Bleacher Report - Articles by BlueChampions.Com

Arsenal vs Chelsea Preview

BlueChampions.Com — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 12:02:42 -0500

I love seeing Arsenal crash and burn.

When Chelsea plays Arsenal, I don’t have to tell you how much I want us to hurt them. This is one of those matches where I just don’t care about where the goals comes from.

I’d be happy with a scrappy 1-0 win. In reality, based on form and ability (ah, there’s my PES lingo), Chelsea must beat Arsenal comfortably. We have beaten Liverpool, Tottenham and Man Utd—twice.

If we beat Arsenal, it would have a huge impact on our odds to win the title. If we can be the trigger of an Arsenal downfall in the process, well, there would be nothing more pleasant than that.

There were some scares that Didier Drogba and Lampard won’t be playing this Sunday. I was thoroughly annoyed, not only because we would miss them, but also that the goners had got lucky.

Anyway, both are back and both will start. At least Drogba will start—not sure about Lampard. Arsenal are missing a few players, including a key one in Robin 'Candlefeet van Persie. News is, Candlefeet is out four-to-five months. Ouch.

Gallas is injured—not a drop of tear from me. Aresenal are also missing their first and second-choice left backs—right time to murder them I say.

Chelsea would certainly play the famous Ancelotti diamond with both Drogba and the tremendously improved Nicolas Anelka upfront. Anelka has been a surprise package under Ancelotti.

From a tactical point of view, I don’t see anything has changed to help Anelka on the pitch. I think, psychologically, Anelka has gone through a transformation. He is lot more committed, a lot more purposeful, and a lot more team-minded.

I want him to play his match of the season tomorrow. I hope he scores a goal tomorrow like the cracking one that he scored at the Emigrants last season.

Drogba’s availability for Sunday is the best news I’ve heard in a while. He’s scored eight goals in his last eight matches against Arsenal. Plus, they might play Senderos or Silvestre, or both.

What a mouth-watering prospect!

Drogba was lacklustre against Porto in the mid-week, but I guess he was only getting himself back to match fitness and he knows he’s gotta be super fit for the Sunday match.

I’m sure you’ll see the difference between how Drogba played against Porto and he will play against Arsenal. He's got something against Arsenal. I won’t say he hates them, but he surely loves to taunt them.

Drogba was once asked about his football gaming on PlayStation. With a very mischievous grin, he said he loves to play as Theirry Henry and shoot wide of the target.

I must say I’ve never felt so relaxed as a Chelsea fan. We have a great squad, some super-bright youngsters, morale and confidence are high, we are on top of the league, and are playing some great football.

Full credit to Ancelotti. Granted, he had a great team to work with, but he still did, and does, a fantastic job of pushing them even further toward perfection.

We have talked quite a lot about Ancelotti’s diamond and Christmas tree. Sir Alex Ferguson even said that the diamond won’t work for Chelsea without a player like Kaka in the attacking tip.

If you look at the results, you have to say that whatever Ancelotti did has worked very well. The interesting thing about Ancelotti is he keeps experimenting, but he does that without really affecting the balance, composition, or rhythm of the team.

He has this knack of trying out all he wants and still has his team play as if nothing’s changed. That shows how tactically astute he is.

I don’t even want a 4-1 like last season. All I want is a win.

If we get to punish them along the way, I’d love it. I think we might win 2-1, or 3-1. I have a feeling that Arsenal might just score.

The only player in their ranks that worries me is Arshavin. He is top quality and he is so un-Arsenal in his approach to the game. That’s why he worries me. I have this feeling that he might just score.

I wish Anelka and Malouda score, just so Arsene Whinger gets a French kiss. See ya!

Chelsea 4-0 Wolves | Here they come...

BlueChampions.Com — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 09:59:49 -0500

Sorry I’m late but I’m here and I’m fine. Just before the start of the match, I was telling my mate that this would be a 4-0 for us. What I was telling him basically was that Chelsea is too strong for the Wolves. That’s even without Drogba and Lampard. Now that the Bridge is back to the good old days being a fortress, the Wolves are certainly going to worry only about the scoreline and not about the result.

That’s exactly what happened. We could have easily doubled this scoreline if we had wanted. Once we got to a 3-0 lead, we had started to think about everything else than this match. I was pretty pleased with that. I certainly wanted a win of 3 or 4 goal margin so that we can stay on top on a goal difference table too. Naturally, Ancelotti was certainly thinking beyond this match.

This was certainly a pre-cursor to the drogpard-less Chelsea. We had to get two things out of this match—goals and confidence. We all know that more than 50 percent of our goals come from Drogba and Lampard. When this duo is missing, we had to show that we can still continue with our excellent goal-scoring form. And confidence? We played superbly well, supremely confident, and completely in control of the proceedings. The Wolves had a few chances, but still were nowhere near stopping us from scoring.

From a Chelsea fan’s point of view, the biggest talking point of the match was not about the four goals, or Essien’s near hattrick, or the manner in which we dispatched Wolves. It was the three subs that came in the second half. I don’t remember when was the last time a Chelsea manager played three young players in a premier league match. When I saw the names of Borini, Kakuta, and Matic in the bench, I was just wildly hoping that all three would get to play. I was very, very pleasantly surprised and thoroughly impressed of Carletto when he brought all three.

So finally, we got to see Kakuta. And I see what the fuss was all about. Man, he is so good! He dribbled, he did some tricks, he sprinted through—overall, he was damn impressive. I want to see more of him. I always knew that he is supposed to be the wonder-kid who’s the next-xyz, but it was great to see him in action. He did not play like it was his debut. He did not play like how one would do if his match was a premier league home match. I also liked the way he blended with the rest of the team. I hope we get to see more of Kakuta in the near future.

Borini was impressive too. He did not get to make as much impact as Kakuta did but he showed some glimpses of why Carlo had him play in a premier league match. He had pace and could really accelerate at times. I still don’t know what kind of forward he is. He doesn’t look like a goal poacher. Maybe he is more of a support striker. Matic was very good too. He is a really big lad. I did see him making some very quick decisions and neat executions in his midfield play. He is very strong and he has skill to make some really tight angle passes.

I was so happy to see these guys on the pitch and playing so well. We seem to have a potential of hitting a great balance in the team with some fantastic senior pros and highly talented kids. I like the way Carlo is taking us. He seems very professional, very pragmatic, and thoroughly tactical too. He’s got his next big test coming up next weekend. Carlo has now beaten Liverpool once and Man Utd twice. If he beats Arsenal next week, we will surely finish as winter champions. We should thump the goners at Emigrants, and you don’t know how much I’d love that.

Chelsea 1-0 Man Utd | Feeling lonely at the top . . .

BlueChampions.Com — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 13:38:36 -0500

There you go! Another confirmation that Chelseas is winning the title this season! We weren’t even at our best, but we still got the win and moved ahead of the chasing pack by 5 clear points!

Yesterday's match wasn’t a great display of attacking football from either teams. Instead it was a tactical battle, like those of the Chelsea vs. Liverpool rivalry.

Ivanovic was brilliant and should have been the man of the match. It was Nicolas Anelka who was the MoTM. He had a fantastic match too.

So, we’re staying firmly on top. Let me say that again. We are now 5 points clear of Sunbears!! What a weekend! All your reactions here while I put up a post later. Cheers!

Chelsea vs. Manchester United Could Decide Title

BlueChampions.Com — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 02:38:12 -0500

The big game is upon us. If Chelsea beats Manchester United on Sunday, the title is ours.

Isn’t that a stupid thing to say. Maybe, but I very strongly feel that this game and the reverse fixture have a big impact on the title race. It so happens every season that the difference between the champion and the runner-up is just the points gathered from the mini-league of the top four.

Getting wins in the mini-league not only creates the gap between us and the rivals, but also psychologically puts us on course for the title. We started this season on a very positive note by beating Man Utd, and that too on penalties. That win set us up for a fantastic start to the league.

This season, Chelsea does not look beatable. I know Wigan and Villa beat us, but we don’t look beatable. If we play Wigan and Villa again, we can probably pound them.

The other rivals do look beatable. Liverpool doesn’t look like they’ll record a win in the next six months. Man Utd have been riding on their luck for too long. There is a difference between this season’s Man Utd team, and that of the previous seasons. In the previous seasons, when they were in a spot of bother, they were helped by moments of individual brilliance from Ronaldo and Tevez. Plus, they carried their lucky charm every time they stepped on the pitch.

This season, it is not the moments of individual brilliance that’s helping them, it’s more about the referees, lovely mistakes by opponents at the most inopportune time, and acts of God. Which is why, I find Man Utd beatable. I know I’m not even considering Arsenal here. If they’re still a threat in February, I’ll talk about them.

I think this is the right time for us to play Man Utd. Firstly, we are in top form. Secondly, our top form was checked by Atletico mid-week. Thirdly, we’ve got some of our injured players back. Fourthly, the morale is high after the suspension of the transfer ban. As per BBC, for Man Utd, Berbatov, Vidic, and Giggs are doubtful while Neville, Ferdinand and Park are sure to miss. And, CSKA just scored three goals in one half at holy Old Trafford.

I’m all gung-ho about this match. I have a feeling that we’ll beat them and beat them well. We’ve got Drogba on fire, Lampard back among goals, Anelka working very well with Drogba, Deco has been a fine No.10 for us and so on. We’re ripe for this match. The only concern is the defence, which looks a bit shaky and unconvincing at times.

If we don’t make mistakes, I don’t think Man Utd have it in them to break our defence and beat them. On the other hand, I think we can beat them even if they don’t commit any mistakes.

Like last season, I think Fergie will come to London to get a draw. If he does that, he’ll get beaten for sure. Chelsea would go all out for a win. And, if we go one up, we must go for more. Especially because, our defence has been a bit shaky. Back in the TSO days, we could live with 1-0 because our defence was just incredibly accurate and play to the tactical plan. With our current shape of defence, I’d try for 2-0 once we get to a 1-0.

Don’t worry if Man Utd gets a lead. I just read that 20 of the 28 goals that we scored this season were scored in the second half. I think 2-1 would be the result. Man Utd would get their goal from somewhere; cheeky set pieces, lucky rebounds, whatever. Drogba would surely score and Joe Cole to score on his 250th Chelsea appearance and on his 28th birthday.

Bolton 0-4 Chelsea | 17 Goals Scored, None Conceded!

BlueChampions.Com — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 01:41:07 -0500

Don’t let the score deceive you. This was a match that could have gone either way. It was only after the second Chelsea goal, the match turned our way.

Until that second goal, Bolton had their fair share of chances and if they had scored a couple of goals, I would have had very little to complain.

This was a match where Drogba must have got a hat trick and shot me up to the summit of fantasy league. Anyway, I’m happy that we ended with a 4-0 score.

I feel sorry for Jussi, 8 goals past him in less than a week, all from the Blues.Since losing to Aston Villa, we have scored 17 goals and conceded none, in four matches. That’s the form of champions.

The first half was very nervy for a Chelsea fan and very promising for a Bolton fan. Though it was clear that we were going to score at some point of time, it was just difficult to say that we’d keep a clean sheet.

Bolton had some superb chances but failed to capitalise. Any other team with top finishers would have put us in trouble. Finally, the goal did arrive close to the half time whistle, thanks to Drogba.

It was a clear penalty and a red card. The compact Bolton defence for a moment, let some space create between their centre backs which was exploited well by Drogba to win the penalty.

Lampard’s spot kick was sweet. His penalties have improved tremendously over the last few months. May be it is just a thing of confidence. It was really a very confident penalty!

Ancelotti has been persisting with Deco at the tip of the diamond. I must say, Deco has made the best of Carlo’s trust in him. I would still be tempted to have Lampard there but credit where it’s due, Deco has been very good there.

For a player like Deco to be playing there, I may not expect him provide service all day long ala Lampard, but he must be able to create some magic with his fluidity and skill.

Yesterday, the goal that he took was exquisite. Agreed that Anelka made superbly weighted and accurately threaded ball to Deco. But the Porzilian rounded off the defender with a nice feint and finished it in style.

Ivanovic had to get a goal yesterday. May be he was determined to get one for himself. He had a few shots on goal. He even had fantastic goal disallowed for offside. What a strike that was!

Finally, he got his goal off a cross from Carvalho. Ivanovic was on for Bosingwa. Though he did not have the pace and adventure of Bosingwa, he did bring in something.

He had his Russian way of moving with the ball, if you know what I mean. He has his way of twisting, swinging and turning, with close control of the ball and drawing opponent players.

Teams would die to have someone like Ivanovic as their second choice full back. Paulo Ferreira made it to the first eleven as well. He did hold up well.

Not easy to come in and impress at the left back position where Ashley Cole has been churning in ‘player of the season’ performances.

Fourth goal was a thing of beauty. We seem to produce one such goal every match. That wicked flick to Drogba may not be highly spoken of because it was made by the hardworking, efficient Lampard who is not expected to produce these moments.

‘Did he really mean it’ is the cruel response of the footballing public to these Lampard moments but he has been bloody consistent with these too. Now let’s welcome him back as he’s fully shrugged off his ‘poor form’ and he is back among the goals and assists.

Special mention about Anelka’s performance. He was just brilliant. His movement was very good. He was pretty determined to win the ball and not to lose it. It’s a shame that he couldn’t score but his contribution to the team was superb.

To have a played Bolton at the Reebok stadium and not to have a conceded a goal from a set piece or a cross or a longball itself seems like an achievement for the kind of goal-conceding form we were in.

We were a bit suspect but didn’t let the ball in, no matter how troubled we were. Cheers for that.

Elsewhere, Man Utd and Arsenal won. And Liverpool lost. While that’s not a surprise, I’m still surprised to see Tubby holding onto his job this morning. For the good of football and Chelsea FC, let him be there.

If Tubby winning the FA Cup would keep him there for another few years, I’d give it to Liverpool. Chelsea continues to stay on top for another week but the real test is on Nov 8.

Sunbears visit the Bridge and let me tell you loud and clear, if we beat them then, we are going to be champions. Yes, the title will be won in November!

Oh, before that, we have this little matter of qualifying for the second round of Champions League. Bad news to Atletico! Drogba is back in Champions League!

Chelsea 4-0 Atletico Madrid: Atletico Out of form?

BlueChampions.Com — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 02:31:20 -0400

What a match! What a complete football experience! In the first half, when Real Madrid were leading 1-0, I wasn’t sure if the match would the other way. But the second half saw hour goals scored, sadly for Madrid, only one of them from their side.

Milan was looking to continue to their disappointing run but they played some superb football in the second half. Milan was playing like how a good Italian team would, while Madrid were a bit hasty and impatient. It was also a match of goalkeeping errors.

I have never rated Dida. I strongly feel he is the weakest of all first choice keepers that play for the top top teams. He just proved it last night once again. The way Dida slipped the ball for Raul to score, was downright schoolboyish, allowing the ball to bounce of his knee and all that.

Credit to Raul as he kinda expected Dida to slip the ball (may be even he doesn’t rate Dida) and rounded him off to finish smartly. Pirlo from 35 yards. Casillas could have done better but Pirlo surprised him. Pato’s smart movement and Casillas’ mistake while charging forward meant they go ahead 2-1. That finish by Pato was exquisite. What a talent!

Drenthe’s equaliser reminded me of my tactic in Pro Evo. From the corner, you scoop it up to the man near the D, who blasts it in. The winning goal from Milan was the worst piece of defence you could see all year.

While the whole of Madrid defence and more were simply watching Seedorf who was in the edge of the box, no one cared to see where Pato was. Marcelo completely forgot his duties and once Seedorf crossed the ball, you could see the whole Madrid bunch turning the other side and to see to their shock horror an unmarked Pato volleying it in. Madrid created more chances but Milan were more efficient and did deserve their win.

As you’ve figured out by now, I didn’t get to see the Chelsea match. So I can’t write my "well-researched, insightful and in-depth match analysis." Two defeats in the last three premier league matches and the win was against struggling top team who have lost four out of their nine matches. Murmurs of Chelsea’s form slipping and the average age showing up. And this happens.

