TalkChelsea RSS

Florent Malouda

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 02:45:49 +0000

comments please

ticket

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:50:28 +0000

I need one ticket to Blackburn away on the 21st march.

FA Youth Cup Ticket News

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:49:17 +0000

Seats for the FA Youth Cup semi-final clash on Monday 22 March are now available online and via the box office and call centre. Tickets are priced at �3 for adults and �1 for under 16s and over 65s. There are 3,000 seats available which can only be purchased in the East Stand Lower.

The game at Stamford Bridge will be the second leg of our Youth Cup tie with Blackburn Rovers. The first leg takes place at 7pm on Wednesday 17 March at Ewood Park.

If the score (on aggregate) is level after 90 minutes, a period of 30 minutes extra time will be played. If the score is still level after that, penalties will determine the result. Away goals do not count as double in this competition.

'It'll be good to have some Monday night football at Stamford Bridge for the fans and hopefully they'll see a great game,' said youth team manager Dermot Drummy.

'Having fans at these sorts of matches showing their support is a massive incentive to the boys.

'It builds their confidence but also gives them a taste of what could potentially be something they'll see week-in-week-out. So it's also good for their development as young professionals.

'The FA Youth Cup is really important to the team though so any support from the fans would be fantastic and would definitely help spur the boys on.'

Anyone who can't make the game can watch the fixture unfold live on Chelsea TV, with pre-match analysis and post-match reaction direct from the stadium. Coverage starts from 6.15pm.

Disabled fans wishing to attend the game should call the disability office on 020 7915 1950

Source: Chelsea FC

lampard

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 03:21:21 +0000

first sig in over a year, so it is a bit shabby

Chelsea Youth 2 Southampton Youth 2

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:54:18 +0000

Chelsea Under 18s lost a two-goal lead against Southampton at a chilly Cobham today (Saturday). The youth side dominated much of the fixture and built a comfortable lead in the first half before a freak goal from the visitors put them back into contention.

The last time these two teams met, Southampton, who boast a well-built side, secured a 4-3 victory at home.

This time, intent on not repeating the result, Chelsea threatened from the off. First Gokhan Tore had a freekick headed away from danger before the Turkish international danced his way into the box before having his shot saved.

Captain Conor Clifford then sent a curling freekick skimming inches past the post and Chelsea goalkeeper Sam Walker made a fantastic save to keep the scores level.

But with 27 minutes played, Jacopo Sala (pictured) struck, sending a low, left-footed drive across the face of goal and inside the far post from the edge of the box.

Confident after scoring the opener, Sala would have one more chance on goal before Chelsea made it two.

This time it was Milan Lalkovic who netted in the far corner. Following some clever play from the Blues, Lalkovic drilled a shot into the net from an acute angle on the left flank.

But seconds after the restart a Rohan Ince back pass was intercepted by Southampton's Sam Hoskins, who calmly slotted past Walker with his first touch of the stray ball.

At half time youth team manager Dermot Drummy made three changes. Aldi Haxhia came on for Walker between the posts while Bobby Devyne replaced Marko Mitrovic up front. In midfield Conor Clifford, who played a full 90 minutes for Ireland U21s in the week, made way for Anton Rodgers. Kabi Djalo, who had already received a yellow card for dissent, took the captain's armband.

Ray Wilkins and Paul Clement also made their way to the sidelines at half time, after taking a first-team training session, from where they watched the game. Unfortunately the next goal they would see came from the visitors.

The final goal of the game was the result of bad defending when Callum McNish was able to dance his way through our back line. He then hit a crisp shot past an stretching Haxhia, who could only watch as the ball hit the net.

Chelsea continued to control the game though and Sala was proving troublesome down the right side, sending in cross after cross with no end product.

Devyne had a shot scream inches over the bar before Haxhia pulled off two fantastic saves in quick succession, helping secure Chelsea a point from the fixture.

Milan Lalkovic had a goal disallowed for offside before the referee blew for full time. Overall it was a good display from a Chelsea side who never gave up, despite being far smaller in size than the opposition.

'Southampton are a very strong, physical side,' said Drummy after the game. It's a shame we lost the two-goal lead but I am pleased with the result.

'Sala was fantastic and Ben Sampayo put in a good performance at left-back, somewhere he doesn't normally play. So we're pleased with today's performance.'

