Premier League: Arsenal 1 - 4 Chelsea
Sunday, 10 May 09, 03:02 PM · Comments (87)
Match reports
The Guardian, Dominic Fifield: "There were pockets of chorused defiance at the end from those who remained amid swathes of empty seats, but Arsenal's fans must be growing weary of brutal reminders that their team are so painfully off the pace. Arsène Wenger suffered his heaviest home league defeat as this club's manager here yesterday. What made it all the more humiliating was that Chelsea hardly had to break into a sweat to inflict it."
Daily Telegraph, Henry Winter: "The three teams above Arsenal in the Premier League all possess a better balance between defence and attack. In thumping Arsenal, Chelsea rubbed in the importance of power and resolve, bouncing back from their Champions League distress against Barcelona with real character."
The Times, Matt Hughes: "Such is Arsène Wenger’s endless optimism that he sees the heaviest of grey skies as a dark shade of blue, but after this second humiliating home defeat in five days even the Arsenal manager must sense the storm clouds gathering over the club. If not, then the loud booing that rang around the half-empty Emirates Stadium after the final whistle will surely have altered even his sunny disposition."
Official Chelsea FC Website: "A win that equals our biggest in the league away to Arsenal has guaranteed automatic Champions League qualification for next season."
The goals
28' Alex 0-1
39' Anelka 0-2
49' Toure (og) 0-3
70' Bendtner 1-3
86' Malouda 1-4
The prelude
This could have been the dress rehearsal for the Champions League Final. Chelsea were seconds from missing this prize whereas Arsenal were poor seconds.
I’d been finding it difficult to muster enthusiasm for the match because it felt like a 3rd v 4th play-off at a World Cup with neither team really fancying the game. However as soon as I saw the Chelsea boys striding out on to the pitch I managed to switch on to match mode.
The match
We started sluggishly. A touch of déjà vu as our opponents played silky smooth football, with Andy Gray wallowing in their one touch interplay. But it’s all about scoring and with Walcott only capable of striking a ball five yards to the right of the goal it seemed like we were safe no matter how much Arsenal dominated possession.
Arsenal fans don’t have much to make a noise about but at least they were able to boo Drogba and Cashley at every opportunity. After 30 minutes Alex gave us the lead with an impressive powerful header. Ten minutes later Anelka doubled our score. Picking the ball up from just inside the Arsenal half, he ran towards goal unopposed before striking a decent swerving shot from outside the box. Time for most Arsenal fans to leave for their half time Balti pie with curry sauce.
Five minutes in to the second half and it was three. Cole played a neat one–two and his cross into the box was nicely tucked away as an own goal by Toure.
Of course Chelsea wouldn’t be Chelsea if they didn’t keep us fans on the edge of our seats so they sat back and invited a bit of pressure allowing Bendtner to pull one back with a full 30 minutes to go.
Arsenal's enthusiasm after their goal was temporary and we exerted our control. This gave the cameraman the opportunity to pan around the ground showing the years of Arsenal's trophies on the red fascia board of the middle tier, with the years ending in 2005 followed by a long gap of red. My advice to Arsenal would be to proportionally space the trophy years around the ground because it may be some time before a new year gets inserted.
Some more play followed and then the cameraman focussed on the coach of Arsenal Ladies; which was confusing because I thought we were playing Arsenal Ladies based on the power and pace on show.
With four minutes remaining Phil Dowd (can he ref our European games?) turned down an optimistic Arsenal penalty claim and a quick breakaway move saw Malouda with a one on one against Fabianski. He should have scored but his shot was pushed away to Anelka who shot against the post for it to rebound to Malouda for a tap in to make it 4-1.
This result was a welcome fillip post Wednesday. After our Cup semi-final win at Wembley Arsene Wenger criticised the pitch and claimed it interrupted Arsenal's normal flowing football. What was his excuse today? Grass too green presumably.
Player ratings
- Petr Cech – 7/10 – Made some goods saves and even came out for and held crosses.
- Jose Bosingwa – 6/10 – Good going forward but exposed defending crosses in the second half.
- Alex – 8/10 – Big and powerful and great header to open the scoring.
- John Terry – 8/10 – Back to his best with clean, predictive defending.
- Ashley Cole – 7/10 – Shame his shot/cross didn’t go straight in rather than a Toure own goal.
- Michael Essien – 7/10 - Energetic.
- John Obi Mikel – 7/10 – His form has dipped recently but looked better.
- Frank Lampard – 8/10 – Up and down, workmanlike and professional.
- Florent Malouda – 8/10 – Hard working plus a goal.