Three wins in three matches in champions league. I can now safely say that we’ve seen through Drogba’s suspension. Beating Atletico Madrid 4-0 in a champions league match is a fantastic result. Though Atletico is not really flying high they have some very good players in Aguerro, Forlan, Simao, Maxi etc. Any team that this set of players must be respected.

And soak it up guys! It’s Salomon Kalou who got a brace, weeks after signing his new deal. I know that he must have scored four goals but give it to him. He scores goals. Knock him down how much even you can. He’s got numbers to show.

Kalou certainly enjoys playing as the striker and gets into positions very well. What does by getting to those positions is another discussion. He has the instincts of a striker is what I’m trying to say. The first goal was a beauty.

The out-of-form Lampard started it all with a very in-form move. Lampard did a Ronaldinho-like "no-look" pass with immaculate accuracy and Ballack was so aware of the situation that he let Ashley Cole pick it up for a low cross and there was Kalou. I was pretty happy with his second goal. Coming from a set-piece wrecked weekend, to score from a corner for a change, was very pleasing.

Lampard scores! His first Chelsea goal since August! Thought it appeared to be a weak shot from outside the box, it was placed perfectly well to keep it outside the reach of the keeper. He had a good match, Frank Lampard. The match was oer even before Lampard got the third but Perea’s brilliant header completed a fine champions league evening for Chelsea.

Barcelona, Real Madrid and Liverpool – They all lost at home in this champions league match day. While it was fun watching them lose, I certainly did not want us to have a repeat of last year where only the second half of the last match confirmed our progress to the next round.

Nothing of that sort this time. We’ll win the next match and let the likes of Sturridge etc to get some match time. All focus back to the premier league. Blackburn at the Bridge this weekend. Not sure if I can watch it and report it. A family event could keep me restricted to mobile tracking of the live game. Let’s see!

Aston Villa 2-1 Chelsea | Out-set-pieced . . .

BlueChampions.Com — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 12:35:35 -0400

Disappointed? Yes. Surprised? No. My predictions didn’t go well, but there was one thing where I was spot on. I knew that we were going to concede in set pieces. We managed that twice. Two very poorly defended set pieces have undermined an otherwise good performance for a post-international-break match at Villa Park.

I wouldn’t say we looked tired but certainly Villa looked more fresh and determined.

If you exclude those set pieces aside, this was a match that Chelsea dominated—be it in possession or in terms of chances created, shots on goal etc. But that’s not to take anything away from Aston Villa. They dominated where it mattered—the goals scored column.

Let this not go down an a poor performance from Chelsea or something. We played really well. We had the creativity and improvisation, we were great to watch and we created loads of chances. If only we had defended better...

With some extra effort, Michael Essien could have prevented both the goals. For the first goal, Carvalho was at fault but Essien could have stopped the goal. For the second goal, it was clearly Essien who was simply watching the ball without making an attempt of any sort to stop the goal.

He wasn’t shoving or body checking or even jumping. He just failed to mark his man. That was pretty sad to see. There was something common about Essien’s performance and that of Chelsea. Essien had a good match otherwise but just lost it during these set pieces.

Earlier, Drogba score a very smart long range goal. For the casual eyes, it might look like a lucky strike. If you’ve been following Drogba since the pre-season friendlies, you’d realise that this is something he has added to his repertoire. The shot is not about luck, it’s about surprising the goalie and doing that with perfection. He’s done that now a few times this season. Very good goal.

From a league table point of view, it’s a bad weekend as Man Utd and Arsenal win their matches. Liverpool lost to Sunderland, but their results shouldn’t matter anymore. We’ve knocked them out of the Premier League as early as October this time. How Rafael Benitez is still holding on to his job is beyond me.

Except for a lucky champions league win and an even more lucky FA Cup win, he’s got nothing to show. From a Chelsea perspective, I wish he stays for another decade in charge of Liverpool.

Sometimes, I realise that this blog really helps me in reacting to such defeats. When the match was over, I was very gutted but as I started writing this blog, I’m feeling lighter. It’s one of those matches where we did well but committed two mistakes and were punished.

It’s a long season but we have a bunch of tough away fixtures to come. Excellent performance in the next eight weeks could put us all alone at the top while the rest can fight for the spoils. I think we’ll come back like this match never happened and lead the table again soon. Cheer up!

Aston Villa vs Chelsea | 17-Oct-09 @ 12:45 UK

BlueChampions.Com — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 22:48:13 -0400

My Vaio is back! May be it didn’t like my thoughts around a macbook. This was my first crash ever in my last 15 years of owning a PC/laptop. In the process of recovery, I’ve lost all my data which included a folder called ‘blog stuff’ where I had stored all the data, text, images, themes, templates, bookmarks related to BlueChampions since its inception. I don’t how that loss would affect this blog.

Hopefully, it would not. Okay then, let’s get on with the game this weekend.

Chelsea at Villa Park—never a comfortable game. In the last few seasons, Aston Villa have been a bogey team for us especially as Villa Park. It’s going to be a difficult match this time too. Same old story of Chelsea internationals being away on national duty while the Villans were resting for a fortnight and gearing up for this match.

Expect a tired bunch of Chelsea players playing with no purpose in the first half and conceding a cheap goal from a set piece and then picking up tempo in the second half to come back and win. It’s a routine, isn’t it?

Villa have been strong at home with a four wins and a draw in the last five matches. Their defence has been top class this season so far. All points to a very tough match. Tone down your expectations.

As long as we get the three points, we can just move on. Care less about how we play today. One good thing about this post-international-break match is, we are not playing a team that might park the bus. We play a team that plays ball. Villa can play an open and attacking game which could just turn out to be beneficial for us.

No Mikel. No Bosingwa. No Ballack. No Ballack because Zhirkov hacked him down in Russia vs Germany. Heck, we create injuries for ourselves!

Good news is Petr Cech is back from his suspension. When he was away, we beat Liverpool 2-0 which goes to show our strength. In terms of Villa team news all I hope for is that Heskey plays and plays in his England form.

Marko Lawrenson at BBC predicts a 1-1 draw. Not a worry because he just doesn’t get them right. I hope he’s not paid in proportion to the correct results that he calls. He does talk about the effect of internationals on the Chelsea team, but strangely he doesn’t bring it up for Sunbears or Tangos or for the ladies from North London.

But then, Chelsea might have more number of internationals in their squad than probably any other team in England. I predict Villa 1-2 Chelsea. If you notice, I don’t predict clean sheets anymore for Chelsea. But I’m very sure we’d win.

In other news, Salomon Kalou has signed a new deal with Chelsea. I know the house is always divided when it comes to Kalou. Given all this transfer ban drama, it helps to tie up any decent player with the club.

At least, we won’t debate if he is a ‘decent’ player or not. He has been playing in the premier league for the last three seasons and he has records to show that he can score goals and make them too.

He’s been played in positions unnatural to him but his returns have been pretty decent. On the pitch, when you’re watching him live, he can be very frustrating though. He is very Arsenal-ish, if you know what I mean. Poor decision making, that’s all I meant.

Alex has signed up as well which makes sense.

Carvalho does not seem to be a long bet. I think he’d be off to Serie A next season. Alex is not exactly a Carvalho but I’m happy to have him if Riccy is leaving. Alex is a superb squad player but his lack of acceleration and agility means he could really tested by the pacy forwards.

As I said earlier, we should tie up all our players without hesitation. I know Chelsea are contesting the FIFA ban but I don’t think it would go completely. We might only see the ban relaxed a bit. It’s too big a decision for FIFA to make in favour of the club that is the sum total of all things evil in football.

By the way, keep an eye on the fantasy league. Rooney and Liverpool (I mean Gerrard and Torres) are injured out. Make your transfers. If you need any motivation, I’m No. 92 in the 225 players in the BlueChampions league.

Important update: Football gaming is taking over my life. After a couple of weeks with FIFA 10, I’m eagerly waiting for PES 2010. All I expected from FIFA 10 was to hold my interest until PES 2010 is out, which it has achieved.

I’ve pre-ordered PES 2010 and I must get it a day before the release date, if all my stars are in the right place at the right time. More on FIFA 10, PES 2010 and more importantly FIFA 1o vs PES 2010 later.

The Blues have moved up in the FIFA rankings by 11 places to No. 138. If you hadn’t known, Team India (oh yeah, we have a football team) plays in blue colours. It’s not really a Chelsea blue, it’s more of Fiorentina kind but a blue nevertheless. So, we’re No. 138. World cup, here we come (WC 2022, that is)!

On this positive note, to all the Indians out there, Happy Diwali!

Wigan 3-1 Chelsea: Yes, It's Not the Other Way Around

BlueChampions.Com — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 02:11:57 -0400

We didn’t see it coming, did we?

It was a rude shock considering that the predictions were 3-1 and 3-0 in favour of Chelsea and what we saw was the just the opposite. Ancelotti had to lose his first Chelsea match at some point in time. It had to happen yesterday. Sadly for us, on the day we lost, all our rivals notched their wins.

Let’s give credit where it’s due: Wigan absolutely deserved the win and also the margin to some extent. When I saw the match, Wigan looked more determined and stronger.

They played good football, and induced errors from Chelsea. It was not just Chelsea playing; it was more of Wigan playing their match of the season. But teams like Chelsea get their moment of brilliance and quality and bail themselves out.

That part, however, did not happen yesterday.

The first goal we conceded was shameful. No way someone’s going to put in a header like that in the Chelsea penalty box. There was no challenge on Bramble. No one was really jumping and shoving to make it difficult for them.

We very poorly underestimated them in that corner and we were properly punished. John Terry needs to pull his sleeves up. He is the captain. He is the organiser of the defence. He should take responsibility for such a poor show by the Chelsea defence.

This is not a knee-jerk reaction. We have been conceding some very cheap goals through poor defending this season, right from the preseason. Terry himself has been guilty of some lapses of concentration himself. Remember that goal Stoke City scored against us? Despite all this, since we always manage to outscore the opponent, it was never a big concern.

But now, it has proved costly.

The red card did have a huge impact on the match. To play an away match with 10 players for 40 minutes is difficult. And if that missing man is Petr Cech, you’re going to be concerned.

There are some discussions over the red card and the penalty. I think it was a penalty but to give a straight red was a bit tough on the keeper. Anyway, I have zero faith on Phil Dowd as a referee. He looks like a bloody egoist who loves to make controversial decisions so he can read his name in the newspapers the next day.

When Cech was sent off, Chelsea had to make a substitution. Malouda was taken off and Hilario replaced him. I was bit unhappy that Malouda was taken off. I’m very sure it had to be Anelka. When you’re playing with 10 men, each of these players will have to put in an extra shift, run and work harder and Anelka is not the man I would have on the pitch if I need to play with 10 players.

Malouda must have stayed on, undoubtedly.

Many of our players had a bad game, most notably, Frank Lampard.

It’s not very often he has a game like that. It’s for that reason I won’t slate him. If Lampard is shite, it’s up to the manager to replace him. Lampard is talismanic. He can have his moment any time, irrespective of his form or the stage of the match.

In all this, let’s not forget that Didier Drogba has scored his 100th goal for Chelsea. Great milestone for this Chelsea legend. It’s sad that it had to come in a losing match. It’s a great milestone nevertheless. Hope he goes to touch the 150 goal mark early next season.

Ancelotti has been working on this Chelsea team. He’s getting to know the players. I heard that until the Spurs match Carlo didn’t know about the relationship between Lampard and Harry Redknapp.

He’s learning the language too. His ‘this is football’ phrase is dangerously reminiscent of an ex-manager. He needs to improve his vocabulary so that he doesn’t sound like losing is okay. Of course he didn’t mean it but his poor vocabulary does not help his cause.

This team under Carlo has been going through the cycles. They have now had a winning streak, they have won a match in stoppage time, they have come back to win matches, they have completely dominated teams. The one thing they could not do is to show their resilience after losing a match.

Now, they’ve got that too.

I’ve always had this theory—if you’re losing to rivals, it’s got be a close affair. That’s how you can retain your confidence and keep your momentum. If you’re losing to smaller teams, lose big. Lose by some margin.

That way, the complacency gets destroyed completely.

Let’s cheer the boys, after all, it’s not very often that they lose or concede three goals. And even those teams that lose and concede goals on a regular basis get cheered by their fans. Next week, Liverpool visit Stamford Bridge.

The timing of this defeat might just be helpful.

Look at John Terry applauding the visiting fans, you can see how disappointed he is. Now the blues are a pack of wounded animals. Liverpool, coming from a comfortable and one-sided win, must face the wrath of Chelsea, who were humbled by a bottom half team. It’s going to be a great match next week.

If Chelsea beat Liverpool, all will be forgotten. Bring back Joe Cole, the Liverpool-slayer! It’s bounce-back time!

Wigan vs Chelsea: Sept. 26, 15:00 UK

BlueChampions.Com — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 01:03:59 -0400

After a long time, we’re going to have a top-playing eleven, and to be honest, top-class reserves at the bench as well. After the successful return of Joe Cole and Zhirkov in the mid-week league cup fixture against QPR, the strongest squad in England has just got stronger. If Sturridge and Deco make their returns, then we’re done. Transfer ban, my foot.

Apologies for completely ignoring the mid-week match. I did follow the match and did participate in the discussions in BC Huddle, but it’s just that I couldn’t get a blog in. Most of us were disappointed with the scoreline of 1-0 while we expected a mauling of the rangers.

From a Chelsea point of view, we had rested key players, we had some of our players returning from injuries and also gave opportunities to young players like Borini, who got a full debut. All things considered, a win is a good result, more so in a derby.

For the weekend match against Wigan, we’ve got Joe Cole and Zhirkov on the bench while we might play our best eleven based on form. Drogba is also back after that little injury scare in the previous match.

Ancelotti does not need to trouble himself too much. As a good manager, he has put a system in place and the system seems to be working rather well. All that he is now doing is just to turn and tweak here and there while maintaining the overall momentum that we’ve got.

This being an away match we might return to our away formation of 4-3-2-1 christmas tree. I’d be very pleased if I can see Joe Cole early in the second half in the place of Anelka. If we want to bring in a striker in the second half, let that be Borini and not Kalou. I’m not against playing Kalou. In fact, I give credit to Kalou for scoring the key goals in key matches, but we should see more of his alternatives too.

It’s Michael Ballack’s birthday today!

We know Michael Ballack is not young, to be accurate, he’s going on 34. The way I see it, his age has not really taken a toll on his game. He has his own laidback emperor-style game which he continues to have.

What also remains in him is his passion and fight on the pitch.

He’s the kind of player I’d love to have in my team. Hope he scores a 35-yard screamer today. Imagine the celebration of the Chelsea players if he scores! That would be a treat!

Unlike the previous weekend, this one is not that special because all our rivals have some very winnable matches.

Manchester Utd are playing Stoke City. Liverpool are playing Hull City. Arsenal are playing Fulham and Tottenham are playing Burnley. If any of these big clubs drop points this weekend, it would be a big bonus for us. Man City is playing West Ham on Monday. That could be a tight affair; but if Manchester City get Robinho back, it will their match to lose.

I’m tired of Chelsea matches not being telecast live. Today, ESPN would show crap matches like Stoke vs Manchester Utd and Liverpool vs. Hull City, but Wigan vs Chelsea would only be a recorded telecast later. At least for this injustice, Stoke and Hull City must win today. As far as Chelsea is concerned, that’s another three-goal three-pointer!

Chelsea 3-0 Tottenham: On Top of the Table

BlueChampions.Com — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 14:42:18 -0400

Same old Chelsea! Turning up late and then turning up the heat. The first 15 minutes, I thought we were playing in White Hart Lane. Chelsea were a bit sluggish and allowed Spurs to have the ball and run with it.

That was the period Spurs must have scored if they had to have any hopes of a point from this match. Once we woke up and turned up, Spurs never matched Chelsea in any part of the pitch.

