James

Nicolas Pepe has been one of the great breakout sensations in European football this season, tearing apart Ligue 1 with Lille and attracting the attention of all of Europe’s top clubs. This week, Gerard Lopez, the president of Lille, confirmed that he would be leaving in the summer, as you can see in these quotes […]View the full article

Transfer rumour writers aren’t quite sure what to make of Chelsea’s situation. The Blues are currently facing a two window ban, although they are in the process of appealing it, with the prospect of a final attempt to at least postpone the punishment at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. That hasn’t stopped people speculating […]View the full article

Simon Johnson of the Evening Standard has just published this article comparing the relative successes of the signings of Gonzalo Higuain at Chelsea, and the man AC Milan picked up to replace him, Krzysztof Piatek. It’s not a hard balance to weigh up. Piatek has continued his exceptional form from the start of the season […]View the full article

Andreas Christensen has been patient. Very patient. He waited years in the academy, rising through the ranks and earning an impressive loan move at a young age. Then it was two years of waiting on loan in the Bundesliga. He came back to Chelsea, waited on the bench for six months under Antonio Conte, and […]View the full article

Without much warning, Maurizio Sarri played Eden Hazard as a false 0 against Liverpool. Olivier Giroud has been doing well recently, and looked certain to play for the Italian in this vital game. But in the end, the former Napoli boss reverted to the concept he’s tried several times already this season, with his star […]View the full article

Chelsea’s punishing run of games goes on, and they have no time to lick their wounds after defeat to Liverpool. They now have to take on Slavia Prague in the return leg, knowing that Burnley are lurking on Monday night. The Slavia game is nicely in hand now, and a heavily rotated team can be […]View the full article

This is a fixture will be remembered for Steven Gerrard’s slip in 2014, which gifted Demba Ba a goal as Chelsea ran out 2-0 winners at Anfield ruining Liverpool’s chances of a first Premier League title. Five years on and the blues find themselves in a similar situation, again having the chance to have a […]View the full article

The Europa League remains the most realistic avenue back into the Champions League for Maurizio Sarri’s Chelsea. The Blues’ upturn in form of late has seen them force their way back into the top four, but the race has never been so competitive. Our focus ought to remain, at least in part, on the Europa […]View the full article

The Premier league season is moving into the latter stages, and there is still a battle on for the remaining two Champions league spots between Arsenal, Tottenham, Manchester United and Chelsea. If you had said this following the opening period of the season to Chelsea fans they would be surprised. Chelsea were battling it out […]View the full article

If you’re hoping to see Tiemoue Bakayoko back at Chelsea next season, you better start preparing for the worst. Bakayoko was, to put it plainly, awful for us last term. There didn’t appear to be any hope of him developing into a player useful for a club like Chelsea. However, he has successfully turned his […]View the full article

We may well see Michy Batshuayi back at Stamford Bridge next season, with Kristof Terreur providing some much-craved details on his situation. Batshuayi divides opinion among the Chelsea faithful, but you can’t deny that he knows how to find the back of the net. That’s more than can be said for many strikers we’ve seen […]View the full article

Maurizio Sarri has shown unending faith in the senior players at Chelsea, and tonight they let him down again. A front three of Pedro, Willian and Olivier Giroud contains two World Cup winners and a Brazil international with north of 50 caps. That should be enough to see off Slavia Prague. Giroud is less guilty, […]View the full article

Not long ago – in fact less than two weeks ago – Maurizio Sarri looked a dead man walking at Chelsea. Cardiff were winning 1-0, and his team were playing terribly, just as they had the preceding week against Everton as they lost 2-0. The fans had totally turned on their manager, and it looked […]View the full article

Danny Drinkwater was charged with drink driving this week after a crash on Monday night. Drink driving is never excusable, but when you’re a millionaire footballer, it’s even more despicable. So the midfielder had already used up a lot of the sympathy some people had for him. But further revelations made by Maurizio Sarri showed […]View the full article

Chelsea travel to Prague knowing that a good result can almost see them through to the next round. All we have to do is deal with another weak team as effectively as we’ve deal with all the other minnows so far in this competition and we’ll be walking into the semis. We finally got lucky […]View the full article

It’s about a year since Antoine Griezmann turned down Barcelona to stay at Atletico Madrid. He’s not had a bad season by any means, but nor has he been really exceptional. This piece in the Independent discusses how he’s gone from having the biggest clubs knocking at his door last season, to suddenly running out […]View the full article

Chelsea are in an incredibly busy run at the moment, and Maurizio Sarri’s favourites get little chance for a rest. While he’s happy to shift around the fringe players, Jorginho has to play in every important game possible for the Italian coach. That has meant little rest for the former Napoli man. Against Slavia Prague […]View the full article

Maurizio Sarri rotated his team for the game against Brighton, and started several of the young stars who the fans have been so desperate to see. They performed well, were given a second chance on Monday against West Ham, and performed well again. Now there’s no chance that Sarri will play them again, for a […]View the full article

It is already the 10th of April, and Chelsea’s transfer ban hearing is tomorrow. The moment we know what’s going on with our punishment, we will know a lot more about the future of Callum Hudson-Odoi. Last night whispers were going around all over the place indicating that he his chances of joining Bayern Munich […]View the full article

Gonzalo Higuain was one of the players Maurizio Sarri brought back into the starting lineup last night, in the hope that once again events would line up well for him to get back scoring again. A home fixture, a defensively shaky opposition without much to play for. It all looked to be set up nicely […]View the full article

Danny Drinkwater was this morning charged with drink driving, as reported here on the BBC. The Chelsea midfielder was caught late on Monday night in Cheshire after an accident involving another car. Danny and the other people involved were all unharmed, although his reputation has been damaged irreparably. We will forget the perhaps more significant […]View the full article

In his press conference ahead of yesterday’s game against West Ham, Maurizio Sarri declared that he wanted to make Mateo Kovacic’s loan from Real Madrid a permanent move. Earlier this season, that would have been a no brainer. But seeing more of Kovacic has convinced plenty of fans that he’s not the answer. I want […]View the full article

The quarter-finals of the Europa League kick-off on Thursday night and Chelsea are the bookmakers favourites to go-on and lift the trophy this season. Boss Maurizio Sarri arrived last summer tasked with guiding Chelsea back into the Champions League after the west Londoners finished fifth in the Premier League last campaign. The Blues have endured […]View the full article

Ruben Loftus-Cheek was taken off after 60 minutes in last night’s game, and there was an element of disbelief around the stadium. He was playing so well that nobody was quite sure why his manager thought it was time to withdraw him from the action just as we pushed for a second. But Maurizio Sarri […]View the full article

Chelsea take on West Ham at Stamford Bridge on this evening needing a win to boost their chances of finishing in the top four this season. The race for Champions League qualification could hardly be closer as just three points separates third placed Tottenham from sixth-placed Manchester United so the Blues can’t afford any slip-ups. […]View the full article