James

Chelsea beat Barcelona 2-1 in Saitama today, and there were plenty of interesting things to note. Ross Barkley came on and impressed, grabbing a second half goal. Christian Pulisic made a really bright first start as a Chelsea player. Tammy Abraham got on the scoresheet and made a nuisance of himself up front. But one […]View the full article

Football players in today’s game seem to have an affection for wearing squad numbers from 1-11. I do understand the thinking behind this, with historical players being fondly remembered for wearing those numbers, such as the typical number 9 being the ‘old fashioned striker’ and the number 10 being the more creative one behind them. […]View the full article

Chelsea face Barcelona on Tuesday morning in at 11.30am kick off UK time, live on the Chelsea website and the 5th Stand App. Frank Lampard will be hoping to put in a better performance and gain a better result than the last match against Kawasaki Frontale, that ended in a 1-0 defeat. Having used the […]View the full article

After three friendlies against smaller sides, Chelsea finally line up against a European giant tomorrow, in the form of Barcelona. This will still be a friendly of course, with Barca missing three of their South American stars, but as we get closer to the start of the season, Frank Lampard will gradually be getting closer […]View the full article

Chelsea lost to Kawasaki Frontale on Friday in a pre-season friendly. The result though, is unimportant. For me, I was more surprisingly excited by two players who could end up being hugely important for new head coach Frank Lampard, especially early doors this season. Mason Mount and Ross Barkley were our two liveliest attacking midfielders […]View the full article

Nigeria have been eliminated from the Africa Cup of Nations, winning the third place playoff to give themselves a relatively satisfying end to a tournament they were one of the favourites for. One of the standout players for the Super Eagles was Kenneth Omeruo, the centre-back who is technically a Chelsea player, despite having spent […]View the full article

Marc Guehi was one of the eight players who left Frank Lampard’s first team squad after the games in Ireland, with the full list appearing here on the Sky Sports website. The defender has been a shining light for the academy in recent years, and the question now will be what to do with him. […]View the full article

Taking a glance at Atletico Madrid’s transfers this summer on a site like TransferMarkt, it’s really quite astonishing how much business they’ve done. Taking on the money from the sale of Antoine Griezmann to Barcelona, as well as several other fringe players, they’ve bought new players all over the pitch to totally regenerate the squad. […]View the full article

Glance around at the summer spending of European clubs this summer, and one thing will jump out at you. After years of financial domination by the Premier League, it’s the Spanish clubs who have leapt into a healthy lead this summer. Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico are all going through pretty serious rebuilds this summer, […]View the full article

Jorginho is a player who divided the opinions of Chelsea supporters last season, and in my view the criticism was unwarranted. Maurizio Sarri came in with a system and style of football that needed orchestrating from a deep midfield position. This was Jorginho, playing a lot like the way Andrea Pirlo used to dictate play […]View the full article

Marcos Alonso was one of the players speaking to the media ahead of today’s game with Kawasaki Frontale in Japan, and inevitably he was asked questions about his future at Chelsea. In quotes you can read here on Football.London, the left back insisted that he was happy at his current club, and he brushed off […]View the full article

Frank Lampard has spoken to Sky Sports about the importance of having players at the club, who ‘feel Chelsea’, and ‘play for the badge’. The club are also doing their upmost to reconnect with fans, following a new promotional video supporting the launch of their new away kit yesterday. It's always been a Chelsea thing. […]View the full article

Chelsea have left the decision on the future of Willian down to new head coach Frank Lampard, who will have the final say. A lot will depend on whether Lampard feels that he has enough options left at the club to cover the depth in those positions. Willian has also had disagreements on a new […]View the full article

Chelsea forward Daishawn Redan is apparently close to a €2.5m move to the Bundesliga, where he will join Hertha Berlin. That’s according to reports on Sky Sports, backed up by claims closer to the source in the form of Kicker in Germany. It’s a move that has caught some people out, although if you’ve been […]View the full article

When Chelsea announced Frank Lampard as the new head coach earlier this month, there was a real feel around the club that all of a sudden, the young players would now have the best chance ever to break into the first team setup. With Lampard alongside Jody Morris, as well as the transfer ban issue, […]View the full article

Chelsea managers generally don’t last long in their jobs, and the plea often entered in their defence is that they didn’t get the players who they wanted, to compliment their style. That was the case when Maurizio Sarri went, plenty were saying he didn’t have enough of the technical players he needed to succeed playing […]View the full article

Being a great footballer is largely about having the ability in the first place, and getting better and better. However, having the right attitude makes up a lot of the programming to become one of the best around. If you have the right attitude, desire, and mentality to succeed in life (not just football), your […]View the full article

Frank Lampard has today confirmed that Ethan Ampadu will be going out on loan this season, after it was noticed that the youngster had not travelled to Japan with the rest of the team. Speaking in his press conference over there this morning, Lampard admitted that the young Wales international was back in England finding […]View the full article

Frank Lampard spoke to the media in Japan on Tuesday morning and received questions regarding the future of highly rated 18-year old Ethan Ampadu. The Welsh international spent most of last season as a bit part player, mainly featuring for the development squad. But Lampard has confirmed that the youngster is now likely to spend […]View the full article

Chelsea have been criticised over recent years for their use of the youth academy, which is rated as one of the best in the world. Young players come in at the mere age of eight with the hope of one day turning out for their beloved football club week in week out in front of […]View the full article

Chelsea have been criticised over recent years for their use of the youth academy, which is rated as one of the best in the world. Young players come in at the mere age of eight with the hope of one day turning out for their beloved football club week in week out in front of […]View the full article

Chelsea today confirmed that Mason Mount had signed a new 5 year contract with the club, keeping him on their books until at least 2024. That pairs up perfectly with Ruben Loftus-Cheek, another academy graduate who was given a monster new deal of equal duration just a few weeks ago. The two of them will […]View the full article

Over the years, the Stamford Bridge faithful have grown used to seeing a host of players who are able to pop up with a goal from out of nowhere. The blues have always been gifted with players like Frank Lampard, Michael Essien, Michael Ballack and Oscar just to name a few, who have that ability […]View the full article

Chelsea have three senior strikers going into this season, with Tammy Abraham, Olivier Giroud and Michy Batshuayi ready to compete to be Frank Lampard’s number one. All have scored goals at points in their careers, but none is 100% convincing for the senior job. Giroud hasn’t been prolific enough for us, despite some good games […]View the full article

As the Chelsea team set off for Ireland a week ago, we wrote that Billy Gilmour was going to be one of the most exciting things about this trip. In reality, things went even better than expected. We thought he would get some minutes, but certainly didn’t expect him to play 90 over 2 games. […]View the full article