The only blemish on a fantastic derby result for Chelsea was Drogba’s injury. Still no news about how serious it is. He’s so important for Chelsea that I can’t imagine us winning six in a row like this without Drogba. I hope it was only a scratch on his knee and he’s ready to play a match of 90 minutes even tomorrow.

We played our best possible eleven. There was no Joe Cole or Zhirkov on the bench. But there was a Borini though. Like you, I was pleased and excited to see Borini on the pitch. Borini had scored a brace for the reserves earlier this month.

Being an 18-year-old and having a name like Fabio Borini, he did thrill me as he stepped in. Like Franco di Santo, he came in around the 85th minute. He had a couple of touches on the ball which is never enough to judge a player. At least he did not pass it to Defoe like Carlton Cole did.

By the way, is Borini the only Italian company that Carletto can have. I almost forgot, what happened to Sturridge?

Typically, we were a bit forgiving at the beginning. Spurs were attacking our goal repeatedly and even had some close shots and saves. And then, at around the 20th minute, Chelsea started to settle down and by the half hour mark, we played with such authority that I thought we were never going to lose points today.

I was fearing that Bosingwa’s right back area would be cracked open but luckily it was not to be so. Instead, Bosingwa had a superb match with an outrageous long shot hitting the bar.

The first goal was a beauty. Look where Ashley Cole was. Like the Sky Sports guys noted, Bosingwa and Ashley Cole were playing like wingers. Ashley Cole was lurking in the area and also had smelled the goal at the right time. His movement inside the box and that diving header was un-defender-like (how about that for a word)!

The second goal was all Frank Lampard. Some goal mouth madness let the ball loose to the byline and Lampard was ever so aware of where he is, where the ball is and where he needs to pass. He did a perfect flick to Ballack who finished it well. Third goal was Didier Drogba’s. He waits for those kind of balls and when he sees gets one like that, he’s going do what he does best.

In the first half, Spurs should have been awarded a penalty for Carvalho’s tackle on Keane. There was enough contact for a penalty to be given. But Keane fell on the ground because he tripped himself down.

Anyway, a penalty on Ballack was not given too. And what about that handball? Lampard’s freekick was blocked by a Spurs defender in the wall. If that’s not intentional handball, what is?

I felt sorry for Carlo Cudicini. Before the kick off, Chelsea had presented Cudicini an award for his service at the club. Now, that’s how you treat an ex-player—with love and respect. I’m sorry for him as he had to at the receiving end while we notched our 11th straight league win—a club record.

Despite playing too many matches in short intervals, Chelsea were supremely fit. It looked like Spurs were the ones who had to play mid-week. As a defence lover, I must say, watching Chelsea defend and to control the midfield is so much fun. We defended superbly, we worked for each other and there was tremendous teamwork there.

Unfortunately, teamwork is more visible only in attacking moves. In reality, the teamwork that we display in midfield and in defence is as good as that of Barcelona’s teamwork in attack. But we don’t get as much credit for playing so well as a team in midfield and defence.

Oh yes, the Manchester derby was fantastic from a neutral point of view. It was a poor football match full of errors and blunders but it certainly was exciting. The game was never going to end until "Manure" scored. Because that’s exactly what the referee was waiting for.

Why on earth was there a stoppage time of seven minutes when nothing of note happened? At worst, the final whistle must have come off after 4:30 while the Owen goal was scored at around 5:30. Absolutely pathetic!

So we’re on top of the table—no problem of goal difference or no game-in-hand nonsense. We’re on top of the table by winning all six matches and having a superior goal difference of 12. A goal difference of 12 in just six matches is very impressive. And, we have passed first big test of the season.

Next week, we travel to Wigan and put Liverpool where they belong the next week. Before all that, we have another derby coming up when we play QPR on Wednesday in League Cup. We must see Joe Cole, Zhirkov, Sturridge and little more of Fabio Borini.

On the gaming side, both demos of both FIFA 10 and PES 2010 have been released. I’ve downloaded and played both. You can see my first impressions on these games in BC Huddle under the category "footie gaming."

It’s going to be a great four weeks from a football point of view. I just can’t for the final release of these games. Can’t I just move the slider from September to October tonight?

Chelsea vs Tottenham | 20-Sep-09 @ 16:00 UK

BlueChampions.Com — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 08:34:14 -0400

Chelsea face their first serious opposition of the premier league this season. Though we have won five in five, let’s also remind ourselves that most of those would be fighting to save relegation next May. I’ve been saying that we are lucky with our fixtures list this time.

Just when got a new manager and a new system, we’re blessed with some not-so-tough fixtures in the first couple of months. Now we will have to show that form against Tottenham, too.

Spurs started this season well but last weekend they got a dose of reality when sun bears beat them at White Hart Lane. That match kind of showed that while Spurs are playing well, they still have some way to go before they can compete for the top four. It’s not the fact that they were beaten, it’s just the manner in which they were dismantled and dispatched.

We’re only a month into the new season and Chelsea players have already played about 8 matches, including the internationals. We had a difficult match last weekend and a tiring mid-week match against Porto and now here we are, meeting the dangerous Tottenham on Sunday.

But the most key player for us, Didier Drogba did not play the mid-week match due to suspension so he must be fresh and ready for this duel. The other positives could be that Joe Cole and Zhirkov might be available for selection.

I think we’d continue to play the 4-4-2 narrow diamond. I have a feeling that Deco would start and he could be playing in the hole. I’m almost worried that I’m not seeing enough of Sturridge.

I’m tempted to say that he can play on Sunday. So far we have played teams that pack the defence and play narrow. So the last few matches may not have helped Sturridge get some decent playing minutes.

But Tottenham play an open game and use a lot of width. At least as a new striker you won’t be frustrated when you play against good teams. So, a good enough theory to get a glimpse of Sturridge on the pitch?

On Sunday, there’s also this much awaited Manchester derby. Tevez has gone on record that he’s only waiting for this match to show to Red side of Manchester why the blue side is now a title contender. I’d love to see if he does an Adebayor. But as far as I know, the Man Utd fans always loved Tevez and he also knows and acknowledges that.

So he wouldn’t piss off the Manure fans but he would certainly look at good old Fergie. I want a very very entertaining 4-4 like draw.

I think we will beat Tottenham 2-1 or 3-1. Unfortunately, I don’t think we will keep a clean sheet against Spurs. I can even tell you where that goal would come from. Expect our right back to be rogered and beaten. I’m almost sure that it would be our right back that makes a costly miss.

Also, I can’t see why Drogba cannot score. Lampard would also score because he knows that he’s in my fantasy league team and he wants me to win it. Be it a Super Sunday then!

P.S: I’m just toying with idea of redirecting the comment section to BC Huddle! Just like this web site – hit the comments link there and see how it works.

Chelsea vs Tottenham | 12-Jan-08 @ 15:00 UK Chelsea face their first serious opposition of the premier league...
Chelsea vs Tottenham | 31-Aug-08 @ 13:30 UK Chelsea face their first serious opposition of the premier league...
Tottenham vs Chelsea | 19-Mar-08 @ 20:00 UK Chelsea face their first serious opposition of the premier league...

Chelsea 1-0 Porto: We'll Do Well During the ANC

BlueChampions.Com — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:19:58 -0400

A winning start to the trip to Bernabeu. It appears that’s all we can take from this match. As you know I didn’t get to watch this match. The ones who got to see the match are saying that I didn’t miss much.

Our players were tired. It was raining hard in London. Last thing we wanted was an injury in those conditions. All we wanted was a win. And that win came with no addition to the injury table. I’d take this any day, especially on match day one in champions league group stage.

That said, there was a lot of talk and press about how much we missed Drogba and how much we would miss him in January. Someone like Drogba would always be missed. Some days back I wrote about how unique Lampard is and why there are few or no exact replacements for Lampard.

In a way, it applied to Drogba too. Anelka is a different type of player. I certainly do not expect things from Anelka that I’d expect from Drogba. Because Drogba is unique and special, we are always going to miss him when he’s not around. That’s does not necessarily have to reflect on Anelka’s ability to spearhead our attack.

When it comes to Anelka, it is always about the efforts or the lack it. The less efforts he puts in, the more we’re going to miss Drogba because he is such a monster on the pitch. But if Anelka is not going to do the job in Drogba’s absence, we don’t need an Anelka. But is the golden boot winner of 2008/09. Let’s believe he can do the job.

Anyway, at Chelsea, we don’t let the striker take all the burden of goalscoring. The striker being at the end of an attacking move is almost a coincidence for our style of play. Be it attack or defence, everyone has responsibilities of attack as well as defence over and above their roles.

Let’s not overplay the challenge during the ANC. When Drogba, Essien and Kalou are away, we would be playing Hull, Sunderland, Burnley, and Birmingham. Those are the fixtures in Jan 2011. I don’t know when the Africans would return to London. If they don’t return by mid February, we might have to play the goners at the Bridge without them.

Now, don’t you think these are winnable matches without the Africans? I certainly think they are. I’m very sure that Anelka would score against these oppositions and he might even relish the opportunity. So, let’s relax. ANC won’t be such a big problem as it’s made out to be.

The big news is Peter Kenyon steps down from the role of the Chief Executive of Chelsea FC. Please note that he is not leaving Chelsea as he continues in his role of non-executive director of Chelsea FC. There are various theories around why this has happened and on the timing. Bruce Buck’s views on Kenyon’s exit clarify very well:

"Peter has done a fantastic job for Chelsea in the last five-and-a-half years and has been absolutely central to the success on and off the field we have had during that time. Without his football knowledge and business acumen Chelsea would not be where we are today. Everyone at Chelsea thanks him for that contribution and although he will not be with us on a permanent basis he will have an important role to play as a non-executive director and in the various roles he holds in European football bodies.

When Peter first joined us we knew we were recruiting a top executive from business generally, not just football. With that always came a certain inevitability he would eventually want to seek a new challenge and I am sure that is what he will do. Whatever his next permanent job we wish him the best of luck in the future. He will always be welcome back at Chelsea."

Some key things are: (a) Bruce is very generous with his compliements for Peter (b) Bruce suggests that it was Kenyon who wanted to seek a new challenge (c) Bruce says that he will always be welcome back at Chelsea. Therefore, let’s not entertain any nonsense on behind-the-scene stories. You know how much the press bays for the blue blood.

Oh yes, I can now link you to the news that the rumours around Roman’s respiratory problems during his trip to Mt.Kilimanjaro are completely false. And Guus was never a part of that trip. I wonder who invented that!

Okay now, the Inter vs Barca match would kick off in a while. So, I’ll sign off now. Oops, I didn’t get to talk about BC Huddle. That’s all right. I catch up on that later. Cheers!

Stoke City 1-2 Chelsea | Let's go with the Flo!

BlueChampions.Com — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 00:46:01 -0400

Traditionally, we don’t have it easy after the international breaks. The reason is, this is Chelsea. A squad full of internationals, most of them first team players for their respective nations.

Consider this: some of our key players had to play two matches in the break including some very crucial World Cup qualifiers. That certainly made today’s away affair at Stoke a tricky one.

Anyway, it was a Chelsea classic wasn’t it? Though we were only minutes away from a disappointing draw, it couldn’t have ended that way. It looked like we had stolen the whistle from the referee and were not going to hand it back until we got the winner. We were really very good and we certainly deserved to win. I got to see only the replay as the match was not telecast live here in India.

Much has been said about that Stoke goal. That was a blunder from Cech. He did an Almunia there. No one knows what he was trying to do there. I guess even he would not be able to say that. All that he had to do was to trust his defence and stay put.

Of course, it was a bad defensive error and Terry and co didn’t even jump as they saw two Stoke players fighting for the header. Anyway, if Cech had stayed back, it must have been a comfortable catch for him.

What he did was a bad mistake. I think he will come out of that. He’s human and he’s intelligent. So he’ll make mistakes but he’ll learn from them.

Our equaliser was ace. The equaliser was a classic Didier Drogba goal. What would be talked about would be the power and strength but the key things were the confidence and precision of the finish. When he touched the ball, it was like he knew he’d score. Is this going to be his season?

When Drogba scores such a goal, it’s sometimes possible to forget about the build-up that led to his goal. If it’s Drogba finding the net, the assist has to be from none other than Frank Lampard. That goal was a dream one for my fantasy premier league. I’ve got them both in my team and Didier is my captain!

In the second half, as you’d expect Stoke City did pack their defence. Chelsea were the only team playing to win and that’s understandable. Why would Stoke City try to play for a win against a rampant Chelsea? I was checking the status from the live updates in BBC and our own BC Shout. Even when it was on the 90th minute, I still thought we would just about make it.

I want to describe the goal, allright? Let me please. First up, the throw-in from Belletti. Isn’t that Stoke City who had this Delap guy who throws the ball like it’s a cricket ball? What irony that Chelsea had to give a dose of Stoke’s own medicine to them! So, Belletti throw the ball almost into the six-yard box that was headed away by the Stoke players and ball falls at the feet of Michael Essien who was at the D.

You’d expect Essien to blast that into the net but surprisingly he passes it to Anelka. There, Nicolas Anelka, with his back to the goal, very very smartly and quickly lays it to oncoming Florent Malouda. Even then, Malouda took a couple of touches to beat his man and then slotted the ball with power. Fantastic team effort for a stoppage time goal.

This was a near perfect weekend. Chelsea winning with a stoppage time goal, Man City murdering Arsenal, Adebayor scoring against the goners and showing his middle finger and we gathering loads of fantasy premier league points in the process. The only stains were the wins by sun bears and thugreds.

I’ve always rated Benayoun. He is a dangerous player. He almost always does play well for Liverpool. May be that’s why the "big fat liar" doesn’t play him as much as he should. Rooney’s goal was class. I hope this does not turn out to be his season.

Not one post will end without me talking about BC Huddle. So here it is. I’m trying to be humble but still even the facts might sound like boasting. In just a week’s time, we have about 70 members, about 100 threads and a whopping 1000 posts. Be warned, it could be very addictive!

Finally, sit back, relax and rejoice. Five wins in five, top of the table, best goal difference in the league and very soon, we’ll see Joe Cole and Zhirkov back. Great times, eh?

England 5-1 Croatia | I'm Addicted to BC Huddle!

BlueChampions.Com — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:51:06 -0400

If you’re an England fan, yesterday’s match was the one you wouldn’t want to miss. If you’re not an England fan, yesterday’ match was the one that could have made you one.

What a transformation! The way England has been playing in the qualifying rounds, is sure cutting their odds to win the World Cup. They have now won eight in eight. Capello has truly turned around this team.

England very clearly play to win. They play to score goals. They want to inflict a damage on the opponent all 90 minutes. And they played with such confidence! Sometimes, the way they played the one-twos and the triangles, was with so much ease and was brimming with confidence bordering on arrogance. But they knew what they were doing.

Lampard and Gerrard scored a brace each and Rooney was gifted with a goalkeeper error that would go into youtube video of goalkeeper bloopers. Lampard scored a penalty and a header. I was quite pleased that Lampard is taking the key penalties for England, despite having Gerrard, Rooney and Barry on this side. That shows how much his ability is being valued in the England team.

The header that Lampard scored was also superb. A quick reflex header to place the ball in the corner of the net. I was hoping to see his hat-trick but still a great performance. Lampard could have had a couple of assists, if Heskey finished better.

Very interesting and important weekend of premier league football ahead. If you want to make any key changes to your fantasy premier league, please do so soon. I’ll save something for the preview blog.

It’s official. I’m addicted to BC Huddle. I’m permanently logged in to Huddle – either from my laptop or from my mobile. We’ve just got our 50th member in there. Also now there are more than 60 threads and 600 posts in less than a week’s time. I know that this international break is not the busiest time in the blog.

That’s why I chose this time for the launch of BC Huddle. We are yet to see some of the blog regulars over there. But we’ve got a new bunch of football enthusiasts who are keeping the Huddle lively. Special thanks to Churchill, Arab Ali, Malagant and Macooz.