- Nicolas Anelka – 8/10 – One of his better games and a good goal.
- Didier Drogba – 6/10 – Looked like a schoolboy trying his best to behave having just been let back in from standing in the corridor.
- Branislav Ivanovic (sub 77) – Brief visit to cut out crosses.
- Michael Ballack (sub 88) – Even briefer visit to waste time.
Man of the Match
Florent Malouda. His finishing and final ball should be better but surely making a claim for the best comeback since the resurrection.
The postlude
Qualification for next year's Champions League is vitally important and has now been sealed. Rather than sulking our players got on with the job in hand. It means Arsenal will have a tricky qualifier in the first week of next season and have to train harder in the pre season which may in turn result in them running out of steam later on. For us we can now play with freedom and the fun of trying to overtake the Scousers whilst getting ourselves in good shape for the FA Cup Final.
Another organised and disciplined display. I’m going to miss Guus.
Related links
Like this blog? Help spread the word: 
87 Comments · Add yours
Perfect Sunday after this Wednesday robbery!!! Once again we have showed what we are made off!!! All these "footballing" inefficient sides are heroes when referees help them!!!
Keep The Blue Flag Flying High!!!!
LINK
And one more thing; This twat Platini is simply pathetic!!!!
Well that certainly put a smile back on my face - and respect to Guus for getting us to an automatic qualification place for next year's CL with 2 games to spare, which looked increasingly unlikely in the last dark days of The So-So One.
I did my usual Saturday morning “know your enemy” scan of the hard copy of the Daily Wail yesterday to find they had excelled themselves this week with no less than 4 anti-Chelsea stories taking up more than 2 and a half of the back pages.
As a Scot who has never “got” cricket even I was rather pulled up by the editorial judgement that squashed the picture and start of the report on England’s 3-day Test win below the 1.5 inch headline on the non-story of Abu Dhabi City’s Richard Dunne [the well-know philosopher and logician] ranting on about us -“…what goes around comes around. You dive around and teams score against you in injury time” – with his whinges about Ronaldo relegated to the bottom of the page.
Equally the only real piece of news they had [Ballack’s 1-year contract extension offer] was buried in the middle of an article criticising Hiddink for backing his players.
In what is going to be another new manager + transfer window merry-go-round period I think we all need to resolve to ignore the 99% made-up crap which will be shovelled at us by the sports press and wait for the 1% fact-based news.
Good win, but I'm feeling oddly apathetic. I still haven't gotten over my abusive relationship with football after Wednesday.
Nice all-round performance, culminating in our best result against Arsenal for a long time.
I thought that other than the first 15 minutes, the players did really well, however we were fortunate that Arsenal , and Walcott in particular, was unable to hit the target.
Wenger saw the foul on Drogba for the first goal and thought it was a dive (see Daily Mail report), but neglected to mention the failure to send off Fabregas after that for a scything tackle on Malouda, or the 2 attempted dives by Adebayor towards the end, which could easily have seen him booked.
Malouda has reinvented himself, and would surely have to be in line for best player over Hiddink's 2-3 months in charge. Given his age, he is perhaps a figure that we should be giving more worth, and surprisingly, would now not be on my list for the Summer clearout.
i must admit that i didn't stay up for the game last night, what with a 1am kick off and all and i was certainly dreading checking the results this morning. Pleasantly surprised with the result. Good result for the boys.
Call me blindly optimistic but the Barca result was the only possible result that might tempt Guus into staying on next season and proving a point..
After his stint with my Australia team, i don't know if i can handle Guus leaving me again.
I must say that surprised me. After watching the first 10 minutes, I thought "we are going to lose this game." How wrong I was.
Quite the performance from the team. Impressive to put water under the bridge and just give out a serious shellacking.
I watched the game on FSC, and I'd love to know if anyone knows the names of the commentators for the game. They went on and on about how wonderful Arsenal were, how maybe we would get a chance to see "Arsenal's wonderful free flowing football." This, of course, while the score is 3-0.
Is the football commentating world that naive? When a good pass is played, is it boring just because it is Chelsea? I'll never quite figure this out.
For me, I just don't see the allure of Arsenal right now. They just don't show up for big games, they don't have balance- they can't defend once they attack. One week- 7 goals shipped? I don't care who you play against, but that just won't win you games.
Now, we have 2 throwaway games, and the FA cup final. My hope is that the team works hard, Guus gets us ahead in these games, and then throws on the youngsters for some time in the limelight. I'd love to see a Stoch to Di Santo goal against Sunderland!
