cech was able to clear that ball with no Everton player able to capitalize. There were one or two good chances before the break with Malouda shooting high and Johnson shooting just wide of goal(Cech had the near post covered though).

After the break Chelsea had some good chances with Anelka and SWP but none of them could capitalize. On the other hand Cech was having his first day at work as a dad and was making sure that he gets a clean sheet come the end of the match. Twice he made excellent saves to keep Everton at bay. As the match went on it looked like we would hold on to our one goal advantage and progress. However that one goal lead became a two goal lead with clock nearing 70 minutes. Malouda played a great ball from half line towards Joe Cole which he brilliantly touched down shrugging pressure from two defenders and scored a fantastic goal. 'We are going to Wembley' and 'Que Sera Sera' started from the Chelsea faithful who pretty much knew it was game over and a final was inevitable. Moyes the Everton manager tried to bring two strikers in Anichebe and Vaughan but it was all too late. Chelsea was never going to surrender a two goal advantage. Pizarro came on later and had an excellent shot saved. Not that it was going to matter as the boys in electric yellow had done it again. A second Carling Cup Final in two years beckoned.

Team News
Chelsea (4-3-3): Cech; Belletti, Alex, Carvalho, Bridge; Wright-Phillips, Makelele (c), Sidwell; J Cole (Pizarro 82), Anelka (Ben-Haim 90+2), Malouda (A Cole 89).
Scorer J Cole 68
Booked Makelele 65, Belletti 75.

Everton (4-4-1-1): Howard; Neville (c), Jagielka, Lescott, Valente; Arteta, Fernandes (Vaughan 78), Carsley (Anichebe 69), Osman; Cahill; Johnson.
Booked Carsley 25, Fernandes 73, Valente 80, Neville 82.

Player Ratings
Cech: First game as a dad and he kept a clean sheet for his new born daughter. Made some important saves.
Belletti: He is looking good with each passing game. Offensively his game was never doubted and he is also now coming up with good defensive displays.
Alex: Won everything in air and an all round solid defensive display.
Carvalho: We haven't lost since November '06 whenever he has played and he showed yet again why. Good defending from him kept us in the game.
Bridge: Solid Display.
Makelele: The maestro came up again with a MOTM performance. There wasn't a better player on the pitch than him.
SWP: Looked a little bit of steam after picking up that ankle injury but still gave as assured performance.
Sidwell: People were on his backs even before his name was on the team sheet but I though he did well and tackled hard though there wasn't much creativity from him.
Joe Cole: Looked good and did well to track back and help the defence. Great finish.
Malouda: He plays more inside rather than on the wing but his pass was superb leading to the goal.Other than that he wasn't much inspiring though.
Anelka: His movement has been particularly well and it is just a matter of time before he gets his first goal.
Pizarro: Came on late. Had a good shot saved.
Ashley Cole: No time for impact.
Ben Haim: No time for impact

Pizarro always scores ................ only against Birmingham

Birmingham 0 - 1 Chelsea

Three points is what counts at the end of the day and I am glad that we were able to come away from St. Andrews with all three. The conditions kept deteriorating as the match progressed with rain falling incessantly on the pitch but we held on to register our eighth away win of the season.

To be honest it wasn't the best of Chelsea performances you would see but there was certainly effort from the playing eleven. Chelsea started with almost the same squad that started the last game with Spurs. The only change was Anelka coming in place of Pizarro who dropped to the bench. The earlier exchanges of the game belonged to us but there were no clear cut chances to take. SWP twisted his ankled as he landed while going for a header(yes header!!). He tried to continue but after a few minutes he couldn't carry on any further. Pizarro came on for him and dropped just behind Anelka.

Cech had a howler in the first half when Chelsea defence looked seemingly over confident. Alex instead of clearing a seemingly straight forward ball preferred to pass it to Cech who would have cleared it 99 out of 100 times but this wasn't surely one of those 99 times. He miskicked and the ball hit Jerome Campbell's head and his header missed the open goal and came off the post. Chelsea fans were relieved to see the ball going just wide. The later stages of the first half was all Birmingham and they tried to open up our defence. Kapo and Damien Johnson were playing particularly well towards the end of the half. The first half whistle was a huge relief for the Chelsea fans as they could have easily being one goal down. The half time came at just the wrong time for Birmingham who had all the momentum.

