Thursday 30th August

Champions League draw: Group B - Valencia, Schalke 04, Rosenborg

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The draw for this season's Champions League group stages has taken place in Monte Carlo.

Chelsea have been drawn in Group B with Valencia, Bundesliga runners-up Schalke 04, and Norwegian champions Rosenborg.

Tuesday 28th August

Premier League: Chelsea 1 - 0 Portsmouth

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Apologies: links to match reports and video highlights only I'm afraid. Jonathan and I missed the game, and it's difficult to give opinions based on ten minutes of highlights and goal videos. Comments welcome as usual.

Saturday 25th August

Spoilt fans and reality check

21 Comments

I know this is the silly season, but never would I have thought that any Chelsea fan with a genuine sense of history would let its silliness infect them. Some of the most irresponsible comments anyone can make against the club are now being spouted by supposed fans, who, deluded in the comfortable knowledge that they don’t have to foot the bill or sit through nail-biting negotiations with other clubs over players, now want everyone in the Chelsea hierarchy to be lined up and shot for signing Juliano Belletti whom they’ve uncharitably dubbed a “Barcelona reject”. To them, having salivated expectantly all summer at the prospect of signing Daniel Alves, being presented with a 31-year old down-the-pecking-order-at-Barcelona alternative is akin to being force-fed faeces. They just can’t understand why our billionaire godfather didn’t give Sevilla's Jose Maria del Nido wha

Wednesday 22nd August

Chelsea as the bogeyman

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Am I the only one scratching my head over this Juande-Ramos-to-Chelsea-if-something-happens-with-Jose-Mourinho story? Guillem Balague of Sky Sports claims Fabio Capello told Ramos at a meeting in Madrid a few days ago that he has friends at Chelsea who “think the world of him” and who are lining him up to replace Mourinho if the latter, for one reason or other, moves on. Now, since when has Capello become a managerial recruitment consultant for Chelsea when he himself needs a job, having just been sacked by the most notorious Mickey Mouse outfit in world football? How naive is Ramos to sit in Sevilla and wait for that call from Roman Abramovich when there is no obvious vacancy at Stamford Bridge now or in the near future? Or, is this just another journalistic ploy to unsettle the Chelsea hierarchy once more now that peace has broken out between Jose and Roman?

Tuesday 21st August

It WAS a penalty (in the eyes of the referee...)

15 Comments

Just when you thought you’d seen it all in football, something new comes along to shock you to your very core. Something so foul and rotten, it makes the stench of Jade Goody’s perfume range seem almost pleasant.

A football team have had a rather dodgy penalty awarded against them.

I’m waiting for Parliament to be recalled from its summer recess to discuss the matter. David Cameron has been so overwhelmed and stumped for a reaction that he’s flown to Africa for another photo opportunity, instead of visiting the affected area to offer sympathy.

Maybe he should have sent Boris Johnson instead.

Back (and front) pages have been held across the nation. That fine arbiter of moral propriety, The Sun, has discovered that the referee responsible for this heinous crime against football

Tuesday 21st August

Premier League: Liverpool 1 - 1 Chelsea

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Match reports

The Guardian, Kevin McCarra: "The teams could not be prised apart but this was an afternoon when Liverpool's spirits soared and plummeted. A likely victory was taken from them with the dubious award of a penalty by the referee, Rob Styles, whose form was so poor that he would have been substituted well before the interval had he been a player. Despite denials the footage suggests that, like Graham Poll at last year's World Cup, he showed a second yellow card to a miscreant without dismissing him."

The Independent, Andy Hunter: "These sides have made a habit of nullifying their opponents' attacking edge

Sunday 19th August

Rafa still beneath us

28 Comments

While I’ve since accepted that tight-assed Rafael Benitez speaking beneath himself is now standard fare in any Liverpool versus Chelsea encounter of whatever shade these past few seasons, his continued singsong about Chelsea’s dollar this time around (after all that has gone on at Anfield during this transfer window), I think, borders on chronic amnesia. What more exposes a man’s lack of character or unwillingness to take responsibility than his clear inability to recognize when the boot is on the other foot? Long before the season commenced, José Mourinho took a panoramic view of the competition and stated in each case what would be their ambition for this season. With regard to Liverpool, Mourinho did not say anything different from what the Anfield players themselves were already saying (and are still saying), which is that winning the Premiership is the focus for them this time around. Yet, egged on by the drama-addicted press, Benitez is now throwing a

Friday 17th August

What happened to the beast?

16 Comments

As a contributor who always saw beauty in the so-called beast of last season's Chelsea, I'm enjoying the beauty in the new so-called beautiful Chelsea. But I don't think we've seen the last of our beastly nature, not if we are going to win the Champions League this year. Which the signs indicate is our priority this season.