I'm looking forward to the Final. Everton will be a good, solid team as usual, a great matchup for us. Should be entertaining if you like tactics!
Reply to Blue_MikeL:
Wow. What a post. Thanks for linking that.
Let's look at Platini's favorite teams.
1) Man U
2) Liverpool
3) The team formerly known as Arsenal who just shipped 7 goals in a week
Now... which team is conspicuously absent from that list?
Which team played the Catalan Footballing Kings to within an inch of their lives?
Which team refuses to be everyone else's trained monkey, who won't sing and dance on their command?
And, maybe just for fun... which team has just alleged that Platini has it in for them, fixing the outcome of a match?
Please put your answers on a postcard, and mail them to:
Be Champions
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20500
What happened to that footballing lesson we were promised after the FA Cup semi final?
I wish it was Almaniac as the GK instead of Fabisanksi. Would have loved 4 goals through his c**t.
LINK
Very good article by Martin Samuel, which shows perhaps a more balanced view of the Barca debacle.
I loved the scene of the trophy years and how the cameraman seemed to pause a little after 2005, and yes, the sight of the Gooners ladies coach confused me too. How pathetic the media can be at times.
Great report Mark, thanks.
My only disagreement with the report is the 7 for Ashley, thought he excelled after 15 minutes of Walcott-abuse and was worthy of an 8.
Never seen him drive forward so much, he was certainly thriving on the abuse from the Emirates crowd.
Glad Greenlight picked up on Cyclops' 'version' of events - lets castigate Drogba. Theatrical - yes, but Fabregas did catch him. Unlike Adebayor whose pathetic attempt at simulation was embarassing. I even saw Gooner fans wincing at how bad the dive was.
I think we're witnessing the end of Drogbas Chelsea career, and probably not in the way we'd like to. Yes, he's got a temprament about him and his hot-headedness has cost us more than it should have done, but he's been unbelieveable at times. Another turn-and-volley ala Carragher at the Bridge to sign off would be an apt goodbye methinks.
Great stuff, buried many demons, and not just from Wednesday night cos I've witnessed Arsenal doing that to us too many times.
I found myself thinking two simulataneous but contradictory things about Arsenal on Sunday; firstly, if they had a fire sale the only players I'd be interested in would be Van Persie, Arshavin and Fabregas; secondly, that if they only had Terry, Essien and Drogba they'd probably be above us in the league.
Since Hiddink has arrived we've beaten and drawn with Liverpool, drawn home and away with Barca and beaten Arsenal twice - wish we'd got a chance to take on United cos it would have been one hell of a game.
A very pleasant afternoon all round, really. Whilst the Emirates may not have been there for too long, it's always nice to have inflicted Arsenal's heaviest defeat ever there. Third guaranteed, pressure off and maybe even in with a shout at second. That and a cup final makes for a startlingly successful season considering.
We do now have to brace ourselves for the departure of Guus - barring major U-turns, he will gone in three weeks, hopefully with an FA Cup under his belt, which would be well deserved. Such a shame - what a manager.
Reply to KaiserJonny_II:
Couldn't agree more, I think the realisation of his departure has only just started to hit home. Not quite on the scale of Jose going, but it saddens me anyway, considering what he's achieved in a short time.
I suppose it bodes well for our FA Cup appearance, considering the last few finals we've won, and the subsequent departure of our winning manager.
But hey, I'd willingly take a loss if it meant he would stay on.
I see even BBC Teletext [yes I'm the one quaint enough to still look at it occasionally]is joining in the "Brutes Ruin Beautiful Game" theme with this headline on their report of yesterday:
Ruthless Blues Overpower Arsenal
- I can almost see us as James Mason wielding his whip to have his wicked way with Patricia Roc in one of those old Gainsborough costume dramas [but enough about my strange habits.....
I see the twat Barclay has not failed to dissapoint us Chelsea fans with his myopia...LINK
Reply to Clive:
Barclay is a fairly odious twat at the best of times, but he's taken leave of his senses over this - what a ridiculously pointless article.
That Barclay piece is just embarrassing. He's a terrible pundit, an awful replacement for Samuel.
The Barca fans have gone bats claiming they were equally hard done by the ref. This is my favourite example. They reckon this should have been a penalty!
LINK
I'm afraid it's just more blinkered views from our Spanish friends, if other teams don't comply to the script.
Another example to their views of outrage outside football, was the Hamilton/Alonso battle. They couldn't abide by the fact that thier boy was being embarrased by a rookie, and McLaren were showing favouritism.
Admittedly that may have been the case near the end, but only because of the tantrums Alonso had.
