Match reports
The Guardian, Jamie Jackson: “If Chelsea take the brand of sideways, sluggish football they displayed here into the new Premier League season, then Villas-Boas could soon certainly develop a neurosis. While these are, of course, still very early days for the man who used to scout for Mourinho, witnessing this offering from what was a Chelsea of two completely different teams fielded in each half – and a win claimed only via Tal Ben Haim’s hapless seventh-minute own goal – it was easy to see where Luka Modric would fit in.”
Official Chelsea FC Website: “Chelsea made it two wins from two and two clean sheets in pre-season with an away win on the south coast. The game was by no means a classic, with only two truly memorable moments.”
The goal
“There are some positive signs and negative signs but mostly positive.
“It’s one of the most difficult grounds to visit and Portsmouth always put in a good challenge. We were happy to come across just three days after the Wycombe game and overall we’re pretty pleased.
“Bear in mind we used two teams, one in the first-half and one in the second-half. This is most likely the players who will come to Asia, along with Rajkovic, Alex and Petr Cech.
“So most of the boys were out and it is good for us to have this kind of challenge that Portsmouth always gives us.
“We can still reach better quality possession and better speed of circulation of the ball.
“It is important for us to keep the spaces tight between sectors but the things we do in training are getting into the players’ heads and this is a good sign.
“For the kind of intensity that we have been working to, for the players to display this kind of freshness after 13 days of pre-season is a good sign as well.”
Hooray, the blog is back and football is coming back !!!!
I’ll second that, BML.
Copa America anyone?
Brazil out. (shootout, 4 missed pens!).
Argies out – (shootout, Tevez missed pen).
Colombia out – Falcao missed pen (during match) then they concede two in ET.
Watching Chile v Venezuela now: still 0-0 after only 14 mins, but I’m wondering where this might be going…
I have watched Pompey game and, if one asks me to summarize it I can say the following.
There was nothing new there, each department performed exactly how they performed in the last season. Daniel Sturridge – trying hard, probably harder than anyone else on the pitch, but not scoringNando – pretty much anonymous for 45 minutes on the pitch. Had a chance to score a free header from the corner kick, but missed it. (Why he is playing so deep all the time?)Kalou running around cluelessHillario making embarrassing mistakes in the goal (they almost scored twice because of it). made a mistake resulted in penalty which was taken poor and he saved it. Our defense line in the second part was utter rubbish!!! Flo trying hard on his own, but completely disconnected with Torres and others. Benayoun looked interesting in the middle, good passing, but misfired a kick and missed a half chance. Van Aanholt – looked sharp, but not yet confident enough for the first string.Lampard far from his form, actually far from any form.Anelka and Drog may be they were far from their form, however the whole last season they didn’t look any better and this is something that I can say about each one of them, with small exception of Benayoun. All the rest didn’t touch the ball enough for me to bring any opinion on them.P.S. Tomas Kalas and McEhran looked very interesting, Josh is getting his confidence!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOTZGcsZnVw&feature=player_embedded
Great goal Yosi scored against Wycombe in our first preseason game.
Rumours we may loan our new ‘keeper to Atletico Madrid next season.
Can we use that as a makeweight as part of a deal to get Aguero. Please? Would be a great signing, certainly dot want him going to Citeh instead.
Can’t argue that Aguero is not a quality player but if we are sticking with the 4-3-3 system then buying another striker is not our main priority. In attack, we have Flo, Kakuta, Yuri and Anelka to play on the left, Drogs, Torres, Sturidge and Anelka to play down the center but only Kalou and Anelka to play on the right.
We need a pacey RW urgently as well as a creative CM (lamps replacement) and a RB. We have Ramires, Mikel and Josh to cover for Essien, so I think the stories on Vidal are just to get him a better deal at Bayern.
I’m hoping for:
RW – Alexis Sanchez
Creative CM – Ganso or Pastore
RB – Van der Weil
I think by adding 3 non HG players we will need to let go of at least 3 non HG players, so my picks would be:
Yuri
Bosingwa … or maybe Paulo
Anelka
Just watched City escape Vancouver (the worst MLS team). There’s definitely talent on the Manchester side (and a lot of the City players were mailing it in, e.g. deJong wasn’t on the “kill” setting). Yaya sisterhood had to leave the game for injury, but he’ll probably be okay, Mancini says. Point of all this is to say that they’re going to really miss Tevez. He didn’t play of course and they just weren’t that great otherwise.
They’re wearing black and red vertically striped roadies this season.
May as well report this news since any speculation on new players for Chelsea is nothing more than a wish list it seems.
