Flamboyant And Assured

So my reaction to the match was expertly summed up for me by Fabregas
‘I don’t think I am exaggerating if I don’t remember playing and enjoying a football match as much as I did personally in the first half’.

That first half was a scintillating and flamboyant display by the team that is not normally seen at Stamford Bridge. The one-twos, the PC-assisted passes and the runs by the attackers. It was mesmerising.

I am a man who values efficiency and loved the periods between 2004 to 2010 at Chelsea. The game plan back then was simple. Go and win, no matter what. Grind out results. Bully the opponent to submission. In other words, dont do Arsenal.

Those days were fun and just like in movies, the fun restriction was CF (Chelsea Fans). It was hard for the other teams to like us considering the fact that our daddy was rich and we were bullies too.

But in this period the team seems to be playing to entertain all. Pass pass pass with fewer shots on goals. But the gaffer has the team high in confidence and playing well to win and entertain us all. Long may it continue.

This team is not getting carried away and are careful not to drop their performance and lose confidence as summed by Fabregas again,
‘I don’t compare us with any other big sides because we haven’t won anything, this is just the beginning.
Everyone is talking well about Chelsea now, how great we are and then you lose two games they will talk about how bad we are. We have been long enough in football not to fall into this trap and to just keep going the way we want to achieve things.’

I must admit that I was a bit surprised by the scoreline. The 2-0 might suggest a much stiffer encounter than it was but credit to West Brom that they came into the second half with a game plan not to concede more.

With a man down against this Chelsea team that seemed like the most prudent thing to do. They were very organised at the back and sacrificed possession to protect their dignity. Not conceding in the second half would have been a real lift for them.

Manchester United, before last saturday, had suffered more injuries to their players than Boko Haram in the past 3 months and not really playing at their best. So how on earth did they get a win at the Emirates? You ask any Arsenal fun and the answer is simple.

Arsene Wenger.

The man who shrewdly guided Arsenal to its highest points and helped them build the enviable Emirates stadium has now become redundant at the club. The man who was once considered to be one of the brightest managers on earth is now not counted at the top even by his own fans.

His tactics are questioned, his signings are scoffed at and he seems to identify the problems with his teams a season or 2 later than everyone.

Arsenal has not won against United in their last 7 matches now. They failed to win any of the 2 matches against them last season when United were at an all time low and that was terrible for the fans to take. But Sunday’s loss is leaving a far bitter taste.

Fans are calling for his head and it might be justified this time. Old age is has made him lose his touch with the game and its harming the team and the English game as a whole.

It seems kind of funny that the 2 managers who seems to have problems with teams defending have found their teams susceptible at the back this season. Arsenal have conceded a third of their goals from counter-attacks and Liverpool cant seem to find a plug for the hole im their defence.

Let them ask the man who has made it his art to perfect it.

Jose Mourinho

Giles Smith: Lighting up

A great performance and a life-enhancing result at Anfield. And what a reaction. That Saturday night, people round my way were letting off fireworks long into the night, and from what I can gather it was the same in many other parts of the country.

In some places, apparently, they even built huge bonfires, like beacons, and set fire to them. And, on the Thames, in the early part of the evening, newspapers and television reported that a glorious display of fireworks was launched from a barge moored mid-stream just east of Waterloo Bridge while a delighted crowd looked on from the pavement.

Extraordinary scenes, and it showed you how much that result meant to everyone – a testament to the way that football can really bring people together from time to time, and certainly when Chelsea win away at Liverpool.

Actually, now I come to think of it, people were still letting off fireworks more than 24 hours later, on the Sunday evening – largely, I guess, because, by then, a defeat for Arsenal at Swansea had been added into the celebratory mix, along with that pitifully scraped draw for Manchester City away at QPR. And also because it seems people just can’t stop letting off fireworks once they start.

Anyway, festive times. Those combined results left us:
1. Four points clear at the top of the table.
2. Eight points clear of Manchester City.
3. Twelve points clear of Arsenal, whose manager went on to state that the title was now officially beyond his team’s reach.
4. Thirteen points clear of Manchester United, whose manager has yet to express an opinion about the title but who surely wouldn’t want to quibble with an analyst of the game as shrewd and experienced as Arsene Wenger.
5. Fifteen points and 10 places clear of Liverpool.
6. Fifteen points and 11 places clear of Tottenham.
7. Only 10 points and 37 places clear of Fulham – but don’t forget that we have six games in hand on them.
8. Unbeaten in 17 games in all competitions since the season started, which is a new club best.

