Newspaper reports
The Observer, Paul Doyle: “Florent Malouda scrambled a second-half winner. Yossi Benayoun and Alex came off the bench after lengthy absences through injury. And that was about it for Chelsea positives during another laboured performance by Carlo Ancelotti’s team.”
Sunday Telegraph: “A Chelsea player ended a two-and-a-half month goal drought today but it was not Fernando Torres as Florent Malouda sealed an ugly 1-0 win over Wigan Athletic. Malouda drove home through a crowd of players with 23 minutes remaining to ensure the stuttering Premier League champions moved back into third place, two points clear of Manchester City.”
Fulham and Hammersmith Chronicle, Dan Levene: “Chelsea edged a lazy day in the sunshine, but it will be Fernando Torres’ 30-minute cameo that will give them most heart. In a game that seemed at times like a pre-season friendly, the Spanish substitute put in his best performance so far for the Blues – without actually scoring the long-awaited goal.”
Official Chelsea FC Website: “A second-half Florent Malouda goal was enough to send bottom-paced Wigan away empty handed from a game Chelsea commanded without keeping a sun-baked crowd on the edge its seats… The goal, the France international’s first since January, will, like the game, not linger long in the memory but it always looked likely to arrive on an afternoon when the Blues created chances with regularity.”
The goal
“It is positive to win. It was not an easy game to play between the quarter-final because in this moment we have focused on the next game so the first-half was not so good.
“The second-half was really better, we showed more spirit, more fight and in the end we won. It was not a good performance but it was enough. For this reason it was not easy.
“Overall it was good. We took three points and we don’t have any new injuries. Alex and Benayoun showed good physical condition. I have all the squad available for the next game; this is good news for us.”
So far have only checked out the goal. It is one of the scrappiest I have ever seen. Then I checked out Sturridge’s goals against W Ham. The contrast will not be lost on followers of this blog
Well, Torres finally did something useful. It was cheating but it was useful.
Well, a win is a win…… I guess!
Pretty uninspiring stuff, if the truth be told, but Carlo is right in saying that we rested 3-4 players, didn’t get any injuries and still won.
I thought we looked heaps better once Yossi came on, and he provided a bit of urgency which was severely lacking in the first half. His link play with Torres was also very promising, and I think it showed how important getting to know your teammates is when it comes to the first few months at a club. He obviously has an understanding with Benayoun, and it makes me more confident that we will see a different player after the Summer break.
We might have rested Terry and Essien, but by replacing Mikel with Yossi on 46 mins I think CA effectively ended his Chelsea career. Also by not even starting or bringing on Kalou, he too will surely leave in the summer.
I hate to say it, but if I was a young, potential star player the last club I would join is Chelsea. Unless your contract guarantees a certain amount of “starts” – your much better off going to a ManU or Arsenal. Neymar, Ganso, Hazard or even are young signings like Kakuta, Sturidge even academy players like PVA, Cork, Woods or Bruma just don’t have a chance.
How is it that Fergie gets a young player like Hernandez or Da Silva to slot into his 1st team, Arsene gets Nasri and co while we can’t get any?
Also, is it true that apart from Terry not one member of our current senior squad came from our academy? Apart from the kids that still play for the reserves and are just in the squad to make up numbers (Josh, Sala, etc) we have not promoted one player.
Terry debuted in 1998, RA took control of the club in 2003. It’s now 2011. Seriously, why does RA even bother investing in our youth academy. How many more years before we produce another 1st team player. Maybe it will be Kakuta (but really we just bought him, same with Sturridge). I hope that next season PVA and Josh will at least get on the subs bench more often but I think Josh has another 3 years before he is a 1st team regular.
If I was an agent, selling a move away from Chelsea for all our potential young stars is just too easy. Try telling a young star at Arsenal that he has no chance of making it into the 1st team and see where that gets you!!
“but by replacing Mikel with Yossi on 46 mins I think CA effectively ended his Chelsea career”
How strange, on the contrary, I think he might just have saved it. If Torres plays Tuesday then I’d start with Yossi.
