11Blues: The Unofficial Chelsea Blog and News

Game Starts 19:45 London Time

Bolt for the Blues, the start of the Bolton week.

I say that because we host the Wanderers today and visit them at the weekend. So this can be easily labelled the Bolton week. In reality, Chelsea would be playing with virtually playing different squads for the two encounters. News is that a lot of players are being rested today.

This is the 4th Round of the Carling Cup, and generally the Round of Upsets. Honestly, Bolton scares me, specially after the 4-3 from 4-0 in April this year.

Ancelotti, as usual, takes the game pretty seriously. I love the way he hypes games up.

“It’s important because it’s the first final. It’s the first title and we have a good opportunity tomorrow. We will change some things but we will pick a very competitive team.”

Bolton Manager Gary Megson, was a little sarcastic when he said:

“We are not in the luxurious position of having two teams to choose from like some clubs are, but we’ll put out a strong team like we did in the previous rounds. We’ll do the same again, this is a major trophy and we want to win it. Everyone wants to win something at this club. We’ll be having a good go at it, we want to do as well as we can, irrespective of the fact we are playing them again in the league at the weekend.”

When asked about the repeat game for the Premiership at the weekend, he said:

“It won’t make any difference at all – it is not part of that preparation and it will have absolutely no bearing on the game on Saturday,

“I think if either team was using this as preparation, I think that would demean the Carling Cup a little bit.

“We want to go through, make no mistake about it, and I know Carlo will want to go through.

“Regardless of them wanting to win the Champions League, the Premier League and the FA Cup, they will want to win this one as well – maybe not with the same priority as the other three but they will want to win it, I can assure you.”

Flue Attack

There were a lot of stories floating around about the Swine Flu scare in the Premier League and Blackburn (Chelsea’s Last Opponents) being one of the victims. Doesn’t it scare Ancelotti?

“I’m not worried. The flu is not only on the pitch, it’s everywhere. We take all the precautions and we want to think about playing, that’s it. We will do the same things we normally do. It’s not a problem and the players have stayed very well.”

When asked about his knowledge about swine flue remedies, he went on:

“I know very well what I have to do if I have the flu. It’s not a medical prescription. It’s my grandmother’s prescription — hot milk. Alcohol — red wine. Fantastic.”

HA!

Homecoming awaits Anelka as well, as he faces one of his ex-clubs.

Team News

John Terry, Petr Cech, Ricardo Carvalho, Michael Essien, Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka are all rested. What it means is that Sturridge will get a chance to show the world what he is capable of doing.

CHELSEA (from): Hilario, Turnbull, Belletti, Alex, Ivanovic, Ferreira, Deco, Ballack, Malouda, Sturridge, Kalou, J Cole, Essien, Bruma, Borini, Matic.

BOLTON (from): Jaaskelainen, Al Habsi, Ricketts, Steinsson, Knight, Cahill, A O’Brien, Samuel, Robinson, M Davies, Basham, Muamba, Cohen, McCann, Gardner, Taylor, K Davies, Klasnic, Lee, Elmander.

That’s it for now. See you after the game. If you are online during the game, do catch up with me @11blues and don’t forget to follow.

Goalkeeping has always been a worry for Blackburn, as I tried to show in my morning post about them. Fortunately for them, it wasn’t a problem for them today. All the goals that Chelsea scored were un-saveable.

Confident after their 4-0 victory over Atletico Madrid, the Blues from Stamford Bridge beat an un-inspiring Blackburn Rovers 5 goals to nil in the 10th game of their Premiership Campaign.

Sam Allardyce’s side came to the Bridge hoping to, at max, salvage a point. What lay in store for them was a rejuvenated Chelsea side, bloating with the return of Joe Cole and the return to goal-scoring form of Frank Lampard.

Neither of them disappointed today, with Lampard scoring a goal and Cole playing really well in the centre. A very fluid centre, I might add. Carlo Ancelotti was back on time to be with the team as the game started, and he was mighty pleased with the result. He even waxed eloquent about his boys in blue after the game. More about what he said a little while later.

