Newspaper reports
The Guardian, Kevin McCarra: “It was understood that Chelsea, with a 2-0 lead from the first leg, would not treat this step into the quarter-finals as a grand moment in the Champions League but the insipidness still came as a surprise. Fernando Torres added to the occasion merely by having a shot saved when he came off the bench. If Chelsea lacked motivation, the keenness of the visitors was laudable even if there was restricted creativity.”
Daily Telegraph, Henry Winter: “Chelsea were so in charge of this tie, so enjoying the comfort blanket of their two goals from the away leg, that by the end their main ambition seemed to be to set up Fernando Torres for a debut goal. The Bridge all chorused “shoot” when Torres ventured into the final third. The Spaniard had started on the bench, allowing Nicolas Anelka and particularly Didier Drogba to catch the eye. Drogba, barring a wretched shot late on, looked more the heavyweight force of old.”
Official Chelsea FC Website: “Champions League progress was secured in an unremarkable game at Stamford Bridge as FC Copenhagen became the first side to deny Chelsea a home win in Europe this season.”
“Last year we were crying at this moment but tonight we are happy and we can throw a fantastic party.
“The performance was good. I am happy. We didn’t want to take a risk, we prepared well and we had good control of the game defensively. All the team worked hard defensively and we had a lot of opportunities to score.
“We have to have more precision up front but this was a little detail. A goal was the only thing missing. There was a good attitude, good spirit, good speed in counter attack, a lot of opportunities and only once did we concede an opportunity, from a free kick.
“Obviously we have to improve because with so many chances we have to score goals but I see a team that is fresh and we can improve in the next games. It is a good moment for us.”
Did we just decide to go nuts with arsenal type display?? A lot of passing and about a hundred blues shirt in the opposite box and no goals to show. There were some great moments in the first half, but apart from that, everytime we got into a scoring position (about a million time if my count is right), we just tried to pass it around to hell.
I disagree with some of the comments on tonights game (on the previous post) – Drog looked like he got the kick in the behind he deserved – Torres sitting on the bench. If that turns out to be a motivation worth 50M that turns back a year or two on Drogba, I wouldn’t mind seeing Torres on bench every game. Anelka was good too – just that both of them missed that one shot or that last pass.
It was funny to see Cech lining up all the 20 chelsea players in the wall and then watched ball hitting the post – get your acts together man, you have been doing pretty well this season.
Not sure I see anything wrong within the team – at least not Drogba – at least not today – about Torres. He had one decent shot (similar to one or two he had scored against us in the past), but apart from that, he never got the ball back – for one reason or the other. But he definitely needs more time to settle down – he has pretty much acted as lone forward, but not in the blue shirt.
Bosingwa – let’s get Bran sorted out in that position (when we have all the four full backs available), and boot this lazy arsehole. I can’t stand him anymore.
I think we looked fine, we didn’t have the final touch that was needed but then again we never really had to score. Drogba looked good, worked hard and actually passed decently which is better than he has been recently.
I thought Yuri was a definite upgrade over the lazy Malouda, in the first half he was working with Ashley very well and had some very well measured passes into the box that we couldn’t finish. I know he missed some chances but he’s not a striker, at least he’s getting into the areas that we need a pure finisher in.
Mikel looked good and showed how much he can do for us with his strength on the ball and calm demeanor.
The shit talking about Torres is getting old. He’s trying out there, but we are utilizing him in a way that does not take any advantage of his natural gifts. He should never be dropping deep, he needs to be on the shoulder of the last defender and make things happen from there. Watch his highlights from his Scouser days and you’ll see that when he plays there he’s at his best. Trying to make him into a supporting striker just won’t work and it will be a huge waste of his immense talent and of the 50 mil if we don’t take advantage of him in a role that he has prospered in his entire career.
That has to be the dullest 90 minutes in my life for some time!
I was interested in the choice of ref; a Norwegian! My first reaction was that this would favour Copenhagen because all Scandinavians would stick together. But do Norwegians like or despise Danes? Is it an English / Scottish type relationship or an English / …………… (I’ll come back and edit this post when I can think of a country that likes us)
Tore André Flo appeared at halftime and still looks fit. He should have come on second half.
It defies belief that a professional such as Bosingwa can be so positionally retarded.
I cant understand how he makes what should be such a simple position (stand in line with Ash, JT and Branko) look so convoluted. Caught out a few times last night by being, well, on holiday. Somewhere in midfield. A new RB is almost a necessity, unless Branko I’d shifted there next season with JT, Alex, Luiz and Bruma vying for the central spots. Maybe the promotion of the hyped Chalobah?