Alex may also be a risk worth taking and stick Branners at full back.
I’d be amazed it Mikel stays with us. He can’t get a run in the team for love nor money. His 1st start in ages and he’s taken off at half-time. We have a big game on Tuesday so taking of Lamps or Ramires would have made more sense. The message to Mikel is that CA does not have faith in him, even when we are playing the team that is bottom of the league.
Same goes for Kalou, no matter if you play well, you will be dropped next game.
I’m not saying that Mikel or Kalou should be 1st team players, I’m just saying if they have any ambition to play football on a regular basis they won’t get it at chelsea. Same goes for other young players looking to break into our team from the academy or ones we are looking to purchase.
No-one has yet mentioned the Danny Sturridge shaped elephant in the room. Great goals and performance all round yesterday.
Loving the Daily Mail story this morning that Roman has decided to sell Torres already. What a great source to make something like that up.
Ah yes, the proverbial “Chelsea Insider”, almost as good as the unreliable source who supposedly told the Grauniad’s Rumour Mill a couple of weeks ago that JT will be signing for the Spuds this summer.
Perhaps we should just start a list now of the most outlandish Summer Transfer Madness stories as we’ve all clearly lost interest in the rest of this season.
The humiliation of being last on MOTD’s running order last night pretty much summed up yesterday’s effort, I thought.
Only real point of note was that The Drog apparently can still bully and terrify some defences. Perhaps he felt inspired by being presented before the kick-off with the Dublin Supporters Branch Player of The Year Award – those Irish have such a wicked sense of humour.
Didn’t get to see this one and hard to know from highlights but as has been said, a win is a win etc.
Had to choose between watching Spuds or Mancs, so took the opportunity to scout the opposition.
Kakuta had a poor game, but a Fulham fan said it was his worst performance since he joined (and theirs too, btw).
What surprised me most was how manu were content to bore the pants off all and sundry and I’d expect more of the same on Tuesday. They do attack when they can, but are quite happy to sit back and counter attack the rest of the time.
They have an unpleasant knack of getting 3, 4 or even 5 forward really quickly and if our defence get gung ho or otherwise go missing, then they’re bound to capitalize. They also break down the flanks which can easily catch the defence 3 v 2 because the central defender and the other wide man don’t want to desert their positions.
The good news is that realistically we need two goals, so even if they do score, it changes very little.
Total disrespect on MOTD. They would never have done that to Man Utd. The Daniel Sturridge situation is astonishing, hopeful he can do it for us next season, I presume he’ll be in the England squad by then. Kakuta has done nothing at Fulham, sad to say it doesn’t look like he can hack it in England. If Torres can’t turn it round on Tuesday I’m beginning to think there will be no way back. Looks like Danny’s the man.
Torres will work it out with Yossi, it looks like. I really don’t think the management are going to give up this easily, do you? I don’t think they’re too keen on looking that foolish.
Personally I didn’t like the game much, like most people, but watched on the computer feed in the hopes Alex and Yossi would get in. Their showing proved to me how damaging their injuries were.
On the Lampard watch, he at least got a decent shot attempt and stole the ball back a couple times after the team gave up possession. Not yet the Frank we need, but maybe Tuesday! Speaking of Tuesday, I really want Yossi and Alex in the starting lineup. Torres too.
A rather painful 90 minutes about as far removed as last season’s clash with Wigan at home as it was possible to be. Didn’t particularly bode well for tomorrow night, but all depends on who Carlo puts out, I suppose.
Not much point in running through the minus points; would just be repeating what has been said for much of the season. Nice to see Benayoun back on the pitch; seemed to link pretty well with the team which was encouraging. Hopefully the ‘certain players won’t pass to Torres’ conspiracy theories will rightly die a death – actually reached the point where it seemed like better options were being overlooked in trying to tee our misfiring Spaniard up with a goal. Do rather agree with those who mentioned that both Kalou and Mikel have been treated like shite; I’m sure the majority will be happy if they depart in the summer, but we’d be losing two pretty valuable players for my money.
Sturridge will surely come back and play a bigger role for us next season; concern is that he’ll want out if he spends too much time on the bench.