Now the club itself claims it’s going after Arturo Vidal from Bayer Leverkusen! Assuming it is the club that controls those facebook posts I get from Frank Lampard and David Luiz (posts which are always identical).
Aguero to seems done then.
Shame. Think he’d be the missing piece of the puzzle, someone with that dynamism and creativity.
Ho-hum.
Suspect part of the problem with Aguero has always been the huge wage demands, as well as the lumpy fee (see below); wondering if it’s no coincidence that the move for him is happening after City announced their mega Etihad (?) stadium / sponsorship deal.
Does seem that Roman generally has a post Shevchenko ‘ceiling’ in terms of what he’ll pay for players from other leagues that aren’t Premiership proven; Torres fit the bill because he’d done it here and so the big money didn’t seem an issue – so we can probably expect an £80m bid for Aguero if he has a couple of successful seasons over here with City… 🙂
Lukaku sounds like he could be on his way, though, which I’d be fairly happy about.
I suspect should we seal the deal with Lukaku that he’ll be loaned straight back for the coming season, unless we see the departure of a couple of our front men. Their age and wages mean that’s unlikely.
Bit concerned there’s no chat of a RB being signed. Unless that’s Brankos position. Ferreira and Bosingwa just not up to it IMO.
So Fiftees shopping list remains RB, creative midfielder and a pacy, tricky wide man. Do-able with £100m to you Roman. Pocket change then….
Not sure what to make of the match today. Liverpool killed them 6-3. We never really scored (Drogba sort of did in the second half on a nice FK, and it counted), but Malaysia never ever came close to scoring. They were rarely within 30 yards of the goal.
Torres missed two great chances and another less great one in the first half. I guess that’s a step forward, as last season they could barely get him the ball.
The announcer was “underwhelmed” in the first half with Chelsea’s movement, except Yossi and sort of Josh.
http://livetv.ru/en/showvideo/65155_malaysia_chelsea/
Just take my comment from Portsmouth game and apply to this game.
Scrape to a 1-0 win against a MAKESHIFT Malaysia XI. The team that conceded 6 against Liverpool and 4 against Arsenal were preparing for a more important game. So we effectively got their reserves.
Getting a little tired of the impotent strike force and continued (apparent) lack of midfield creativity. The mind boggles as to how long we’ll continue to try and force form and excitement from personnel it clearly has deserted.
Whingey and not really understanding the point of our pre-season tour? Probably. Bit we’re fucking boring to watch at the moment, just as we were for most of last season. If we win every game 1-0 next season then clearly I’ll not complain. But we wont. Not with the squad as it is now.
Take it to the bank. We will win the league.
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/competition-for-my-place-ive-seen-it-all-before-says-drogba-2318959.html
After viewing the Thai game, Torres is still a major concern. Hilario made three really good saves! Sturridge never came close, Anelka was so-so. I liked PVA, although at some point (when Hilario was making the saves the defense was atrocious, not sure who was responsible).
Torres does appear to be a huge concern. One that’s not going to get any better.
A few rumours about Pastore signing, though all seem to come from Udinese’s chairman. Obviously to drum up business….
Sky seem to be carrying the Asia cup with Chelsea at 13.30 on Wednesday.
Better sort my priorities out:-
Work, or afternoon watching footie in the pub?
Hmmm
The expensive Spaniard needs a good start to the season, otherwise the vultures will really start circling. AVB seems adamant he’s concerned more about winning than Torres, but you’d imagine that Roman wants to see his little toy knocking the goals in. Could be an interesting couple of months ahead – if FT hasn’t started firing by about November, rumours of a cut-price move back to Spain and talk of humiliation for all concerned will get very loud indeed.
Incidentally, Josh and Ivano did a beautiful give-and-go that sprang Ivano free right up the middle for a beautiful finish. Sending Branners up the middle is definitely something new or am I missing something? Ashley Cole caught Malouda just right for another beautiful goal from the left. Lamps smacked a beauty from 25 yards from the right side into the left corner. Bosingwa tried his usual 40 yarder and made it due to complete incompetence on the part of the Thai goalie who had just been subbed in. Now he will only be encouraged to try it again.
Did anyone else see the amazing revelation on Blues News (Chelsea TV) last night?
In a section called Kalou Kam, Salomon was wandering up and down the aisle of the jet, with his videocam, as the team flew from Malaysia to Hong Kong.
As he approached John Terry, you could quite clearly see JT playing Scrabble on his iPAD. Yes, I’m not joking, SCRABBLE!
Surely this now completes JT’s rehabilitation from ‘he shags who he wants’ to an upright citizen and pillar of society. The camera was moving a little bit too fast to see the detail but I’m hoping others saw it and can provide a list of words used.