I tend to disagree on both counts with the Torres posts. I don’t think he was ignored. I kind of got that we were trying to funnel everything through him, but he looked disinterested to me. Whether there’s team-mate friction, not settled in properly or simply thinking he’ll start next season, I don’t know.
Thought Ramires did well again tonight. Boys got an engine on him, and continues to grow as a Chelsea player. Mikel was comfortable but gave away too many needless freekicks in dangerous positions. Do that Sunday and Citeh will kill us.
Mind you, I doubt they watched and were overly bothered…
All in all a pretty dull way to spend a couple of hours but with hindsight and a 2-0 lead it’s what we should have expected. This loyalty point palaver has a lot to answer for. Actually could have been a couple in front by half-time and it would have been very different. In a way though, quite pleased to be going into the draw unfancied. Dread getting Tottenham as I’d rather go out to anyone but them.
Yes, we went through, but this type of display did not wake in me strong (any) believe that season will be salvaged. Coming Sunday Man city, with this type of display they will kill us. I still can not forget this fixture last season.
All looked OK to me; 3rd gear performance, controlled 80% plus of the game with the tie never in doubt. Big game on Sunday – one of the biggest of the season for us, I’d say – no niggling injuries, everyone playing within themselves and an extra day off over a slightly depleted looking City.
And was that the Copenhagen that caused Barcelona problems and got out of their group without too much trouble? Maybe the ahem, weight, of the ‘first Danish team into last 16’ tag got to them; the odd bright moment, but the sort of team that you’d expect to overcome fairly easily in the group stages of the Europa rather than come across them in the KO stages of the CL.
Draw is tomorrow, isn’t it? Barcelona aside, everyone else looks like they can beat the rest on their day – pretty open competition this year, I’d say.
According to the Beeb (but not official site- yet), Borini has joined Swansea on loan for the rest of the season.
Has he played his last game in a blue shirt?
I thought we played the game we needed to play rather then the one we wanted to play, especially from the fans point of view.
Rested key players for our match against city, kept a clean sheet, got no injuries and progressed into the next round. Sure our attack is still looking a little toothless but I thought this was a mourinho-esq type performance, doing only what is required and not focusing on entertaining the fans.
After such a wobble this season, probably a smart move by CA. I also like this low-key approach in the CL … no-one will see us coming. We are not playing our best so teams will be slightly less motivated against us and take more risks. It also means if we fail then no-one expected any different and if we win CA is lauded as a genius. Win – Win??
Anyway – most important thing is qualifying for the CL next year so I really liked the decision to rest key players for the city game. Thats our focus and priority.
Thought Yuri was great yesterday and surely must be ahead of Malouda. Not sure what all this Bosingwa bashing is all about, admittedly I am watching matches on an internet stream but I thought he was ok. I like that he is crossing earlier and higher up the pitch and almost got an assist if Drogs had converted his lovely cross. i admit his shooting from 25 yards out on his left foot is stupid but he defended well and is a threat going forward. Sure Ivan is stronger in the air and a better defender but can anyone argue that Jose is not better going forward? Of course a bid for Van der Wiel is most welcome, i just think Jose is receiving some harsh criticism. This was a guy who 2 seasons ago was the best RB in the country, apart from maybe Sagna.
In addition to Ossie should we be considering another statue outside the ground?
I was thinking Shakin Stevens
Have to say I think some of the negative comments, especially on the end of the previous blog, are way over the top. Seemed like a pretty acceptable performance to me getting through the tie comfortably.
Some other thoughts:
Kudos to the Copenhagen fans whose vigorous, synchronised bouncing gave their corner of The Shed End its most rigorous health and safety check for some time;
Most of which they lose for indulging in an irritating habit from away fans which I’ve noticed creep into a number of other CL games from TV coverage recently – bouts of whistling when the home team retains possession for any length of time, even if they are playing positive, attacking football. What kind of arrogance is this demonstrating?
Speaking of possession, I was surprised to see on the permanently updating official statistics, which is all UEFA seem to allow on the big screens during games now, that Copenhagen were always ahead by 4 – 10 percent throughout the game. Yet I recall only 1 serious attempt at goal, the central free kick which hit the post. Didn’t I read somewhere about “sterile possession” somewhere recently?
Who’d have thought the designer of David James’ goalkeeper’s shirts could con an entire team into wearing one of his vile concoctions?