So, what will the line-up be tomorrow? As long as it doesn’t involve Drogs and Torres being on the pitch at the same time, we might just give a decent account of ourselves. Presuming the latter will start and boy, would it be a good time for him to find his shooting boots…
I reckon it’ll be
Cech
Ivan Alex terry Cole
Ramires Essien Lampard
Malouda Anelka Torres
I concur…
The Good lord Kaiser has summed up the game perfectly, minus one word. Meh.
Admittedly I was one of those who saw the non-passing to Torres thing but to be fair Saturday was different and he was a shining light along with Ramires (again) and Luiz in a dismal game. Frank Lampard was seriously out of sorts again.
Christ this hurts……..but here goes……….Come on Liverpool!
*slopes off to bathroom to self-flagellate*
Yes, A Liverpool win tonight would do nicely…
(That said, West Brom are only 6 points behind them now – unlikely to happen, but it would be bloody hilarious if Woy managed to overhaul ‘King’ Kenny…)
Oh dear, looking at next week-end’s fixtures I guess another bout of self-flagellation will be called for as the Scousers are due at the Emirates on Sunday afternoon, kindly scheduled by Sky to clash with the Bolton v Stoke FA Cup semi on ESPN.
Personally, I draw the line at holding my nose as I give a faint cheer on these difficult occasions [though this can result in nearly choking to death, so not recommended for children].
Bolton v Stoke it is then.
Well if we do go out tomorrow night, I just hope it’s due to Utd outscoring us in 90/120mins of football, and not those things taken from 12 yards.
I really don’t think I can stomach watching, or putting up with the inevitable loss that would follow.
If it helps sooth your fluttering heart, there is only one result that can lead to the dreaded penalty sh*thouse, and that’s 0-1 to us.
All other score combinations mean death or glory.
Nothing to say about Saturday except to echo most of the comments on here. I’d been tolerant of Torres, willing him to come good and all that, but I lost patience on Saturday and am now getting pissed off by the way some in the crowd start slagging other players when they’ve (a) tried and failed to get the ball to him or when they’ve (b) passed to someone better-placed. The way the crowd. I see the youth team won their first leg 3-2 yesterday and twice led by 2. Anyone on here go?
Personally I’d like to see us line up:
Cech
Ivan Alex JT Cole
Essien Mikel Ramires
Kalou Torres Drogs
Yes – I would drop Frank, he’s been out of sorts and we need 3 strong and energised midfielders. I think in the 1st half we will need to weather the storm as they will look to kill the game off and Counter Attack will be our best weapon. I think we need drogs on the wings to bully Rafael again. He was effective at that during the bridge game and no reason he won’t do it again. As long as CA drums it into him that his role is to win the long ball and feed Torres. Kalou’s pace will be effective on the counter.
2nd half/ Plan B:
Cech
Ivan Alex JT Cole
Lamps Ramires Essien
Yossi Torres Anelka/ Drogs
Bringing on Yossi for Kalou and Lampard for Mikel. This is clearly more attacking and will leave us more vulnerable to Counter Attacks but if we don’t score we are out anyway. The more time you give Yossi and torres to link up the more chance we have of seeing him score.
On a separate note – I dreamt of watching Torres’s first goal and it was a simple tap-in. Fingers crossed it’s in the match tomorrow.
Good times – Liverpool have whipped down Citehs pants and given them a spanking.
Bad times – Carroll scored two so the press will be falling over themselves in the morning to point out how he’s scored for his new club, and done so in less games than our £50m albatross. Who will fire another blank tomorrow night. Guaran-damn-teed.
There again, perhaps some helpful Manc defender will deflect the ball against Torres’ head in a challenge and straight into the net as happened with Carroll’s second goal [what’s that again about being better to be lucky than talented?].
Meanwhile over in the Kremlinology Studies Dept. I see the official website has a video to accompany the release of the 2011/12 new shirt design. Lots of images and/or soporific chat from Torres, Lampard, Essien, Malouda and Cech with just a smattering of Terry in the background and no sign of The Drog [unless I dropped off entirely as my eyes glazed over at the dullness of it all].