If Utd play against them like they did in the semis last year, then can you imagine, they're likely to go ballistic!
I've only got one complaint about yesterday's game.
It wasn't the last two goals (I'd backed us to win 3-0) nor was it our first 20 minutes, which was nothing less than I'd expected after Wednesday night.
No, my complaint is with the guy who turned the volume up so that I had to endure Sky's commentary and particularly Andy Gray's gibberish.
I've asked this before, but is it really that difficult to report on a game of football?
The arsehole didn't even have the courtesy to try and backtrack as the game went on.
This was an outrage, because listening to these guys slime and slither their way out of the hole they've dug for themselves has been one of the real pleasures of recent matches.
But not Andy (I think it was him, sounded like anyway). He just kept on as if the goals weren't happening and his team of wunderkinder were still in with a shout. Tosser.
We came to climb a mountain and only needed to step over a molehill.
How many trophies have Chelsea won in the last two years? After spending a billion U.S. dollars? And firing three coaches?
Exactly the same number as Arsenal.
Enjoy the team while Roman is still around!
Reply to timmy_the_tooth:
Hey, toothless timmy,
"spending a billion U.S. dollars"
Wow! Has the dollar devalued that much. Things must be far worse than I thought.
Reply to timmy_the_tooth:
LOL I do love bitter Arsenal fans coming on here. I love their maths, and their bitterness.
Reply to Clive:
But even their bitterness can't be guaranteed.
One enjoyable bit of commentary I heard yesterday was:
"The home supporters have even stopped booing Ashley Cole. That's the depth of their disillusionment now" or words to that effect.
Laugh!
I went straight to the bar and ordered another pint.
Reply to Be_Champions:
Guys.
If you ever feel like having a rant about M. Platini, I've got just the place for you.
LINK
Posted this over the weekend so you may have missed it.
Your comments are most welcome.
Reply to timmy_the_tooth:
That's a bit of a ridiculous statement Timmy because 2 years is how long since we’ve won a trophy, not Arsenal.
Why don’t you go to the ManU blog and post
How many trophies have ManU won in the last 7 weeks? After spending a billion U.S. dollars?
Exactly the same number as Arsenal.
Enjoy the team while Glazier is still around!
I’m surprised you’ve got time to post because I thought you’d be down at the Emirates helping to shuffle the dates around the stadium to fill that large expanse of red?
I don't think it's so much their lack of trophies that's hurting them. I think it's because they're no longer the top London Club anymore. Hell, even Spurs might finish above them soon. ;-)
Reply to timmy_the_tooth:
If people were getting paid for stupidity Arsen's Anal would have been the richest club in the world. Damn bitter idiots, what is the point to come over here and show that it is not only football skills you are lacking, but brains as well.
Reply to Mark25:
And on a point of information.
Unlike Arse's season, ours isn't over yet, so surely that could make only one trophyless season.
Admittedly Andy Gray is a detestably bitter shit who, like the rest, wallows in the glory of us being done, but the only thing yesterday that he said that made any connection to me was when he pointed out, after Maloudas goal, that more fans had left the Emirates than were left staring at the massive, empty, red abyss.
But they're not fickle at all. And dont like being taught a lesson, obviously.
I'm still laughing at Wengers comments about Drogba diving but negelcting to see the two dives by Adebayor. Real comedy stuff.
If ArseWhinge thought the free kick leading up to our first was a dive, he should invest in a TV so he could watch a replay of the stamp on DD's foot.
btw Mark.
Before I mosey off into the gathering rush hour: enjoyed your post but thought scores of 6/10 a bit harsh.
Maybe our expectations are getting a little ott when 4-1 away to Arse doesn't bring everyone at least a seven.
Of course you could be right and Arse really are that bad these days.
Wenger was flailing, I don't really blame him, he's had a rotten week, worse than ours in many ways because he'd rather have gone out with our snarl than Arsenal's whimper and yesterday confirmed just how wide the gap is between third and fourth. Nobody will have taken his dig at Drog seriously; DD has faced far worse this week, after all.
A crucial summer at the Emirates, get it right and they'll be back in the trophy mix - get it wrong and that'll be it for Wengernomics.
Reply to PeteW:
I don't understand why they're so obsessed with winning.
If they really believe their football's so good to watch, then why not just enjoy watching it?
It's something that Chelsea fans have done for years.
Right up to the Zola era, when it was enough just to watch a maestro at work, nobody really expected to win anything of much significance.
The arrogance of that date thing in their ground is boggling but I guess it serves as a welcome distraction when they're shipping goals by the hat-full.