Possible symbolic sign of Roman opening the spending floodgates again – I promised some time ago never to mention again the heaters under the roof of the West Stand , so I won’t say what was switched on for the second game in a row for the whole game. Something which hasn’t happened all season even in the depths of the cold spell in December-January. Mind you could just be that Roman has bought into whichever fuel supplier we use and is recycling his wealth 😉
Taking your last sentence to its logical conclusion, is Roman actually becoming Catch 22’s Milo Minderbinder? Given our previous record of loaning expensive players to potential rivals on favourable terms, I can only surmise that the answer is yes… 😉
Agree with surprise at some of the comments on other thread. Thought Drogba and Anelka linked up superbly in the first half and Drogba, played some lovely passes from quite deep. The fact he finished the game, however, suggests he won’t be playing on Sunday and I don;t think he’s going to work with Torres right now at least in part because I was surprised to hear he hasn’t actuallty scored since January. In fact, I think he;s gone longer without a goal than Torres. Two strikers looking for goals is not a good idea, as they all want to score all the time – in fact, I couldn’t help noticing that in the 15 minutes he was on the pitch Torres didn’t pass to Drogba ONCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
On the other hand, Malouda clearly passed to Torres on at least two occasions, one of which created a chance.
Mikel started well with some lovely passes and I think he brings more to midfield than Essien at the moment. However, he did get destroyed by City last season so doubt he’ll play on Sunday.
Decent performance, bit pat-a-cake, but can’t complain about qualifying for the quarters without getting out of third.
Odd game, that.
Almost a dead rubber for us, but not for them. They had everything still to play for, and we always new that any slip could open the tie right up again.
We played some great stuff early on, but the lack of goals did become a bit tedious, and with every fluffed opportunity I was getting more miffed that our new chap wasn’t out there to take advantage.
Still, job done.
Thought everyone played well
Long season. Chelsea was at its most vulnerable last season when still in the CL. Good to see Torres out (and actually glad Luiz is getting a rest for that hammy, though it wasn’t voluntary), and trying to get Zhirkov up to fitness. Good to see a defensive game. Strangely, I still favor Paolo over Bosingwa but didn’t see this particular match so can’t make a judgment on the latter. And Ramires is great, but isn’t he tired yet? I have the game queued up on my DVD player, but I’m getting very discouraged from playing it. Maybe the first half.
Seconding BBD with regard to the Danish fans, who were splendid. Their weird 70s disco hand gesture thing was endlessly entertaining, and I liked the bizarre slicing motion with the scarves too.
Their rhythmic “F C Ko” totally baffled the unbelievably pissed bloke next to me. “Why are that lot singing ‘Ashley Cole’?”
However they blotted their copybook by screwing up the attempted minutes’ silence pretty revoltingly (fair play to their fellows who tried to shut up the noisy ones).
But still … not the slightest smidgeon of dispespect or callousness towards the unthinkable misery and catastrophe in Japan, but is it *really* appropriate to have a minutes’ silence at a football match involving no Japanese teams, players, officials? Couldn’t they have seen what was coming there? A minutes’ silence ought to be a genuine opportunity for a communal expression of respect, connected to the game — a former player dead, or something involving what the loathsome Blatter would no doubt call “the football family.” But is it really appropriate to try and stage one whenever something really really bad happens in the world? The result — twenty seconds of embarrassed shuffling while a few beery Danish morons barked some thankfully untranslated foulness, some other people went “shhhh”, one Chelsea fan yelled “Shut up you c*nts” and everyone then giggled — couldn’t have been further away from inducing sombre reflection on the sufferings of thousands.
Likewise — why exactly did Neil Barnett have to mention that we’re all wishing Eric Abidal the best with his liver tumor? Because he’s a bloke who plays football who has a serious illness? Will it be Bryan Robson next week? Presumably yes it will be. And what about all the other people who play football and have cancer? There must be quite a few …
It’s like when we all had to stand around in silence and think about poor Maddy McCann a few seasons back before an Everton game. Why are these particular display of grief required in that particular situation? What’s it got to do with the game?
We get enough cheap emotion from football anyway without bringing into it things that actually matter.
Gamewise — well now that others have said it I’ll also pipe up in support of Bosingwa. Not that I think he’s all that great but to my eyes he did well yesterday, though I think that’s because he hardly had to defend at all. He had some excellent crosses. Still would rather have Branners there though and I’m sure Luiz will be back for Sunday.