Discuss in relation to likely transfer in/out policy this summer.
Damn that means we’re keeping Malouda then.
Having said that didn’t Ze German feature heavily in this years launch only to be airbrushed out when messrs Gourlay etc decided we no longer need a midfield general/Sturmbaunfuhrer?
I was about to say exactly the same thing about Ballack.
I think it means we’re going to see a lot more of the young lads. ‘Cause hoops are going to make the older blokes look fat.
Have you seen the long sleeve shirt? Pyjamas.
Contrast this with the admittedly crypto fascist, pseudo-militaristic but very businesslike number worn to win the double.
You don’t win doubles playing in hoops (I’m not talking about Scotland) or with bits of red in your blue kit.
Frankly I’m concerned.
what’s the point of beating manU, if we know that we can not beat barcelona, not on a current form and mood in the squad? well, i’d love it if we beat them, just because they are manU.
Aside of that, whose bright idea was it to have a hooped shirt for the season QPR are likely to be up in the Premiership (legal formalities pending)?
Jon’s comment yesterday in which he dreams about Torres’ scoring his first goal must have got in my head. I too had a dream about Nando netting for the first time. Unlike Jon’s dream mine was very reminiscent of Torres finishing….
I got as far as picturing a simple tap (I’ve done a very nice drawing but I have no idea how to upload it)
Kremlinology update: just received the Official Club Newsletter e-mail where the pic for the 11/12 shirt launch has The Drog alongside Lamps, Terry and Torres, so we could be set up for another Ballack-dropping gaffe after all.
In an act of unprecedented dedication I just forced myself to watch the tedious video again after consuming copious amounts of caffeine to ensure I stayed awake all the way through this time and note that The Drog and Kalou do make brief appearances in the last minute.
Is the absence of Luiz down to Adidas preferring not to be associated with extremely silly hairstyles and/or his lack of English?
Do I detect guys with all this inane banter about kits, hoops and wet dreams, that there is a little bit of nerves ahead of tonights game. 😉
I believe “displacement activity” is the posh term for it:
http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/displacement-activity
– the blogging equivalent of scratching the naughty bits or binge-eating to distract ourselves 😉
The tap was in the off position
Absolutely not. My feelings towards this competition are much aligned with PeteW’s or something like your views on the World Cup.
Meh….sums it up, but since the Barca debacle in 2009 I’ve gradually considered this competition to be an impostor in comparison to the old European Cup. And for me, there’s little additional interest in playing a team we play a minimum of 3 times a year (Community Shield and PL) when I want to see us at this stage pitting ourselves against unknowns like Madrid, or Inter etc….unknowns because you generally don’t play them every year.
Oh, and because it just gives Platini another chance to show his massively smug and arrogant french gob on TV.
I will record it, but I’ll be fixing my new bike and going out for a 25k ride and then coming back home to catch up on the last Waking the Dead …………and no, the potential irony of that TV title at around 22:00 isn’t lost on me 😉
That should be ‘attempting to fix my bike’ – these new fangled things have so many gears and springs and levers and all sorts of fiddly bits.
I’m sure they’re all made by a huge company who’s real name is Heath Robinson Ltd.
If it aint got campagnolo stuff where it matters then take it back and ask for a proper bike 😉
I don’t want too ruin Waking the Dead for you, but after nine years I found it disappointing that they they failed to resucitate a single corpse
The only nerves I’ve got are the ones in the wisdom tooth that’s making my life hell – finding it difficult to care about anything, including football, at the moment. Going to give the old-fashioned remedy Excess Alcohol another try – as much vodka as I can drink without seeing double or passing out. Hoping to watch the match on my iPhone, internet connection and vodka willing. The vodka should make both the pain of my wisdom tooth and the pain of watching another Champions League exit more bearable. За твоё здоровье! Chin-chin!
Surprised by the lack of interest in the game from fellow bloggers/ fans. Sure it’s an up-hill struggle but lets at least show we give a shit! If we win, what an amazing feeling/ comeback. If we lose, well it’s too be expected when your 1-nil down and got to chase the game at old trafford.