You guys are right, £736m (Chelsea's current debt) is $1.1b in U.S. dollars. I was off by $100m and I stand corrected.
I love that you lot are defending Drogba, that's as comical as it gets.
I would have imagined that Roman could purchase a higher quality fan base, but I guess quality takes time to develop.
Maybe I'm expecting too much, I mean after all your club won't even punish players who spout obscenities into the camera when they are rightly beaten by a better team.
Stay classy Chelsea!
Oh, and finally, you can't say anything to me that hasn't already been said 100x over by other Arsenal supporters.
So, have a go, maybe I'll get some original criticism.
Reply to timmy_the_tooth:
Of course we will stay classy because our players are not getting arrested on rape accusations (Van Persi) and know how to keep their pants up (Bendtner).
Uhhh, van Persie was cleared of rape charges. And as for Bendtner, the club fined him for that.
Has Chelsea fined Ballack or "Droggers" yet?
'So, have a go, maybe I'll get some original criticism.'
The irony.
Arsenal 1-4 Chelsea
Arsenal's biggest home defeat since 1977.
Not much else to say, is there?
Reply to timmy_the_tooth:
Did Arsenal fine anyone for Pizzagate, or that nonesense with Van Horse Face at Old Trafford a few years ago. And you accuse us of no class, oh yes the irony.
Reply to KaiserJonny_II:
Well obviously there is; from Mr Lone Tooth, I wonder if he was the only fan left in the ground yesterday, when they evacuated as if an unattended package was left.
Oh dear Mr Wenger, oh dear indeed :-D
Relive the thrashing/annihilation/pummelling/battering/mauling here ->
LINK
Get in.
one of the things that guus did n his reign, is that he showed us that there is life after mourinho. he did an outstanding job in putting the existing squad in it's place, playing football the way they are built for. i hope he stays, but if not...who knows, maybe the board learned something from scolari fiasco, and mybe we get lucky.
on the issue of drogba - i would hate to see him go. he should stay with lamps terry and joe and ashley, until he finishes playing football. he can be infuriating and irritating at times, but he gives outstanding performances in big matches, exactly when we need him to. maybe the one thing he misses is being mature - and i know a few people who matured only at that age.
thinking of it he should get married and become a father, that'll do it. which brings me to something i wanted to write for some time - lampards performances in recent weeks have ben, for the most part, excellent - and anyone who's a father can relate to feeling having your kids taken away from you. to stay professional and play with composue during such a stresed time is worth a medal. go, frank! i hope the missus comes back soon.
PS can we ignore underage trolls at least on this blog, please? this is the site with the best, most original writers and great atmospher in the comments, so trolls like the minime above are just waisting their time here.
Reply to timmy_the_tooth:
You're a well run club.....
that's managed to finish behind us for the 5th season on the trot...
....that will not win a trophy this year
reply to timmie-first-toof
Don't recall Goons complaining when ArseAnal were splashing the cash in the 1990s.
Our expenditure on players this year is way below Manchester United and Liverpool - as it was last year too.
Spending big won't win titles - as Leeds proved. You also need great managers - ours was Mourinho.
Arsenal Whinger is no longer a great manager.
His preferred policy now is to steal youngsters from other team's youth academies instead of paying fair fees for players. That strategy won't win you anything
Suggest you read Lee Dixon's analysis of your own deficiencies on this link
LINK
@biggs
Yeah, but I think it's not totally pointless to engage in an INTELLIGENT dialogue with some of our rival fans. Strangely enough, intelligent is the last word that comes to mind most of the time when I see these trolls here.
And what a great match! I hope Guus stays (and I'm Russian...). Our team will have to learn to play on their own, I mean, without Guus, sooner or later, so why not make it now? I like the way our government is going to great lengths to support football in this country, but I think it'd be a great challenge for some Russian managers or for someone else to take over now and try to qualify for the World Cup. Though of course the most realistic scenario is that Guus will stay until after the World Cup, provided we do qualify, of course.
However, there was a rumour that since Roman is paying Guus' bills in Russia as well, he might have the last say if he really wants Guus to stay at Chelsea. In which case, Advocaat from Zenith St. Petersbourg will take over as Russia manager. Don't know if there's any truth in that, of course.
Either way, anyone but Ancelotti. I think it's incomprehensible and inexplicable that Roman or whoever at Chelsea is even considering him as a plausible candidate. He's worthless outside Milan. Get Bilic or someone... Laudrup is free now, after Spartak sacked him, but I think he's really not as good as people though he was. Or hijack some English EPL manager. I mean, the kind of football we're playing, the last person we need is a maestro who'll try to impose this free-flowing attacking bullshit on us. Get someone who recognizes our potential and our strengths.
