Wednesday 31st January

Premiership preview: Chelsea v. Blackburn Rovers

10 Comments

A resurgent Chelsea return to Premiership action after easy wins in the League Cup and FA Cup respectively.

The Blues' revival will be tested to the full by an in-form Blackburn Rovers side.

Jose Mourinho is set to recall Michael Ballack and Claude Makelele after both missed the win over Nottingham Forest.

John Terry isn't ready to make his comeback but is expected to start against Charlton at the weekend, and Arjen Robben is still out with ankle ligament damage.

Rovers have also...

Monday 29th January

FA Cup review: Chelsea 3 - 0 Nottingham Forest

10 Comments

Match reports

The Guardian, Richard Williams: "Roman Abramovich stayed away from this one, preferring to spend the weekend watching teams from Israel, Russia and Ukraine compete in a friendly tournament mounted with his money. Maybe he knows more about football than we think. Back in west London there was nothing of significance to be learnt from a match that resembled a pre-season kickabout against a semi-pro side, and precious little to enjoy."

Daily Telegraph, Henry Winter: "This was Robin Hood in reverse, the rich taking from the poor of Nottingham. Forest were too deep, too cautious, and were duly put to the sword through...

Sunday 28th January

FA Cup preview: Chelsea v. Nottingham Forest

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Former European Cup winners Nottingham Forest visit Stamford Bridge for a fourth round FA Cup tie, Chelsea's second cup game in five days.

Tuesday's League Cup semi-final second leg win over Wycombe Wanderers lifted players and fans alike.

News that John Terry is fit again after a prolonged spell on the sidelines will raise hopes of a resurgence still further.

Terry is unlikely to be risked today but is expected to start the Premiership game against Blackburn on Wednesday.

Jose Mourinho is still without Khalid Boulahrouz, Arjen Robben and Joe Cole.

Forest manager Colin Calderwood is sweating on captain Ian Breckin's fitness but...

Wednesday 24th January

League Cup review: Chelsea 4 - 0 Wycombe Wanderers (Agg: 5 - 1) (includes video)

43 Comments

Match reports

The Guardian, Simon Burnton: "These have been a testing few weeks for Chelsea but, although they have been humbled enough of late, they were not to be humiliated. Wycombe might have beaten Fulham and Charlton on their way to the semi-finals but the Premiership champions were too good for them last night in a match that was always fiercely contested, but never much of a contest."

Daily Telegraph, Henry Winter: "Blue heaven was finally a place on earth for Andrei Shevchenko yesterday, not some distant, dreamed-of land. Chelsea's passage to the Carling Cup final last night was really one man's voyage from apparent pariah status to...

Tuesday 23rd January

League Cup preview: Chelsea v. Wycombe Wanderers

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League Two's Wycombe Wanderers stand in the way of Jose Mourinho reaching his second League Cup final in three years.

Wycombe punched above their weight in the first leg at Adams Park and took advantage of a makeshift Chelsea side and a poor performance to seal a 1-1 draw.

Mourinho's injury problems haven't eased in the subsequent 13 days - if anything they have worsened.

Arjen Robben's ankle injury sustained during the defeat to Liverpool rules him out while Wayne Bridge, who scored the away goal, is also missing with a knee injury. It's unclear whether Ricardo Carvalho has recovered from a fever.

Didier Drogba and Andriy Shevchenko missed the first leg because of suspension and injury...

Tuesday 23rd January

Time for Plan B?

35 Comments

It seems incredible that after two consecutive Premierships, currently in the hunt for a third and alive and well in the Champions League, that anyone should want to doubt Jose Mourinho. But for me at least, the nagging doubts have surfaced. OK, I’m not sure who is really calling the shots at Chelsea these days — maybe a number of different people are — but for whatever reason I think we had the worst pre-season we have had in a long time. I’m not just talking results and performances, which were not good, but the fact we contrived to go into the season with only three central defenders and three strikers. Conventional wisdom dictates four in each position is the norm, and if you consider our strikers include the inexperienced Salomon Kalou and defenders the dodgy Khalid Boulahrouz, you could argue we have just two strikers and two central defenders. Now this clearly isn’t good enough. We are hostages to fortune for loss of form, injury and...

Monday 22nd January

God answers Mourinho's prayers!

34 Comments

As hordes of Chelsea fans wept into their beer after our dire Anfield outing, Mourinho mumbled his prayer into the microphone: “Please God, let Manchester United falter tomorrow”. Prayer granted, still six points behind, but the worst is averted and the best is yet to come! Of course, the Anfield result was bad, but we were desperately unlucky with injuries and suspension. Against a terribly smarting Liverpool with a lot to prove after their nightmarish outings against Arsenal, the best we could have hoped for was a draw with the team we had out there. But now, Arsenal have saved our bacon and we need panic no more. Mourinho’s teams...