Chelsea (4-diamond-2): Sam Walker (Aldi Haxhia HT); Billy Clifford, Rohan Ince, Aziz Deen-Conteh, Ben Sampayo; Kabi Djalo; Milan Lalkovic, Gokhan Tore; Conor Clifford (Anton Rodgers HT); Marko Mitrovic (Bobby Devyne HT), Jacopo Sala.

Source: Chelsea FC

'Chelsea are inferior to Man-Utd' says Ruud Gullit

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 20:01:37 +0000

'My God, their game was awful!' Ruud Gullit lays into Chelsea for Champions League approach

Chelsea legend Ruud Gullit has criticised his former club following their defeat by Inter Milan in the first leg of the Champions League last 16, claiming they are boring to watch and inferior to Manchester United.

Gullit, who guided Chelsea to their first trophy for 26 years as player-manager when they won the FA Cup in 1997, is unimpressed by recent performances, in which they have lost three out of four games.

Gullit said: 'I really hope Chelsea win the Champions League this season as I want the club to do so well. But they must start to play better than what they did in Italy in the first game with Inter.

'My God, their game was awful! They bored me to death. If I compare that to Manchester United, then United have impressed me so much more.'

Gullit is unlikely to be impressed by their tactics today in the FA Cup quarter-final against Stoke, with assistant manager Ray Wilkins admitting they could copy Rory Delap's long throw.

Branislav Ivanovic replicated Delap's long throws in Chelsea's defensive practice last week and has proved so accurate and effective that Wilkins said: 'We've found a weapon of our own because Ivanovic can possibly throw it even further (than Delap).

'He's certainly as good as Rory and with a similar style. It's a great temptation to use it.'

http://www.dailymail...h.html?ITO=1490

Chelsea 2-0 Stoke

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 19:40:00 +0000

Frank Lampard and John Terry scored to set up a Wembley showdown with Aston Villa in the FA Cup.

Having surrendered their lead at the top of the Premier League thanks to wins for Arsenal and Manchester United yesterday afternoon, Chelsea have added another Wembley date to their fixture list pile-up thanks to goals from Frank Lampard and under-fire captain John Terry.

The Blues - having lost their last two games - were in clinical mood and another efficient-if-unspectacular victory for Carlo Ancelotti's side sets up a semi final occasion with Martin O'Neill's in-form Aston Villa in mid-April.

They took the lead ten minutes before half-time when Terry teed up Lampard on the edge of the box, and it was roles reversed after the interval when Terry headed home his third goal of the season from his England colleague's corner.

The margin of victory might have been greater, but Ancelotti will be pleased with the performance of his team after their humiliating thumping at the hands of Manchester City the previous weekend, during which the hosts lost their superb 37-game unbeaten run at Stamford Bridge.

However Chelsea were not in charitable mood, and Stoke were outclassed and outplayed by their hosts, who looked as comfortable as ever - including their skipper and stand-in goalkeeper. Whilst allegations of Terry's private life have been spread across the news, Henrique Hilario, the understudy to the crocked Petr Cech, has suffered scrutiny for an unconvincing display against City.

But an excellent late save from Ricardo Fuller to preserve a confidence-aiding clean sheet will do the Portuguese goalkeeper - who earned his first international cap in midweek - a world of good.

The match was always likely to be a match-up of Chelsea's guile and Stoke's brute strength and physicality, but the Blues demonstrated a second string to their bow with a dominating defensive performance - although they nearly fell behind with less than six minutes on the clock.

Mamady Sidibe headed over from Robert Huth's flick, before having a second effort blocked by Alex, who replaced the rested Ricardo Carvalho. But it was Dean Whitehead who came closest for Stoke, forcing a brilliant clearance off the line by John Mikel Obi after smashing a loose ball towards goal.

Nicolas Anelka, arguably Chelsea's best player on the day, was enjoying freedom out wide due to Stoke's narrow midfield, and it was he who had the most presentable of Chelsea's early chances; the first forcing a good save from Thomas Sorensen.

John Terry celebrates his game-clinching header.

He should have scored moments later when pouncing on a Whitehead mistake, but flashed a shot well wide with his left boot. However, the opening goal would come from Chelsea's next attack.

