Archive for January, 2011

Chelsea Youth 2011 – Josh McEachran & Jeffrey Bruma

The pair also played in the side that won the FA Youth Cup with Jeffrey Bruma scoring a free kick in the first leg of the final with a composed free kick.

Both players are now featuring regularly within the first team squad with both having started in cup games but the Dutchman having made a league start as well.

Bruma made his landmark first Premier League start against Aston Villa and the eighteen year old had a generally composed performance despite being at fault for allowing Emile Heskey to score Villa’s second goal.

The midfielder has had two performances that highlight his talent, the first been as a substitute against Newcastle where he was the driving force behind a comeback from two goals down, even if the Blues ended up losing the match his performance was the highlight.

The second was last week against Ipswich where he started and showed his true skill set, the youngster keeps it simple but he gets it right, win the ball, give the ball to someone else in Blue and move to look to receive the ball again.

It may be a bit early to make such brash statement but his composure on the ball and skills mean that he looks like a future England international to me.

Ideally neither should be required to start at this stage of there careers but the FA Cup and next season the Carling Cup should be automatic starts for both players mixed in with a smattering of first team performances dependant on the situation.

The future is bright, the future is McEachran!

Relief As Ipswich Rout Kicks Off Chelsea FA Cup 2011 Campaign

It was great to my Chelsea friends again especially those I was meeting for the first time such as Henning from Denmark who I have known on discussion boards and such but never face to face.

Annihilating Ipswich was to steal a phrase from the Chelsea fancast boys a ‘cathartic’ experience given the results in the last couple of months.

It was good to see Daniel Sturridge and Frank Lampard on the scoresheet in a performance in which the result was never in doubt considering that they came into the match managerless and as one of the few sides in the football league on a worse run of form than Chelsea.

We also saw Patrick Van Aanholt and Josh McEachran start and have good performances, with McEachran outstanding in the middle of the park. I think anyone who has watched McEachran this year will agree that he really has a bright future at the club.

A good result overall, lets hope we can build on it.

A Brief History of Chelsea FC – FA Cup Final 2009

Chelsea play Ipswich in the FA Cup on Sunday and in order to build up to my favourite cup competition, therefore to add a more positive spin, every day until Sunday I will be posting a video of a memorable FA Cup memory.

This particular memory is the 2009 FA Cup victory over Everton which was the culmination of a fantastic few months under Guus Huddink who replaced Felipe Scolari after he was deemed incapable of taking Chelsea forward.

The game itself however started in the worst possible fashion with Everton taking the lead through Louis Saha straight from the kick off with the French striker taking Robert Di Matteo’s record of scoring the fastest goal in FA Cup history taking a mere 25 seconds to put the Toffees in front.

That was certainly the worse start to a match I can remember particularly given the importance of the situation. Yet the sun was shining and under Guus Hiddink the team had a confidence that was almost unshakeable. This meant that the  Chelsea faithful were full of confidence despite the early set back.

To show just how quick the Saha goal came see the footage below.

However it took just 21 minutes for Didier Drogba to equalise with a bullet header from a delightful Ashley Cole cross that meant that the sides went into half time level.

After 25 minutes of second half deadlock Frank Lampard scored a screaming 25 yard drive that found the left hand corner leaving Tim Howard helpless and Everton were unable to recover and the FA Cup returned to Stamford Bridge for the fifth time in the our history.

Due to youtube rules I could only find a whole cup run compilation due to the FA Cup video rights, but the Lampard strike is a bit grainy and shown at the 5:00 minute mark.

Anger and Frustration as Chelsea Lose to Wolves

I have just watched Chelsea play another painful and infuriating 90 minutes of football in an abject performance that makes me want to turn the language in this Chelsea blog blue with the anger I feel.

As with most of the matches of this spell of relegation form we dominated the possession yet were either unable to create chances, or when we did our strikers showed the skill of an Elephant on a unicycle. 

There are many potential reasons and culprits in that could be held accountable for this spell and I am going to forgo the temptation to rant and rave whilst I am still shaking with anger. So I will wait until tommorow to give a more forthright and hopefully clean viewpoint.

For the moment I can tell you that our players lack passion, they lack desire and they lack confidence, how much longer can this be tolerated, how much longer will Roman keep his patience?

On the bright side, questions about us winning the league can now be put to bed for at least this season and we can concentrate on the simple task of winning one game at a time, as without dramatic improvement we will not be playing in Europe in 2011/2012.

Chelsea Transfer Rumours 4th Jan 2011

Ok so I am not a great one for transfer rumours and I am pretty awful at making them up and I am pretty sure that my rumour of a return for Winston Bogarde and Robert Fleck is unlikey to come to fruitition.

Therefore here are a hodge podge of rumours I have seen on the web in the last few days.

Luis Suarez

After performing well in the World Cup this striker has been linked with just about every club imaginable, at 23 he could have a long and distinguished future ahead of him. I have only heard pub talk that he may be on his way to the Bridge but cannot find any substantive sources although his signature was claimed to be imminent this time last year so you cannot believe anything you read these days.

David Luiz – Telegraph

Apparently Chelsea have had a £17m bid turned down for the Benfica defender, but if we really are seriously in the market for a central defender then we may yet enter a bidding war with Man City who are also rumoured to be in the hunt.

As with Luis Suarez age is on the side of the Brazilian defender and any purchases in the next few years Chelsea need to be looking to future.

Daniel Sturridge to Liverpool – Clubcall

With only Nicholas Anelka and Didier Drogba as our experienced/reliable striking options we cannot afford to let Daniel Sturridge leave unless a replacement is signed.

Now lets see if any of these rumours come true.