Reply to timmy_the_tooth:
Did I read this right?
Apparently Toothless Tim is a pariah among his own people. Ah well, a prophet without honour and all that.
One of those results that would have seemed hugely significant any time of the season before April, but now it's a bit like I imagine the class bully feels after stealing sweeties from the weedy little kid in the corner of the playground -- no fun in it really. But as others have said, huge huge credit to Guus for securing the CL qualification, by a comfortable margin in the end. There'll be a strange atmosphere for the final home game: public thanks to Guus mixed with a general sense that we still don't know where the club's going, even after a whole season.
Much as I'm unimpressed by Wenger's perpetual inability to acknowledge any flaws in his plan at all, at least he knows he has one, and the Arse suits seem inclined to let him carry it out despite the humiliations entailed. For us, another highly speculative summer. Are we buying? Are we selling? How much cash is Roman willing to inject? Are we rebuilding? Will the new man get a whole season? Weird business, really.
Reply to ChelseaTony:
Two things: (1) Isn't Fabregas under investigation following the Hull game for charging on the pitch and then spitting at Brian Horton. (Not that disimilar to what Didier did?); and (2) Roman converted all (or most of)his loans into shares which technically speaking means the debt is no longer there (although I feel I am somewhat pissing into the wind trying to explain the nuances of company law to Timmy_The_Tooth)
Reply to Fiftee:
Fiftee, I know you're based in Norwich, so I thought you might be interested in hearing about this.
Someone's messaged me recently about their attempts to set up an official Norwich supporters' group to make transport to games easier, give fellow fans in the area a chance to socialise with others and receive other benefits on behalf of the club.
www.easternblues.co.uk is the place to go if you want to have a look.
Peregrine,
Thanks for that, very helpful.
Just as I was beginning to turn the Missus and get agreement to do as many midweek games as possible, the Canaries go and get relegated which means live football on my doorstep every midweek, what with them now in the Zenith Data Shield, Rumbelows Cup, FA Vase and all other manner of high-profile League 1 related events ;-)
I see the Geordies rolled out the Black and White flags last night.... What with Arsenal last week as well, perhaps our much ridiculed flag waving practise is catching on!
LINK
Richard Williams. Is he one of the growing number of dickhead journalists that the more intellectual amongst us have put on the 'planks' list?
What a ridiculously pathetic article. Yeah, lets ban the whole club for a season to punish them - conveniently overlooking the fact that the imcompetence of Ovrebo cost us a place in the CL final and is, in itself, punishment enough.
In the words of the great JD, 'utter cuntery'.
Reply to Fiftee:
Here, Here!
I read that article too, and came to the same opinion!
Reply to Fiftee:
They really all have come out this week.
Andy Dunn of the NOTW was no better saying that Drogba should be shipped out as a result of his behaviour.
I hope Mr Dunn applies the same standards in the NOTW offices and is constantly requesting at every opportunity that Rob Shepherd is shipped out following his conviction and prison sentence for serious assault a while ago.
I don't blame these journo's for having the odd pop, but what they seem to be suggesting now is completely out of context and over the top that can only lead a reasonable reader to conclude some sort of bias.
I wouldn't let Richard Williams write my shopping list.
LINK
I can imagine that the song they sing is "Four years without trophies and we do not care!!!""
Reply to Fiftee:
Williams on the subject of Chelsea is of course thoroughly predictable and he has taken his place along with all the others whose articles we could have written for them.
But if you don’t follow professional cycling you would miss the subtle nuances of the piece on Cavendish that follows. The reasons why Chelsea are so much despised, may be lost to us in the mists of time, but there are hints in his treatment of Cavendish as to how these things happen.
He has massive potential and is already an established star. The Italians assume that he’s as well known here as Lewis Hamilton.
At the present Cavendish is a sprinter (that may change with age). All sprinters are mad. It’s accepted. Look at Boonen, who started as a sprinter and is now the World’s greatest one day rider, wrestling with the demons of drink and cocaine. They are a club within the peleton and they are very often extroverts and showmen. To do what they do you have to have the confidence to back yourself.
Now Cavendish is gobby and no mistake. But he’s young and he’s trying to make his mark. Top level road sprinting is all about the psychological edge as much as anything else. He is merely continuing a long tradition. He engages in verbal fencing and is quick to have a pop at other teams and personalities.