And aren't we looking beautiful. Two games in and it's all wingers, twin strikers and a two-man central midfield. The ball goes to feet, one-two, in behind, quick, precise and players move, dragging defenders around, running into space. And Jose Mourinho looks beautiful. Better haircut (always a clear sign of a man's inner state of mind) to start the season. Last year's crop was too hard. It looked mean. Like the teams he put out. Now he's got it at that perfect length, not too short, not too floppy. And he's sounding relaxed. Most of his new signings have

Thursday 16th August

Premier League: Reading 1 - 2 Chelsea

27 Comments

Match reports

The Independent, Conrad Leach: "It usually takes decades to build up an enmity on the scale that now exists between these two teams, but in their case it only took one match. That was last October, when Stephen Hunt accidentally collided with Petr Cech, his knee hitting the Chelsea goalkeeper in the head. It left Cech with a fractured skull and led to lingering recriminations. Cech was also out for three months and returned with the skull cap he wears in every game. To show what this victory meant for Mourinho, you only had to see him pump his fist at the final whistle to realise memories of the Cech incident are still fresh."

Monday 13th August

Premier League: Chelsea 3 - 2 Birmingham City

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Match reports

The Times, Russell Kempson: "It was not quite thrill-a-minute - Mourinho could never be accused of throwing caution completely to the wind - and Roman Abramovich, the Chelsea owner, was pictured gloomily resting his chin in his hands near the end. Yet if this is the way forward for Chelsea, with Mourinho’s midfield diamond abandoned in favour of marauding wingers and will-o’-the-wisp forwards, the chase for the Barclays Premier League title could take on a more vibrant tone this season. A less predictable Chelsea could prove an exceptionally dangerous Chelsea."

The Guardian, Kevin McCarra: "With two wingers and a pair

Thursday 9th August

Featured links for 9th August: Fantasy Football, Pick the Score

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A few links I’ve come across recently that you might enjoy:

• Official Chelsea FC Fantasy Football - It's that time of year when fans should be thinking about their fantasy football teams. These days most fantasy football games are very much alike, so this season I decided to give the official Chelsea FC Fantasy Football a go. Its biggest plus is that you can include up to four Chelsea players in your squad of twelve if you so wish, and there are some pretty decent prizes up for grabs including signed Chelsea shirts and match tickets. It's also free to enter. More information about rules etc. is available here. I've set up a Chelsea Blog League which you can join using the code 2451-185. Currently

Monday 6th August

Community Shield: Chelsea 1 - 1 Manchester United

24 Comments

Match reports

The Guardian, Kevin McCarra: "While United, busier in attack, deserved to be victors, they will be conscious, too, that Chelsea's line-up was a distorted reflection of the prowess that Jose Mourinho can call on when there are fewer problems. Didier Drogba has hurt his knee and, though a scan should confirm that he will be back in 10 days, Mourinho was not confident enough of Andriy Shevchenko's fitness to use the Ukrainian here. If it was peculiar to witness Joe Cole give his own interpretation of centre-forward play, it is likely that Mourinho wanted to protect Pizarro, who eventually took part for 38 minutes, since he has no other fit strikers remaining."

Sunday 5th August

The Mellow Peril

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As I heard Jose Mourinho begin to strum the tune to his newly-minted mellow mood, it was no music to my ears. Indeed, I couldn’t help wondering whether he isn’t putting his head too far above the parapet this time to escape unhurt. Of what use is it to announce ahead of a new season that he is going mellow except to give thin-skinned Premiership managers, the referees’ confraternity and the Fleet Street horde (and their cousins everywhere) a blank cheque to fleece his flesh any time they feel like it? Mourinho claims he’s mellowing because people are using his personality “to create something that is not true”; but who cares for whatever Frankenstein these people create? Aren’t flagellations, asphyxiations, crucifixions and all manner of public executions in the press and on the pitch part of the job description?

Wednesday 1st August

Featured links for 1st August: Drogba goals, 20 best England defenders

6 Comments

A few more links that you might enjoy:

• Brondby 0 - 2 Chelsea - Didier Drogba scored twice in what was another unconvincing, tame pre-season game. The first half was dreadful. The majority of the second half wasn't much better. The final 20-25 minutes Chelsea improved and Drogba struck twice, first rising above the Brondby goalkeeper to head in a Glen Johnson cross from the right, then powering a shot past the Danish side's substitute keeper after playing a one-two with Claudio Pizarro. Positives I can recall aside from Drogba: Pizarro gives the impression that he will settle in the Premiership a lot quicker than Andriy Shevchenko (who arguably still hasn't found his feet); and Joe Cole looked sharper. Still, I can'