Florent Malouda's corner caused all sorts of problems in the Stoke box, allowing Terry to feed the ball to Lampard who lashed home beyond the despairing dive of Sorensen thanks to the slightest of deflections off of Stoke's captain Faye.

But Lampard's 16th of the season could not have been better-timed, and the goal was deserved from Chelsea's point of view with the hosts clearly the more creative side.

It could have been 2-0 before the whistle was blown for the interval but Didier Drogba's volley from Paulo Ferreira's smart cross from the left was stupendously saved by Sorenson at his near post to keep his side in the tie. Branislav Ivanovic had a shot deflected wide as Chelsea continued to press.

And it was little surprise when they doubled their advantage twenty minutes into the second half. Andy Wilkinson made two brilliant blocks to deny first Nicolas Anelka from close range after an excellent Chelsea counter-attack, but heading Alex's rocket header over his own crossbar.

However the Stoke defender was less fortunate when Terry's header flicked off his chest and beyond his own goalkeeper - and how did the Chelsea captain celebrate; showing his armband to the euphoric Chelsea supporters behind the goal.

It was little more than Chelsea deserved and the Blues seemed to grow in confidence following the game-clinching goal.

Stoke were having to come out of their shell leaving space to be exploited by Chelsea's forwards, and only a better touch from Kalou might have increased the score before he was blocked at source by Sorenson, who was enjoying a fine game between the posts for the Potters.

Anelka had a shot smartly blocked before Lampard's long-range effort brought a top-drawer save from the Dane to order to preserve a crumb of credibility to the scoreline.

But in truth, Tony Pulis' side were well and truly beaten, and a last-minute save from Hilario following a decent effort from Ricardo Carvalho confirmed the victory as Chelsea celebrated reaching their 19th FA Cup semi-final - and a Wembley date with Aston Villa.

___________________________________________________________________

Chelsea: Hilario; Ivanovic, Alex, Terry ©, Ferreira; Lampard, Mikel, Malouda; Anelka, Kalou; Drogba

Stoke: Sorensen; Wilkinson, Faye, Huth ©, Collins; Delap, Whelan (Pugh), Whitehead, Tuncay (Lawrence); Sidibe (Kitson), Fuller

The TalkChelsea.net Man of the Match was Chelsea's number 39, NICOLAS ANELKA

Chelsea vs West Ham

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 19:06:47 +0000

Chelsea vs West Ham

FA Cup, Saturday 13th March 2010, Stamford Bridge, 1500 KO

MATCH CHAT HERE

Villa in the FA Cup

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 18:11:38 +0000

Blues draw Villa in Wembley showdown

Chelsea have drawn Martin O'Neill's Aston Villa in the semi finals of the FA Cup.

The Blues overcame Stoke City 2-0 at Stamford Bridge in the previous round thanks to goals from Frank Lampard and John Terry, whilst Villa came from 2-0 down to triumph over the conquerors of Liverpool and Burnley; Reading.

The Royals took a 2-0 half-time lead thanks to a Simon Church brace but Ashley Young and a John Carew hat-trick ensured a stunning turn-around for the Midlands side.

Chelsea's path to the final was more straightforward and the club's fans will have their talismanic English duo to thanks for goals in each half in a relatively comfortable encounter with Stoke.

In the other semi final, Avram Grant's Portsmouth - who progress after a stunning quickfire brace from on-loan French star Frederic Piquionne - will play the victors of the Fulham-Tottenham match, which will go to a replay to be played at White Hart Lane.

The draw means there is potential for an all-London final, but Carlo Ancelotti's side have no doubt drawn the toughest possible team left in the draw.

Chelsea's last encounter with Villa saw them lose 2-1 at Villa Park despite taking an early lead, but the match will be an interesting replay of the upcoming Premier League showdown between the two sides at Stamford Bridge in March.

need 2 home tickets to any home match

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 18:10:50 +0000

me and my friend live in ireland,we would love to get to a match someday,we are skint but will pay a fair price thanks jonas

Landon Donovan

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 13:44:51 +0000

http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/85/england/2010/03/07/1821801/report-Chelsea-chase-landon-donovan-as-manchester-united-eye
http://www.soccerbyives.net/soccer_by_ives/2010/03/reports-Chelsea-eyeing-donovan-move.html

