Chelsky Boy Luke

One thing I have always found curious watching Chelsea is how one interprets our performance. On many occasions I have watched a game, gone on Facebook to applaud our performance - but as I read down my news feed to look at the opinions of my fellow Chelsea fans, I find that they have interpreted a specific game differently to me. I set out in search of answers to this phenomenon and have found that commentary plays a huge part in how I perceive a game. Wednesday night’s game is the perfect example. I watched the game on Sky Sports 5 in a bar; I was unable to hear the commentary throughout the match. From what I saw, we looked in complete control. PSG hadn’t registered a meaningful attack or shot on target until their goal. We looked the more dangerous team, struggling only with the final ball. I was also captivated with the way we pressed PSG, limiting their possession to the middle of the park and turning defence into attack seamlessly. I felt we were the better team; I felt it was only a matter of time until we got the winner to send us through to the quarter-finals. And the fact we didn’t left me feeling that we were rather unlucky. Once again I headed onto Facebook to express my disappointment and comment on a result I had seen as being unfortunate. I was once again surprised to find comments that berated our performance. Thus I decided to watch the game over, with commentary on. This changed the entire perspective of the game. Whether we do it consciously or sub-consciously, our minds convince us that what we hear is what we see. Eva Lavric in her book ‘The Linguistics of Football’ states that “commentaries are verbal description of sporting events: utterances with a range of different functions. Besides vocabulary, other linguistic characteristics include non-grammatical structures such as the use of ellipsis due to the speed of delivery and errors in clause structures. Intonation can also be analysed in sports commentaries. It arises out of the desire to create excitement. Sometimes intonation is exaggerated on purpose.” What Lavric is saying is that sports commentary is purposefully designed to be misleading in order to create excitement. And what we find exciting is a close end-to-end game, controversy and the individual action of characters we love and hate. For example, the Zlatan Ibrahimovic red card was as clear as you like, he’s slid in with two feet using excessive force and doesn’t win the ball. The referee issued the red card with immediate effect, before Chelsea’s players had even surrounded the official. However, the commentators claimed that the red card was harsh and that the behaviour of the Chelsea players caused Ibrahimovic to see red. Thus creating the controversy we all find entertaining in these big matches. it does play on your mind, the commentator’s reaction did put doubt into my mind, and I started to believe that the red card was slightly harsh. I also noted that the commentators had seemed to pre-meditate whom their hero and villain would be. Predictably they chose David Luiz as their hero, the £50m star hard done by at Chelsea returning to his former home in an act of bravery with a point to prove. Predictably, Diego Costa was chosen as the archenemy, his every touch of the ball, his every tackle scrutinised with a microscope in dramatic fashion. “The street fighter from Brazil”, “the bully”, “the man on the edge”… Just some of the statements used to describe Costa. It is clear that commentators are persuasive when it comes to making us believe a certain narrative. I would recommend to all Chelsea fans that if they want to watch a game for how it is then do so without commentary… I promise you, your experience will be completely different. Click here to view the article

The recent decline in form of Diego Costa is slowly becoming one of the great curiosities of this Premier League season. The Brazilian looked every inch the signing of the season during his first six months at Chelsea with 17 goals in 19 Premier League appearances. But the controversial three match ban he received for a stamp of Emre Can during the Capital One Cup semi-final against Liverpool has prompted an astonishing collapse in form which has seen him fail to hit the back of the net in his last 6 matches, the same amount of games he went without scoring for the Spanish National side. Costa’s drought reached a new low at Upton Park in what turned out to be an unproductive evening for Costa as an attacking force, had it not been for a lack of competitive forward options, I suspect that José Mourinho could have hauled off the Brazilian earlier then the 93rd minute. Speaking after the game against the Hammers, Mourinho reiterated his belief that the three-match ban has impacted on Costa’s form by stating “I don’t think it’s good for a player to be three weeks, or three matches, without starting a game. A little rest is welcome for everyone; a big rest isn’t good for the players. So we are not going to see the best Diego.” It’s hard not to dispute that the three match ban is the cause of Costa’s dip in form. Before the ban he was banging goals in for fun. After analyzing Costa’s performance in his last 6 premier league appearances, it is obvious he is off the pace. His ball control has been uncharacteristically poor in each of these games which has hampered his ability to score some of the solo goals which were somewhat of an early season trademark… A good example would be the goal he scored against West Ham on Boxing Day. Costa has also found himself drifting out of position. At the start of the season, Costa was popping up on the penalty spot for the simple tap ins, however Costa has recently found himself dropping deeper to receive the ball or has drifted out wide resulting in a lack of goal scoring opportunities. This however begs the question, how does one loose all positional sense within the space of three weeks?? The short answer to that is one doesn’t, therefore there has to be another reason for this…. That reason is Cesc Fàbregas. Since Ramires has been favored in the deeper midfield role, Fàbregas has been pushed up to the attacking midfield role normally occupied by Oscar. This has presented multiple problems. Firstly Fàbregas hasn’t been allowed as much space as he had become accustom to in the deeper role, making it next to impossible to play his game. Fàbregas needs the space to find the killer pass, when he is starved of that space he becomes ineffective which we have recently seen. Heat Map of Costa touches during Swansea vs Chelsea when Fábregas was playing alongside Matic - 13.09.14 Secondly, moving Fàbregas has resulted in a change of tactic from Mourinho, because we have no players in the middle of the park that can dictate a game like Fabregas did, we have resorted to counter attacking football, which requires players with speed (Hazard, Willian, Ramires). When Ramires, Hazard or Willian break, they leave Costa behind as he struggles to match their pace, this leaves the Brazilian frustrated at the lack of service normally provided by Fàbregas. Heat Map of Costa during West Ham vs Chelsea when Fábregas played in the attacking midfield role - 04.03.15 Because Costa is dropping deeper to receive the ball or drifting out wide to provide support to the attacking winger, our game has become more about speed rather then ball retention and as such, has limited Costa’s chances. We witnessed a similar situation with Fernando Torres; his lack of confidence was a result of not scoring which is a consequence of not being provided with too many opportunities…. Mourinho needs to revert back to early season tactics if he is to get the best out of Costa and prevent a Torres-like decline. Click here to view the article

