Premier League: Chelsea 3 - 2 Birmingham City

fantastic stuff. I can't wait to see what the future holds for our newcomers, especially the new SWP!

I agree Nick, I thought we were totally comfortable yesterday and should have scored two before they took the lead. The way the so called Sky experts saw the game would make anyone think we clung on and were a little lucky. Birmingham first goal was rather opportunist and a little lucky and the second... well great finish but Glen should have dealt with it far better.

The passing and movement was really good to see and I think it's going to "piss off" some of the press hacks that want everyone to think we're a dull team to watch.

Lets hope it continues for the majority of the season!

Agreed - most exciting performance I've seen for a long time.

Unfortunately for Glen Johnson he isn't going to get a honeymoon period like new signings. He's got history and after his mistake for the 2nd goal the crowd near me were suggesting he pack his bag and return to Portsmouth (although their language wasn't as polite as how I've phrased it). If he gets abuse his confidence will drop and he can only get worse.

Short term, once Terry's back, I'd put Ben Haim on the right.

Excuse Me -

Birmingham's two goals were lucky and Chelsea's three magnificent ?!!!! Do me a favour. Our keeper handed you two goals - literally !

You deserved to win and played well but give the opposition some credit !

Yeah, unfortunately Johnson's being targeted by other teams as our weak link, and he seems to be proving 'em right at the moment. It's a shame 'cause he's pretty good going forward, but sooner or later he's gonna cost us, I think.

Petr Cech's worrying me a bit too...I thought he was at fault for their first, and he seems a fraction slower in his reactions these days. Hope I'm wrong though, it's still early days.
All in all, an excellent display of fast free flowing football.
Now we've gotta see if we can break down the stubborn defence that ManU couldn't.

C'mon Chelsea!

Fair point Martin; rather thankful Taylor wasn't between the sticks for you - he always seems to play well against us.

Glenn Johnson - oh dear; plenty of ability but he has the concentration / decision making of a toddler. Pleased that I've (generally) stuck by SWP as a potential CFC legend :-)

Good match, Kalou and SWP were great. I'm really liking this Summer's subtle signings, compared to ManUre's overblown ones which will surely end in disaster.

Must have been at another match...

Lampard playing with that injury caused us a lot of holes in the midfield. We were just lucky we were playing Birmingham who had no clue of what porous midfield we had with Lampard.

I think TSO went off lucky this time. Essien's engine roving the midfield.

Let me analyse Lampard for you...
1. None of his long crosses found there target.
2. Due to the injury he was scared to get stuck in. I have not seen a midfielder play that way at Chelsea for a long time.
3. After losing the ball could not chase back.
4. Could not finnish a perfect lay back when the goal was wide open.
5. lacked vision going forward. Fails to play the 1 - 2.

I hated his game.

Glen might have errored but he at least was instrumental in putting the opposition on the back foot. I believe that if he had defensive cover of Makelele or Mikel he would have had a better game.

I think we were weakest yesterday becasue TSO insisted on playing an injured lampard who is fast waning as a player I rate for Chelsea.

We should sell and buy a creative player because sorry mates but lampard is not our creative midfielder... He is not that grade and we do need one asap...

Here is my list for his replacement:
1. Deco
2. Iniesta
3. Fabregas (well if they want Diarra we could get Fiber Glass)
4. Arteta

With any other 4 we will definately play to win all the trophies...That is the only missing link...

Lampard should Go!

Martin I appreciate that my comments about lucky goals may have been slightly over the top, but you have to agree you hardly looked like scoring up until then and for that matter, the remainder of the first half.

As far as giving your team credit, yes you had a go and didn't stick 11 men behind the ball which a lot of teams do when they come to The Bridge.
So yes great on that, it was good to see, but I feel there won't be many others that'll do the same.

And yes Jose you must have mixed up your matches.... sounds like you were at Old Trafford!

Clive....i think you should give it to Jose who had it spot on (talking about Lampard).

Agreed the guy's played some very very fantastic games for us in times past but at THIS MOMENT...he is just not there at all. The team is evolving and needs a CREATIVE (if not combative) midfielder. He creates little (as in freeing the wingers/strikers) and hardly wins tackles.

I personally think he should take a rest and reflect on his game....most players come out beta when they are so challenged

Its going to be an exciting season this one....and i recommend that all bloggers/fans who have not done so should check the condition of their hearts ASAP! so as to be primed for the roller coaster ride...

Always blue!