In the second half Chelsea tried to keep the ball to themselves with first time passing and not allowing the Birmingham team to close them down. Anelka had a good chance set up my Makelele but referee flagged him for hand ball. He had another good chance when Malouda set him up but a last ditch tackle from Ridgewell and a good save from Taylor kept Birmingham in the game. On 79th minuted came the most important moment of the match when Belletti set Pizarro up from the corner and the Peruvian headed it home. After that it was pretty much game in control and we never looked like going to lose it from there on. Another win another three points.

Chelsea (4-3-3): Cech; Belletti, Alex, Carvalho, A Cole; Wright-Phillips (Pizarro 28), Makelele, Ballack (c); Malouda (Bridge 90+2), Anelka, J Cole (Sidwell 84).
Scorer Pizarro 78
Booked Pizarro.

Birmingham (4-4-2): Taylor; Kelly, Ridgewell, Schmitz, Queudrue; Larsson, Muamba, Johnson (c), Kapo; O'Connor (Forssell 71), Jerome (McFadden 71).
Booked Muamba.

Match Performances :
Cech : Had a howler but apart from that had a good showing and few important saves.
Belletti : Was as good as a threat going forward but he left a big void everytime he bombed forward and put up a lot of pressure on Alex and Makelele to cover ground. He needs to improve his decisioning as when to break forward.
Alex : Had a good game and looked in control however made a sloppy back pass to Cech and if it wasn't Cech's good instincts to rush quickly we might have been picking the ball from the net as Campbell was pouncing on it.
Carvalho : Good performance. Worked Hard. Cleared the balls well and make strong challenges.
Cole : Didn't looked too sharp and had an Ok game.
Makelele : He is still the master.Ran the show for me and if it hadn't been for him we would have been behind a couple of times. Set up Anelka well.
SWP : Unfortunate to go out with injury.
Ballack : Worked hard in midfield but certainly not one of his best performances.
Malouda : Looked out of sorts in this game.
Joe Cole : Tried his tricks but wasn't effective throughout. He had his moments though.
Anelka : Service from the midfield wasn't best but still looked better than Pizarro in the lone striker's role.
Pizarro : Scored the all important winner. Worked hard and gave a good account of himself. He needs to play off a striker to look good but he lacks predatory instincts and is not a natural finisher.
Bridge : Came on late. Nothing of notice.
Sidwell : Came on later. Nothing of notice.

Its Brums against Chelsea

I have reiterated time and again in this blog that I would try to be more regular with my postings. But as I see with little or no comments that I don't exactly have a far reaching audience but still it would be nice to know if there are one or two odd people reading what you are writing.

However getting back to what I feel most passionately about. Chelsea !! right ...
We are going over to St. Andrew's to face the second best club in Birmingham (I am sorry Brum fans but that is the truth. Anyone of you who think you are bigger than Villa must be living in opium eater's paradise). The last time we visited Birmingham we were defeated 2-0 by Villa so I am hoping this time around it would be a better result for us.

How ironic is that the last time the two clubs met it was different managers at helm at both. Mourinho was leading us in hope of another league title while Steve Bruce had just brought Birmingham up and was hoping to keep them safe from relegation however things turned out differently. Jose left the club by mutual consent and Steve Bruce moved to Wigan due to contract issues. In came Avram Grant at Chelsea and Alex McLeish at Birmingham. I have been impressed by how McLeish has gone about with this job. He inherited a good side from Bruce and the players have given strong committed performances in the recent games against United and Arsenal. Two new men arrived at Birmingham in this transfer window with Murphy signing from Hibernian and McFadden leaving Everton.

It would be interesting to see how we are going to lineup for this game. There has been news in some quarters that Pizarro had some injury but nothing is officially confirmed. However with Anelka having a full week in training with the rest of squad I see no problem with him starting the game. He looked good when he came on as a sub last time around against Spurs. It seemed that he was here all along. Shevchenko is also expected to be fit for this match so we may probably see him making a return. Lampard is another doubt however if he returns it would be a tough decision for Grant to leave him on the bench or start him in place of another player. The kind of 4-2-3-1 formation employed by Grant in the last match looked pretty good with SWP enjoying himself in the middle so I am hoping for a similar sort of formation for this game.