Really, you would have to say, that outcome was worth a Catherine wheel and a family pack of sparklers in anyone’s back garden. And that’s before you consider the remarkable fact that we would be four points even better off than we are, had the Manchester United game ended 10 seconds earlier than it did and had Frank Lampard not scored that own goal in the dying moments at the Etihad.

Not wishing to be greedy, or anything.

It’s been a truly outstanding opening phase, though, leaving us all with a sense of quiet, understated and becomingly modest confidence to take into the latest of this season’s seemingly fortnightly international breaks, and with some warm and fond memories to look back on as England take on the Faroe Isles or Iceland or Caragua or whoever it is they’re playing this time. Let’s not get carried away, though.

Despite the fact that we’re under a third of the way through the season, we’re already hearing people talk about whether a complete campaign without defeat in the league might be possible for this Chelsea side, emulating the achievement of Arsenal’s 'Invincibles' of 2003/04.

And obviously it’s nice when your team inspires that kind of conversation, because there are far worse kinds of conversation that a team can inspire. But, even so, don’t you kind of wish, deep down, that people wouldn’t? After all, it’s no longer 2003/04. The league in which Arsenal racked up 90 points, drew 12 times and suffered no defeats, included Charlton Athletic, Wolves, Bolton, Portsmouth, Fulham, Leicester, who were on their way down, and even Leeds, who were also on their way down. (Arsenal’s aggregate score against Leeds that season: 9-1.) Hard to spot the equivalent of today’s Swansea or Southampton or Stoke in there – tough, so called ‘over-achievers’, perfectly capable of ripping three points out of the hands of anybody who grows complacent. It was also a league in which Manchester City, Tottenham and Everton all contrived to finish well inside the bottom half. (Everton weren’t far off being relegated.)

The point is, in the intervening decade, the league got harder – more random, more variable and better, you could argue. It got so much harder and more random that it’s currently a place where, after 11 games, Arsenal are sixth, Manchester United are seventh and Liverpool are 11th. No disrespect to Arsenal, of course, but one hardly expects to see invincibility in such circumstances – not this season, of all seasons.

Or perhaps one should put it another way: if it happens, it will be a far greater achievement than anything the Premier League has known. One should also remember that you don’t have to win or draw all of your games in order to win the title. Though, of course, it helps. Brendan Rodgers got a lot of stick at the end of what turned out to be a triple-defeat week for Liverpool, but much of that stick was enormously unfair and even gleefully opportunistic in my opinion.

Management is about getting the best out of what you’re got, after all. Rodgers was noisily criticised for standing down seven first-teamers for a Champions League match against Real Madrid, in order to keep them pristine for a league match against Chelsea. Yet the plan worked pretty much perfectly.

His team selection for the Bernabeu effectively removed the competitive sting from the game and turned it into a televised training match. As a consequence, Liverpool came away with a narrow defeat, and nothing like the humiliation expected at the hands of a side that had already comfortably beaten them 3-0 at Anfield.

Moreover the first team was then fresh and motivated enough to restrict us to just the two goals – and, again, a predicted humiliation with genuinely lasting consequences for Liverpool's morale was averted. (They’ll be over this one by Christmas, no question about it. Or soon after.) Excellent maximising of resources, then, by Rodgers.

Last year’s ‘Make Us Dream’ slogan up at Anfield seems to have modified, metaphorically speaking, to this year’s ‘Spare Us Our Worst Nightmares’, and Rodgers more than met the fans’ requirements in that area, so they should give him credit for that.

We all should.

Giles Smith is a columnist for the official Chelsea FC website and his weekly piece is published every Thursday throughout the season.

Superiority Complex

Once upon a time far in the year 2014 Ghana's most hilarious boxers Braima Kamoko (Bukom Banku ) and Aryitey Powers were billed for a bout at the Ohene Djan Sports Stadium in Accra. It was a sell out and the anticipation was high despite the fact that everybody, except for Aryitey's family, knew that it was going to be a handicap win for Bukom Banku if there was such a thing in boxing.

Aryitey Powers, in a funny twist to the story,  asked for a change of date because his pastor T.B. Joshua has warned him not to fight on that day or he'l lose. The date was changed to a further date and guess what. He still lost.
Moral of the story? You can't stop the inevitable.

Fast forward to present time and Liverpool are only beginning to understand this basic concept.

Brendan Rodgers as inexperienced as he is rested 7 players against Real Madrid in the CL on Wednesday to play Chelsea because that was his priority. As to it being a misplaced priority, I dont even want to go there but now it sure looks to have been his worst managerial decisions after losing both matches albeit it being narrow defeats.