Peter Bonetti - Signature

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 11:11:08 +0000

Hello. My new sig

Remembering Robben

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 12:34:04 +0000

Last night ESPN showed our Carling Cup final against Arsenal . arse scored first and drog equalised.
at half time a typical Jose substitution maka off Arjen on . It was Arjen at his very best ..his speed dribbling
his control. The final killer ..a great dribble and perfect cross for drog to head the winner..
What a pity he became injury prone for us .. What he could do for us now even as an impact player,coming on for the last 30 mins against tiring opponents.. Sighs ,,still it was good to see those golden moments again

Blues Stick By Hilario

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 12:09:13 +0000

Assistant manager Ray Wilkins insists Chelsea are standing by Hilario following his role in their defeat to Manchester City.

The experienced Portuguese keeper was blamed for Carlos Tevez's equaliser and it had been thought he could be dropped.

While Wilkins has acknowledged Petr Cech's deputy did not have the best of games, he believes he will respond positively.

Hilario is expected to keep his place ahead of Ross Turnbull for the visit of Stoke in the FA Cup on Sunday with Cech still on the sidelines.

"He is an experienced player and he won't have a problem," said Wilkins.
Unfortunately

"Unfortunately things didn't go quite right for him last Saturday.

"Supporters nowadays will always have a pop at the errors and as a keeper you make a ricket and you've lost a goal."

He added: "We'll play a lot worse than we did against Manchester City and win.

"We are top of the table in the first week in March - 19 other Premiership sides would sooner be in our position than their own.

"We're top of the league, playing in the quarter-finals of the cup and still in the Champions League."

From SkySports

Essien suffers injury set-back

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 10:46:00 +0000

The Sun claims that Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien could be marooned on the sidelines for the remainder of the season after a major complication in his recovery from a knee injury.

Essien has been out of action since damaging his medial ligaments while training with the Ghana squad ahead of January's Africa Cup of Nations tournament in Angola.

The former Olympique Lyonnais star is currently in France undergoing rehabilitation with Ashley Cole, and Blues assistant boss Ray Wilkins reported earlier this week that both players were progressing well.

However, an unnamed source is quoted as saying: "The news on Michael's not good. We all thought he'd be back playing again in four to six weeks.

"The second leg of the Champions League match with Inter Milan was talked about as the ideal comeback game.

"But he has no chance of making that now. We're not even sure he'll play again this season. If he does it won't be any time soon."

This would come as a cruel blow to Chelsea, who recently confirmed that Portuguese wing-back Jose Bosingwa would not play any further part in the current campaign.

http://www.goal.com/en/news/9/england/2010/03/06/1820231/Chelsea-could-lose-michael-essien-for-rest-of-season-report

Cork

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 10:01:45 +0000

I have been watching burnley and jack cork is playing really well for them. His dribbling from midfield (which has shocked me) has been brilliant. His shooting, passing and energy has been premier league standard. I think he has a future with us, i want him in our squad for next season !

JT asked to say 'Sorry, Wayne' in autograph prank

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 22:34:56 +0000

goal.com

Quote

Former England captain John Terry was the victim of a prank played by autograph hunters during International week when one plucky fan asked him to sign �To Wayne, I�m sorry� in an autograph book.

Terry was recently stripped of the England captaincy following revelations of an alleged affair with the ex-partner of former Chelsea team-mate Wayne Bridge; a scandal that also resulted in Bridge declaring himself unavailable for the national team.

Having taken the man�s notepad, Terry asked who he wanted it made out to, the man replied �Wayne� before adding, �can you just put �I�m sorry.��

Sensing he was the victim of a gag, Terry responded by asking if he was being wound up.

However, the Chelsea defender showed his wllingness to communicate with fans - even in extremis - by finishing the autograph, reportedly writing "Best Wishes".

Bosingwa out for season

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:21:40 +0000

Ray Wilkins has confirmed Jose Bosingwa will miss the rest of the season, and is due to have another operation on his knee injury, keeping him out of the World Cup. The Portuguese defender has not played for Chelsea since limping off against Aston Villa in October, and will now have to sit out this summer's tournament in South Africa as well as the rest of the club season.

'Bosingwa will be out for the season and have another operation, so that's him unfortunately, and he'll miss the World Cup as well,' Wilkins said, adding that the injury 'just needs clearing up.'