With the Capital One Cup in the bag, Jose Mourinho has been quick to re-focus Chelsea's attention to the Barclays Premier League, with a trip to West Ham United on Wednesday evening next on the Blues list. After clinching his first bit of silverware since his return to Chelsea, Mourinho will go into the tie at Boleyn Ground confident his team can capture the three points and take advantage of the slip up by Manchester City's 2-1 defeat at Liverpool on Sunday, leaving Chelsea's five-point advantage at the top of the table intact with a game in hand. With only 8 Premier League games remaining, Mourinho has to feel his team is firmly in the driving seat to lift the Premier League Trophy. If like me you've bet on this you can use BetBind.com to keep track of your bets. Talking to Sky Sports "It's in the hands of everyone," the Portuguese said. "We have lots of difficult matches to play. City have difficult matches also”. Mourinho also revealed how he attempted to shield his players from events at Anfield as they prepared for their Wembley date with Spurs. "I knew that was an impossible mission, but I didn't want the television on in the hotel or on the bus," he added. "I told them I didn't want any kind of manifestation or disappointment if City scored in the last minute, or Liverpool won. I wanted complete silence. We were successful on that. But one member of my staff jumped up in the bus. [silvino Louro, assistant first-team coach]. I wanted to kill the guy. He broke the rule." Chelsea are unbeaten in their last six league outings, although they were left disappointed to be held to a 1-1 draw by struggling Burnley on 21 February. West Ham, meanwhile, have not won any of their last six matches in all competitions and were beaten 3-1 at home by London rivals Crystal Palace on Saturday. The Hammers goalkeeper Adrian, however, has previous experience of frustrating the Chelsea manager as he helped former club Real Betis complete a 1-0 win over Mourinho's Madrid side in 2012, before putting in another superb display in a goalless draw at Stamford Bridge last season. "I don't know if Mourinho remembers me but when I play against him I have got some good results," the Spaniard told West Ham's official website. "Personally, I feel good when I play against Mourinho." Team News: Chelsea will continue to be without Nemanja Matic, who serves the last installment of a two-match ban for his red card against Burnley, while fellow midfielder John Obi Mikel is once again a doubt with a persistent knee problem. For West Ham, Morgan Amalfitano is still suspended after his dismissal against West Bromwich Albion in the FA Cup, and Carlton Cole's hamstring injury means he remains a fitness concern for manager Sam Allardyce. Provisional West Ham Team: Adrian, Jaaskelainen, Collins, Cresswell, Demel, Henry, Jenkinson, O'Brien, Potts, Reid, Tomkins, Downing, Jarvis, Kouyate, Lletget, Noble, Nolan, Poyet, Song, Cole, Sakho, Valencia. Provisional Chelsea Team: Blackman, Cech, Courtois, Ake, Azpilicueta, Cahill, Christensen, Filipe, Ivanovic, Terry, Zouma, Cuadrado, Fabregas, Hazard, Mikel, Oscar, Ramires, Willian, Costa, Drogba, Remy. Match Appointments
 Referee: Andre Marriner Assistants: S Ledger, G Beswick Fourth Official: N Swarbrick Current Form Previous Meetings Match Facts ·Jose Mourinho has yet to be beaten in seven Barclays Premier League matches against West Ham (W6 D1), while Chelsea have won 13 and lost one of their last 17 BPL matches against the Hammers. ·West Ham have failed to score in five of their last six Barclays Premier League matches against Chelsea, including the last four in a row. ·Only one team has prevented Chelsea from scoring in their last 27 Barclays Premier League matches (Sunderland). ·The Hammers have won only one of their last 10 Barclays Premier League matches (W1 D5 L4). Click here to view the article

Hello all, Its a pleasure to be on board. My name is Luke, I'm a massive CFC fan from Sheffield.... Lived in Twickenham for a while. Ive watched every Premier League and Champions League Match for the past 7 years, an achievement I'm rather proud of haha. So yeh. Anything else you want to know feel free to ask. UTC!