Blimey Jose, having a downer on a player is one thing but you've developed some serious blinkers here. Whilst Lampard might not be at 100% at present, he was nowhere near as bad as you suggest yesterday and in no way guilty of some of the accusations you've levelled at him. Not tracking back? Sorry, but that's just arrant bloody nonsense.

Replacements - Nice list of names picked out of the air and all good players, but too old / expensive (can you really see Barca / Arsenal parting with Iniesta / Fabregas?) / and generally goal shy would seem to be the issue.

Take a read of Martin Samuels' article on Lampard in the Times today - sums things up quite well...

Alex
Frank may not have been fully fit but he contributed and had a reasonable game. He may have missed a sitter of a chance but so did a few others.
This guy works his socks off for Chelsea, and while he wears blue and is picked by a guy who knows what he's doing, he'll get my support just like the others in the team.

I was very proud of my team yesterday and whilst I have no arguement with the eventual outcome - a victory for the better team, I felt that Birmingham played their part in the pick of the games in the Premiership on the first day of the season. One of the Chelsea blogs had us down for a 4-0 drubbing with one of the most insulting and totally partizan pieces I have read in a long time. Birmingham City are not as good a team as Chelsea but they are not a bad side either and the least they deserve along with their passionate long suffering supporters of which I am one of over 45 years standing, is respect. I hope all of those subscribing to this blog feel our boys earned it yesterday. There is no doubt that had Maik Taylor been playing yesterday Birmingham would have been celebrating an unlikely and fortuitous win which would have spoiled the party wouldn't it? It pays not to be too proud in football as we from St Andrews know only too well.

"Take a read of Martin Samuels’ article on Lampard in the Times today - sums things up quite well…"

Have a link??

LINK

Found it.

(Sorry. ^ Yank.)

The problem with Samuels' article is that it doesn't acknowledge that for all Lampard's statistical brilliance, he has not proven the equal of a creative midfielder like Deco (or even if I can categorize him as that, M. Ballack). Both of them took teams to the highest possible levels including World Cup finals (or semis in the case of Deco) and European Cups (or finals as Ballack did) while also matching Lampard's achievements of league titles...Indeed, it is telling that Real Madrid is still interested in Ballack despite a mediocre season in England while Barcelona have absolutely no intention of letting Deco leave them despite his ambiguous words...Finally, I doubt Ballack and Lamps will ever play well together and if we had to ditch one, despite his services in the past, Lamps is my choice...

It'll be interesting to see if Lampard will be the player this season who will go through what Ballack went through last season and Drogba went through the season before -- i.e. an apparently unanimous outcry among Chelsea fans that they're just not good enough.

At some point one has to trust José's judgment. I clearly remember thinking last season that SWP would never be good enough to play for us (horrible close control, running down blind alleys, hopeless tackler). José obviously saw something there. Ditto Drogba in the first championship season, when it looked like the only way he'd ever score was if the ball ricocheted off his bum while he was falling over trying to win a penalty. José doesn't seem to make many selection mistakes, when you look at his decisions over the long term. He's clearly got a lot of faith in Frank, based on something more substantial than whether his last couple of games have been good enough or how many he's scored for England. And we all know what Frank brings to the team when he's on song.

Mind you, the FrankTV thing is a very worrying sign, I'll concede that.

Have to disagree with the (now de rigeur) Lampard slating. I thought he was back to his best. His long range passing was superb, his short range passing was also superb (return ball to SWP for the first) his pace arriving late in the box was actually quite incredible (starting 2m behind, ending up 1m ahead of his defender over 20m). Starting in front of the defense alongside Essien while the wide men supported the attack he was box to box in the way he always used to be under ranieri. Welcome back Frank. The shackles have been unleashed.

Oh, and mention of Deco as a replacement is a joke. Barcelona have been hawking him around for months now after last season's disaster for them. Still no-one's biting. His time's up at th top level.

ManU seem likely to lose points when they play later than Chelsea. That had happened last season. That's why JM complained about the timing of the fixtures when ManU often played first. Hopefully this season there are more fairer fixtures for Chelsea.

A fairassessment of the day's events.... except for the usual rantings of Jose Musumba.... Seriously, I'm beginning to wonder if our Jose is responsible for some of the other Jose's outrageous rants!

Our speed on the break was the most impressive feature of the game, with both SWP and Malouda linking really well with the lively Pizarro.

I think Pizarro could be a real find as he offers us something very different to DD. Kalou too looked a class above his performances of last year and we really do seem to have strength in depth up front and in midfield.