In other injury news Ricardo Carvalho is a doubt for the weekend after withdrawing from Portugal duty in midweek, but Wilkins is optimistic that the centre-half could be involved against Stoke on Sunday.

'We have been very fortunate that most players have come back in fine form from the internationals during the week, and there is only Riccy Carvalho that has a slight problem with his hamstring, a little bit of tightness but we'll have a look at that today and see if he'll be okay for Sunday,' said the assistant manager, before discussing the rest of the absentees.

'Michael Essien is doing well, there has been a slight complication which means it needs a couple of weeks longer but he's out [in France] with Ashley [Cole] now and they're both doing extremely well, so from that point of view we're delighted with their recovery.

'It's difficult to give a timescale but hopefully he'll be fit as soon as possible because when we lose players of that quality it is damning on any side,' Wilkins said.

'Petr [Cech] is doing very well indeed, he was doing some half-squats yesterday in the water, and he's coming on very well.'

Source: Chelsea FC

Fulham Youth 0 Chelsea FC Youth 1

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:01:13 +0000

Marko Mitrovic's 14^th youth team goal of the season extended an unbeaten run to 10 games. The Swede scored late on at Cobham. The match was initially an away fixture but waterlogging at Fulham's training ground meant the weekend's match was moved to Chelsea's HQ. Dermot Drummy selected a side containing seven starters who have been regulars in the run to the FA Youth Cup semi-finals, with a further two coming on during the match.

One of those subs was Mitrovic (pictured), fresh from his first reserve start and first reserve team goal midweek. Having come on in the 76^th minute, he flicked in a free-kick from fellow sub Milan Lalkovic five minutes later.

Jacopo Sala made his return after being out with an Achilles injury since the Portsmouth Youth Cup win a month ago. The Italian lasted 90 minutes as one of the front three and Jeffery Bruma also got another 90 minutes under his belt to keep his fitness up after a hamstring injury. Alongside him in central defence Rohan Ince played his second full game following a long-term knee injury.

It was a close game and a tough game. Chelsea's Under 18s started off well, playing some good football and going close on a number of occasions, but then Fulham improved and Sam Walker produced an outstanding save to keep the scores level.

Having made his first change at half-time, Drummy further freshened up the side by bringing on Lalkovic with 20 minutes to go and the Slovakian hit the bar with a shot-cum-cross before he supplied the ball for Mitrovic to continue his good run of scoring form. The victory was the third win on the spin.

'Overall it was a decent win but not the greatest of performances,' reports youth team manager Drummy. 'We have been playing well since the Charlton game in the Youth Cup back in December and it is understandable that we are not always going to perform at that level.

'Fulham sat back and defended quite deep and were physically strong but we have played games like this one and lost before, so I have to give the boys credit. They are learning how to win while still trying to play football.

'Rohan Ince is getting his speed of thought back and getting used to the pace of the game again. It will take a while because he has been out for such a long time and it is little by little. One 90 minutes a week is all he can play for us at the moment until he is stronger.'

Next duty for Drummy is to watch Monday evening's FA Youth Cup quarter-final tie between Blackburn and Everton that will decide Chelsea's opponents. The dates for the two-legged semi-final will be announced after the result is known.

Chelsea: Sam Walker; Billy Clifford, Rohan Ince, Jeffery Bruma, Aziz Deen-Conteh; George Saville (Milan Lalkovic 70), Kaby Djalo ©, Kenny Stickland (Ben Sampayo h-t); Jacopo Sala, Bobby Devyne, Gokhan Tore (Marko Mitrovic 76).

Source: Chelsea FC

John Terry; Time for everybody to move o

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:42:38 +0000

There comes a time when enough is enough. In the case of the John Terry/Wayne Bridge situation, that time has come. Yes, the pair may not see eye to eye ever again and yes, Terry was in the wrong. That much is clear. However, for Chelsea Football Club it is time to move on. Other than the fact that Bridge will still have personal ill feeling towards Terry, the situation can now be wrapped up. Terry has been stripped of the England captaincy, Bridge has made himself unavailable for his country and the pair have come face to face on the pitch for the first time.

There should be no more attention on the situation as far as Chelsea are concerned. They have some trophies to win and there is no point dwelling on this anymore. It was clear that Terry had been affected by the whole scenario on Saturday and that can�t happen again.