There was no way Liverpool were going to win on Sunday against the league leaders. This wasn't exactly a David and Goliath fight but it wasn’t a battle of 2 equals either. Chelsea are in their best and bullish form at the moment and with the dip in form of Liverpool, their goal-shy strikers and also seriously lacking confidence this Chelsea will never let you off in that state.

Chelsea played a half-fit Diego Costa and Ramires and a humstrung Fabregas with only 2 days rest after travelling to play Maribor but still proved too much for them so it wasn’t a matter of rest and rotation for the players. Chelsea were just totally superior to their opponents. They had the best team, the best bench, the better coach and even the best plastic supporters who were still behind their teams when they went behind.

Lets pick them one by one.

Courtois is keeping Mignolet out of the Belgium national team and widely considered to be the best young goalkeeper so no argument there.

Southampton has conceded the fewest goals in the division but Chelsea is perceived to have the most composed but fierce defence. They are all warriors at the back led by the battle hardened John Terry and completed by Azpilicueta who provided the assist for the winning goal at Enfield. Cahill and Ivanovic completes the back four and this defence can hold any attack at bay.

Liverpool started with Johnson-Skrtel-Lovren-Moreno. A back four that has looked shaky all season. Glen Johnson is not at his best and Lovren was a better defender for Southampton. Skrtel only has more match experience than Chelsea's Kurt Zouma.

In Chelsea's midfield with Matic and Fabregas its easy to boss games like they did. Ramires provides some steel on the right and Oscar and Hazard are unplayable at the moment.

Gerrard has been a fantastic player for Liverpool and one of the finest Midfielders this game has seen. Emre Can is now improving for Liverpool and Henderson has yet to hit the heights of last season. Raheem Sterling has been a breeze for them this season but Coutinho on the other hand seems to have hit a pause on his development. 

Should I talk about the strikers Mario? Well to put it simply one is battling Sergio Aguero for the golden boot and the other seems comfortable at the defence and competing with Gary Cahill for most goals and losing.

So this was really not a contest at all. Chelsea only had to show up for the 3 points and that is what they did.

Brendan Rodgers could have rested the whole team and he would have still lost because Chelsea would still have been the better team.

What more can say about Nemanja Matic? Guy is a rock. Mourinho says he's a giant by the way he plays. On a day when Fabregas was clearly not at his best the Serbian took it upon himself to sort out the midfield and boy what a fantastic job he did. After Emre Can's goal there was no room for their attacking players to move. Talk of a destroyer.

So Arsene Wenger has ruled his team out of the race, Dzeko believe Chelsea are just pretenders,  Mourinho believes his team will definitely lose a game or more over the season and Southampton boss Koeman believes they can overtake Chelsea.

What I believe is that if any team has the know-how, the resource and the experience to maintain a lead at the top its Chelsea managed by Jose Mourinho. So if I were the rest I'll fight for the other Champions league slots left.

A word to a wise.

Giles Smith: In contrast

What a total and utter Champions League disaster. What a complete shake-your-head-in-disbelief shambles.

For Manchester City, I mean – defeated at home by CSKA Moscow, reduced to nine men, wedged dismally at the bottom of their group with merely two points from four games and obliged to beat both Roma and Bayern Munich in the next month or so in order to have even the faintest chance of appearing in the competition on the other side of Christmas.

Whereas our team, by contrast, secures a handy point away from home, increases its points tally to eight (the most of any English representative in the competition and more than Manchester City and Liverpool combined), maintains its position at the top of its group table and remains set fair for the knock-out stages, with the ample possibility of
qualifying as group winners, which is always nice if you can manage it. (Ask Arsenal.)

Plus we dominated the game in all the important areas, had a penalty to win it and would have had the luxury of two penalties if the referee hadn’t missed a high-definition, wide-screen trip on Oscar mid-way through the second half, and if that extra official behind the goal with a blunt stick (who was only four feet away from this particular incident and was almost close enough to feel the pain in his own ankle) had anything other than a purely decorative function, like the marzipan on a cake, if the marzipan on a cake wasn’t edible.

The player who missed the penalty that the referee did manage to award was Eden Hazard , which was a shame because, for long portions of this match, he appeared to be surging about the pitch on a mission to win it on his own, and this was a particularly neat opportunity for him to do just that. Even so, in my opinion, he could have missed this one, the penalty that wasn’t given and a third penalty for good measure and it wouldn’t have detracted from his pre-eminent qualification as Man of the Match. He was blistering to watch.