Hope Citeh win 2-0 tonight and so have to play the full 30 mins extra time. Then go out on pens with Sheva getting the winner. (Or perhaps I’d like to have Citeh stay in that pointless and sapping competition as long as poss.)
Incidentally, has anyone else seen the interesting stuff about who’s going into Europe next year? Birmingham have one place, and after the FA Cup draw we now know that either Stoke or Bolton will be in the final where (win or lose) they will also end up taking a Europe spot. So (apparently) only 5th in the league will qualify for Europe. Either Spuds or ‘Poo will miss out.
Agree on the silence front. I’m sure that most folk have quietly reflected on the terrible situation in Japan in the last few days, made donations or expressed their sympathies in a manner that they feel is appropriate. All a bit trite and post Diana, in my ‘umble opinion.
Same on Bosingwa – hadn’t read the comments on the previous thread about the game and so forth; got unnecessarily OTT in places, for me.
Seeing you mention donations, Mr K …………. I was about to make one til I saw them interview a bloke and the bleeder had two big yachts parked on his drive.
Sorry, I’ll get my coat myself.
And I think the white sign between the players and the champions logo during the ‘anthem’ which asked people to donate would have been more effective in English.
Seriously, WERE people given info on how to help? If so, I think that’s all that need be done so am in agreement about the MoS.
I’m with the positivists on this one. It wasn’t outstanding by any means and everyone seemed to lose their bearings once over the 18 yard line but we’re through.
I liked Zhirkov particularly in the first half. He put in a few defence splitting passes, which is the sort of thing we’ve lacked of late.
Drogs and Anelka should have made more of the opportunities, but as I say, everyone failed to finish the numerous chances for reasons I can’t fathom.
Lamps seems to have slowed down from his already stately pace and I wonder about the long term effects of that series of injuries.
Not sure the defensive confusion in the new system is anywhere near sorted but games like that will help them get their heads around it.
Bosingwa will continue to frustrate while he struggles to regain his form, but he was ok I thought. He’s started to look better going forward.
The Copenhagen fans were impressive ( being from a society with reportedly the lowest difference in earnings, high on social cohesiveness and wellbeing indicators may have something to do with it). We musn’t forget they used to run a large part of this country so you have to expect them to act like they own the place. And if you’ve spent a few hundred years knocking seven bells out of the locals you can turn up wearing an explosion on pink day in a dye factory and expect to get away with it.
Onwards and upwards.
Not that we can influence the draw for the big pot in an hours time, but I’d like Real to get Barca, purely because that means they’d play each other 4 times in 12 days. Would make for good viewing.
At this stage anyone should be able to heat anyone and it doesn’t matter who you get. But I hear Schalke are pretty average domestically at the moment, so can we play them please?
Urgh, Man Utd in the QF.
There are no easy games at this stage, granted. But that’s a dull draw.
Horrible, horrible, horrible.
Hello again.
Awful draw from our point of view. Less travelling perhaps but I think it is a good time to be playing us.
And playing the second leg at home never seems to do us any good.
I’m very positive about this draw, much rather face your lot DE than Spurs. Spurs playing with that kind of fearless attitude in this competition, borne of the novelty I guess. Losing to them , for either of us would be an eternal stain on our souls! However, no matter who goes through in this tie, there’s no shame attached in losing to the other team.
Plus we get to cheer on Jose again hear as I can’t think of one CFC fan who’d want Spurs to go through!
Bit late but posting to agree with quite a few! (i) Ridiculous that we have a minute’s silence at football for every world event now – as the Kaiser says, it’s all the fault of that Diana bollocks. (ii) As with all the overseas supporters these days, the Danes were great the other night – especially liked the way they sang a few in English, including “shall we sing a song for you”. (iii) I’d rather have a foreign draw in a European game but Man Utd much the best option if it’s got to be another English team. Going out to Tottenham would have been unbearable. I think the 2 Liverpool defeats was the worst I’ve ever felt after football and going out of this to Spurs or Arsenal would be even worse. And congrats to this site for giving me the first sick, and relatively acceptable, joke on the tsunami (I know, I should get out more).
@ GrocerJack I agree the reputational risk is much lower than the Spurs alternative. I think it’s a good draw for you, in that we look to be losing too many bodies in defence, and I expect that you’ll be able to rest players a little more easily than we will by then. Although maybe I’m underestimating how close you are to coming back into the title race.
I think Barca might find it harder in the Ukraine than they expect.
it’s time for revenge!!! Man and Inter it will close the circles, hopefully it will.