I’m quite enjoying the huddle. The kind of chit-chat and friendly banter that you have on a forum is quite unique. It’s so fascinating to get the views on various things from so many people. As I said before, there are more than a dozen things that are hot and need to be debated or discussed. And, we are all football fans. Even though we are Chelsea supporters, if there is something of significance that happens, such as Argentina missing out on world cup, it begs for a dedicated discussion. We’ve had some interesting threads and discussions this week. Some of them (with links) are below:

Damn, we should’ve kept him: This is where we made a list of players that Chelsea made a mistake of letting go.
Ronaldo is a prick and he proves it: You just have to check this yourself!
Best Chelsea news sites: This one is on the new websites and aggregators for Chelsea related news. I got to learn a few new things there.
All Chelsea streaming sites: An ever improving list of all streaming sites where you can watch the Chelsea matches when they are not telecast live on TV.
FIFA 10 Demo on 10-Sep-09: The most awaited football game of this season releases its demo on Thursday. Quick opinions on how it come out and all that.
Direct freekicks, who must take them: Should it be Lampard or Ballack or Deco or Drogba or Alex? We are spolit for choices there. This one is with an opinion poll. Lampard does not top the poll.
Sinclair’s failed solo attempt against Everton: That was bad from Sinclair. Opinions ranged from ‘that’s how he is’ to ‘that’s why he is loaned. he will learn’.
Is Maradona the right man for Argentina: Will we witness a world cup without Argentina. And if that happens, is Maradona to blame?

It’s fun. It’s just that you need to get used to it. A forum is a different platform altogether and is a different way of connecting and communicating with people. As I said, I’m not only enjoying it, I’m addicted to it. Just come over and throw your opinions around! Get in soon!

Why you should join the BC Huddle...

BlueChampions.Com — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 13:20:03 -0400

Let’s BC Huddle! For those who don’t know or missed out on this, BC Huddle is your Chelsea community. It is many things in one. Most importantly, this is about a Chelsea forum and a Chelsea community. As a Chelsea forum, it has all the features of a forum and more. As a Chelsea community, it has all the features that you lot have always wanted to have here at BlueChampions. Let’s look at what this BC Huddle is all about.

Chelsea Forum

I hope you know how a forum works. It’s just a discussion board. A blog is all about the latest article. It could be on a certain topic. In the world of football, there are always about a dozen live topics to discuss. It is quite difficult for a blog to keep up with all the happenings in the world of football.

Primarily because that’s not what a blog is all about. The post in a blog is always about someone’s views or opinions about one or a few things and the idea is not to talk about everything that happens in football. There could always be various things that you want to talk about but would look out of topic to discuss that under a certain blog post. Also, the updation and its frequency of a blog is with the individual who runs the blog. I might not update the blog one day because I felt too sleepy. That should not be a deterrent for discuss football matters here with your bunch.

This is where a forum fits in beautifully. BC Huddle has multiple categories such as Chelsea matches, non-Chelsea matches, football debates, news and rumours, fantasy league, football games etc. This makes it very easy for you to be able to discuss multiple football matters at the same time.

In a blog, you have a certain people with two horns and only they get to post articles while the rest can only comment on/under the articles. In a discussion board, you all can grow two horns. Anyone can create a topic or thread or an article. Everyone is a writer as well as a contributor in a discussion board. Among other things, you can also create polls under the threads you create. Also, you could be creating threads in some categories while responding to other threads in some other categories. As you’d have figured out, forums can be very dynamic.

The other important thing about BC Huddle is that it is a Chelsea community. When I say it’s a community, what I mean is there are various tools and features that can maintain this group as a very organised community. First up, there is a profile page for each and every fan there. Once you sign up, in your profile page you can pretty much write your own autobiography with some key details that any fellow fan would like to know about you.

Also, just like in Orkut and other such networking sites, in BC Huddle you can create your own groups and have people join these groups. No surprise to you—I have created a group called "All hail the special one", which is a group for all Jose Mourinho fans. Similarly, you can create your own groups where you can share messages, pictures and stuff.

There is also a member list which has the full list of all BC Huddle members along with their post count. From there too, you can click the member name and see his/her complete profile that includes detailed information such as the list of all threads and posts made the member. Also, you can add members to your contact list. You can also add them to your friends list after mutual acceptance through friend requests. You can send private messages to those who are added as friends in your contact list.

Did I tell you about the albums and galleries? Each one of you can have your own albums where you can add images which may or may not be viewed by the rest of the members. Isn’t this something some of you always wanted to see here? Gives me an opportunity to put all my Stamford Bridge images!

We will have multiple moderators in the forum. Some of you could be the moderators. When I say moderation, it does not mean what you post will be held. All threads and posts will be published as soon as you hit submit. What the moderators would do is, check the published stuff to see if there are anything objectionable. If there are, they would give you a "yellow card" that would carry a certain ban on viewing or posting or both and a "red card" if there is a need. Only moderators will be able to see the yellow/red card under each member’s name.

Each member also has a "user title", which is a result/indication of how many posts has s/he made. Every member starts with the title "Chelsea fan". After 50 posts, you’d become a "Chelsea supporter". After 250 posts, you’d join the "Chelsea academy". After 1000 posts, you move to the "Chelsea reserves". You need to do 2000 posts to make it to the "Chelsea bench". And then once you hit 5000 posts, you’ll finally get a chance to be a "Chelsea player". To be "Chelsea starter", you gotta hit 7500 posts. Once you complete a milestone of 10000 posts, you’re the "Chelsea captain". But it’s not over yet. When you cross 15000, you truly become a "Chelsea icon". Once you touch 25000 posts, man, you’re a "Chelsea legend" and you stay that way for the rest of your BC Huddle life!

That’s about the user title. There is also something called the user reputation. The reputation does not have anything with the number of threads or posts. It’s just like the karma thingy we had earlier. If someone liked your post they add some reputation points to you. If you hurt someone or abuse, your reputation might take a hit.

What about the bread and butter? Yes, you create threads like nobody’s business. You can create threads based on some news item, some rumour, some observation you made, some piece of opinion or some something or the other. You can also subscribe to certain threads that you find interesting and are keen to follow. That shows up in your control panel. Check out all the links on the top in the navigation bar and also on the side bar. Anything that you want to change about yourself as a member is done from ‘your control panel’ that you see on the sidebar.

There is a calendar as well on the top navigation bar. I intend to update the calendar with Chelsea fixtures and other events that could be of interest to us. There is a fantastic "search" function as well. If you want read all the thread and/or posts with the term "penalty", you could just do that. The "new posts" link just lists down those posts that were published since your last visit and now.

Back to the sidebar. I’ve put a list of key links to some of the most common websites that we might use on a daily basis as a Chelsea fan and a football fan. As of now, it has almost all the links that you might want. I will pdate it with some more in due course. If you get any doubt about any of the features, just hit the FAQ button under the header logo. There is a very comprehensive and neat list of all possible questions that you might have. The link of BC Huddle in this blog is right under the header and navigation bar. I intend to leave it there that way, if you were struggle for the link.

So that’s pretty much your lot. I could have missed a few things in this post. If you start using BC Huddle, you’ll realise that there are a lot of stuff in there that is more fun as long as we have more people using it. This, I think, is the first step in creating that BlueChampions community. Get in & enjoy!

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FIFA Witch-Hunts Chelsea | This Too Will Pass...

BlueChampions.Com — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:35:35 -0400

I’ve always believed in this "us vs them" theory. Some even say that I bought this theory from Jose Mourinho. Maybe they’re right but what matters now is if Jose Mourinho was correct. Season after season, we continue to be reminded of why the football authorities and the powers that be hate Chelsea FC.

Honestly I didn’t see it coming. This has come as a shock, from nowhere. FIFA has slapped a two-transfer-window ban on Chelsea for an alleged misconduct in Gael Kakuta’s transfer.

Before we go any further, let’s try to understand this better:

1. The ban applies for two transfer windows. It’s not two seasons as some have understood it. So, Chelsea can’t buy in the Jan. 2010 and May-Aug. 2010. The next purchase can be made only in Jan. 2011.
2. We are prohibited from "signing new players." I’d conveniently assume that we are allowed to get players on loan. I’m bloody sure that we are allowed to get players on loan, which should be a welcome relief.
3. Chelsea FC will appeal this decision as strongly as possible. I have a feeling that the intensity of the ban could be reduced after our subsequent appeals.
4. I’d say, this is certainly a lot better than docking of points.

Now, I don’t know what happened in the Kakuta transfer. I don’t know if Chelsea are guilty or not. Irregularities in transfers is something that’s common in football but that’s not an excuse to commit an offence. To give a step-motherly treatment to a certain club and allow the pioneers to go scot-free is unfair.

In Phil McNulty’s words, "If FIFA actually believes Chelsea are the only club guilty of this particular offence in world football, then naivety is being stretched to its furthest point."

Some rival fans say that we deserved it because we punished Mutu. That’s a childish and silly comment. Mutu made a mistake and he is punished. And if anyone else made the same mistake, they should be treated the same way. That’s what I’m saying here too.

If Chelsea is guilty, punish them. Also punish all those big G-14 clubs that pioneered these malpractices and also mastered them. Ah, that brings me to the G-14 discussion. I know this is a FIFA decision but still, do you think such a damning thing would have happened to a G-14 club? How much lobbying would have happened even before the decision was made?

I’m sure Chelsea’s legal department and the battery of lawyers would be working overtime. I’m sure they’ll find a way out. FIFA’s ruling cannot supersede the laws of the European Union. FIFA is just a sports body while European Union is...well European Union. The ban is in effect an issue of constraint of trade. FIFA can only regulate from a sports point of view, they cannot write a new law or discard a law of the land.

Let’s put this in perspective. I don’t think we’ll be active in the Jan. 2010 window anyways. May-Aug. 2010 could be a blow. I must say that we’ve got the players to see us through this season. We were done with our transfer activity weeks before the window closed. The current squad is complete and is one which Ancelotti is happy with.

If we are not able to buy players in May-Aug 2010, it’s still not a problem. We can get players on loan with an option to buy after six months, which would be the Jan. 2011 window. Not bad, isn't it? After all, that’s what we did for Anelka. We bought him on loan and quickly converted that into a purchase. Where there’s a law, there’s a loophole.

Therefore, worry not. It will all be fine. The lawyers will have to earn their fees, either on appeal or on finding creative ways to get players on board during the ban. Wouldn’t it be sweet if Kakuta joins the first team after the ban and plays a crucial role in our quadruple this season?

Just when everything seemed to have fallen in place, just when we seemed to settle down, just when we found our rhythm, just when we started to instill fear in the rivals again, this setback is upon us. In a way, this would make the team stronger. The famous siege mentality that TSO brought in will have to make a reappearance in such times. The Moscow defeat made us stronger. The Ovrebo match made us even stronger. And now, this would strengthen Chelsea rather than weakening it.

So, just chill. We’ll find a way out. If we don’t, Chelsea will hit them hard like a wounded animal. Be afraid, be very afraid!

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'BlueChampions' Completes 3 years | Join BC Huddle!

BlueChampions.Com — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:26:57 -0400

Hi Chelsitos! This is Vijayakrishna here. Most people call me VJ and write my name as vjkrishna. If you wonder if someone’s hacked this blog – no. I’m the man behind this blog. I’m the one who you call BC. Why did I think of disclosing my name today? I don’t know. I just thought I’d do it today. Anyway, keep calling me BC otherwise I won’t know if you’re talking to me

As of today, September 1, 2009, BlueChampions completes three years of Chelsea blogging and steps into the fourth year. BlueChampions has been very much a part of my life. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed running this blog and keeping company with you lot. We’ve not met even once but we have certainly formed a community here.

Very often we do find ourselves in places where there’s no football fan to debate about use of technology for refereeing or there is no premier league fan to argue why foreign ownership is not bad or there is no Chelsea fan to passionately discuss who should be at the tip of our attacking diamond. I bet you got a place where you can do this arguing, debating, discussing and always come back every day for more.

Today is the day of the flashbacks and nostalgia. I want to take you through this little journey of this blog which started in the drawing room of some guy in India and now...er...continues to be run out of that very drawing room. I’ll also heavily use the post of the last anniversary as it still is very valid.

I’d be lying if I tell you that I didn’t expect this blog to grow so much. When I started the blog, I definitely wanted this to be big. I certainly had a vision. I wanted this blog to grow. I wanted this blog to be talked about. I thought today could be a day when I can talk about how this blog was born and how it was raised.

Officially, Sep 1 is the birthday of this blog. On 11-Aug-2006, I created the original version of this blog. I didn’t know much about website hosting so I went for one of these free blogging softwares. When I registered for the blog with blogspot.com, I had to choose a title for the blog. The first title that came to my mind was bluechampions. I wasn’t sure if that would be available but to my surprise, it was. So it was bluechampions.blogspot.com.

I didn’t quite like how the comments area appeared in blogspot. So I moved over to wordpress. It was quite strange considering that it took months for me to see a comment on the blog. From 13-Aug-2006, it was bluechampions.wordpress.com. These sites (bluechampions on blogspot and wordpress) still exist. Check them out.

From the day one, I started writing football/Chelsea articles. Almost everyday, I was writing one article. There were no comments at all and in fact, no one else was reading the blog as only I and my mate had known that such a blog existed. This went for a couple of weeks. I wanted to host the blog on my own domain. I bought the domain bluechampions.com on 1-Sep-2006 and published my first post in the blog. My first post in all these versions of bluechampions has been the same:

I speak Chelsea!

Okay, this is a Chelsea fan blog! The posts would mostly be the views, opinions and factual statements of a Chelsea fan. Whether you agree or disagree, you’re free to post your comments.

Though it looks like a stupid first post, my idea and philosophy around the blog has been very much the same. I have always said that I write my views and opinions, which means I don’t do research, I just write what I’d have tell you. It’s just views and opinions, as simple as that. And I did use the term ‘Chelsea fan’ twice in a post that had two lines. That kind of underlines that there would be some bias and you’d be smart to expect some bias, in fact. I guess that’s exactly what I wanted to convey from that post.

The first comment on this blog, very very coincidentally, was from a gentleman called Jose, who said:

Yo. Tevez has gone to west ham. Next season he’ll join us.

That’s all he said. That was the time I was hoping that we sign Tevez. This gentleman, the first commenter didn’t not visit again to comment. His first comment was the first for this blog and the last for him.

As soon as I started the blog, I began working on the traffic. Back then, I used to post comments and responses in every football blog or forum around just so that this blog link can appear there. I knew that ChelseaBlog was the only Chelsea related blog worthy of note then. I started posting comments in the Chelsea blog with the bluechampions link underneath my comment. To my surprise, I was banned in Chelseablog for promoting my site. Fair play, I didn’t really know the rules of the game then. I did try to establish some contact with the admin there to let me publish my comments but all those attempts failed. I didn’t try to post comments in that blog since then. I guess I’d still be a banned user there!

I started making a lot of friends and visitors, mostly of other clubs. The traffic did grow, a bit slowly though. All through this period if there is one thing I did relentlessly, was to keep publishing posts, irrespective of how many people read it or commented on it. Also, I did one more thing – switching between themes and templates. I guess from then till now, I must have used more than a dozen templates for this blog.

I then had a tie-up with Soccerlens for some time but I couldn’t really keep it up. There were many offers from many football aggregation sites but I didn’t go for any. Ole Ole did come in talk to me on getting this blog hosted on Ole Ole. I did have some live chat with them but then I did not want this to be oleole.bluechampions.com, I just wanted this to remain bluechampions.com, with all the ownership and freedom of what I wanted to do with this blog. That’s one reason why you don’t see any advertisements on this blog. I’m getting at least one advert proposition per week but I just don’t want to spoil the look and feel of the blog or to make it difficult for you to load or read. Plus, I get loads of emails to the BlueChampions mailbox – advert proposals, link exchanges, tie-ups, feedbacks, post requests and many such other things. Gosh, I need an agent, a manager and a personal secretary right away.