Obviously, a win would have been even nicer – and would hardly have been considered undeserved in the circumstances. But instead we’ll simply have to settle for extending our unbeaten run since the beginning of the season to 16 games in all competitions, now officially the equal best in the history of the club, and then swiftly turn our minds back to the pressing matter of our league title campaign.

Which, specifically, means Liverpool away on Saturday. Yes, I know: Saturday. Didn’t there used to be an understanding that teams who played in Europe in midweek would be given the honour of a Sunday kick-off in order to allow them time to finish getting their bags out of the plane’s overhead locker? I’m fairly sure there did – but clearly not any longer.

What can you do, though? Well, one thing,
obviously, is leave all your best players on the bench for your Champions League games. That certainly seems to be the Liverpool way, at any rate.

I don’t know about you, but at the beginning of the week when I saw the headline ‘LIVERPOOL RESTING GERRARD FOR REAL MATCH’, I couldn’t help but feel the writers had gone slightly over the top. Okay, so it’s difficult to know where the Champions League could realistically be said to lie among Liverpool’s priorities this season. But even so, to imply that, by comparison with taking on Chelsea at Anfield, travelling to the Bernabeu to meet the reigning champions of Europe doesn’t even rank as a real game.

Then, of course, I worked out that I had misread it.

Still, Liverpool do seem to have looked at the fixture list and decided that a showpiece match against Real Madrid in Europe’s elite competition is less important to them than the weekend’s upcoming fixture, and I suppose we can only feel flattered by that – not least because it’s just the next game as far as we’re concerned.

It must be somewhat dispiriting for Liverpool’s fans, though, some 4000 of whom apparently travelled to Madrid this week. This, one imagines, is not exactly what they longed for, throughout all those long years in the European wildnerness: the chance to let Raheem Sterling rest up and to give Lazar Markovic a run-out against the best team in Spain.

Or perhaps I’ve got it wrong and the current generation of Liverpool fans will grow old reflecting nostalgically on ‘those big Capital One Cup-style nights in the Bernabeu.’

Anyway, the mind went back to that little storm that kicked up last season when poor old David Moyes was in charge of Manchester United and, ahead of a match against Liverpool, made the mistake of saying, ‘They possibly do come here as favourites.’ Whatever you want to say, Moyes did have a point at the time. And, looked at with the benefit of hindsight, it was two bald men fighting over a comb in any case. Nevertheless, it prompted a response from Brendan Rodgers: ‘I would never say that at Liverpool, even if I was bottom of the league.’

Surrender, or even the mere prior concession of an advantage, Rodgers seemed to be implying, was not in Liverpool’s DNA. So it was all the more surprising to see him send out a team-sheet for Tuesday night which effectively doubled as a huge white flag, made out of hurriedly tacked-together bedsheets, and with 'We certainly don't come here as favourites' written on it in big black letters.

He would be most welcome to do the same against us on Saturday, but I don’t suppose many of us think he’s likely to do so. There seemed to be something of the smokescreen about Rodgers’ suggestion that the rested players were by no means guaranteed a return to the side at the weekend. How many of the seven players deselected Tuesday do you suppose will be on the pitch at the beginning on Saturday lunchtime? Here’s your handy ‘cut out ‘n’ keep’ checklist, so you can tick them off on the day: Raheem Sterling, Philippe Coutinho, Mario Balotelli, Glen Johnson, Jordan Henderson and Steven Gerrard.

My guess: all seven. But we’ll see.

It’s not often, as a fan, that you get a personal dressing down from the manager after a game. But on Saturday evening, I was one of the 40,000 or so who were hauled up in front of the gaffer and told to pull our socks up a bit in terms of what we bring to the table, noise-wise.

Personally, I wasn’t in any real position to argue. I’m big enough to admit that, when it comes to being noisy in the ground, I could do a lot more, and I’m going to be looking at it hard on the training ground.

Mind you, I’m not using this as an excuse, but I do think the fact that it was QPR had a lot to do with it. There’s no question in my mind that, had it been, for instance, a London derby (but, you know, a proper one), the atmosphere would have been altogether hotter and the dressing-down wouldn’t have been necessary. Point taken, though.

Giles Smith is a columnist for the official Chelsea FC website and his weekly piece is published every Thursday throughout the season

A Red Devil's Derby View

After the 1-0 lose to Manchester City on Sunday lets hear what my colleague Kwabranee Kofi Wusu, who is an ardent Red Devil, an administrator of a sports group on Facebook and a follower of several other groups had to say.