From inside the club, there should be no more mention of it. What else can be said about it? Anything that is brought up now will just be prolonging the distractions for Terry and therefore the rest of the Chelsea squad.

Terry should look back on his performance against Burnley and use that as the way to move forward. He did his talking on the pitch with a commanding display and a late winner. Let that be the benchmark for how the Chelsea players are going to react to everything. Not Saturday.

Chelsea fans will just be hoping that the game against Manchester City acts as the end of this Terry scandal. There are now three important home games coming up - against Stoke in the FA Cup, West Ham in the Premier League and Inter Milan in the Champions League - and this should be looked upon as an opportunity to show everyone that Chelsea still mean business.

With all of this in mind, it is frustrating to see Terry react to Craig Bellamy�s thoughts about him with a �people in glass houses should not throw stones� comment. Just leave it John, let�s not make this the Terry/Bellamy scandal. As the title of this blog says, it is time for everybody to move on and to get football in the headlines again. Chelsea�s Premier League betting odds now make them joint favourites for the title with Man United, so further slip ups could hand initiative to The Red Devils.

For his part, Terry will be looking to hit form again ahead of the World Cup.

England�s World Cup odds suggest they should do well in the tournament, but they will need their back four to be fit and playing well to live up to expectations.

www.thechelseablog.org

-----------------------------

I totally agree with him on this subject, i hope we can leave this behind. I'm getting pretty fucking tired of all the media-attention around him!

Martin Samuel Article

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 11:21:34 +0000

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1254966/MARTIN-SAMUEL-Its-time-boo-boys-stopped-hanging-John-Terry-dry-.html

February 2010 - Review

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 22:19:39 +0000

February at the Chelsea academy has been a real mixed bag for the Youth and Reserve teams. One side has seen the Youth Team extend their unbeaten run from December and progress in the FA Youth cup to the semi finals and the reserves side has seen us been beaten in every game in the month.

Starting with the youth team. The month started with a tricky game at home to Arsenal, and Arsenal side that has been riding high in the academy league all season and doing very well for themselves on the back of winning the FA Youth cup last season, the game ended with a surprise scoreline for Chelsea at this level 0 � 0. There were plenty of chances for both teams and Sam Walker produced some good saves while at the other end Josh McEachran missed a good chance to win the game for Chelsea, however a 0 � 0 draw is a respectable result Highlights. Next up was Charlton Athletic who Chelsea dispatched earlier in the season in the Youth Cup, a good game was played out here and Chelsea would feel they should have won having had the better chances. However a Danny Philliskirk brace who dropped down to get some game time was only good enough to earn a 2 � 2 draw away from home. A pleasing sight in this game though was the return to the starting line up of Rohan Ince who has been out for the whole season with injury Highlights.

Following on from the Charlton game came the much anticipated FA Youth cup quarter final tie against Watford, a Watford team who had knocked out Liverpool in the previous round. What we saw was a Chelsea team really coming together and playing well together to totally dominate Watford and to play them off the park in a 4 � 0 victory with goals coming from Kaby Djalo, Jeffrey Bruma, Marko Mitrovic and Josh McEachran, Chelsea have progressed to earn a 2 legged Semi final tie against Blackburn Rovers Highlights. The last 2 games of the month saw us win out over Norwich City away from home 2 � 1 with a very nice goal from Bobby Devyne and an own goal at the end to win it for us Highlights. And a hard fought 1 � 0 victory over Fulham, a game that was technically an away game but played at Cobham due to the weather conditions.

A couple of other notes finally on the Youth team, Aldi Haxhia has left the club with immediate effect after failing to impress for the last couple of seasons and Chelsea seem to have made their first signing for next season in the form of Swedish midfielder Amin Affane, which is a name we hope to see plenty of come next season.

Onto the reserve side now and it was a month to forget rather than to savour for Steve Holland and his men. The first hurdle we were to face was Aston Villa a side that continues to dominate the reserve league. Chelsea did fight very hard and were better than villa for the most part but could in the end fell to a 3 � 1 defeat Highlights. Next up was Arsenal, and again a game where changes were made to the team and we fought well and probably outplayed Arsenal, but again a game where we just could not take our chances and a game Fabio Borini will want to forget quickly after he missed chance after chance to win the game for us Highlights. Last But not least was West Ham away, the game was not as good as what had previously been seen but the fight was there but again we could just not put away our chances and ended up losing 2 � 1 even after West Ham were down to 10 for some bizarre violent conduct from the West Ham team Highlights.