Meanwhile, I kept trying out additions and improvements. Back then we had opinion polls but it took time for me to introduce polls with multiple choices. Then came the gravatars – the online face for each contributor. There was this forum or message board that I started and I guess that was a failure or I failed to keep it going. I still think a forum for BlueChampions would be just right – more on that later. Then we had this BC Shout which is still a hit, I must say. I don’t see any other football blog that has a live chat feature. There are a lot of things I want to do but I’m not really a technology person, you see. All that I do with this blog is purely based on the knowledge I gained from the internet and hours of trials and errors. Well, I need a web designer too then.

The biggest milestone was the contact from Chelsea FC. I’ve boasted about that a lot already. It doesn’t matter what and why they contacted me for. My take away from this is that BlueChampions has got the attention of someone at Chelsea FC. That thrills me more than anything else. We’re still working out what we can do for each other. Meanwhile, I’m also looking at various things that would take this blog to a ‘new level’. It’s just that some of these things are expensive in terms of cost and time. I’ll take care of the cost. If you can lend me time, that’ll be great.

I have now written around 730 articles and you have written around 28,400 comments. The blog is really flourishing. But as I said, I want to do more. What I have in mind is to build a large Chelsea community on the web that consists of various facets of which the blog is one. While I continue to write on the blog, I want the BlueChampions brand to be more comprehensive. My vision is that BlueChampions should have a blog, a chatroom, a message board, a facebook style profile pages for all users, an online merchasndise store, a goodies download corner and much more.

As you might have noticed, this is too much work for someone who’s a married man and a father that also happens to have a day job. This is why I’d come to you. To use corporate language, I will go public. I will have to go public because I need reliable volunteers. I’d need some Chelsea fans who can afford the time and still willing to spend that for free. All I can promise is to share what I get out of this – fun and satisfaction.

And finally, I must say I owe it to you guys! I blogging because you guys are reading. I do read all the comments and I do read all your compliments and appreciations. I may not be able to comment because much of my internet time slot goes just for publishing posts. Thank you very much guys. I know that you talk about the blog to your friends, you’ve got your friends and acquaintances to visit this blog, some of you are very loyal visitors and a big thanks to all the ones that comment and keep the blog lively.

Before I sign off, let me tell you that we now have a full-fledged message board called BlueChampions Huddle. This BC Huddle will have to evolve with time. I’ve set up the whole message board. All that you guys now need to do is to keep it going. Go there, create threads, create polls and discuss and participate. More detailed information on BC Huddle sometime later. Cheers!

Chelsea 3-0 Burnley: Dismantled and Dispatched!

BlueChampions.Com — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 02:34:46 -0400

Chelsea started this season as the title favourites, much like last season. With four matches and four fantastic wins, the odds on Chelsea are getting shorter. Yesterday, Liverpool got out of the jail thanks only to the red card to Bolton.

Man United don’t look convincing at all in their scraping through at Old Trafford. You just have to connect the key words—Old Trafford—Referee—Penalty—Luck—Win.

We know this Arsenal team has not learned the art of winning but certainly they wrote a new chapter in the art of losing. They way they lost the battle after Man United’s (or Arsenal’s?) second goal was pathetic. With Spurs scoring a injury time winner and Ashley Cole getting on the scoresheet, it was never going to be Arsenal’s day!

Chelsea were simply superb. Like Steve Bruce said, they really scare you with their quality. Yesterday, Chelsea must have score about eight goals, if we had taken our chances well enough. I predicted a 4-0 win and I wasn’t too far away from the correct score. Burnley came here with a reputation.

They had beaten Man United and Everton and collected six unlikely points. So they are forgiven if they had any hope of nicking a point or three here at Stamford Bridge. But what they saw was Chelsea at their sublime best.

While we were creating opportunities through flowing attacking moves, Burnley didn’t even get to play the ball. For all this, Chelsea did not even get to the second gear. Now, that’s what scaring people.

All the three goals were lovely. First one was simply undefendable (indefensible?). I pitied Burnley. They did their best in the first half. Their keeper was throwing himself at everything and we were guilty of throwing everything at him. We needed something special and it did arrive.

Essien’s long distance through pass was just world class. I’ve seen replays to understand how to saw and expected Drogba to make a run. It was a piece of genius.

And Drogba saw the pass, credit to him. Great run and a perfect cross. I thought it could have been finished better but a goal nevertheless. Anelka arrived there at the right time to get another goal.

If Chelsea go to the half time break with a goal ahead, the match is pretty much over. But we had this little business of improving the number in the goal difference column. The second half was going to be goals.

I had just texted my mate that Ballack is very impressive and he scores a goal. The short build-up to the goal was smart and cheeky. Anelka made a cunning little pass with a deceptive backlift of his right foot, while Lampard making the most unlikely run to pick that up as he would normally be expected to wait outside the D.

Once the opponent gets the ball into the area like that, you don’t leave any German unmarked. Nowadays, Ballack is playing in a more attacking role and he seems to be loving it. Any bets on him reaching double figures?

Third goal summed up the match. We dominated them so much and put them on the back foot while we were playing as we pleased. When Ashley Cole ran to pick Lampard’s little chip I thought he was going to cross it in but man, wasn’t that some shot?

I’m struggling to find who’s the man of the match! Could it be Essien or Drogba or Ashley Cole or the man of two assists and the darling of the fantasy league managers—Frank Lampard? I’d give it to Essien because was a few decimals above the rest.

This was a match it’s hard to look for negatives. Everything went as per our script. Last season, we were so indecisive and castrated at home and this season, at home, we are as ruthless as champions should be. If there is one thing I still want to be bring out, that would be this—I was truly hoping to see Sturridge in action.

I was a bit disappointed that Kalou came in when we were 3-0 ahead. Anyway, I now have faith in Ancelotti. He certainly knows what he’s doing. I particularly like the way he selection of playing eleven, bench players and the in-match substitutions.

Is Carletto experimenting on the right back position? In the last match, he even gave an opportunity to Hutchinson and we saw Belletti playing right back yesterday. Good signs. I almost forgot, with just 10 minutes to show anything, Hutchinson impressed me.

He’s a big lad, looks like a monster when seen near Carvalho. I like the way he moved on the pitch the other day. If Hutchinson gets to play first team games for Chelsea, Sturridge would certainly play too.

In other news, Shevchenko has parted ways. He’s gone back to Dinamo Kiev. He was and is one of my favourite players. He is a legend. It’s very unfortunate that his stint with Chelsea did not just click.

With this movement, Chelsea’s transfer business of this summer comes to an end, unless we see a surprise by Tuesday. I think this time the transfer is ending on the Tuesday, 2nd September because Monday is a bank holiday. From a Chelsea point of view, I don’t think there’ll be any surprises, I really don’t.

The champions league group league draw has been made. We have a challenging group while Man United and Arsenal have got a bye, or I am overestimating these English teams. Liverpool’s group could be tricky. Chelsea play good old Porto, Atletico Madrid, and Apoel from Cyprus.

In a six-match group, we won’t have Drogba for three matches and Bosingwa for two. Considering that, ours is a challenging group indeed. Such is fate that Barca are drawn with Inter and Madrid are drawn with Milan. By the way, did you guys see the total annihilation in the Milan derby? I just loved it to bits.

We’re going into an international break and when we’re back, we’ll be playing Stoke City on the weekend of 12th September, while Man City host Arsenal and Spurs host Man Utd. It’s nice to see us progress in multiples of three while our rivals keep are forced to drop points. Two weeks then.

So what do we do till then? Some fantasy league updates, some talk about the most awaited football games—PES 2010 and FIFA10 and anything else that I’m not able to think of now. Catch you then. Cheers!

Drogba, Lampard, and Rooney, Oh My!

BlueChampions.Com — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 16:17:07 -0400

Not bad! I’m now ranked No. 70 in the list!

That’s a jump of about 70 places in one gameweek, despite the 16 penalty points docked for excess transfers. All this because of a whopping 70 points I earned in the third gameweek.

And I think I’ve slowly started to understand how to play this game.

My key players are Drogba, Lampard, and Rooney. I thought of getting Torres, but I didn’t. It turned out to be a good move. Torres looks completely out of sorts on the pitch. If Liverpool continue this trend, I don’t see him being the star point-grabber in the fantasy league.

Coming back to my key players, I have Drogba because I believe he will win the golden boot this season. I have Lampard because I believe he will be a top scoring midfielder and assist leader. Rooney is there because he is now in a better role to score more goals.

And this season, we all know Fergie expects Rooney to score a million times. A good bet, from a fantasy league point of view, given I don’t think Berbatov will outscore Rooney, and there are no other big scorers on Manchester United.

I have no one from Liverpool or Arsenal. I ignored Liverpool because they’re bad. I ignored Arsenal because I hate them.

If there is someone I’d pick from Arsenal it would obviously be Arshavin because he is so unlike the Arsenal players. On my 15-member team, I’ve got two players each from Chelsea, Man City, Tottenham, Aston Villa, Stoke City, and Man Utd; one each from Hull City, Fulham, and Bolton.

I’ve made one transfer this weekend. I’ve brought in Assou-Ekotto for Pantsil.

One tip is not to have players from teams which play the toughest opposition this weekend. I chose Pantsil from Fulham only for Chelsea to beat them 2-0 and inflict some damage onto my fantasy league team points.

So, for this weekend, don’t start anyone from Burnley because Chelsea will maul them!

A word on the league leader: Samuel Seah continues to top the league. He’s got 205 points! Really surprising how he continues to stay on top. Whoever you are, wherever you are, Samuel Seah, come and take your compliments.

Cheers!

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Fulham 0-2 Chelsea | First Cleansheet, Yay!!!

BlueChampions.Com — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 17:19:07 -0400

Three in three then. We got our much expected cleansheet finally. I did predict a 2-0 but the only thing that was a surprise to me was Anelka’s goal. Chelsea were at ease and class in what was a traditionally tricky away match.

Carletto played his away formation 4-3-2-1 as he did against Sunderland. I think I’d conclude that it worked well. Especially if you look at the first goal, it was a direct product of the 4-3-2-1.

Now Chelsea has three wins in three matches and surprisingly Spurs also have the same record. For the last few seasons, they always had a good team and purely by squad strength they were worthy of a challenge for the fourth place. Only this time, it appears that they are confident of their abilities and they seem to have that piece of luck that eluded them.

Man City and Arsenal can also notch their third win but they will go on with this annoying "one-game-in-hand" situation. I simply hate this "one-game-in-hand" thingy.

Carletto keeps impressing me. He tries new things. He is not afraid to make changes when needed. He rotates the players with ease. He talks rather well. He knows what he’s doing/talking. His decision to rest Essien and pick Mikel was quite adventurous and it looked like it certainly inspired Mikel.

He had said why he thinks 4-3-2-1 would work against teams that are content to be in their own half. I thought he would start Deco but he did not. While Drogba was the lone striker, Lampard and Anelka were playing behind Drogba. I was surprised at Lampard’s role as only the last week Ancelotti said that Lampard would move to the left midfield.

I thought that playing in the hole does not look like Lampard’s ideal position. He must be better as one of the three midfielders than playing in the hole with another player. If Lampard is playing in that role let him be the only player in the hole, like in a 4-3-1-2.

Plus, I thought Anelka was not suited for the "playing behind the striker" role. He does not have the quick feet or quick mind to play like a No.10. A Deco or a Joe Cole or even a Salomon Kalou would be more suited while Anelka should be all about finishing the chances.

All said, the first goal was a beauty. Playing behind the striker, Lampard under pressure, played it to Anelka. he Frenchman smartly let the ball loose in space which was picked up by on-side Drogba and finished with power and style. This move in a way vindicated the formation and the choice of players in the roles. But I still feel neither Lampard nor Anelka is best suited for the two player combination behind the striker.

Drogba has said this a dozen times. He can play with Anelka and their combination will work really well. He’s at it again:

There’s no doubt that Nicolas and I can work together. We are intelligent people, so we know how to play together. We just needed some time and it’s taking effect now. This is the perfect start to the season, especially as we still have a lot of improve on. It’s good to start with three wins and we’ll try to improve more. I didn’t think I’d be flagged for offside, because I waited until the last moment. I knew where he [Anelka] was going to put the ball so I made the right run at the right time.

The second goal was even better. Drogba just returned the favour to Anelka with a well weighted pass. In a flash, you could see the best of Anelka. He moved in with some incredible speed and rounded the keeper before he finished it. That’s what he does best. If the opportunity of the second goal had come to Drogba, I don’t think he would have attempted to round off the keeper. He would have either blasted it or chipped it. The way Anelka moved and scored was his trademark.

Big plus is the fact we did not concede before we had to score, or we didn’t concede at all. I don’t think we were truly threatened by this team that beat Man Utd 2-0 during the title chase towards the end of last season. We were very solid at the back. Mikel and Ballack alternating and complementing each other. Even during the set piece situations our defence was very assured and confident and did not put you and me under pressure.

Good bunch of wins and a very good start to the season. I don’t want us to win big at this stage of the season. I don’t want us to peak too soon. While we are winning now, let’s do it the hard way rather than walloping teams and then have our weaknesses exposed by bigger teams. Next up, we have Burnley and Stoke City. All other things being equal, we should make it 5 in 5 by which time Man Utd would have played Arsenal at Old Trafford, Manchester City would have played Arsenal at City of Manchester stadium and Tottenham would have played Man Utd at White Hart Lane. Again, during this period, we would be playing Burnley and Stoke City.

So there is a big chance of Chelsea notching up the lead by mid-September. More good news as Joe Cole is training with the reserves and would be fit enough to start the match against Stoke city. He could very well be our marquee signing as we don’t seem to be even rumoured with any players. Forget transfers, just look at how we are doing on the pitch, just realise that Joe Cole and Zhirkov would join the party soon. Lots of reasons (fantasy premier league aside) to be cheerful. Cheers!

Fulham-Chelsea: Preview ( 23-Aug-09 @ 16:00 UK)

BlueChampions.Com — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 04:18:15 -0400

Chelsea are on a roll. This could be a funny claim as we’ve played only two matches so far. But the larger fact is, Chelsea are yet to be beaten under Scolari: in friendlies with top teams, in FA Community Shield, and in the Premier League.

Man Utd have made a typically bad start, but only this time, there is a belief that it’s a reflection of their squad strength and depth. Plus, Rio Ferdinand would be out for a month.

Liverpool played as if they don’t want to give themselves a chance of making it ‘their season’. Complete lack of desire and indifference from their matchwinners very pleasantly surprised me.

Arsenal got a big away win at Goodison Park and that’s big enough reason to think they go back to their fourth-place form. Every time they get a good win, they compensate that with some poor football and put themselves where they belong.

Now Chelsea has won two in two. Chelsea thoroughly deserved to win both matches. The new system seems to be working well. The system also seems to use our resources to the bext possible extent.

The big players are on form and are delivering the goods. We’ve got a last minute winner and a couple of comeback wins.

Perfect recipe for a season start, as these type of results get you three points and also gets the team together and improves the team morale.

As I said earlier, Chelsea have a fairly easy first couple of months this season. Some slip ups from our rivals and some no-nonsense performance from us would see us top the table by Christmas by six points.

This is a wild guess, but the point I’m trying to make is, for once the fixtures list seems to help us get a good lead and momentum.

Fulham was one of the ‘easy fixtures’ I was referring to. See, I’m not being arrogant here. Fulham is no match to Chelsea otherwise they would also be playing champions league.

I know they had a fantastic last season finishing seventh and all. They also beat hapless Pompey in their first match. Still, I have a feeling that Chelsea will win, with our first clean sheet of the season.

Now Fulham have got Damien Duff. I must say I love this guy. I always liked Duff and I was sad to see him go. Even if Duff signs for Chelsea today, he can be a good squad player but that’s what he exactly did not want.

He wanted to play in the first team, which Chelsea could not promise. I’m sure we all have great memories of Damien Duff. I think I can talk for all of us, while recollecting the best Duff moment in Chelsea: that goal against Barcelona at Stamford Bridge. Man, it was a killer goal!