Sunday 21st January

Premiership review: Liverpool 2 - 0 Chelsea

16 Comments

Match reports

Independent on Sunday, Steve Tongue: "In 100 Premiership matches, Jose Mourinho has been beaten only nine times, but never can he have approached a game with such resignation as yesterday. The defeatism apparent once he lost a third central defender in Ricardo Carvalho to a virus overnight must surely have spread to his players, who gave probably the least coherent performance of the Mourinho era."

Sunday Times, Joe Lovejoy: "Roman Abramovich didn’t turn up and nor did Chelsea. For the first time the champions’ confidence cracked at Anfield yesterday, when they stumbled their way...

Friday 19th January

Premiership preview: Liverpool v. Chelsea

16 Comments

Former prime minister Harold Wilson once said, "A week is a long time in politics."

Indeed, as we have seen with Chelsea's current political wranglings, much can change in seven days.

Prior to last weekend's trouncing of Wigan at Stamford Bridge, Jose Mourinho declared his love for Chelsea after numerous newspaper reports told of internal disputes; post game he hinted at differences of opinion with both the board and Roman Abramovich.

The press had a field day. All manner of reports about "civil war" at the club were forthcoming; Mourinho had added fuel to the fire and journalists were determined to fan the flames.

Yesterday chief executive

Tuesday 16th January

Who wants to jump from their frying pan into our fire?

77 Comments

It’s been a weird month or so for us Chelsea fans hasn’t it? Depending on what your choice of journal from the Fourth Estate is we’ve gone from well run Premiership/FA Cup/Carling Cup/Champions League contenders to a strife torn dysfunctional bunch of headless chickens. We are apparently a club in crisis on and off the pitch, with draws at home against lower league opposition book-ended by a lucky win over Wigan and a glorious thumping victory over the same team on Saturday. As with most things, the truth, in my view lies somewhere in between. Saturday’s victory was a welcome return to winning ways but when one considers how poor the opposition was that may not...

Monday 15th January

Premiership review: Chelsea 4 - 0 Wigan Athletic (includes video)

25 Comments

Match reports

The Observer, Jamie Jackson: "After the week that might just have begun Jose's long goodbye, this rout was heartening for the Portuguese coach. Wigan, with six consecutive defeats before this match, may have proved all too easy opposition, but the crowd and the Chelsea players went beyond securing three points to produce a rousing display of unity. In the closing minutes the champions, then coasting, went looking for a fourth goal and collected easily. It came from Didier Drogba's twenty-first strike of what is becoming a career-defining season."

Independent on Sunday, Steve Tongue: "Whatever...

Saturday 13th January

Premiership preview: Chelsea v. Wigan Athletic

13 Comments

In response to growing press speculation surrounding his future at Chelsea, Jose Mourinho made an appearance on the club's TV channel last night to reassure fans and to tell them to ignore what the press is reporting.

"We all love Chelsea. The fans love Chelsea for a long, long time. I love Chelsea just for two-and-a-half years but I love Chelsea," he said.

"I want to give my best to Chelsea every day and I want to win always the next game and the next game is against Wigan. We have to be together to win that game.

"We have to forget the stories, we have to forget what the press is saying and we have to concentrate on our Chelsea because Chelsea belongs to all of us."

Mourinho's statement did little to extinguish the speculation.

Thursday 11th January

League Cup: Wycombe Wanderers 1 - 1 Chelsea

25 Comments

Match reports

The Guardian, Jon Brodkin: "Never mind that Chelsea remain overwhelming favourites to reach the Carling Cup final. Being held at Wycombe last night was the latest confirmation of their dwindling powers and this was no lucky outcome for the League Two side. Jose Mourinho's team were second best for most of this game and Wycombe deserved a draw courtesy of a goal in the final quarter of an hour by Jermaine Easter, the most expensive home player at £80,000."

Daily Telegraph, Oliver Brown: "Where the weekend's demolition of Macclesfield was driven by acute status anxiety at Stamford Bridge, against Wycombe his side were thrust into...

Wednesday 10th January

League Cup preview: Wycombe Wanderers v. Chelsea

7 Comments

For the second time in five days Chelsea play League Two opposition in a domestic cup game.

Having swept aside Macclesfield Town in the third round of the FA Cup on Saturday, the Blues travel to Adams Park to play fellow League Two outfit Wycombe Wanderers in the League Cup semi-final first leg.

With Tottenham playing Arsenal in the other semi-final, Chelsea have a great chance of reaching their second League Cup final in three years.

Not that Jose Mourinho is taking Wycombe lightly.

Paul Lambert's side have already defeated Premiership opposition in Fulham and Charlton en route to the last four, and Mourinho will give Wycombe the respect they deserve.

"Of course they are a team from a lower division but they are a good team, well organised," he said.