He was actually reading Hayek’s ‘The Road to Serfdom’, but flicked over to Scrabble when he saw Kalou coming, so as not to appear too intellectual…
Reports that Aguero flies into London tomorrow to complete his move to Citeh.
Can one of you Big Smoke based bloggers capture him and only release him when he signs a contract with CFC?
He’s going to light up the PL.
Probably a shrewd move, getting him to sign here in London. He might change his mind if he went to Manchester first.
How’s the battery recharging going peeps ahead of the new season?
I’m still not that enthusiastic yet, hopefully things will improve, otherwise Scrabble might be a better option as a sport to follow.
Is Scrabble a sport yet?
Getting there slowly… Largely ignoring all the silly season “£50m for X, Y or Z” stuff which just seems even more farcical than usual this summer. Impressed with AVB’s approach thus far and presume that having spent a couple of weeks running the rule over the current squad and fringe players, he’ll start making decisions as to who is out and who he wants when they all return from the Far East shindig currently taking place.
6/10 on the ‘enthusiasm for new season’ scale, I’d say…
Personally, I was more excited by the other “football” story that reached a conclusion this week:
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d820f4c7f/article/owners-players-back-to-football-after-sealing-10year-labor-deal?module=HP11_headline_stack
At least if the EPL turns dull and predictable I’ll have some distracting alternatives to watch at weekends.
While we’re talking big business I came across this in the Business section of the Indie on Sunday:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/visionary-who-aims-to-boot-football-into-the-real-world-2319399.html
After all the usual Barca sanctimonious stuff I see it admits they had debts of 532 m. euros just a year ago, which is still only down to 483m. Yet they are so much more virtuous than Citeh and us?
Good to know
http://www.tribalfootball.com/articles/torres-assures-chelsea-fans-i-have-not-forgotten-how-score-1778601
Optimism rating? 3 at the moment. Weaker by the lack of business done thus far (compared the the other ‘big’ teams). And I just have little faith that theres anything ‘unknown’ left in the tank of the usual faces. If this season were planned at the start to be a transitional one with the purpose of integrating the youth more, then fine. But it seems very much like a case of flogging every last sinew of a very deceased equine creature.
Granted, give him time to assess the current personnel and make channges thereafter, but anyone of real note has signed elsewhere by then. Take this Romeu guy from Barca. If he’s not good enough for them, and can leave, is he really any better than anyone we have already?
Tend to agree that Barcelona don’t usually flog their best, but competition for places is such that moving on to get first team experience is a necessity. He’s got Busquets and Mascherano ahead of him; if there is any stronger competition for a starting slot in world football, I’d like to see it.
Anyway, means we can have the inevitable annual Fabregas style “I want to go home” tug of war each summer leading to a nice £40m transfer if he is that good…They’re also on a book-balancing drive as per the link in BBD’s post above – presume that thinning the squad out must play a part in that.
Didn’t Barca let a certain Mr Fabregas leave? not saying that our new boy will turn out anything like, but you never know.
And on the Fabregas situation, aren’t holier than thou Barca, effectively tapping up?
Was then about to ask about the apparent length of medical for the child keeper from Genk and, as if by magic, the deal is finalised and announced on the official site. What on earth was he being tested on for so long?
Live on Sky tomorrow. Another convincing win with Josh playing please. Let’s throw the Kitchee sink at them.
I’ll get my summer jacket……
This from Wiki:-
Nickname: 香港巴塞 (Hong kong Barça)
“Kitchee also holds the best record against Italian teams by a Hong Kong team. They defeated A.C. Milan 2-1 on 31 May 2004 [1] and beat Juventus5-3 on penalties (2-2 after regular time) on June 4, 2005 [2] in a summer friendly match played in Hong Kong.”
That’s about all I could find out about them, might just be an interesting game…
I’ve made my excuses at work and grabbed a set of newly charged batteries, all ready for the off.
I’ve received an e-mail from the club today pushing their latest “New Chelsea Fashion” which led me to this megastore link:
http://www.chelseamegastore.com/stores/chelsea/products/product_browse.aspx?free_text=adidas&category/category_root/12772=fashion
which seems to be using Kalou virtually alone in the promotion.
In our usual hamfisted way this must surely mean AVB will be dumping him before the transfer deadline 😉
Oh dear. Another match, another blank for ShevNando.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDAUCnBOSxo
Caught the first 60 before having to head to work. It was Ferreira, Rajko, Terry and Cole in the back, Benayoun Lamps and Zhirkov in the middle, with Kalou Drogs and Malouda up front. Kitchee Koo played a 5-5-0-0 formation.