I wonder where Duff will play for them. I don’t recollect Fulham playing with a formation that had a winger.

Chelsea will line up in a 4-4-2 narrow diamond formation. That’s a given. I kinda like this formation now. We have played narrow 4-4-2 diamond many times before. This was also known as the 4-1-2-1-2 formation. This was the formation that Jose Mourinho used when Shevchenko and Ballack came in to the side.

There were also other occasions where we used 4-1-2-1-2. The big difference is, we have all committed and training intensely for 4-1-2-1-2. It is not being used as a stop gap formation or a makeshit formation.

The fact that we have identified and recognised this formation as our flagship formation does make it more effective, due to the training efforts around it, familiarity on the pitch and especially Ancelotti’s expertise on this formation.

Last match, Chelsea also played the much dreaded (by the Milan fans) 4-3-2-1 christmas tree formation. It’s fair to say that it was pretty effective. Carlo has identified this as the formation for the away matches.

In home matches, you need an extra man up front to finish chances and in away matches, you need that extra man to create the chances through the packed defences. It makes theoretical sense and if the Sunderland match was any indication, it worked on the pitch too.

Ancelotti explains this from another angle:

When we play with two players behind one striker, we can press the opponents better when we are without the ball because these two players, Deco and Kalou, can work on the central midfielders [of the opposition].

The diamond is a little bit different, because our offensive midfielder has to play against the two central players and when we defend, it is more difficult to close the space and to press.

The first way I think is better away from home. When there is not space, it is difficult to play, not only for Lampard but, for example, for Kaka at Milan last season it was very difficult to play there without space.

It is a very important position in midfield but it is more difficult to play. It is easier to play in front of the defence because you have the space to play.

I’d start with the same team that started against Sunderland. That is, Cech, Terry, Ivanovic, Bosingwa, Ashley Cole, Essien, Ballack, Lampard, Deco, Kalou and Drogba. That’s because I think we’re going to play 4-3-2-1. If we are playing 4-1-2-1-2, I’d even pick Sturridge over Kalou to partner Drogba.

I’m hoping that Deco recovers his form this season. In a narrow diamond midfield, it makes perfect sense to have Deco in the attacking tip as this role plays right behind the strikers just like Gerrard would play behind Torres. It is a bit more forward than a regular attacking midfielder.

Deco has the skills and creativity to be a good No. 10 player while Lampard is more of a box-to-box midfielder. For this reason, I’d love to see Deco play behind the strikers while Ballack and Lampard play in the midfield.

League leaders Tottenham (every dog...) are playing at 1330. So, if results go our way, we could be leading the table by Sunday night.

First ‘decent’ opposition for Ancelotti as he prepares to beat one of the best premier league managers of last season. Prediction: Fulham 0-2 Chelsea. Lampard (for sure) and Drogba/Malouda.

And do follow our fantasy premier league journey. For all I care, this could very well be the gameweek where I leapfrog 137 places and become number 1 in the table (if each of my players scores a hattrick, that is). Cheers!

Fulham vs Chelsea | 01-Jan-08 @ 12:45 UK Chelsea are on a roll. This could be a funny...
Fulham 1-2 Chelsea | Kalou Again! Chelsea are on a roll. This could be a funny...
Fulham vs Chelsea | 28-Dec-08 @ 14:00 UK Chelsea are on a roll. This could be a funny...

Sunderland 1-3 Chelsea: Now There's a Pattern to It

BlueChampions.Com — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 16:53:28 -0400

Superb win for Chelsea. Down 0-1 by half time, Chelsea turned it around with 3 goals in 20 minutes in the second half. Another match where we dominated thoroughly. What would you say about a 74 percent possession rate and our 25 shots to Sunderland’s four? Still, the conversion rate is not all that impressive. We need to get more shots on target, force more saves, and score more goals.

I couldn’t see the match as it was not telecast over here. None of the streams were helpful. Thanks to the updates in BC Shout, I thought of using BBC Radio’s live audio coverage of the match. It was really good. I actually enjoyed it. The commentary was very engaging and lively, and more than anything, neutral.

Ancelotti’s team selection was spot on. In the last blog, I had mentioned that I’d start with Kalou and Ballack in place of Anelka and Mikel. That’s exactly what he did. Then I thought, in that match, Deco played decently well in that short period he did. He got to start this match. I’m happy for Deco. Ancelotti started with him and he paid him back. Also, I liked the fact that Ancelotti brought on Sturridge and Sheva.

This win puts us on top of the league. I was annoyed to concede in this game. Once again, we trailed and chased the game. I was sure that we’d come back and hit them but to score three goals in 20 minutes in the second half was pretty impressive. By the way, Ancelotti is still unbeaten as a Chelsea manager. Long it may continue!

Sunderland vs Chelsea | 24-May-09 @ 16:00 UK Superb win for Chelsea. Having been down 0-1 by half...
Chelsea vs Sunderland | 01-Nov-08 @ 15:00 UK Superb win for Chelsea. Having been down 0-1 by half...
Chelsea 2-0 Sunderland | Another one of those wins Superb win for Chelsea. Having been down 0-1 by half...

Sucking Big Time at Fantasy Premier League

BlueChampions.Com — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 02:17:50 -0400

Quick update on the fantasy league. My team was quite decent and I was doing rather well after the first gameweek. An adventurous maverick like me cannot be content with the team he put up.

So I tampered with the team and made five transfers. The pop-up warning told me that 16 points will be reduced because only one transfer will be allowed anything more will cost four points each. I didn’t care. All I did was to realise my mistakes in selecting the team and I just corrected them all.

I had Anelka in my team. In a couple of matches, I’ve known that he seems to be back in his annoying for them, I had to move him out. Basically, I should have chosen players only that I’m very confident that they would play the matches. So Anelka is out.

The money that I saved by moving Anelka, I spent on a Wayne Rooney as he starts to look like the real deal for Man United this season. I also, strangely, had Essien and not Lampard in my team.

From a fantasy league point of view, who would not have Lampard? Because Lampard was the most expensive player I had to make a few other changes which had me do about five transfers to achieve the balance in the team and the budget.

There are now 162 players in the BlueChampions.Com league. After the cost of additional transfers, I’m now ranked 104 in the list. That’s something like India’s rank in the world football rankings, to put it in perspective. I thought I was better than that.

Anyway, there is no reason for me to be surprised as history tells me that I’m not out of character here. Okay, a quick look at the leaders. No. 1 is Evolution (Samuel Seah—106 pts). No. 2 is FC Magico (Paulo PL—102 pts). And No. 3 is Manchester United (Wayne Rooney—100 pts).

Everyday, I’m learning something new in the art of managing a fantasy league team. Though there is a gap of a whopping 40 points as of today between me and Samuel Seah, I hope I would catch up in the next few weeks. How’s it going for you guys?

Chelsea 2-1 Hull City | It Had to be Didier Drogba . . .

BlueChampions.Com — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 03:27:17 -0400

What a start. What. A. Start. This is gonna be some ride, guys! In some ways, this is the kind of start we should have.

At hindsight, we’re better off with such matches early in the season and we’re better off winning these type of matches rather than easy ones upfront. I have not forgotten how high-flying we were early last season (winning matches, dominating games and scoring goals and all that) until our tactics and weaknesses were found out.

Given that Ancelotti is trying out something new, we don’t really need to get early success. Let us struggle, work hard and find out the other side of this system as early as possible, when we have the players in the squad.

Basically, let’s not get ourselves in a corner when Drogba, Essien, and Kalou are going to be away for the African Cup of Nations.

From that point of view, I’m very happy with this game. The big plus is we played magnificently, at least I thought so. We were very comfortable on the ball, we dictated the pace of the game, we dominated them all over the pitch.

We had about 70 percent possession with a ridiculous 33 shots. We had several intelligent and decisive attacking moves and also created numerous chances. The most glaring thing was our inability to finish off the game with the million chances we created.

Drogba could be a lot of things, but he is not the best finisher in terms of conversion rate. Anelka, unless given on a plate, does not convert enough chances.

With the new system, I do see that Chelsea can control the game as well as create a lot of goal scoring opportunities. I do understand why the club is after Sergio Aguerro. I haven’t see too much of him.

We have a Drogba, so we don’t need a similar striker. We don’t need another Anelka because that’s not what we want.

We need someone with the strength and skill of Drogba and the finishing prowess of Anelka. I’m not sure if Aguerro is the answer. Someone like Samuel Eto'o would have fitted right in.

I’m always seen as someone who picks on Anelka. See, my stance has always been clear. When he started playing for Chelsea, he was poor. He missed the penalty that lost us the champions league.

And then he improved. Started finishing better. Under Hiddink, he worked harder, for himself and the team. At one point, I even had an Anelka wallpaper in my laptop. All that when he was trying and working hard.

Now, he just seems to have gone back to his inglorious Chelsea past. He is the weakest link in our attacks. I’m very sure and confident about this. Personally, I’m not even open for arguments. He is the weakest link in our attacks.

So much so, that I’d start Drogba with a Kalou or Sturridge in the next match, instead of giving one more chance for Anelka to also-run.

Lot has been said about Mikel’s performance of late under Ancelotti. Mikel has been brilliant for us but this new formation is a bit new experience for him. Our players are very matured to adapt to changes and play different formations.

The ones who lack experience are the ones who are going to find it difficult to get accustomed to the new set up. That’s why I think Mikel is finding difficult. He is a great young talent but he is a bit inexperienced, too. I’d be lot more patient with him.

While I’d be patient with him, I would not start him in the next match. I’d rather have Essien in the holding midfield and start Ballack. Mikel can then impress Ancelotti in the training ground and get back in.

Coming back this match, we were seconds away from a morale killing start to the league campaign. There was a time when no team could score at Stamford Bridge. It used to be such a prize for the opponents to score a goal at the Bridge.

It’s no longer the case, which is a bit sad. Why is that we need to concede a goal to pick things up? Is this becoming a habit? And the goal that we conceded was very shabby.

Mikel should take the bulk of the blame for making a poor headed which instead of clearing almost assisted them and for posing like a statue in the middle of the box.

Mikel certainly lacks two things in his game: reflexes and acceleration. He needs time to think and it works when he has the ball because he knows how to keep it. When he is off the ball, he does not have the reflex to quickly anticipate and react.

With this new formation, it is a bigger responsibility for the holding midfielder because the attacking midfielder and the side midfielders are play up and would not always get to the defending box.

Earlier, Mikel was always helped by Essien and Lampard. In the current set up, Essien and Lampard are supposed to be more attack-minded which means more responsibility for Mikel.

It’s a question of whether Mikel has what it takes to take this role. If he finds it difficult, I’m not surprised and I won’t blame him.

We can afford to keep him in the bench until he’s ready while we have Essien as the holding midfielder and use Deco and Ballack in the midfield.

That said, the Hull City goal was certainly against the run of play. And it’s so sad that it had to be Stephen *unt. The bridge crowd did nice job of reminding him of his thuggish attack on Cech and his lack of courtesy in dealing with that issue.

The Chelsea goal was always coming and when Hull City scored and I was double sure that we were going to dump them. When we had that free kick opportunity so close to the goal, I was truly hoping that Didier takes it. I have seen him score free kicks from close range.

Even in PES 2009, I use Drogs to take those close-range free kicks. His shot becomes unstoppable because of the shot power if he gets the angle right. And that’s what he got damn right yesterday. I thought I was super-excited until I saw Roman celebrate the goal.

Second half was just Chelsea trying everything possible to get that winner. We were a bit unlucky and mostly were guilty of not being clinical with our finishing. Which is why we had to wait till the death for the winner.

I was not quite convinced with substitute decisions. Carlo got Ballack for Mikel at half time which I thought was just right. Deco coming in for Malouda made our attack lighter and slower.

If I were going to make this compromise Deco must bring in something that Malouda did not. If the expectation was to bring in some flair and creativity to break the Hull defence, I’m not sure if Deco did that.

Anyway, he did provide the assist where the idea was certainly Drogba’s while Deco executed the pass. The subbing of Anelka was way too late. I thought Anelka could have been taken off at half time or at least before the 60th minute.

Kalou was brought on for just 15 minutes including the stoppage time. The impact that Kalou made in those 15 minutes was much more than what Anelka did in 75 minutes. Haven’t I said this line a dozen times before? Unfortunately, all I have to do is just repeat.

I’ll be pleased to see Kalou start the match with Drogba. We all know that Drogba and Kalou partner the attack for Ivory Coast and they in fact, play well together.

Plus, most of the times, Kalou has always got to play only out of position. Let’s play Kalou as a striker along with Drogba. It’s worth the punt.

Not sure if Drogba meant to score and I think he was only trying to cross. I think so because he chipped it with his left foot. If he was trying to score, it would have put it away with his right foot.

Anyway, Cheslea were truly deserved winners. Credit to Drogba for trying until the last moment. He believed that we could win. Three cheers to the spirit of Didier Drogba and Chelsea FC.

Something tells me that this 4-4-2 narrow diamond would work for us. I also have a feeling that this formation allows us to play more attacking football. I believe we will stick with this and will also master it.

While we are in the process of mastering it, there could be some glitches here and there. As long as Ancelotti is quick enough to react to the match situations, we should be fine.

We haven’t got the opportunity to see what Carlo’s so called ‘Plan B’ is. All that he had to do was to just do subs. We haven’t really changed formations as we were chasing the win. I’d even say, we didn’t have to.

The 4-4-2 narrow diamond was creating chances for us till the last minute. Because Hull City were defending deep and narrow, this formation of ours actually helped.

On the other hand, if we were playing 4-3-3, we’d have seen more inefficient passes and less support for Drogba and Lampard upfront. Overall, I’m still positive on Ancelotti. When things didn’t go well, I liked the way he was getting angry.

In comparison, Scolari was getting upset and worried and his body language showed that, whereas Ancelotti was more angry than worried. I like those kind of football managers.

Good start for the season. We are winning. Drogba is scoring. Lampard is doing well. We are settling down with our formation. We have a series of winnable matches in the next few weeks. We should be able to continue winning while getting accustomed to the new formation.

Don’t worry much about today’s result. Remember the opening day match against newly-promoted Wigan in the 05-06 season? We won with an injury time goal from Crespo and absolutely did not deserve to win that game.

Mourinho even admitted that to Jewel when he shook his hands with him. And you know who were the champions that season!

Meanwhile, we are supposedly still very active in the transfer market. Aug. 18 will be a key date for a lot of transfers because that’s when some of the clubs and key players could possibly make their first champions league appearance this season.

Expect some transfers to get done before the players get cup-tied or get some strong hints as players don’t get named in their squads.

Finally, the first round of fantasy league and IKTS results will be out by this evening. I’m not really topping the table as of today but that’s fine. Interestingly, there was a winner in all the matches yesterday, there were no draws!

I was really surprised that some people could really predict the results so well in IKTS. Anyway, a separate post on the fantasy league to come later. Cheers till then!

Chelsea vs Hull City | 15-Aug-09 @ 12:45 UK What a start. What. A. Start. This is gonna be...
Hull City vs Chelsea | 29-Oct-08 @ 19:45 UK What a start. What. A. Start. This is gonna be...
Chelsea 0-0 Hull City | It’s beyond doubt . . . What a start. What. A. Start. This is gonna be...

Chelsea v. Hull City Preview: 15 Aug 09, 12:45 GMT

BlueChampions.Com — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 16:25:26 -0400

It’s here! The wait of more than two years . . err . . two months is over! On Saturday, we’ll play the first of the 38 important matches of this Premier League season. The first match of this Premier League season will be played at Stamford Bridge as we start the season with a midday kick-off.

Is Hull City a good opponent for a first match? I’d say so. Anyways, technically this is our second official match of the season. Our first opponent was the defending champions and we beat them fair and square. Hull City have made a couple of key signings in Jozy Altidore and Stephen Hunt.