The draw I probably wanted least. In fact I’m not sure I’ll buy my seat. Playing other English clubs always drains this competition of its distinctive aura. At least with the Spuds there’d have been a bit of novelty value.
I think we have a fair chance of going through, and if we do, the semi doesn’t look too daunting (i.e. it’s not Barca or José). Still, I’d expect two low-quality tense games between sides that both seem a bit exhausted.
Didn’t want United, but anything is better than Spurs. Definitely in the better half of the draw, but really would have liked to have got Real as we’ve never played them at the Bridge.
Think second leg home advantage could be the deciding factor,
The draw is the draw. I think Man U are for the taking right now. Not pleased, but what are you going to do.
As far as the game, I thought it went rather well. We were positive the entire time. Yuri looked really good, and was a much different option on the left. Frankly, we could have scored 5 times in that game. With a breakthrough it would have been likely- as Copenhagen never overcommited forward since it was a draw.
I felt bad for Mikel that his header went off the bar. He could use a goal.
Rather happy with Ramires. As I said in another thread, I think the tactics we are playing right now cater to his strengths. If we have an open game in midfield he will outrun the opposition. Once our strikers start scoring everything will be clicking.
On the plus side, Borini’s made a great start to his loan spell (really just carrying on his reserves form). Sturridge didn’t have much involvment today but hopefully these young guys come through.
wow united were very lucky to win that game. But the red card for Evans and SAF’s touchline ban will hopefully mean they drop points in the next few games.
Arse drawing against West Brom helps …
all we need to is to win, from now on we must freaking win. united will drop points. it might sound crazy, but it looks like it’s not all lost this year!!!!!
On the plus side, the price for Borini just went up quite a bit. On the minus, he’s even less likely to be willing to stay …
I remember José tipping Brendan Rogers for good things. Would be nice to see how he can hack it in the Premier League with a deeply unfashionable and (I assume) underfinanced team. By all accounts his Swansea play some of the most accomplished football in that league.
Having just watched the highlights of the Swansea game, Borini certainly took his chances. Looked lively throughout.
Seems to be the poacher we’ve needed for a while. Though I’m sure Studge will have something to say about it. Sinclair also looked a class above at this level.
Fiftee, have you got a link to those highlights by any chance?
No Drogs or Anelka starting? But Kalou and Malouda do?
Seriously, WTF Carlo.
Dunno Fiftee, looked like it worked!
David Luiz is superhuman, what a buy!!!!
Jeez, what has happened to Malouda? Yuri was far more dangerous in his few minutes.
Luiz is a class apart. How was it so (relatively) easy for us to get him? Defends with class, lovely range of passing, goal threat as well. Ramires was also excellent I thought. Really growing as a Chelsea player.
Even Essien looked *something* like the Bison we yearn for.
Just a shame everything will be about how Torres still hasn’t scored; Luiz has two more than him blah blah blah.
I thought CA deserves kudos for tonight for several reasons:
1) 4-3-3:
Clever move as 4-4-2 would allow Barry, De Jong and Toure to gain a lot of possession and boss the midfield.
2) Kalou:
I thought he played very well. Clever runs, move well and got into goal scoring postions.
3) Taking off Torres and Malouda:
I thought Drogs came on and changed the game. Showed passion and really fought hard. Sure his touch is gone but he is still a handful and I think will make an amazing super-sub in his twilight season. We must keep him for one more season for this role.
Thought Malouda was ok, not terrible but not good enough. Surely Yuri must be 1st choice?
However – the lack of Tevez really helped us. Dzeko … was he even playing? wow I really wanted us to sign him but tonight he was anonymous.
And as for Luiz … what can you say? Great defending, if a little rash still in the challenge but great goal and great passion.
As for Torres – do think he is a great player but I knew he wouldn’t score as he gave an interview saying he thought he would break his duck today. Nothing wrong with confidence but laying down a statement like that to the media put too much pressure on him.
God Bless Roman’s Blue Army
Funnily enough, though, it wasn’t 4-3-3. Malouda started on the left of a straight midfield four. Hence the plaguey narrowness. We didn’t really look like scoring until we scored. As my neighbour sagely said to me, “we need a free kick or a corner.”
Still, an excellent result at this stage in the season. The big plus for me was the back four plus Cech, all superb I thought. JT had an immense game and Luiz gets 11 out of 10 for his insane insouciance in winning endless one-on-one tackles while strolling all over the field, looking pleasantly barking and scoring more than all our strikers since he arrived (if one discounts games he didn’t play in. I think.)