If you can’t get excited/ nervous/ thrilled about the upcoming 90 mins of football then why even bother supporting a club? Follow curling instead.
Come on you blues … some of us still believe!!
God Bless Romans Blue Army
drogbaaaaa!!!!
ah, fuck…
Unbelievable…
What a pathetic way to go out.
3 like for like subs when you need two goals says it all really.
Whatever the rights and wrongs of the decision, Carlo’s a dead man. Bye bye.
What the fuck was that all about?
Not surprising the forwards can’t form an understanding if we change them every five minutes. Whole shape needs to change in the Summer if we are to incorporate Torres in some way.
Problem we have is that our substitutes are exactly the same as the players on the park, so we never have any variation, and the play is so ponderous that we never catch sides out…… Either players go, or Carlo does…… Or my personal preference, which is now that quite a few players and Carlo go. Bring back Butch!
Far be it from me to bring up my previous comments on Carlo, but have a look back. Nothings changed, except I fancy him less now. It was pitiful but he’s Italian so what did you expect. Name me one italian coach who believes in width and flair?
He won’t be sacked, but a dignified ‘mutual consent’ deal with Roma looks more likely. .
F erreira on for Alex at 80 minutes when we need 2 goals and Benayoun is on the bench-can anyone possibly explain the logic behind that!
It’s stupid it’s like it is, but I can hear the axe swinging already.
But what choices did he have? Torres was clearly thrust upon him by Roman in a fit of panic buying, and looks like he needs a good rest. Spoilt kid syndrome to say we want a load more new players, but its the lassez faire attitude some of them stroll around with that pisses me off. Too many think they’ve done enough by turning up and that’s it.
I thought we played well in the first 20 minutes … drive, passion and closed ManU down quickly. Then they got into the game and we just couldn’t break them down.
It’s clear Drogs should have started and I think instead of Anelka. Drogs out wide is effective. He can cross and can win the long ball. If we would just practice him feeding Torres it could be lethal.
That said – we gave it our best, they were just better. Consistent all season and with the knack to really turn on the style when it counts. Wayne was just awesome … unplayable. And Giggs, is he really 37? I felt that when they scored it just knocked the stuffing out of us before half time and we never recovered. The silly yellows didn’t help and Ramires should know better.
So, it’s official – 2010/11 season was a transition. New blood in the summer will bolster our next campaigns and perhaps it is time for CA to move on. The only question is who replaces him? Boas? TSO (I wish), Benitiez (please no). Not much pickings out there so if CA does move on we better have a solid replacement for him. It will be easier to find young talented players to fill our RB problem, Lamps replacement, Width issue and Torres partner (although surely Sturridge must be given a real full season chance).
Till next season …
God Bless Roman’s Blue Army
Possibly the single most predictable result in the history of football. Meh.
Let’s concentrate on nicking third and get this piss awful season over with.
Agreed. My only comment is what has happened to Anelka? Since we’ve signed Torres all the discussion has been about him and Drogba. Admittedly neither has pulled up that many trees but Anelka has been truly awful and this seems to have slipped under the radar somewhat.
I didn’t think Man U were as great as the media made out but they deserved to go through. I hope (but don’t think they will) go on to win it. I’ve never really had a problem with Man U compared to the Arse and the Scousers despite Fergie’s occasional outbursts of irrationality.
Not really surprised or even disappointed about the result, just annoyed by the referee and Carlo. Ramires’ cards were soft, Terry’s wasn’t even a foul, Rooney and Nani should have been booked for diving, Giggs for foul on Ivanovic and Rio for push on Anelka inside their penalty area (no replays of the incident on my stream though). Carlo on the other hand should have dropped the zonal marking in the end and instructed the players to challenge for the ball all around, he should have put pressure on injured Rio, poor O’Shea and tired Evra and he should have started with Drogba instead of Torres..
Let us hope that, since Carlo’s future has been decided (whichever way), and our season is effectively over, we’ll see more diversity in the playing squad.