"Their coach Paul Lambert has a lot of experience of football at a high level and we know we have to respect them.

"We have a second leg at Stamford Bridge so if something...

Monday 8th January

FA Cup draw: Nottingham Forest at the Bridge

31 Comments

Chelsea will play Nottingham Forest at Stamford Bridge in the Fourth Round of this season’s FA Cup.

The Blues last played Forest on the way to lifting the Cup in 2000. Goals from Frank Leboeuf and Dennis Wise sealed victory in a Fourth Round tie.

Full draw

Arsenal v. Bolton Wanderers West Ham United v. Watford Bristol City or Coventry City v. Hull City or Middlesbrough Chelsea v Nottingham Forest Chester City or Ipswich Town v. Swansea Cardiff City or Tottenham Hotspur v. Southend United or Barnsley Barnet or Colchester United v. Peterborough United or Plymouth Argyle Birmingham City or Newcastle United v. Reading or Burnley Derby County v. Bristol Rovers Sheffield Wednesday or Manchester City v. Southampton Crystal Palace v. Preston North End Manchester United v. Portsmouth Blackpool v. Norwich City Queens Park Rangers...

Saturday 6th January

FA Cup: Chelsea 6 - 1 Macclesfield Town

8 Comments

Match reports

The Observer, Anna Kessel: "Six-one, what a washout - or so you might think. Second from top versus second from bottom in the entire league: really, you had to be there. Andriy Shevchenko battling with the defenders of Macclesfield Town was in itself a marvel - a year ago you couldn't have made it up. Throw in a Macclesfield equaliser, a goalkeeper's sending-off, the visitors down to nine men, and six thrilling goals from the boys in blue. And the visitors, battling relegation, bagged half a million quid in the process. Yesterday, playing at Stamford Bridge must have been a scintillating blur."

Sunday Telegraph, Clive White: "It might sound...

Thursday 4th January

Premiership review: Aston Villa 0 - 0 Chelsea

6 Comments

Match reports

Daily Telegraph, Henry Winter: "The club of jaw-jaw have become the club of draw-draw and none of those publicly upbraided by Mourinho over the weekend, namely Salomon Kalou, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Andrei Shevchenko, redeemed themselves here. The galvanising presence of John Terry and penetrative wing-play of Arjen Robben cannot be restored quickly enough; Chelsea should be a more formidable unit when they next resurface in the Premiership, against Wigan Athletic on Jan 13."

The Guardian, Kevin McCarra: "Chelsea may enter the market place with a greater desperation because, after all, they have higher aspirations than Villa. Some...

Wednesday 3rd January

The Ghosts of Christmas Past: The Chelsea Christmas Review

15 Comments

Remember the good old days? Remember the two consecutive seasons that we actually went through Christmas unscathed? Maximum points anyone?

Of course you do because they were the last two glorious years. Prior to these two glorious years, no matter who was at the reigns we would all rush headlong into the Christmas period blinded by our own optimism, convinced that this would be our year and that we would win all of the festive games and come out of the other side challenging the big boys at the top. In reality it never happened. Year in year out festive campaigns were fraught with performances from players who had apparently been out on the lash or had partaken in a few too many mince pies. It didn’t seem to matter how good the squad was, or who the manager was, it just seemed to be a curse of our club that we would snatch defeat from the jaws of victory during this vital period. With 4 games in 10 days the test was always a stiff one, but one that each of the...

Tuesday 2nd January

Premiership preview: Aston Villa v. Chelsea

18 Comments

Manchester United extended their lead by just one point yesterday.

It goes without saying that it is imperative Chelsea win this game in hand and cut United's advantage to four points.

After Saturday's 2-2 draw with Fulham, Jose Mourinho publicly named several players who he felt had underperformed in recent weeks.

Paulo Ferreira, Andriy Shevchenko, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Salomon Kalou and Geremi all came in for criticism.

It was a surprise to many that Michael Ballack wasn't included.

Ballack is suspended for this game. The impact of his absence is sure to be closely examined.

Monday 1st January

Boy in Blue: Entering the Fold

16 Comments

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Christopher Ogden, and I was born in 14 BA, which stands for Before Abramovich (I felt that the year of our saviour’s arrival deserves to be recognised as an epoch). In the Gregorian calendar, this would be 1989, and therefore I am currently nearing the grand old age of eighteen. If I may, I would like to begin my contribution to this website by telling you all the story of my steady introduction to Chelsea fandom.

At the time of my birth, Chelsea Football Club had just been re-promoted to the First Division after a brief one-season spell in what is now known as the Championship. For the previous ten years, we had been largely inconsistent spending several seasons moving back and forth between England’s top two footballing divisions. The Eighties were the years of Ken Bates’ early tenure as chairman, most remembered by supporters for our powerful attacking force which consisted of playe...