The Chelsea Daily Drivel 18 July, 2010

The Chelsea Daily Drivel is a daily update of all the stories concerning our club, the rumours, the opinions and more...

So here is the latest from around the web on Sunday, 18 July, 2010 including: Michael Essien scores as we beat Crystal Palace 1-0, Carlo Ancelotti on the performance, Ancelotti speaks about Fernando Torres , Ancelotti on Ashley Cole and Liverpool's Joe Cole offer.
 
As you can imagine, with Chelsea's first preseason friendly taking place yesterday, a lot of today's Chelsea Daily Drivel content is based around the game and the quotes afterwards from Carlo Ancelotti.

So let's make a start with the game itself. Chelsea, who without the World Cup featured stars and also one or two with slight knocks or injuries, traveled to Selhurst Park to take on Crystal Palace. As reported in yesterday's Chelsea Daily Drivel , Petr Cech, Mikel, Essien, and Alex were to play a part in the game as the preseason kicked off. It was a chance for the reserves and youngsters to impress Carlo as they took to the field.

Chelsea's Team/Subs for the game:

Petr Cech (capt)
Jeffrey Bruma
Alex
Patrick van Aanholt
Ryan Bertrand
John Mikel Obi
Michael Essien
Nemanja Matic
Josh McEachran
Franco Di Santo
Daniel Sturridge

Subs: Hilario, Ross Turnbull, Ben Gordon, Nathaniel Chalobah, Jack Cork, Conor Clifford, Daniel Philliskirk, Michael Woods, Kaby Djalo, Milan Lalkovic, Scott Sinclair

The Blues were on the front foot from the off with Franco Di Santo testing Julian Speroni while Essien came close to opening the scoring in the 27th minute with a looping half-volley.

Daniel Sturridge for Chelsea and Darren Ambrose for Palace flashed efforts wide before the break, before the ex-Manchester City man wasted a good chance after being closed down by Speroni.

Chelsea forged in front on the hour mark through Essien, and that was his last involvement as Carlo Ancelotti rang the changes and the goal proved decisive as the Premier League champions held on for the victory.
(Source skysports.com)

Essien and Ancelotti spoke after the game. Essien said:

""It feels good, it's been a long time, but I am back in full training now, everything is good and there is no reaction from the training, so things are looking good for me, I didn't have any holidays because of my rehab, but it will be good to start up again and I am looking forward to the rest of the boys coming back as well.

I'd love to have been there playing at the end of the season, it wasn't easy for me, but I supported my teammates to win their matches, that's all I could do. I became a supporter and to end the season with two trophies was amazing and I was enjoying it like everyone even though I didn't play the whole season.""

Ancelotti said:

""It was an important return, he came back very well and played very well. He is a fantastic player, we missed him last season and we hope he can do the best for this season.""

Ancelotti also spoke after the game about the performance and about the squad's preseason so far and some of the team's younger players. He said:

""We had a good performance and played good football. We had the possibility to see young players from our Academy and this is a good thing for us and also for them to be involved in the first team, it was an important return, he came back very well and played very well. He is a fantastic player, we missed him last season and we hope he can do the best for this season.

I am happy because this squad won the league and FA Cup, so I am very happy to continue working with this team. I don't think we need to change.

Chalobah was so young, and for him it is important to stay with us for some time. His team will be the youth team for next season, McEachran has to improve, he has fantastic skill, is in the national Under 17 team and has his future. I think three, four or five players can be with us in the squad next season. We have a lot of young players ready to play in our team.""

Now to Fernando Torres . All summer there has been constant speculation about Chelsea's interest and reported bid's for the Liverpool man. This had been heightened when Benitez left his job in a local Liverpool restaurant he had for the summer and Liverpool Football Club and headed for Inter Milan.

Only yesterday in the Drivel it had been reported that Chelsea had offered £40m for Torres which had been knocked back and were preparing a £50m bid to further test Liverpool's resolve. However, yesterday after the game Carlo spoke of Torres and whether or not it was a smoke screen to fool the press and media remains to be seen. He said:

""I don't think we need other strikers, Nothing has changed because in the next days we have Didier Drogba, Nicolas Anelka and Salomon Kalou back and we have Daniel Sturridge.

I don't think we will do anything differently. We will do our best in the Premier League and in Europe, but I don't think we need much change. I don't know what will happen until the end of the transfer window but I am happy at the moment.""

The "I don't know what will happen until the end of the transfer window" comment is rubbish to me, as after we have released Ballack , Cole and Belletti we need to replace the gaps that those players have left in the squad.

Now to Ashley Cole , Carlo Ancelotti has spoken out for the first time about rumours about a possible move to Real Madrid. As we all know there has been speculation all summer about his future and in the last few days it had been reported that Chelsea had told Madrid it would cost them £30m to prize him away from the Bridge. Carlo has denied that Cole will be leaving. He said:

""Cole will be important for us next season. 100 percent. I didn't speak with him, I don't need to speak with him and he doesn't need to speak to me.""

It seems that the rumour surrounding Joe Cole's future is taking extra significance in the last few days as Bookies have stopped taking bets on where he will sign after hefty amounts of money were put on Liverpool. It's reported that the Dippers have upped their offer from £80k per week to £90k per week and that could be enough to get the signature of Cole.

I personally feel that Joe would get his start week in and week out at Liverpool as their squad isn't exactly going to push for the title and I believe that the most die hard Liverpool fans will agree that it just isn't good enough to challenge for the league.

I believe the same could be said at Spurs in relation to playing week in and week out. Spurs have a better squad than Liverpool and would now consistently challenge for a place in the top four every year under Redknapp.

I do believe if I was Joe, I would sign for Arsenal. Purely and simply because of what Wenger is building there. Young players who have been together for a while now and will only get better. The Arse qualify season in, season out for the Champions League and in my view will push for the title next season.

Let's see what happens with Joe in the coming days. I know a lot of the Chelsea faithful believe he had his day at Chelsea and the time was right for him to leave, but I still can't help thinking that one day he will return to play against us and it will bite us on the arse!

Finally to today's "Drivel Giggle." The Bison Makes a kid cry!!!



At least he went over to see if he was ok!

KTBFFH everyone!