I expect a tough game from the Brums however I see us nicking this by a goal or two. 0-2 for me.

Go Blues!!(Chelsea not B'gham)

Back Again!!

If you look at my last post it has been a hell of time since when I last posted something. I won't say it was down to lethargy and laziness but rather a self-imposed exile or was it!!

Since my last post a lot has happened with me and Chelsea in particular. To start with I have graduated from college and now I am working in Business Intelligence group of Oracle at Bangalore. Apart from that nothing of note has really happened with me apart from putting some extra kilos at the wrong places.

Now the things that have happened with Chelsea over the last few months - oh from where I should start. We came second in the league, got knocked out in the semifinals of the Champions League by the Scousers last season. It was a little rosy however towards the end when we won the FA Cup by defeating United - United who .. yeah the same League Champions. Summer was usually quiet with no big names in particular arriving at Chelsea. However a couple of good players were signed - some free and some not so free. The likes of Steve Sidwell, Claudio Pizarro, Florent Malouda, Alex and Juliano Belletti moved to the Bridge while the likes of Glen Johnson, Arjen Robben and Geremi moved away. The season started with a hard fought home game against Birmingham which we won 3-2 at the end. Mourinho employing the 4-4-2 with wingers formation on which he had talked a lot in the summer. Then came the Reading game in spite of going a goal down we came back to win the match 2-1. A trip to Anfield followed where we managed to scrape a draw with a little help of referee however I am afraid that was the last time referee helped us 'coz after that we were mostly on the wrong side of his decisions. Although we won the next home game against Pompey but it all started to go terribly wrong after that. Defeat at Villa park, a draw at home with Blackburn with a perfectly legal goal disallowed and then to top it a draw at home against the group minnows Rosenborg in Champions League. What happened after that? Mourinho got the sack and we were shell shocked. It seemed so sudden I didn't know how to react. I came to office early in the morning and like my usual schedule checked the BBC and Chelsea FC and there was the dreaded news. I couldn't believe it, I felt heavy in my head. I spent the whole day on Chelsea forums discussing what lies ahead. It took about two three days for me to get over that. In the meantime Avram Grant was appointed the new first team head coach and he was to lead the team at Old Trafford. Lost the game, Mikel sent off wrongly and it seemed that everything would go wrong from here onwards. However things soon started looking good with a win at Hull,a draw against Fulham at home and then the big one Chelsea 2- Valencia 1. Who said that it is one of the toughest place to go and pick a result from. I disagree. The Black September was finally over and a new October ushered in a new belief. Bolton, Boro, Schalke, City(6-0), Wigan, Leicester all were put to sword. The last two games have been draws away to Schalke and at home to Everton but things are looking good once again. The only blot is that we have a couple of key players at the back injured the likes of Cech, Carvalho, Terry and Ferreira.

Well that was in short of what happened in the last couple of months. I hope this time I won't go absconding like last time and would keep posting on this blog.

When you can't be the master of your own destiny

This is what has been this season with Chelsea. In the last two it was us all the way, winning the league was in our own hands but not this time. It is sickening to pray everyweek for ManU to lose points against teams like Spurs, Liverpool our perennial rivals. But thats how life is - you pay for your mistakes. Over that Christmas period had John Terry not been injured no way we could have drawn those three games against Fulham, Reading and Villa and lost six points which we should have taken with ease.

Our destiny in the league is no longer in our own hands. All we can do is jut go on and keep winning every match and hope that somewhere along the way in the next nine matches ManU would slip up more than once. But I take heart in the fact that inspite of the numerous injury problems we have faced this season we are still in with a say in all the three competitions, the Carling Cup already resting in the Chelsea trophy cabinet. It take some character and strength to get this far. And for the very fact I am proud of the team I support - Chelsea F.C.

Journey or Destination?

