Chelsea Conquer Milan as Yuri Zhirkov Joins the Party!

I say Chelsea conquered Milan because we have beaten Inter Milan and AC Milan in the space of a week. What more they need to do to say they conquered Milan? We played in that new away jersey for the first time. It looked better on the pitch than on the Chelsea megastore website.

The unbeaten run in the pre-season friendlies continues. A three-match streak is long enough to be called a "run" right? There I am learning from the football media.

Having beaten the half-fit champions of Italy rather comfortably, you’d expect Chelsea to breeze past a Kaka-less Milan. It was a tougher match. Chelsea conceded the first goal of the season. But it was a match that Chelsea dominated and were more than deserved to be winners.

The man of the match and the moment is Yuri Zhirkov. Having got his work permit only last week, he was given some playing time by Carlo straightaway.

He played for 45 minutes in the second half in the left midfield. He was all that we have known for and expected him to be. He was very active and busy. And he scored a goal on his debut and that happened to be a winning goal against AC Milan. Not bad, eh?

One of the things I like about Chelsea and very proud about them is their no-nonsense approach in the final third and the instincts to go for the goal from distance. We have a team of long shooters and I love that. Zhirkov in this instance could have passed the ball to the D but instead he backed himself and went for the shot. That’s what I liked about the goal. Taking a shot from distance is not just about skill. It’s about decision making. It is a decision that you make whether to go for the goal or pass it around.

When you have a set of players who are leaders in their own right, who can think for the team, take a decision and go for it, you’ll see these long range shots. Arsenal does not score long range shots not because they always want to pass it around, the players are scared of taking a decision and pulling the trigger.

Their game turns out to be indecisive and unending because no one takes a call. Whereas the way Chelsea play is exactly what I want and love. To be honest, even when I play Pro Evo on Xbox, my playing style is very similar to that of Chelsea.

Earlier, Didier Drogba reaffirmed that he is back in form and that every bit of trust we place in him will be repaid very well. It was one of those Didier Drogba goals that you can call a scorcher or a stunner or a belter or again in football media terms, a piledriver.

That’s what it was. All from 30-35 yards. I would think that the Premier League teams would have closed him down better and may not have given him that unmanned circle with a five-yard radius as well.

And yes, we conceded a goal. Ronaldinho created it. Seedorf buried it from the D. To be honest, Terry could have positioned himself better for that goal. While he was blocking Cech’s view, he also let Seedorf take shot at the top right corner. By the way, did you guys see how Terry was reacting and celebrating to the Drogba goal? Man, he’s ours and he’ll stay so.

In other news, Ancelotti has made this very interesting announcement that Mikel would be our playmaker. Deep-lying playmaker, probably. That’s an interesting thing to say. As we know, Mikel started his career as an attacking midfielder and in a team like Chelsea, he needed to play as a defensive midfielder which he did superbly well.

Now, probably, we will see the evolution of Mikel. He’s matured enough now to understand the game better, would read the game better in his current role and now should move to a more influential role. I’m not sure if he has the vision to be a good playmaker, but we will see.

Mikel himself thinks that he would take some time before he can be a playmaker as such.

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"It is a great honour that he sees something in me. He says I am a player with great qualities, but thinks I can be even better. It is going to take a bit of time, but I am going to work very close with him to make it happen. He likes the fact I am strong and can play with the ball, but says that I still need to add more things to my game—if I do that then he thinks I’m going to be fantastic."

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As he said, he needs to add more things to his game. That’s the right way to put it. Him becoming a playmaker can come later. First up, he needs to have more weapons in his game that he can use. This might take some time but as a fan of Mikel, I’m all for waiting for him to blossom.

Deco now wants to play for Chelsea. The last I heard was that he was tired of Chelsea and was hoping that TSO makes him an offer, With Ancelotti coming in, that too suggesting a four-man midfield, and no offer coming from Inter, Deco seems to have accepted that reality that he is a Chelsea play and as long as he is one, he needs to give his best.

He does talk about the impact of his four injuries last season. I didn’t realise that he had four of them. Fair play to him, the last competitive match he played, he was just fantastic but he was injured after the match and returned only for the pre-season friendlies.

Latest in the series of ‘I’m very happy at Chelsea’ stories, we have Nicolas Anelka.

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"I am happy at Chelsea. I am very pleased about everything that is going on and also with things on the outside. I don’t need to move. My last season here was pleasing. It’s always good to score goals and more so to finish top scorer. So I’m glad to be here, to play for a big club like Chelsea and that I had a good season. When I first signed I thought I would play with Didier up front, but they only wanted to play one of us up front. It was a shame because we knew we could play together. When we play together, I look for him straight away when I have the ball. I want him to score and the same goes for him. When he has the ball he looks for me when I’m up front. We are capable of winning both titles. Last season we couldn’t do it but we will try to do it next season. Last year we conceded too many draws and lost games at home, this cost us the title."

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It is very well documented that I was a cruel critic of Nicolas Anelka. Truth be told, I’ve started loving this man. Not because he got a golden boot (his was one of the meekest golden boot performances). It’s because he started caring for Chelsea and his colleagues.

He started working hard on the pitch. He started covering ground to help his team mates (I’m still waiting for his first yellow card for a tackle). He started celebrating with his team. He even started smiling. Anelka is known as a cold-hearted assassin who never cared for his employer. He is known as the man who has never loved his club. I think that is changing.

Within his ‘emotional framework’, I do see that he likes to play for Chelsea and likes working with his colleagues. He says ‘he is happy’ so he might just be ecstatic inside. I like this new Anelka. I really do.

Finally, my love for Ashley Cole has just doubled. Talking about Man City, Ashley Cole said:

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"I have friends there and I hope they do really well—and that they finish above Arsenal."

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There are versions that he was joking but we all know how much he meant it. Ashley for President! Arsenal for Europa Cup!

Chelsea for Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup, League Cup and Community Shield.