Johnson's very average performance will result in us spending whatever it takes this week to sign Danny Alves, and then I think we will be in a position to give all 4 competitions a good shake this year.

All very exciting, but personally I'd have taken last year's opening day - decent football, three goals and a clean sheet.

vik - interesting point about individual players like Deco and Ballack taking their respective teams to a 'higher level', although in terms of the national side given England's many failings it's a slightly unfair comparison. People also forget that Lampard's goals played a big part in taking England to Euro 2004; granted, he hasn't done much since, but then who has in an England shirt?

FrankTV though? Head slightly up own backside methinks...

First of all, I ain't writing here regularly but am reading comments regularly. I am a blues fan, Chelsea forever, my blood is Blue :-)
I think we should have a go for Alves. Is he worth more than £20 millions? I have a doubt.However we all know the transfer market is increasingly going crazy and when your desperate to get a player you'll be ransomed. Have you ever thought of which link he might create with Wright Phillips. If we got good centre backs (JT, Carvalho, Alex, have doubts for Ben Haim) we can't fear anything as for the cover. Essien or Diarra could even help defensively. If we sell Robben this money will help us fund that transfer, fair enough!
For those who've never seen Alves
Check up this link:
LINK

Ah yes Jonathan, but wot a backside ;-)...sorry, couldn't resist!!

Unfortunately i was in mid flight during this game so only saw the highlights on MOTD2. The moves were good and the worst point i could make out is Glenny. I knew he wasn't Chelsea material when plating at Pompy. It'd be nice to see farrera back as when he's on form he's pretty sound.

Alves would be a great addition to the squad although from the link left by BobiYou it shows Alves as an attacking winger, not one block, clearance or defensive move or possition even. This is worrying as that's what we need, a solid defender, we've got decent winger already.

//////////////////////////////////////////////////K.T.B.F.F.H///////////////////////////////////////////////////

Acknowledging all those faithfuls out there who think that Lamps is on song. You are blue blind!

A couple of you blokes have been wishing we play entertaining football. I am going to request you that believe in lamps to watch our match tomorrow and please do remember to inform me about his contribution to the team.

Not disputed Lamps has the highest goal return for the team from the midfield role...underline midfield role. he is not a striker.

Put this in management. He is helping the team score goals but he is making other players look bad because he is not playing his midfield role just right.

Is there a statistic for that player that loses the ball most that could lead to a goal? I am sure Lampard would be contending for that as well. Look at both sides of the coin.

There was this nonsense about Barcelona buying Lampard. if you believed it you must be lacking something in brain matter. Would never be considered by Barcelona spanish wife and all.

People facts are facts and our blue boy is not the best in his role world over. I have tracked his career from WestHam and when you put him on the plattform with Carrick, J.Cole...it is just the latter have failed to improve.

I know what Lamps is capable of and what he is serving now is not up to my taste.

Oh and by the way Andy et al...

That article in the papers is so true on the one side of the paper..Do please turn that paper round and see what lies under...

> > Is there a statistic for that player that loses the ball most that could lead to a goal?

That's not a statistic Jose, that's called a crystal ball. Or just clutching at straws to prove a (completely non-existent) point.

Alert news!!!!!!
It is believed that Chelsea have agreed with Seville over the transfer of the attack-minded full back Daniel Alves for a reported £23 millions
Check up the link:
LINK

Is Reading Chelsea on TV? It starts at 8pm but it's not on Sky. What channel is it on?

I don't think it's on British TV, Mark, which is surprising.

Watch it online here. Quality's not brilliant but it's pretty good for free, better than the radio. Uses Chinese peer-to-peer software called Sopcast.

Hey Nicky. You gave us a nice link. That's pretty interesting...
Thanks a lot. The solidarity is amongst blues...
As far as the quality's concerned,that's not so bad

Jose, the article simply re-dresses the balance in the media, who have spent the last year bagging Frank's performances for both Chelsea and England.

Frank is not playing well at the moment, and I doubt if even the most one-eyed Chelsea fan on here would argue that point...... However, he is not nearly as bad as you claim, works tirelessly for the team, and continues to create goal after goal (I think you will find he was involved in all 3 goals on Sat, but it might have only been 2).

Andy and Jonathan...

Do you think him being Human and all (Lamps) and him failing to sign a new contract could be affecting his game???

Would you rate hime before Gerrard?

Justifying my point...Jonathan??? I did not think I had to...Those that have eyes will see and those that choose not to will remain in denial...

