FA Cup preview: Chelsea v. Norwich City... some news... and that goal
Saturday, 17 February 07, 12:36 AM · Comments (11)
It's been a quiet seven days since Chelsea's last game, both here and in the news. A discussion about the whereabouts of Roman Abramovich and the consequences of his absence took place in the comments section of Tony's Middlesbrough review post. Thankfully it appears Abramovich is not looking to sell Chelsea any time soon.
The club announced yesterday that it has struck a deal to show archive footage and club news on YouTube, the first such deal to be done by a Premiership football club. It's great to see Chelsea leading the way. A lot of organisations would do well to follow Chelsea's example and embrace technology rather than pay lawyers to fight it.
I've been spending my free time these last few weeks developing another website for Chelsea fans which I hope to launch soon. It's difficult to gauge its potential, but if it proves as popular as this site then my time won't have been wasted. I'll post more about it in coming weeks.
This weekend sees a return to FA Cup action. The fifth round draw was as kind as previous rounds and paired Chelsea with Norwich City, the lowest ranked club still in the competition.
Ricardo Carvalho is set to return after recovering from a fever which kept him out of last weekend's win over Middlesbrough. He should start alongside John Terry who came through that win unscathed after his long lay-off.
Jon Obi Mikel returns to the squad but Ashley Cole, Joe Cole and Michael Ballack are still unavailable.
Canaries manager Peter Grant is expected to name the same team that started the midweek replay against Blackpool.
The Blues have fallen at the fifth round hurdle in two of the last three years, but have a great recent record against Norwich. In 2002, Chelsea faced the Canaries at Stamford Bridge in a third round replay after a 0-0 draw at Carrow Road. Chelsea won the game 4-0 and Gianfranco Zola scored one of the goals of his career, a sublime near post back-heeled shot on the run from a Graeme Le Saux corner.
Let's hope we see some Zola-esque magic in this game.
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The naked chef from Norwich is coming to town! :-)
That is possibly the greatest ever goal from a Chelsea player ever seen anywhere ever and I can never ever get enough of seeing that.
Nick any chance of a prize for getting the most occurrences of the word ever into one sentence?
The game was good. Shevchenko has blown the breath into our game in the second half. The first 15 minutes of the second half were not great. However, Sheva has been good, Chech superb, extremely great!! Great fealing to see that keeper is back!!!!
We are having absolutely no luck with injuries, are we? There's no telling how long Boulah will be out with his dislocated shoulder. Carvalho needs to stop catching colds, because we need him badly this next week!
We are definitely in a good run of form now, and this next week is going to be a major test of it. Let's hope we pass.
ManUre draws with Reading! Is that a sign? Does anybody else think that air is out of ManUre balloon?
Mikel, I doubt it. Let's not forget that they were playing without Rooney, Ferdinand, Van Der Sar, Giggs...
At least we're on our most consistent form since September.
11 Comments · Add yours
So Roman is back today........Cup Final against the Arsenal Reserves next week.........And Melbourne Victory in the A League Grand Final (that's Australia folks!....yes, I know it's shite, but it's all we have down here!) on Sunday morning UK time. Live on SkySports 1 at 7-8am if you get up early.
Here is to all three being a resounding success...not least the return of Roman! For christ sake give him a cheer if you are at the game..... He needs a bit of love and we need him to ensure that those nasty Mancs remain the number two side in England.
CAREFREE.....
Roman's back and he needs entertainment. and this how it can be achieved.
Cech:Geremi,Terry,Calvaho,Bridge:Maka, essien, Lamps;SWP,Sheva,Robben.
It's no use having Drogs hittin 35 and winning nothing. Back to basics please!