As much as I’d like to keep my expectations low, Lampard, Drogba and Cole haven’t played this well in a long time. They were outstanding. Rajko, Malouda and Paulo pretty good, too. Kalou ran around a lot, as did Yossi. Zhirkov was kind of a non-entity but did get a word in edgewise here and there. Torres, McEachran, Sturridge, Ivanovich came on at 60 but I had to go.
Turnbull got to watch the match from the other end. Then Hilario.
£17.5m for Mata? Madness. How are we not mentioned in the race for him.
Probably because if we were involved 17.5 would jump to 35.
Finally change
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/14322449.stm
Oddly no mention of a certain ghost goal at Anfield.
The system will be installed for a greater good, which is not helping certain Chelsea FC.
All this bribery caffuffle seems to have made Sepp Blatt see a bit of sense.
Also interesting that they’re going to consider the Europa League goal-line assistants, which seemed like a good compromise, except that I don’t recall any one of them making a call, even when they were in really good positions to do so.
Watched the whole match and was very pleasantly surprised. I don’t usually place too much store in pre-season stuff, but everyone looked fit and sharp and competed well – very impressive. Saturday against Villa should give us a better idea of how we’re progressing, because they’re bound to play for a result with their new manager.
Talking of which, I was wondering who the young guy on the touchline was, when the camera kept picking him out (lunchtime crowd, so no volume on TV). He looked like a new signing getting warmed up. Then, after the nth time of seeing him, I twigged that this was AVB!
What a difference from our recent, rather mature, chiefs.
There’s a bit on the clubsite about Rajkovic who’s only 22 and has been on loan in Holland for FIVE years because we can’t get him a work permit. He’s a big guy and seems a bit lumpen at times, but he looks like the real deal for the EPL – just made for those mid-season battles up Norf.
Definitely one for the near future.
Nothing negative to say, even FT, though he didn’t find the net, had a very tasty effort clip the wrong side of the post.
All in all, an afternoon well spent.
http://www.metro.co.uk/sport/oddballs/870706-video-neymar-scores-dazzling-goal-but-santos-still-manage-to-lose#ixzz1TQK6f1fc
Some quality football, not from Chelsea, though. Neymar has got touch, interesting who is going to break a bank to sign him.
Don’t really care who gets him, as long as it ain’t us.
Finally got round to watching the match against Kitchee.
Overall, pretty impressive. Looked fit bearing in mind the climate (and opposition). A fit Benayoun could go some way to sate our (my?) desire for a more creative force. Looked very clever. Nice to see Studge get a goal, definitely my third choice striker behind Drogs and Nando.
Great to see Josh and Nat Chalobah get more time. Josh looks so assured. I guess a season on loan in the Championship has got to be on the cards, in the Prem at a push?
Would be good to get a work permit sorted for Rajkovic. Looks a mean beast at the back. If he gets anywhere near as good as his countrymen Ivanovic or Vidic we’re set.
All in all pleasing. Just wish Kalou had spent the summer reading ‘The art of decision making’. Which he blatantly hasn’t. Unless chapter 1 is ‘Continue to run round like a headless chicken with zero ability or consideration for team-mates’.
Was that Josh’s first Chelsea goal for the senior team? Lovely through pass to Anelka, his cross was pounded at the keeper by Malouda and then Josh was there to finish it off. Looking very bright at the moment, though it only Villa in a meaningless Asian competition.
So far so good in Asia!
A little worried now that we have lost on Pastore … although why somone would choose to go to PSG rather then Chelsea is beyond me. He won’t win the CL and the french league is super gay. Aguero has gone to city, Sanchez to Barca, ManU getting Young … are we going to buy anyone? We need pace on the wings, we need a hamisk or ganso now.
I just hope the management have some targets lined up as I’m getting worried our squad won’t be able to cope next season. I also think City are going to be very good next season, and if they ever get Jose … and he instills that win at all costs mentality then it’s really game over.
All Chelsea on the first half. Very nice possession, linking passes and diagonal through balls. Anelka looked half his age. Ivanovic self-assured and dominant at the back. Even some good tackles and great runs from Bosingwa. It is odd watching Frank playing back alongside Mikel with Josh in front. The only negative is Sturridge. He has blazing speed but incredibly poor decision-making. He has held the ball too long, lost it in traffic and shot high and wide repeatedly. He doesn’t deserve to be a starter.
Holy shit! Torres scores! It was just a touch, but ‘m sure he’ll take it.
I think I’ve discovered the secret on how to get Torres to score for us on a regular basis.
We must insist on all opposition teams wearing claret and blue when we play.
That’s a first. Never seen Anelka break sweat before!