The Goals

The first goal was in the 19th minute. Ballack passed a great ball to the left where Anelka was in a great position and space. He slid it across and before Drogba could get to it, Givet of Blackburn did, and went down in history as on the most proactive own goals

In the 47th minute, just after the second half began, Lampard scored his second open play goal in 4 days, a great strike from 12 yards to an almost open goal – a result of sloppy clearing

Essien was in the mood today. All the talk that long range shots should be avoided seemed like fables to him as he curled one in from about 35 yards at 51 minutes into the game, a treat to watch for everyone except the goalkeeper.

Didier Drogba did his bit and fell inside the D to a tackle by Nelsen ensuring a penalty. Lampard netted in his second for the evening. The time was at 58 minutes

Anelka played brilliantly today, so did everyone including the subs Bruma, Sturridge and Ferreria. None of them scored any goals though, but Drogba did, heading in a Ballack corner at 63 minutes.

Alas, there were no more goals. Wait till we travel to Bolton on the 31st.

Managers’ Quote:

Ancelotti:

"I was impressed with Joe because I know very well how hard he has worked in the last month,

He is a great professional and after 10 months it is not easy for Joe to play like he did. It was a surprise and I am happy for him.

"Joe is a very important player for us. He has fantastic quality in midfield. He is a genius.

"Chelsea played very well and it is not easy to play against us when we put great quality on the pitch. Blackburn did what they could.

"After the defeat against Aston Villa last week we had a good solution about the set-plays. We had a strong defence from set-plays today. We have improved very quick and very well.

"I think it was the best performance since I came here but we have played well in other games.

"I liked this game very much. We played very well and it was a pleasure to see the team play like this.

"We had to pay attention because when you are 1-0 up we know that in football things can happen and it is not a sure result. But at half-time, I asked my team to score more.

"It has been a difficult time but this is life. I hope my father will be better in the next day.

"Tomorrow I have a free day and will go back to Italy and return on Monday but I think my father will be better.

"These are difficult days but after Monday I think he will be better and I can stay here without problems."

Stats:

Chelsea (4-diamond-2): Cech; Belletti (Ferreira 60), Carvalho (Bruma 66), Terry (c), Ivanovic; Essien; Ballack, Lampard; J Cole (Sturridge 76); Anelka, Drogba.
Scorers Givet o.g. 19, Lampard 47, 58 (pen), Essien 51, Drogba 63.

Blackburn (4-1-4-1): Robinson; Jacobsen (Salgado 59), Givet, Nelsen (c), Olsson; N’Zonzi; Diouf, Andrews, Emerton, Pedersen (Hoilett 68); Roberts (Kalinic 51).
Booked Pedersen 45

That’s it for now. Good night blues.

After the emphatic win against Atletico Madrid, the blues take on 13th place Blackburn Rovers today at Stamford Bridge. If you want to be there, hurry up. Match starts at 1730 UK time.

Looks like manager Carlo Ancelotti will not be available for this game, as he was away tending to his Dad Giuseppe’s illness away at Reggiolo, Italy. That also happens to be the place Carlo calls home. In Ray Wilkins though, Chelsea have a capable contingency manager. There are also chances that his flight might land well in time for the game. It is Blackburn anyway.

Ha! If you think I am getting a bit over-confident about our chances, you might be mistaken. Everything I do is to ensure that the blues win. Not one to believe in superstitions, but when I was a little circumspect of our chances in the last two away games, the team proved me right by losing both of them in pretty embarrassing defensive circumstances. Hence, the brashness.

Coming back to the game, Joe Cole seems to have recovered as well as he could ever hope to recover. He could be playing against The Riversiders managed by Sam Allardyce, whose past achievements include winning the premiership back in 1994-95 and winning the FA Cup in 1884,1885,1886,1890,1891 and1928. Allardyce’s great-great-great grandpa would have been a very proud man.

Wilkin’s time in the Sun

With Ancelotti not available, it was Wilkins’ turn to play up small games. Here is what he said, in usual Manager aplomb:

"We have got a massive game against Blackburn tomorrow and as far as the transfer situation is concerned I am not overly concerned about that.

"It would be very pleasant to be able to bring people in because we lose some influential players in Kalou, Drogba, Essien and Mikel, but we have a squad here that is more than capable of coping with that situation.