Q1. Kofi, in general, how did u see the match?

Kwabranee Kofi Wusu(KKW):  It was a real derby game. Expectations were met. City as usual, performed to their ability until the 65th minute.
Coming into this game, united had put a spirited performance in the previous two games. Such a performance confirmed their status as 'come back' kings. Utd had a late equalizer at West Bromwich Albiom n against Chelsea at Old Trafford.
United in the initial stages of the game looked a bit shaky as seen in their passing. United lost many touches in the middle of the pitch with the worst culprits being Wayne Rooney n Fellaini.
As a derby game, high flying tackles epitomised the game, fans were absolute behind their teams ann players played to prove their worth.
The game remained balance till that 'stupidity' from smalling which underlined the lack of leadership at the United backline.

Q. The team put in a lot of effort in the final minutes. How positive are you for the rest of the campaign?

KKW: As said earlier, haters called the final minutes the 'fergie' time because miracles did happen in those periods previously but moyes came in n United started conceding in those periods so to see the lads get their mojo back n play in that form means the United of old is gradually coming back and proves a sense of confidence the manager has brought back to the team.

Q. Van Persie's performance has been sub par this season. Should Falcao be starting?

KKW: Van Persie, as I've told you has been our weakest link all season. Hopefully, Falcao gets back in the team and gives Persie a competition.

Q. Manchester City has won 5 of the last 6 derbies. How does it feel?

KKW: Its bad to lose derbies and it can't feel any better.

Q. What are your expectations for united this season?

KKW: I see United playing in the top four this season because we are only 4 points away from that position and with the current performances barred of injuries, I see United in the Champions League next season.

That's it from Kwabranee. Injuries permitting and with a better defence we might see United in the CL next season. Lets hope they get better luck with injuries than they've already had.

Defensive Shield

More than £60M was spent to bring Costa and Fabregas to Stamford Bridge this season and the impact has been nothing short of stunning but it still looks like the best piece of business that the Chelsea board has done in the past year is to bring back Nemanja Matic for £21M from Benfica.
He plays in the Claude Makalele position and for a club from whom that position was coined it's amazing that we've not been able to get a replacement for him since he left about 10 seasons ago despite trying different players in that position till now.
Essien was more of a box-to-box midfielder just like Ramires. Mikel Obi, a converted attacking midfielder, does not have the same effect when the team is playing our expansive game. He thrives more in the park-the-bus games. Oriol Romeu played it differently but was hampered by injuries and was loaned out so Sevilla.
Matic himself was sold as part of the deal to bring David Luiz to Chelsea because he was still not up to the task but after 3 seasons away he's grown into 1 of the best defensive shields in the world and definitely the best in the BPL.
He is stronger and quicker on the ball, very good in the air, and his passing range is outstanding (he completed 97 passes out 102 against Aston Villa).
His partnership with Fabregas has flourished this season with both making effective contributions at both ends of the field on Saturday and his heat map (from Daily Mail) below shows his dominance in the middle of the pitch.
He made sure he fouled the breaking Charlie Austin on halfway as we crept into stoppage time at 2-1. QPR looked dangerous, but the destroyer hauled Austin down to get a crucial break in play and the resulting free-kick came to nothing. He makes the back four comfortable and his calming influence will be a huge welcome in the big games this season.

Frank Lampard moved to Manchester City after making a stop at New York but it seems like he left us a huge parting gift with his number 8 shirt for Oscar. The brazilian has been in a scintillating form this season and scored another wonderful goal on sunday from a another Fabregas assist. With his current scoring rate it feels like our legendary number 8 never left. That is called succession.

I made a suggestion on this blog last week that irrespective of the mutual respect between Mourinho and Louis van Gaal the latter might not really like his former prodigy that much. Other than that how do you explain what happened on Sunday in the Manchester derby?
United were playing to lose until they went behind. Chris Smalling's red card was so pathetic it seemed tactical. Di Maria who has been their best player this season played like he was under orders to get his 1st flop in a United shirt.
Is that how to treat a friend?
Definitely not. You do them big favours like blocking their rivals to help them win leagues when you have no chance. That is friendship.

Big ups to Barcelona who managed to lose again against Celta Vigo at home with their supposed fearsome III all starting. For a team that makes so much long term planning its amazing that they've been playing with this makeshift defence for almost 3 seasons. Its all good as far as I'm concerned. Their loss is always my happiness.