Match reports The Guardian, Kevin McCarra: “Chelsea yet again paced themselves beautifully to stay in step with Manchester United. The reigning champions cannot exactly dread Sunday’s trip to Wigan Athletic when a victory will secure the title on goal difference, but they will go there with a discomfiting sense of claustrophobia because of Avram Grant’s team. [...]
Match reports The Observer, Stuart Barnes: “After the Boxing Day goalfest against Aston Villa, Avram Grant’s side had lived on the edge again. Another draw would have been damaging to their chances of making up ground in the title race. Instead, this result, coupled with Manchester United’s defeat at West Ham, means they retain a strong [...]
Did the earth move? Was the season lit with fireworks? Did Andriy Shevchenko seduce you with silky skills? Did Didier Drogba’s drive and dynamism send shivers down your spine? Did the essence of Michael Essien send you into a dreamy haze? Or did it seem like the interminable season from hell at times? Did you look [...]
Match reports The Times, George Caulkin: “United and Chelsea had cause to berate the “cursed North” over the course of the weekend, with Middlesbrough’s gallant draw at Old Trafford on Saturday followed by a fine performance by Newcastle United at St James’ Park. At its conclusion, the race for the Barclays Premiership title remains unaltered, [...]
Match reports Daily Telegraph, Tim Rich: “Newcastle’s search for a trophy has come to grief at Chelsea’s hands with what by the Tyne must seem depressingly regular intervals. This was the eighth time in 10 years they had barred Newcastle’s way in cup competitions and only once, when they lost an FA Cup tie in the [...]
Jose Mourinho will rest several players but has told Newcastle not to expect an early Christmas present. Mourinho said: “I’m going to rest some players, that’s obvious. People think we have a massive squad but it is not true. Our squad is very short and at this moment we have some problems. “We have a game [...]
First half bad, second half good – this might well be the chanted mantra of the average Chelsea supporting alpha male these days as he tears off more meat with his teeth whilst his wife toils away at the ironing and washing (well maybe that’s just my house on a cold Sunday afternoon when we [...]
One of my Arsenal supporting friends recently claimed Chelsea were “spoiling football”. It set me thinking and the conclusions are set out below. Newcastle United are close to being bought by another foreign consortium to add to Liverpool, Manchester United, Portsmouth, Aston Villa, West Ham United and, obviously, our beloved Blues, and yet it is [...]
For a while, Chelsea seemed to be out of favour with Fox Sports so that for some weeks they hardly figured at all. In the last couple of weeks, however, things have improved, at least in this respect. I have been able to watch all of Chelsea’s recent Premiership games, starting with that against Manchester [...]
Update: I wasn’t at the game, and other commitments meant that I couldn’t even listen to any radio commentary, therefore I won’t be posting the usual good/bad type match report. See below for links to external reports. Chelsea face injury-hit Newcastle United at Stamford Bridge later this evening knowing that they cannot afford to drop points [...]