"If we are able to bring people in then all well and good and if we are not, we’ll just crack on with what we have got.”

He forgot to talk about the game at hand except the part when he called Blackburn as MASSIVE game. Blah!

From the Blackburn side

Sam Allardyce also seemed unconcerned about the game. He did not even talk about the game. All he talked about was how Ireland Coach Giovanni Trapattoni was wrong by claiming that Steven Reid’s injury was incurable.

"It’s disgraceful, completely out of order.

"He’s not talking correctly in terms of Steven’s injury. What he’s saying is completely untrue and something he should apologise for.

"He’s undermined us as a football club, undermined Steven as a player and he has really been very, very naughty in what he has said.

"He should make a public apology and hopefully that will be the end of it.

"Steven’s had a long haul and he’s trying to resurrect his career and secure a new contract. He also wants to go and play for his country as he has done many, many times and given his all on every occasion.

"There’s no player more honest than Steven and to be dealt that sort of a blow at this stage, when he’s not feeling the best, trying to come back from a big injury and picking up another little niggle, is very disrespectful to say the least. It’s disgusting.”

Poor Stevie. He might be crying in some corner somewhere.

Teams

Chelsea (from): Cech, Hilario, Turnbull, Ivanovic, A Cole, Carvalho, Terry, Belletti, Hutchinson, Bruma, Essien, Lampard, J Cole, Ballack, Malouda, Deco, Kalou, Drogba, Sturridge, Anelka, Borini

Blackburn (from): Paul Robinson, Lars Jacobsen, Christopher Samba, Gaël Givet, Ryan Nelsen, Brett Emerton, David Dunn, Jason Roberts, Benni McCarthy, Morten Gamst Pedersen, Steven N’Zonzi, Keith Andrews, El Hadji Diouf, Elrio van Heerden, Martin Olsson, Nikola Kalini?, David Hoilett, Míchel Salgado, Phil Jones, Gavin Gunning, Jason Brown, Maceo Rigters

That’s it for now. See you after the game.

PS: I predict 2-0 to Chelsea. What about you? Let me know by commenting.

Second Consecutive Away Defeat, Chelsea go down to a resilient Villa outfit, aided by their own stupidity

The day was going pretty great till Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka decided to screw it up for me. It was a lovely Saturday morning, add to that the fervour of Diwali and you have the ingredients of an auspicious day to come.

It was of course, not to be. Chelsea lost to Villa 1-2 and ruined the day. No, I want to correct myself. The defeat did not ruin my day, the way they managed to earn this defeat did. If the person who invented man-marking were alive today, we would surely have got his suicide note in tomorrow’s paper.

That was about the defence. Hold on, not yet. Whenever Villa wanted to charge, they were allowed to, and in a manner more fluent than we could ever achieve during the 90 minutes of torture.

Chelsea, as usual, got more chances, more shots on goal, and more opportunities to kill the game. But who cares about them. The conversion was as bad as it would ever get this season. What is the point of having so many chances, if there is only one goal to show for it?

Take a look at the following stats and let me know why a team with 68% possession, 7 shots on target, 21 shots, 9 corners, and with the keeper having to make only one save, lost 1-2. It is beyond me.

Ancelotti must be rueing his lap dance by now. He should have been here teaching these lads a thing or two about man marking.

Drogba put us in front in the 15th minute. But that was irrelevant as Aston bounced back and then ended up doubling their lead.

It is interesting what Chelsea FC has to say about this:

Drogba received the ball, back to goal, some 25 yards out, and given space to turn by his marker, did so, unleashing a speculative effort that bounced awkwardly in front of Villa goalkeeper Brad Friedel, and up into the net.

All good, but listen to the very next line, kind of sums up the game for me:

It was without question more than we deserved at that stage, having been wasteful in possession and of little threat going forward, but Villa had been equally uninspiring, with only the industrious Milner and the tricky Ashley Young on the opposite flank suggesting they could cause our backline much trouble.

If it would have been a more enterprising team today, we would have been thoroughly embarrassed. I was thanking god that it was an away game.

I do not want to talk about how they scored, specially the second goal (ask Nicolas Anelka).