And yet he never fails to thanks his team for their work, vital in getting a sprinter to the last 500m in the right place, and in his quieter moments seems to have a respect for the sport, it’s traditions and his fellow roadmen.
And the sport seems to respect him. Indeed Pettachi’s comments after yesterday’s stage could be seen to indicate that he would consider finishing his career (he’s now 35) riding the sprint train for Cavendish.
(Bear with me)
But for Mr Williams it’s important that the young up-start learns humility, suppresses a bubbly and exciting personality and learns that in Britain we don’t do things the way he’s doing it. Hence his snidy little jab at the end of the article.
Depressing.
Mind you he’s from the Isle of Man so we can always give him the Barry McGuigan treatment. Into the ring a British champion, leaving it a defeated Irishman.
Apologies for the non football related comment but it’s useful to watch how they line their targets up on the very flimsiest of blind prejudice.
@ Mark
Good report. Enjoyed it. My only criticism of your ratings is that given the weeks depressing events we could have done with one of your special interpretations, but I can understand that it would be hard to reach those heights with one's soul in the gutter.
I've just come across the article below which seems a better than average summary of where the club stands now. It was obviously written before Sunday's game and therefore assumed wrongly that Hiddink would drop Drogba, but otherwise pretty fair.
Loved the comment that in the last 5 transfer windows our net spend is less than West Brom:
LINK
Reply to blueboydave:
Interesting BBD......
I found a site today showing transfer spending for each of the Premiership sides, and whilst if you look at the last 5-6 year's we have spent a lot, it is not considerably more than Man Utd, City, Liverpool or Tottenham.
And if you look over the last 3 years, we really have spent nothing!
Have a look at transferleague.co.uk
STOP PRESS!!!
if these words are 100% correct from berlusconi then we know who are next manager will be!!
LINK
Reply to Dio:
If he's not good enough for Berlusconi, then what on earth makes anyone at CF think he's the answer for us?
@chelseatony....dont know to be honest. You'd have to ask the CFC board. Personally i am unsure he is the right man. The Italian league is too much of a has been league. He has won the CL twice so is he really that fired up for CFC in Europe or more like another scholari but younger? I would prefer a hungrier manager. Cant say younger because he is near enough the same age as Jose. My gut feeling and I may be totally wrong is for Bilic that's who I would like to have a go or O'neill.
Reply to ChelseaTony:
Just wanted to say the same thing. These words of Silvio Berlusconi is very worrying sign!!! I really do not think we should go for him. I do not know who should it be, but I definitely know that he (Carlo) shouldn't.
Given Berlusconi's recent record, Ancelotti probably isn't fit for the job in his eyes because he isn't 18 with tits aren't big enough.
That said, given our recent resurgence under the mighty Guus, I am warming slightly to the idea of an older, wiser head to keep things steady and manage our transformation (i.e. ship out the dead wood and revitalise the squad); reservations about Ancelotti still remain - lack of any interest in leaving Italy until now, language barrier etc., but he's obviously no fool.
Reply to timmy_the_tooth:
Nah, no critism, it just amazes me when people reply to this kind of post in forums or blogs. Unless they want to say something not in direct response to your provocation, which is my case.
Omigod a fan of Arsenal! *pats*
My father was crazy for Arsenal, so this club is dear to my heart no matter what (still very much happy whenever Chelsea kicks your team's collective butts, though).
These days I heard Arsenal fans complaining about Arsene and wanting him fired etc. I know it's not without (very reasonable) reasons, but don't. He's more than a manager. He's Arsenal in a way. Heck, even the names are similar. Fans wanting Arsene fired should be unimaginable. That would be as bad as Mourinho fired off Chelsea. Not because there aren't better managers around, but because sometimes there are other things equally important as winning trophies for a club. I'm channeling my father so any complaints for this unnecessary post goes to him.
Arsenal - Chelsea 1-4 : Really glad to see that Barcelona disaster didn't kill our players' motivation. Great result.
Poor Richard Williams -- Mourinho has been gone for a year and a half and RW still hasn't got over how much he hates him. The article gives itself away in the last sentence, where Williams brings José's name in. I'm sure he actually wrote that he thinks Inter should be banned from next year's CL, until a copy editor set him straight.
There was a brilliant article in Prospect after the Champions League that simply began:
'Richard Williams is wrong as usual.'
No more need be said.
Public enemy but always Chelsea’s No 1
LINK
Reply to Fiftee:
Every knucklehead is poppin out to slate CFC. well let them enjoy it while they can. oh yea..Jealousy´s a bitch!