Finally to round up this monthly review for February is a note of the appearances in the first team for the month. Firstly we saw Fabio Borini get another run out for the first team against Cardiff, even though it was only for about 5 minutes it is all good experience for the young man. Then we saw against Wolves Jeffrey Bruma come on for over half an hour to replace the injured Yuri Zhirkov, Bruma played at right back and unfamiliar position to him but he did a very good job and showed his ability. So for this month a very good run out for Bruma and a few minutes for Borini. Plus a regular showing of youth on the bench now, with Bruma, Matic, Kakuta and Borini all showing regularly for the Chelsea first team bench.

Is it really just Drogba and Lampard?

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:46:12 +0000

lately ... ohh i am sorry not just lately it has been a while now since i remembered that anyone else can show up and score goals other tha lampard and drogba ..... i can definitely say that more than 90% of our goals are by drogba and lampard efforts ......its either an assist from lampard or a goal from didier or a goal from frank or an assist from drogba ......

is that a normal thing ??????????? ...... cause i think its not ...... so correct if i am wrong its definetly a bad thing for the team and its even worse when both of mentioned players are over 31 years old and cannot come every match and do the extra work for the team as rooney does for man u because he is 24 not 31 or 33 .....

even anelka recently has been very very ordinary and never looked like scoring .....

so whyyyy is that and how can we solve that problem ......

Football's Rich List (Annual Report)

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:04:31 +0000

Real top list with Barca in second

Real Madrid topped football's rich list for the sixth year in succession, as Manchester United dropped to third.

Accountancy firm Deloitte have announced their annual Football Money League report, which again confirmed Real as football's top revenue earning club.

Indeed, Real posted record figures as their revenues moved in excess of �400million (�363m) for the first time.

The Spanish league is benefiting from the strong Euro at the moment and, partly as a result of that, Barcelona have leapt into second spot ahead of English champions United.

"Real Madrid and FC Barcelona have created a clear revenue gap between themselves and their European competitors, and look set to contest the top two positions in the Money League for the foreseeable future, particularly if the pound doesn't strengthen against the euro," said Alan Switzer, director in the Sports Business Group at Deloitte,

The top 20 was little changed from last year, with Werder Bremen and Manchester City replacing VfB Stuttgart and Turkish club Fenerbahce.

The list was again dominated by European clubs, with seven English clubs, four from Italy, and two each from France and Spain. The number of German clubs grew to five from four.

Despite being in the Championship, Newcastle managed to remain in the top 20.

1 Real Madrid, Spain

2 Barcelona, Spain

3 Manchester United, England

4 Bayern Munich, Germany

5 Arsenal, England

6 Chelsea, England

7 Liverpool, England

8 Juventus, Italy

9t Inter Milan, Italy

9t AC Milan, Italy

11 Hamburg, Germany

12 AS Roma, Italy

13 Lyon, France

14 Marseille, France

15 Tottenham, England

16 Schalke, Germany

17 Werder Bremen, Germany

18 Borussia Dortmund, Germany

19 Manchester City, England

20 Newcastle, England

http://msnsport.skysports.com/story/0,19528,12040_5998266,00.html?ocid=today

Ancelotti rules out Azzurri

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:17:16 +0000

Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti has ruled out replacing Marcello Lippi as Italy boss following the World Cup finals.

Reports in Italy had linked the former AC Milan tactician with the post when Lippi departs when his contract ends in the summer.

Ancelotti is currently in his first season with Chelsea and has the team top of the Premier League ladder despite two defeats from three outings.

Chelsea are still in UEFA Champions League action and Ancelotti is keen to win Europe's top club competition before thinking of anything else.

"I am not interested in the national team," he told Italian men's monthly magazine Max.

"I prefer to remain in London at Chelsea and lead the team to a Champions League final."

Meanwhile, Ancelotti has promised to lift the lid on his fractured relationship with Inter Milan boss Jose Mourinho if they win the Premier League.

"If I win the league title with Chelsea I will say what I truly think of the Inter coach," he concluded.

Sky Sports

I wonder what that last part means. I will be looking forward to it, if we do win. Its good to see he wants to stick around for a while!