Common, people! The moment we seem to be out of the crisis zone everyone suddenly gets lazy again! We don’t deserve to play well and beat (easily) the likes of Man City (who everyone here just a couple of days ago seemed to have been afraid of) if we can’t even be bothered to leave a few comments on the blog afterwards! I reckon it would have been over 60 by now if we lost. Sorry for the rant and nothing personal, but I was expecting a bit more from the regulars here when I came back home from the pub. Just sayin’
Anyways, congrats everyone! Such confidence and class! They didn’t have a single chance, did they? Kalou was great, Malouda seemed to have been trying hard. As for Torres, he’s gonna score the moment the fucking press leaves him alone! How come it’s all about him now anyway? He’s just one of the players (the price tag has nothing to do with this), let him be and the goals will come!
Does seem a little quiet on the blog front …
Perhaps they’re still in the pub making a night of it.
I’m more excited than Eddie the Excited from Excited Town when he was particularly excited but as I didn’t see the game I was going to wait ’til I saw the highlights.
But you have a point. There’s always more comment when we lose.
‘Tis human nature I think.
We can continue to dream for another week or two…
I’ve said this before the best songs are born of angst and sadness, similarly people tend not to write/rant when things are good. At work no-one ever says anything good when the IT Systems or Network is running as it should, but boy do they moan when things aren’t working. ‘Tis human nature as you say.
I’ll be more of a commenter here in future than contributor, but today I thought Malouda stunk the place out. Even when he did something good he would cock it up minutes later. Dreadful stuff from him and Yuri did more in his 10 or 15 minutes than Malouda did all game. Kalou was OK, but again not a 90 minute man. Torres looked sharp and when he ran at their defence you could see the panic set in, however he was overlooked by Malouda on one occasion when in loads of space to take a pop…it was again a dismal piece of ignorance from Malouda. In the clubroom, our insider was saying something about the french speaking contingent being unhappy and disruptive because they’re being rotated. All bollocks probably but something does seem amiss in the ranks of seniors.
Luiz, utter class and destined for cult hero status and CFC captaincy. Very reminiscent of the great 40 a day Doctor Socrates who rather effortlessly strolled around the pitch nonchalantly playing sensational passes. And what about Ramirres, rapidly becoming my favourite player, all sinew, bone and wiry muscle, a tackle to make Scholes wince, and engine to make Kuyt look like Puffing Billy and a confidence growing quicker than Usain Bolt over 100m. His goal at the end was sheer unadulterated delight.
Thought Da Silva was their best player, and never realised Yaya Toure was such a man mountain. Dzeko has the same turning circle and burst of speed as a bendy bus.
No others to earmark really, all played well, like I say the only stinker was Malouda.
Two quick thoughts:
This game last year JT was in the news for stuff what lost him the England captaincy. Occasional member of England defence unhappy.
This game this year he’s just got it back. Another occasional member of England defence unhappy.
We’ve given the people of Japan 2 minutes worth of silence this week. Do you think they know that?
Really tense game, David Luiz was flawless. Ramirez was excellent.
What do you think of the rumors that Ancelotti will be let go after this season?
if I didn’t catch damn nasty flu I would have been completely wasted right now on my way from SB. I already watched the highlights for twenty times or so and now going to tune to match of the day.
Apologies. No-one’s on match report duty this week. I contacted a number of the usual suspects but all were either busy or, like me, not able to watch the game. I listened to radio commentary while driving. Like BB I was eagerly awaiting Match of the Day 2 (and was willing to put up with Colin Murray’s schtick).
I wasn’t disappointed. Not in the highlights, anyway. I fucking love David Luiz. And Ramires. The Torres bashing really is becoming tiresome. Thank goodness the Beeb got someone on the panel who clearly knows his onions/what he’s talking about. Clarence Seedorf uttered a lot of (common) sense. Hansen (Liverpool) and Dixon (dick) don’t deserve to work for the BBC.
Anyway, BB and TG are right. In the seven years I’ve been guiding the good ship Chelsea Blog, the pattern is that comments drop off when things are going well, more so when things start to look up after a period of poor form. As TG said, ’tis human nature.
I will post the match reports etc. a bit later.
If there’s no match report as such, at least maybe someone could contribute something of an essay on how things seem to be changing and what lies next. Maybe accumulate all the comments on the CL draw, Carlo going out in the summer and so on. That would be extra nice because whoever your suspects were I bet they can write, and that’s why I personally love this blog! For the writing.