Well, I haven't met a single person so far on the face of this planet who agrees with me that journey is more important than destination. People around me seem to be so obsessed with victory that they won't take anything other than a victory for a result. Everything they do ...the worth of it they decide on the basis of just victory or defeat. I wonder .. I may be wrong but why is it like that. I mean why should defeat overshadow the efforts we have put in achieving something. Why is that the journey counts to nothing in face of defeat ??

There is a saying that 'End should justify the mean' ... even if those means are wrong. I don't agree with that and, I'm not sure about the others but I can't bask in the success if the road to it has been such. I would find it rather tough to look into the mirror in that case. But the world has changed or rather it has been always such otherwise why would such a saying would have become a common parlance. At times I find myself so alone in the midst of all these wolves ... I might be exaggerating and there must be many non-wolves out there but most of the people out here seem to be like that.

Journey to me is more important than the destination. Defeat and despair are bound to come in this life because not everything we do or try may turn up right. But just because the things are not turning right that doesn't mean that they won't eventually. And why should in the face of defeat I believe that the whole journey was a farce or it counted to nothing. Every journey is an experience in itself ... good or bad. Victory or defeat may be just momentous but the journey is not such. Why should we overlook something which is so permanent for something that is temporary. Why ... that is the question ?

If we can take pleasure in our success then we should be man enough to take defeat on the chin and go on and that could only happen if we don't become too obsessed with the destination rather enjoying every moment of the journey. You would win someday and on days you would end up losing but the effort that you have put in that cause should not be taken as something going to waste. Sometimes it takes time but the time is worth it.

Snow Patrol's Warmer Climate is what springs to my mind and especially the closing lines which seem so real and relevant :
'I'm so glad that this has taken me so long,
'coz its the journey that made me so strong. '

Defeat at Anfield

Liverpool and that too at Anfield were never easy although we came good last three times around ... but that was last time. This time it wasn't .... 2-0 was how it ended. I was really looking upto this match as Cech was going to return after a lengthy injury, and seeing the best goalkeeper in the world marshalling our goalposts again was indeed a pleasant side. But Carvalho missing out due to fever really made a serious dent on our chances in the match even before the ball was kicked. It was never going to be easy for Ferreira and Essien, both makeshift centrebacks to hold against the likes of Crouch and Kuyt, one strong in the air and the other very powerful. And it all showed in the manner in which the first goal was conceded. Ferreira caught on the wrong side and Kuyt netting in an easy volley. Cech made a couple of good saves to keep Liverpool at bay but again on 18th minute Essien's poor clearance landed the ball on Pennant's feet and unchallenged he didn't made any mistake to put the ball in the back of Chelsea net.

The outcome was looking all the much clearer with Robben limping away after 20 mins and substituted by Wright-Phillips. The list is getting longer and longer with Terry, Boulahrouz, Carvalho, Bridge, Joe Cole and now Robben getting injured. Mikel had come on in place of Makelele who was suspended for this match and he was really the pick of the players in the opening period. Fighting for the ball, clearing , intercepting - he really put in a good show today.
Chelsea enjoyed possession and control in many periods of the game but it never looked like a goal was going to come. Wright-Phillips did have a good game and he made a number of good runs in and around the Liverpool defence but it was never meant to be. Drogba was working tirelessly but even he didn't came close to scoring. Ballack, Kalou and Ashley Cole had a poor game ... Ashley was never seen on the left side of the pitch in the second half. Shevchenko was introduced late in the second half to shift to more attacking formation but it was never too good.
Final score remained 2-0 at Anfield which was indeed a miserable outing for Chelsea.

Being a Chelsea supporter it's hard to say but Liverpool deserved to win today- they defended well and when chances came along they took it with both hands. I can't fault much the performance of the team because it looked right from the start that defence is going to be the real issue -if it clicks we might get something out of the game. But two goals in the opening 20 mins really put a lot of pressure and from there on it was never going to easy.

With ManU meeting Arsenal tomorrow and a victory would further widen the gap at the top and realistically it would mean probably the end of our League hopes. But I am counting on Arsenal and am quite optimistic that they would certainly stop that thing from happening. I hope come tomorrow we would still have everything to play for in the league.