Here are the formalities:

Aston Villa (4-4-2): Friedel; Cuellar, Collins, Dunne, Warnock; Milner, Sidwell, Petrov (c), Young; Carew (Heskey 81), Agbonlahor.
Scorers Dunne 31’, Collins 51’
Booked Agbonlahor 34’, Milner 90+2’

Chelsea (4-1-2-1-2): Cech; Bosingwa (Ivanovic 68), Carvalho, Terry (c), A Cole; Essien; Lampard, Malouda (J Cole 84); Deco; Anelka, Drogba.
Scorers Drogba 15’
Booked A Cole 45’

We know by now that our Manager is one of those eccentric types. Now that leads him to some strange places. Exotic, but strange. Last seen, his senses were playing host to a beautiful Damsel on the Chiambretti Night, a talk show in Italy.

Take a look at the image here.

Now how much he liked it could be easily made out from the angst in his eyes – a cause for concern, maybe. Though he certainly loved it more than some gum-chewing hag would have.

We play Aston Villa next, and if some stories are to be believed, they love a pussy or two. Alas, if only we would stoop that low. Oh, and yeah, if only we wouldn’t win anyways.

Now there could have been many different ways to put this news through. What actually happened was something else, but who cares about what actually happened as long as it ain’t football.

Ancelotti was out there in Italy giving an interview to a channel about the usual crappy football manager stuff. He was, of course, asked questions about ‘the special one’, apart from questions about his sexual orientation and which side of the bed he sleeps on.

His reply was simple and funny – “If Morinho is God, then I am not one of his disciples. Seems like a great thing to say. Suits the mood of the interview as well. But I think that this is the  time we start to critically analyse our new manager. On the basis of his words.

It is ok that he has given us the best start we could have hoped for, but that sure as hell doesn’t give him universal bagging rights on Jose Morinho. That would be like taking the San Siro rivalry to London. We are far better off trying to focus on OUR problems. Problems such as:

1. The mental thing in which we still think Fulham is the biggest derby
2. The belief that people never turn 32 after they are 31
3. The belief that we can never win the Champions League unless we go back to League 2 and start over

I know that spite rules the minds of the Milan (AC) faithful, but we should not forget what JM gave Chelsea. Apart from the the belief that money can buy you happiness, he gave us the winning habit.

So Carlo Ancelotti, start focussing on football. No matter what you say, Wigan was easier than Liverpool.

People would say that we would have won anyways, but I disagree. Fulham is a very gritty side, with a very well respected manager. But the way Chelsea played yesterday would bring a smile to all us fans. It was a professional, thorough and comprehensive victory, if ever there was one. Ancelotti changed things again, not starting with Deco this time around. With Lamps at the peak of the diamond, the flair was successfully traded for elegant consistency. Space was always there for the taking. Add to that two glorious strikes, one each from Drogba and Anelka (starting today, instead of Kalou), and you get a happy fan. A very happy fan!

(more…)

   vs  

Fulham hosts Chelsea at the Craven Cottage

A 11Blues Preview

23rd August 2009, 1600 BST

(more…)

Pre-season, there were a lot of times when Carlo Ancelotti was questioned about almost everything he might be questioned about. His responses were few and far between, and nothing unusual or charismatic came out of them. All he wanted to say was that he is looking forward to the challenges and that the team is good enough to win everything. Fair enough, but you are the manager of Chelsea FC. You have to come up with something ingenuous. Something Expected. Something unnecessary. Something good.

The wait for that elusive piece of unnecessary quote is finally over. Continue reading to know how.

(more…)

Poor old Solomon Kalou is disappointed. Rightly so, as none of you voted for him. That is the reason he doesn’t feature in the results chart below. Here, take a look:

Anelka was the outright fans among 11blues.com visitors, getting 64% of the votes. Sheva and Sturridge (highly unlikely) received 18% votes each. That is what the fans think. If I could read Ancelotti’s mind, I would tell you that it would of course be Anelka (maybe he came here and voted), with Kalou and maybe Sturridge later to support Didier.

There is a new poll up by the way. This is about the effect that the 4-4-2 Diamond has on our success, positive or negative. Do vote. The poll can be found on the sidebar to your right…