Reply to blueboydave:
Yes, I saw this the other day too and downloaded it to keep. The details from the leaked document the Liverpool owners saw about Chelsea seems to be about right. Kenyon has always talked about this plan and about us being self-financing this year. Of course, we were supposed - by his calculations - to have won the Champions League at least once by now. Twice over the next five years he said a coupe of years ago. I remember wincing then. It just isn't the right way to talk. But the £500,000 figure is interesting. If this is what it took to buy a successful club outright, like say Liverpool or Man Utd, then presumably if Roman had decided to purchase one of those instead, that would have meant business as normal on the field. No one would have noticed much difference. No one would be screaming about millionaires interfering in the game. But because he decided to buy Chelsea at the lesser rate, take on the debts and invest the difference to take us up to the level of a successful team, then that's supposed to be unfair. But surely it is better for football that investors increase competition than continue the status quo. It should be welcomed by all. Especially as once the investment has enabled parity, the finances have been stabilised and no huge new "unfair" funding has come in. I think Roman has played this very fairly and is properly insisting that funding from now on remains self-financing on the whole, with, from what we hear, the odd special large purchase if it's called for - presumably money that would be re-absorbed into the balance sheet through increased subsequent success.
On Ancelotti. I think I could bear it if he came with a bit more humility than the outrageously arrogant Scolari. Here was a man who had taken no time to study the Premier League's unique requirements, thought his own genius was enough to see him through and floundered when it wasn't. He even rebuffed senior players efforts to re-instate a more stringent training regime.
Yep, the all the vermin are crawling out from the woodwork now. LINK
Surely the club, fans, and anyone else associated with Chelsea need to be rounded up, and sent to Mexico on a pig farming holiday.
By Liddle's rationale, his beloved Millwall would have had to have folded a long, long time ago.
Liddle = twat.
Shame he eats kettle chips - my favourite crisps, especially as they are made in this fine city.
Now they dont have the same draw. He eats them AND he supports Millwall. They may as well bring out a 'piss and broken glass' flavour now, that's how appealling they are.
Kudos to the toothless one for coming back into the fray, sorry I missed it, but I'm sure we'll get another visit.
He obviously enjoys his time with us more than with the rest of the Arseblogs.
No surprises there.
It's kinda reassuring to be speculating about the future again.
One of the earlier article links noted how close we've gone over recent seasons, but said it as a bad thing.
Surely, to be consistently that close means we're doing things OK and when you look at Jose's replacements, I'd suggest we've done more than OK.
Only Guus has shown the sort of mettle that's needed to win big time. He's only had a few months to turn things round but has shown what's possible.
My point is that we don't need a drastic change in leadership or personnel. Sure, we need to check a few sell-by dates and if Guus goes we'll need to recruit someone, but this time there's plenty of evidence to suggest that we're on the right track.
Since poo at the start of Feb we've outplayed, or destroyed most of the strongest teams in PL/CL (think we only slipped-up once against Tots).
Wednesday prevented us from getting the chance to do the same to manu.
So I don't think we need to spend big, but if spend we must, then it needs to be done wisely.
Also, be interesting to see if all this talk about trying for 2nd. place is to be believed as I guess we'd all like to see what some of the younger players can do.
Of course we'll try to win our remaining matches, but the FA Cup's gotta be No.1 priority now.
Reply to Clive:
Beside his shitetalk: "Rod Liddle is the most controversial commentator on sport in the British media...."
Where's the controversy in what he wrote?
There's plenty more like him out there saying the same stuff.
And can you call yourself controversial?
It's like the spotty guy running around on the Fastshow:
"See me, I'm really controversial, fantastic yeah, really great, and another thing.."
I know we've been talking 'bout this David Chap as being a good player to bring in but maybe this bloke should follow?
LINK
Reply to Clive:
Well, this writer's Rod is very Little.
Otherwise why would he be so bitter?
I can even put it in rhymes
"Rod Liddle's rod seems very little
and that's the reason he so bitter"
Ah, Rod Liddle. So many scurrilous tales to tell, so little time (and frankly, Nick doesn't need the libel lawyers on his case).
Reply to Blue_MikeL:
If only Rod Liddle had such poetic imagination (maybe his liddle rod wouldn't bother him so much).
LINK
My first Blog post. Please take a look at this, Its about Didier. Any advice or tips would be much appreciated, thanks!
Walked into the breakfast room this morning and demanded of my valet:
"Where's my Times?"
"Just there, sir, neatly ironed and laid out beside your oyster and truffle omelette"
"Not that one, you oaf. My Chelsea Times!"
Such is the price of fame and the weight of expectation you must live with, Tony.