Playing at Stamford Bridge, I guess Hull City would be happy with a draw. It’s public knowledge that we would play narrow 4-4-2 and I fear that Hull City might just be comfortable with that. When we play the teams from the bottom half of the bottom half, the best way to break them down is by stretching them and create spaces. Our narrow midfield would just be what the doctor ordered for Hull City.

They could be more than willing to pack their defence and midfield and defend deep and defend compact. I’d expect that we’ll see more of the ball but it could be rather frustrating if we don’t try to be innovative. How much we will use our full backs is a something I’d love to see.

In full flow, we might even see a 3-5-2 with the defensive midfielder dropping back.

There’s still some time to go to see who can play and who cannot. For now, it appears that Carlo has the whole squad minus Joe Cole to choose from. Talking about the squad, we seem to be very clear on what we want to do with the squad. The loaning of Di Santo, Sinclair and Mancienne seem to be very planned and calculated.

Di Santo’s is a half season loan, so he would be back on the New Year's Day of 2010 by which time the Africans will be packing their bags for the biggest football event (bigger than World Cup?) of their continent. Mancienne is on a season long loan and if Riccy wants to leave next summer, Mancienne can fit right back in.

We seem to be keen on using the youngsters but we don’t want to risk our chances by playing them. That’s why all these youngsters are being loaned out to teams where they have a better chance of getting more pitch time. Gael Kakuta is injured but he is certainly one for the future. There is also a strong expectation that the 20-year old Serbian midfielder Nemanja Matic would sign for Chelsea in the next few days. Plus, you have Sturridge who has come in and Kalou seems to be staying as well. And, you even have a young goalkeeper in Turnbull. Do you see that we are able to put together a very young but decent squad with good Premier League experience sometime next season?

Coming back to the playing eleven for Saturday, I’d go with the best playing eleven possible. I’d put Essien back in defensive midfield and get Ballack to start in the right midfield where Essien did not find his feet last weekend. I’ll have Malouda start on the left midfield and as always have Lampard as the attacking tip. Anelka did not impress me in the last match but I’d still start with him as he had the knack of scoring goals against teams like Hull City.

As far as the formation is concerned, there is no discussion. It is going to be narrow 4-4-2 diamond. Some people seem to be very uncomfortable with this formation primarily because this does not seem to play to our strengths. This formation seems to disregard the late season unbeaten run that was achieved in the last season. 4-3-3 was successful and we have the players to play and win in that formation. Anyway, the boss seems to be clear on what he wants. I’m fine as long as it works and wins. There was this opinion poll in the club website on which formation to use. Looks like we have started to embrace this un-Chelsea formation little earlier than expected.

I must admit that we are a bit lucky with our fixtures in first couple of months. Until the end of September, our list opponents reads as Hull City, Sunderland, Fulham, Burnley, Stoke City, Tottenham and Wigan. During the same period, Man Utd gets to play Arsenal, Man City and at White Hart Lane among other matches. So there’s a bright chance for Chelsea to lead the pack and pushing to become the winter champion.

If this Chelsea team leads the table by some margin by Christmas, they will be the champions. That’s when the "players are old" argument turns into "players are experienced" adulation. As you had seen in my IKTS, I predict this match to be a 2-0 win for Chelsea. I expect Malouda and Drogba to score.

I didn’t even talk about Arsenal and Liverpool there. You know how much I admire Arsenal. Let them rot in hell while they get relegated. On a realistic note, I do honestly believe that Man City would finish fourth and assign Arsenal to Europa League. And Liverpool are back with their ‘this would be our season’. Oh yes, this would be their season, to finish third. Jose Mourinho has made this term ‘zero tituli’ very famous in Italy. It was one of his typical snub to Ranieri to say that the Italian has won zero titles. After Inter won the league, Adidas even made and sold shirts that had the lines in Italian “Me – champion, you – zero titles”. It was a big hit there. That’s what to do for Liverpool too. They have won zero premier league titles. Yes, zero. We have won two. I don’t want to go back to pre-war periods and days of Elvis and Beatles to measure success. When we talk about Olympics, we don’t count the medals from the Greek civilisation, do we?

Ok, I’m itching to talk about this now. Few days back in the comments section, I saw that JoseHoliday was making a reference to the Himalayan sun bears and how manures in the new jersey look like them. I didn’t quite understand that then. But when I googled to see some images of sun bears, I couldn’t stop laughing. So here is my little photoshop work to substantiate JoseHoliday’s claim. It’s a pity that the sun bear does not have a sponsor, otherwise he would have matched Rio every inch. Credit to you JH, let sun bears be synonymous with Manchester Town

In the last blog, I had said that we should reach the 100 mark by this weekend in the BlueChampions fantasy league. I must say I underestimated you guys! We are 115 already! Keep it going! Surprisingly, I find so many non-Chelsea fans signing up in this mini-league. Very surprising and interesting. By Sunday, we will have the first rounds of fantasy league results and the IKTS scores. I’d say the IKTS is more challenging than the fantasy league. Why don’t you come up with our IKTS predictions. You know mine. Let’s see how we fare!

So we start another premier league season at BlueChampions. This is the fourth season start here at BlueChampions. Ironically, since this blog was started, we have not won the premier league. I want Chelsea to win the league. And I want all of us to celebrate that together, right here! Let’s have a great season guys! May this season be filled with peace, joy and trophies for Chelsea FC. I’ll leave you all with Michael Essien’s words:

We are the Champions at the end of the season; ENJOY THE SEASON BECAUSE WE WILL.

Kick off your fantasy premier league & IKTS!

BlueChampions.Com — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:06:23 -0400

Great progress, guys! Now we have 94 people signed up for the BlueChampions.Com mini-league in the Fantasy Premier League. Hope we cross the century before this weekend. I’m really charged up about this whole fantasy league business primarily because of the interest and support that you have shown. As promised, we will have regular (weekly?) posts or updates on the progress of our fantasy league. I have also create a separate category (you can see it in the menu bar) for the fantasy league related posts.

Today, I thought I should write about the basics of a successful fantasy league team. Before I could apply my thoughts, I came across this crisp and neat article on the premier league site and I thought this is what I would have written as well. Go on, be enlightened.

Building a Fantasy Premier League team seems easy but it actually takes a good deal of thought and preparation. A few careless selections can leave you lagging behind fellow competitors from the off, but that scenario can be avoided by doing just a little homework. Setting yourself up for a good season is the aim here, so follow these five pointers and give yourself the best chance of getting off to a good campaign.

1. Make sure your selections will play…

This is the golden rule with any player you pick. After all, if he doesn’t make it on to the pitch, how can he score you points? Check through last year’s statistics to see if one of your fancies is a regular performer or a reserve team member. Does he play both home and away? Is he used as an impact substitute? In fact, while you’re looking at the ‘minutes played’ stat, arm yourself with as much information as possible by taking a good…

2. Look at last year’s stats

These numbers are your friends if you’re striving to gain an edge on fellow managers. A host of information is contained within from the simple—goals scored—to the more obscure—teams selected by—for instance. All are there for a reason and should be interrogated to gain an edge on your less studious competitors.

3. Study the transfer market

New arrivals can be significant as they can signal the end of the line for some former favourites or could be bought to form a partnership with another player. The loss of Cristiano Ronaldo from the Barclays Premier League will cause plenty of managers to have a rethink for 2009-10. The Portuguese winger was a fixture for many and the regular choice as captain in most teams. But Sir Alex Ferguson will surely have planned for life at Old Trafford without this regular provider of goals. Antonio Valencia has been brought in on the right wing, and we are likely to see more from Dimitar Berbatov and Wayne Rooney upfront. All three – though high profile already – have big seasons ahead of them.

4. Check the first month of fixtures

The fixture list is hugely important. Few teams are going to relish a month that includes games against Manchester United, Everton, Chelsea and Liverpool, yet that is what faces Burnley after their opener at Stoke, itself not an easy game. It is, of course, possible to have two players from any Premier League team, and a canny manager will load up on these performers when a relatively easy patch of games or—even better—a double gameweek comes around.

5. Look beyond the big names

We all want a midfield featuring Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Cesc Fabregas. The good news is you can have one, the bad is that it will leave you with very little cash for anyone else. With that pot of £100m the goal is to achieve a balance between the big names and lesser known players, attacking flair and defensive solidity. Again, check over the stats for solid performers from less glamorous clubs. These purchases can free up the funds for big name signings and can prove to be effective pointscorers themselves.

See, this is not a real team that’s going to be put on the pitch to perform. So don’t go for the leadership qualities, behaviour and discipline of the player and all that. Just take a guess which one of your players will earn you the maximum of points and make him the captain. Finally, when you choose players based on stats don’t go just by the points they earn, check their points per million rate. That’s where you’ll get your value-for-money players.

To reiterate, do look at the stats. Any guesses on who topped the overall premier league list in the fantasy league? Ok, that’s easy, the one and only Super Frankie Lampard. Below are the toppers in various categories.

If you have not signed up yet, do sign now. The name of the mini-league: BlueChampions.Com League. The joiners’ code: 897502-183475. Here is the SIGN-UP page for Fantasy Premier League & here is the RULES page of this fantasy league.

Also remember that there is a I Know The Score (IKTS) mini-league as well. IKTS is in the same fantasy premier league website and it works with the same login that you have for the fantasy premier league. It’s very simple. This page shows you the list the of all games of the next game week and allows you to update the scores. You get points based on whether you got the correct result or correct score or the correct goal difference.

For instance, let’s take the match on 10-May-09. Chelsea thrashed Arsenal 4-1 at the Emigrants stadium. If you had predicted this correctly as 4-1 to Chelsea (correct outcome, correct score), you’ll win 30 points. If you had predicted, a 3-0 to Chelsea (correct outcome, correct goal difference), you’ll win 15 points.

If you had predicted 5-0 to Chelsea (correct outcome, wrong goal difference), you’ll win 10 points. If you had predicted a 1-1 draw (wrong outcome), you’ll get minus 10 points. If the game was a draw and you predicted the draw with a wrong scoreline, you get 20 points. Also, you can choose one of those results (banker chip with the dollar sign) which you’re sure about whose points will be doubled. If you are unsure about a certain result you can choose (insurance chip with lock symbol) that as well where your minimum points will be zero.

Sounds interesting and fun? The name of the mini-league is again BlueChampions.Com League. The joiners’ code: F9E63-GKV. The premier league website is on single sign-on. So if you already have a login for the fantasy premier league, it would work for IKTS as well.

Now what you see above are my predictions for the first game week. Now you can comment on my predictions but also do join this mini-league as well and update your predictions there. Let’s who’s the best predictor in the BlueChampions universe

Building a Fantasy Premier League team seems easy but it actually takes a good deal of thought and preparation. A few careless selections can leave you lagging behind fellow competitors from the off, but that scenario can be avoided by doing just a little homework.Setting yourself up for a good season is the aim here, so follow these five pointers and give yourself the best chance of getting off to a good campaign.

1. Make sure your selections will play…

This is the golden rule with any player you pick. After all, if he doesn’t make it on to the pitch, how can he score you points? Check through last year’s statistics to see if one of your fancies is a regular performer or a reserve team member. Does he play both home and away? Is he used as an impact substitute? In fact, while you’re looking at the ‘minutes played’ stat, arm yourself with as much information as possible by taking a good…

2. Look at last year’s stats

These numbers are your friends if you’re striving to gain an edge on fellow managers. A host of information is contained within from the simple – goals scored – to the more obscure – teams selected by – for instance. All are there for a reason and should be interrogated to gain an edge on your less studious competitors.

3. Study the transfer market

New arrivals can be significant as they can signal the end of the line for some former favourites or could be bought to form a partnership with another player. The loss of Cristiano Ronaldo from the Barclays Premier League will cause plenty of managers to have a rethink for 2009-10. The Portuguese winger was a fixture for many and the regular choice as captain in most teams. But Sir Alex Ferguson will surely have planned for life at Old Trafford without this regular provider of goals. Antonio Valencia has been brought in on the right wing, and we are likely to see more from Dimitar Berbatov and Wayne Rooney upfront. All three – though high profile already – have big seasons ahead of them.

4. Check the first month of fixtures

The fixture list is hugely important. Few teams are going to relish a month that includes games against Manchester United, Everton, Chelsea and Liverpool, yet that is what faces Burnley after their opener at Stoke, itself not an easy game. It is, of course, possible to have two players from any Premier League team, and a canny manager will load up on these performers when a relatively easy patch of games or – even better! – a double gameweek comes around.

5. Look beyond the big names

We all want a midfield featuring Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Cesc Fabregas. The good news is you can have one, the bad is that it will leave you with very little cash for anyone else. With that pot of £100m the goal is to achieve a balance between the big names and lesser known players, attacking flair and defensive solidity. Again, check over the stats for solid performers from less glamorous clubs. These purchases can free up the funds for big name signings and can prove to be effective pointscorers themselves.

I don’t think this is comprehensive but it covers the key points. One other important thing is to be updated on the injury situations. Be sure to track the availability of your players and also keep an eye on value-for-money players becoming available after injury. The other thing is the choice of captain. See, this is not a real team that’s going to be put on the pitch to perform. So don’t go for the leadership qualities, behaviour and discipline of the player and all that. Just take a guess which one of your players will earn you the maximum of points and make him the captain.

If you have not signed up yet, do sign now. The name of the mini-league: BlueChampions League. The joiners’ code: 897502-183475. Here is the SIGN-UP page for Fantasy Premier League & here is the RULES page of this fantasy league.

BlueChampions Fantasy League is here! Great progress, guys! Now we have 94 people signed up...
The Blue Champions Club – Fantasy League Football Great progress, guys! Now we have 94 people signed up...
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Chelsea Draw First Blood, Win the FA Community Shield

BlueChampions.Com — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 15:21:27 -0400

Did I say I’ll catch you after the win? What a sweet feeling! I have a great feeling about this season already.

Chelsea and Ancelotti start the season on a winning note, and we have just beaten our most important title rival. Plus, we have won a penalty shootout!

Chelsea was a thoroughly-deserved winner of the FA Community Shield 2009/10. Truth be told, Man Utd was silenced for the majority of the match, while Chelsea was completely dominating them all over the park. You’d agree if you are not a biased Man Utd fan.

Chelsea had 57 percent possession, had 12 shots on target to Utd’s nine and had five shots off target to Utd’s two. If you watched the match, you’ll know that apart from the first 20-25 minutes, it was Chelsea all the way.

Man Utd were missing some players, but that’s second nature to us. Couple of years back when we played and lost to Man Utd in the Community Shield, we had to play without strikers (that’s when Malouda scored on his debut). I have no sympathy for injuries in football anymore.

Even Man Utd’s revival in the Premier League was helped by our injury situation. A club like Man Utd must have a squad that must be good enough to play and win matches like these.

It was a very well contested match. Both teams took this match seriously and they did want to win this trophy. Having lost the match, Man Utd fans might belittle the trophy but looking at their players I don’t think they took it lightly.

They absolutely wanted to win the trophy, but they were defeated by a better team. Even if they undermine the trophy, I’d still be happy with the fact that we outplayed them and beat them in the first official match of the season.

I didn’t expect four goals in this match. Typically, Chelsea wasn't awake for the first 20 minutes. Nani made use of an indecisive and lacklustre Chelsea and slammed a powerful shot. That was a very good goal.

I wanted us to equalise in the first half but we didn’t, though our game improved a lot. Chelsea then equalised with an intelligent play in the box with Lampard and Malouda combining to create a chance for Drogba which fell in Carvalho’s path.

Then, a swift counterattack saw Drogba dribble through to the Man Utd box and sweetly laying it off for Frank Lampard inside the box. That's goal No. 1 of another 20+ goal season for Lampard.

While we were just going through the motions waiting for the final whistle, Rooney scored with a superb finish, but that was clearly offside. He was caught by the offside trap but the linesman missed it and Rooney took full advantage of it.

Let’s remember that this is the first official match where Chelsea was experimenting the narrow 4-4-2. Lampard himself was not at ease at the tip of the narrow midfield. I felt Essien also did not feel at home in the right side of the narrow midfield.

To have Malouda play on the left midfield so close to the centre does not get the best out of him, so we had to spend some time on the pitch getting used to the system. That was the time when Man Utd pounded us with attacks. Once Chelsea settled in, you saw them bossing the pitch with their midfield maestros.

When it got to penalties, I thought, "Enough’s enough, we’re winning the shootout today." We took our penalties superbly well while Man Utd screwed it up.

Petr Cech made two saves, including the catch of Evra’s pass while Foster did not even get the sides right. Sadly for Man Utd, Rooney and Owen had not even taken their penalties when Kalou sealed it for Chelsea.

For Chelsea, I thought John Terry was immense. He was my man of the match. Drogba was at his deadly best but he was trying to create goals for others instead of scoring by himself. Anelka was very quiet and must have been subbed off earlier.

The goal that Lampard scored must have been that of Anelka. I wonder why Anelka did not position himself better for the pass and scream for the ball.

Malouda was good as well. Cech was at fault for the first goal and Bosingwa was beaten for the second. Ivanovic was a walking disaster and was rightly subbed at halftime.

Lampard was a bit off-colour early in the first half and then started asserting his authority. Typical 8/10 game for him. Deco’s performance was impressive. First up, he looked interested and he looked like he wants to fight for his place. Very healthy signs.

There was a lot of noise from the Manure gang about the build up of the Lampard goal. Certain facts there:

(i) Ballack did not foul Evra, it was just an overreaction for a body check;

(ii) After Evra fell down, the ball went to Man Utd player—Rooney;

(iii) Rooney did not put the ball out of play, he went on to build the attack;

(iv) After Rooney’s touch, the ball went to another Man Utd player—Carrick;

(v) Even Carrick did not put the ball out of play, he went on to build the attack;

(vi) Then the ball was won by Chelsea who also went on to build their attack;

(vii) All this time, the referee did not think it was necessary to stop the play;

(viii) The referee knew that Ballack made contact with Evra’s chest and Evra fell down holding his face;

(ix) Chelsea scored a legitimate goal.

When Chelsea lost to Ovrebo in the champions league semi final, all these self-righteous manure fans were preaching us on how to respect the referee and how we should learn to finish our chances.

Now, eat this. I can’t even tell them to learn to finish their chances. After the first 20-25 minutes, they were not in the game.

Did you see how their team surrounded the referee and hounded him? Did you see what kind of role models Rooney and Ferdinand were?

If you do this for a 72nd minute lead for a community shield match where you were outplayed, how would you expect Chelsea to react when they were undone by poor refereeing and a last-minute heartbreaker?

Staying on the topic of legitimacy of goals, let’s also touch upon the goal by Rooney. I’ve seen it many times now. I’ve paused it, rewinded it, played it and I’ve done them over and over again. That goal was offside by premier league standards. Manure must be happy that they were allowed go to the shootout to get shot. When I predicted a 2-1 win for Chelsea I didn’t count offside goals, so my prediction stays correct.

Finally, a word on Ancelotti. True to his word, he stuck with his 4-4-2 narrow diamond. Once Chelsea started finding their feet, it was classic Chelsea at display.

Dominating the midfield, winning the ball with consummate ease, creating chances, and making those cracking tackles and full-blooded blocks.

The 4-4-2 narrow diamond was good because we were able to create chances, but I have a feeling that we could become a bit predictable. We will have to wait and see.

The one area of concern I saw was that we were truly exposed in the flanks. In this narrow midfield, if the opponents are playing with two wide men our fullbacks are going to be tormented.

This very formation against some top quality wingers and wing backs would be dangerous. For instance, against Real Madrid or Barcelona, this would be suicide. I don’t know how this will develop as the season goes on. Again, we will have to wait and see.

Ancelotti was impressive in his first official match. He was smart to sub Ivanovic as early as half time, and his decision to bring on Ballack for Malouda was just right for that situation. I was also happy that he took off Anelka for Kalou.

I would have loved to see Sturridge but dear young Kalou came in and did the job with a superb penalty. It’s good that Ancelotti gets off to a great start. Scolari also got off to a flier and his Chelsea was found out by November.

So, I don’t want to shower praises or give any premature accolades. We’ve got a long season to go.

One thing is clear: Chelsea is the clear favourite this season. No team is as strong as Chelsea in England. All Ancelotti needs to do is to fully capitalise on it.

Meanwhile, I see that more than 50 of you have signed up for the BlueChampions fantasy premier league. It’s gonna be a cracking season there too! If you haven’t joined in yet, join right now. Premier league proper begins next weekend. Meanwhile, let’s enjoy the win, shall we?

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Chelsea v. Man Utd: The Frank Lampard Role!

BlueChampions.Com — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 03:30:05 -0400

Football, finally! Proper, top flight football and a trophy in sight! Chelsea, the FA Cup champions will take on Man Utd, the Premier League champions, on Sunday in the FA Community Shield match.

After a near flawless pre-season, there is no better match-up than a trophy match with Man Utd. Only yesterday, Carlo said that there won’t be any further signings for Chelsea. Few weeks back, Sir Alex had said the same for Man Utd. I’m not disappointed with this update from Carlo but I’m not too excited about this either.

Chelsea may not even have spent as much as Sunderland this summer. There were only three signings of which one was a free signing and another was through the tribunal. So that leaves only the Zhirkov signing where we had to spend £18m. For weeks, various black suits from Stamford Bridge have been saying that there would be another one top signing. And that’s what we’ve all been waiting for.

May be because we were very open about our intention to make another top purchase, we had to deal with some inflated prices. So, Carlo’s recent declaration that there won’t be any further signings and that he will take only this squad to this season could all be just mind games.

This is one way of telling the selling clubs that though we wanted to make one more top signing, we are not really desperate and we have a squad that can win the trophies. So, all I’m trying to say is that we could still make that marquee signing, irrespective what Ancelotti says.

By the way, the Pirlo news has also died down. There was no snub as is being made out by the dirty press. Pirlo decided to stay with Milan. The same way Terry did not snub Man City but opted to stay with Chelsea. So, Deco and Carvalho stay. I’m happy that Riccy stays. I’m still not decided on Deco.

I have a feeling that Ancelotti can bring Deco back to some kind of form and importance. Still there is no news on Pizarro and Sheva. Are they going to play for Chelsea this season?

On the finer topic of whether our squad is already complete, I would say NO. One of the fundamental assumptions that we sub-consciously make is that Frank Lampard is available for all season and he would play. Lampard has been able to keep himself fit for most or all of the season for many years (touch wood, dammit, hug the forest). And we seem to assume that he would play 50+ matches this season as well.

If Lampard is unable to play for say, half a season, we simply have no replacements for a player like Lampard. Of course I know that Lampard is not such a player whom you’ll be able to replace easily but we don’t even have a decent replacement. Essien, Ballack, Deco, Joe Cole are all quite different and do not produce what Lampard does.

Ballack does not have the legs and the final third capabilities of Lampard. Deco can never be a box-to-box midfielder. Joe Cole does not even think like a midfielder be an attacking one or otherwise. Essien is one player who can come close. He can be a box-to-box midfielder with his ability to read the game and his undying stamina, drive and desire.

But I think Essien lacks the vision and accuracy of Lampard. And Lampard can win you matches with his attacking play. Essien on the other hand, contributes immensely to our defence but I have my doubts if he would be able to win matches for us with his attacking play.

We talk so much about the Makelele role. There is infact a Lampard role too. He is very unique as well. He has defined his role rather than his role defining his play. He is there in attack, he is there in defence, he is there in midfield, he scores with his feet, he scores with his head, he assists, he aids, he chips, he long passes, he through balls, he takes free kicks, he takes corners, he takes penalties, he makes goal line clearances, he tackles, he plays every single minute in every single match, he captains when needed and leads all the time.

In the football world and football media, he is still very underrated. It is Chelsea and the supporters of Chelsea that are willing to give him his due. The way I see it, he has created a Lampard role which only very few players play and not one to the degree of Frank Lampard.

That’s why he is so important. And basically the issue is we have not really seen a Lampard-less Chelsea in the last five or six seasons. So that’s a risk that we have not really considered or we don’t want to consider. In the whole of Chelsea squad, the most irreplaceable player has to be Frank Lampard.

Yes, it is not John Terry, Didier Drogba or Michael Essien, it has to be Frank Lampard. The one top player that we want to sign ideally should be a very talented player, who can be an understudy for Lampard as well as being a partner for him. Someone like Gourcuff. Someone like Diego. Unless we have a suitable candidate to support Lampard and to take over the Lampard role over a period of time, our squad will not be complete.

Oh, I was talking about the match on Sunday right? We have a full squad to choose from except for Zhirkov who is doubtful for Sunday. Anyway, when we have fully fit squad, I don’t see Zhirkov starting yet. Not over Ashley Cole. Not over an all guns blazing Malouda.

This will be the first be the first proper test for Carlo Ancelotti. In a superb pre-season preparation, for the first time he played an English opposition, we needed to two goals in the last two minutes to snatch a draw. A week later, we are playing the champions of England. It’s a big test for the Man Utd squad too. There is a popular belief that they are weakened due to the absence of Ronaldo and Tevez. That’s what I feel too but let’s remember that Ronaldo wasn’t around for the first part of the last season and Tevez was never an automatic starter.

Carlo put it very well. The biggest strength of Chelsea is that they are able to retain all the key players which is something none of the other top four teams can say. Man Utd lost Ronaldo and Tevez. Arsenal lost Adebayor and Toure. Liverpool lost Arbeloa and Xabi Alonso. Chelsea lost none.

Even better, players like Malouda, Mikel and Drogba have signed contract extensions. Chelsea is certainly the strongest side in the premier league this season and I want to see that on the pitch. This time, Chelsea must show their authority all through the season and that must begin on Sunday. A victory of Man Utd would be a great start for Chelsea, Ancelotti and that 4-4-2 narrow diamond.

My prediction is a 2-1 win for Chelsea. Drogba and Anelka to score. The match starts at 15:00 UK. For the viewers in India, the match is telecast live on Sony Pix channel. I’m really really excited that the season is here and I’ll be watching football tomorrow! You know this bit already – Be there at BC Shout – for the live match chat! And yes, do join the BlueChampions.Com Fantasy Premier League.

Catch you after the win

My View on the Adrian Mutu Situation

BlueChampions.Com — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 02:21:22 -0400

The big topic of the day is Adrian Mutu. There have been so many reactions to the court ruling that says that the has to pay about £15m to Chelsea as damages.

I did look at some of the reactions from Goal.com editors. They were not worthy of editorial columns. They were biased, knee-jerked and cheap. It is sad that Goal.com editors talk like the blokes that you pick up on a pub and realise that they are on their 10th beer.

My view is this: Yes, it is unfortunate (not unjustified) that Adrian Mutu is expected to pay the damages of £15m to Chelsea. For a 30-year old player of Mutu’s market value, it is a huge ask. I’m sorry for him. It was Adrian Mutu who was responsible for this situation.

When he took cocaine and failed the drug test, he must have surely violated some of the contract clauses. Chelsea did have their choices of keeping him or sacking him and they did the latter. Most of the discussions around this issue seems to be around the money involved or the cost of the damage.

Therefore, we have kind of established the fact that Mutu does have to pay some money to Chelsea as damages and we are haggling only over the price. Right? Now the question is on how much should be paying Chelsea? Chelsea paid a huge sum to bring in Mutu.

There are arguments that Mutu had no control over what price Chelsea were paying Parma. My point is, having known the price, Mutu must have felt the responsibility and that is enough reason to keep him away from such silly youthful mistakes.

See, Real Madrid have paid £85m for Ronaldo. If Ronaldo says that he wants to go for a friendly bike race with this friends on 1000cc bikes, what would Real Madrid say? If he goes on and breaks his legs, who’s going to bear that loss for Real Madrid?

If the same accident had happened in the normal course I can understand. But the accident should not happen because of the irresponsible acts of the players not knowing their own value. There were even arguments that said if Chelsea had paid only £3m to Parma that’s what now Mutu would have had to pay Chelsea. Some even put the blame on Chelsea for paying so much for Mutu which has had a direct impact on the extent of damages.

See if you’re driving a million-pound Ferrari and I’m smashing your car with a construction vehicle, you’d sue me for the cost of your expensive Ferrari car. Can I then tell you that you should have been driving a pick-up truck instead of a Ferrari? That’s a stupid argument.

Throwing a live cigarette on the road and in a nuclear plant may not be the same offence. You can’t be stupid to throw it in a nuclear plant and innocently say “I only threw a cigarette”.

Don’t look at this isolation. When the clubs invest millions of pounds in players, there is so much hope, trust and money in them. The players have to be more responsible knowing what kind of business they are raking and how their actions would impact the business.

Again, I’m sorry for Mutu. It is very unfortunate for him. Only he could have avoided this situation. I still feel that Chelsea and Abramovich would settle for a smaller amount outside of the court. But I don’t know what kind of discussions, arguments and relationship-breaking moments Mutu’s camp and Roman’s camp have had.

The other popular question is how Chelsea would react if say, Frank Lampard was involved in such a thing. First up, there’s no way Lampard is going to do such a stupid thing. Suppose he does, Chelsea would have kept him. Because for the simple reason Lampard is not Mutu. It’s so simple and easy to understand. Why would I equate a club legend with someone who didn’t even play a couple of seasons and during that period did not light up the league? It is a matter of finance rather than justice.

If Chelsea thinks that it can forgo the £15m for a club legend like Lampard, they would not sue him. In Mutu’s case, there is no such consideration. Simple as that.

The below is what Jose Mourinho said during the Mutu incident in 2004:

When I met Adrian Mutu on his first day in the pre-season, it was with his two agents, Mr. Becali and Gica Popescu. I told all three I have information that the player is on cocaine. We are speaking about the beginning of July. All three were laughing, denying and saying this a big lie. They said there are a lot of lies about Adrian and maybe some because last season he had some strange behaviour in the club and in his social life. They said it is completely untrue. After that I didn’t speak with him again about it because they denied the situation. Then at the club, during a long period, we felt just now again there was a strange behaviour. Sometimes happy, sometimes not so happy. Sometimes involved in the group, sometimes isolated. Arriving late a few times, not coming in to train other times. The doctor visiting his house and the reason was apparently headaches, not a big reason for that. Injuries when nobody knows when and how. For instance he didn’t play in Paris and the next day he was injured. So strange things.

We spoke about it. We asked is he pushing us to let him go in December and he is trying to get into a conflict with the manager so the manager says we have to let him go to another place? Or is he involved in other things? So begins to start a question mark. Our doctor, because he is analysing with different eyes, thought maybe yes and we cannot live in a football club with question marks. Mutu is valuable. Chelsea paid a big amount of money, he is still young and has years in front of him after his punishment and I don’t think we can say this is pragmatic.

The club bought him to be ready to play football and now he will be out of competition for a long period. The first one to break the relationship was the player so he cannot complain and the club cannot be called guilty in this situation. The club gave him everything he needs to have a good professional life. As he has said in a few interviews, this is a personal problem for a long period and I think the club cannot be called guilty. It is his fault. He is a human being, he is young man and his life must go in the right direction and for sure he will have around him people who love him and people who have a good relationship with him, his family, his agent, his advisers – and plenty of time to go into a good direction. This is a decision by Chelsea Football Club. We cannot interfere or push other clubs to go the same way. When our academy director works every week with every kid on a very important job in this area, the club felt this is the perfect example to show the way the club wants to go. It is not a crusade, other clubs can decide differently. The club felt this way, everybody was part of the decision and of course I agree.

I like Adrian Mutu as a player. The only reason why I cheered Romania in the Euro is because of Mutu. The only reason why I show some interest in the Fiorentina games is Mutu. Once again, I’m very sorry for Mutu.

Unfortunately, he is not Steven Gerrard and it was not a Liverpool court.