I can see I have a touch your "sweet heart" but hey we are moving on

Who knows Jose? That's between Frank and the club but if Mourinho sees any sign that it is affecting him then I'd presume he'd act accordingly.

I think you do have to justify your point when you're quite clearly exaggerating and making up nonsense to try and prove a seemingly irrational bugbear that you have about one player in particular.

And the 'sweethearts' thing? Really, is that the best you can offer? As far as I'm concerned, I'll happily criticise a player if they deserve it, but your position on Lampard seems to be to sit down in front of a game and irrespective of his contribution, to pick as many holes in him as possible whether they are there or not. Hardly a balanced view to take, is it?

'Hardly a balanced view to take, is it?'

No, but it's a very fashionable one.

Just to add my 'two-penneth' on the Lamps issue. I think he played pretty well on Sunday - yes he gave the ball away from time to time, but also created well and got Birmingham retreating towards their own goal. I think the problems with Lamps are these:

1. He set such a high standard for two years with Chelsea and England (England fans own player of the year for two years running!) that it is difficult to maintain this form. Even the mighty Gerrard has dips in form.

2. He has hardly been injured throughout his Chelsea career. This means we don't really know how we would cope without him for a long period - this would really highlight what he gives us. Also, it means he plays more matches than anyone - and for a midfielder this is tiring and potentially career-shortening.

3. He plays in a great team which means on any given day someone else's performance may outshine his.

Personally I think we would struggle without Lamps' goals and overall contribution. He coped well on Sunday in the unusual situation of only having one other central midfielder alongside him, which means he needed to be more conservative with his forward runs.

With regards the Alves deal, if true, I think it is a sensible signing. One great attribute he brings which we need is his free-kicks and crosses from corners. We haven't had someone to whip balls into the box consistently since Zola, so hopefully we should be more dangerous.

Bring on Reading tonight!

Incidentally, good to see that our adventures and subsequent complaints at Reading last year have resulted in a change in the rules governing seriously injured players. That's something like an admission that we weren't just blowing hot air, after all? Not that the media will see it like that of course.

Hunt still hasn't apologised. What a piece of work. Crap hair too.

Jonathan and Andy....I wonder what u guys would say if it was another midfielder in the team that was aving a stagnant form like Lamps...

We all luv the players and always wish the best for the team... As for mourinho, i'v always respected his approach to games (except for the last match against liverpool where we played like 'sitting ducks'), going out without any real fight.

Lamps needs to rest a while, since his form has dipped, it would bring back the fire and hunger in him again...

When you continually feature a player whose form is stagnant / dipping, he would not be motivated / challenged to up his game.

If the case was such that we dont have replacements, one would have understood the need to feature him ceaselessly, but that is not our lot here...i believe we have more than enough midfielders in the team to at least give Lamps a little run for whatever!

Always blue!!!

alex - the point I (and many others) have made is that Lampard's form is nowhere near as "stagnant" as some are making out.

Hey guys!
Haven't kept up to date with the blogging lately but i'm looking forward to the game tonight, i haven't seen our new players as yet...
BLUES 4 LIFE!!
p.s. hey all the South African Blues out there!

Alex How the hell can you say Frank needs a rest we're only two games into the new season! Or do we rest players so they don't have to play consecutive games?

Frank had a good game on Sunday he was solid and reliable, and if some people on this blog think otherwise, then they must have been watching a different game!

Looks like it's bye bye Robben...

LINK

...and the hapless Johnson I guess.

Humble Pie anyone?........ Jose....Alex

Frank's performance tonight was as good as it has been in all his time at Chelsea.

Cut the bloke a bit of slack, and appreciate the fact that we have one of the top 5 central midfielders in the world.

Gotta love Mourinho.... How many managers would change the game the way he did tonight..... That's why he is the 'Special One'.

Another wonderful performance. you know at this rate i cant wait to see andry leading that attacking line, with the two wingers supplying him this is shevas season, especially in the champs league.

Pizarro and Shev will be a really interesting combo - all those people predicting we would suffer during the ANL really don't know jack - we are so much stronger in all areas this season.

Still think we'll lose at Anny though... Rafa will pack midfield, pump in crosses and wait for our defence to make a mistake - to be fair, that's exactly what any decent manager would do after watching our first two games.

Jard your dreaming... Scheva knows his football's gone. I d rather have Pizarro for leading the line than him. When Scheva back you'll see him without confidence, heavy legs and so on...
You better praise the teamwork and our good strikers in Kalou, Pizarro and Drogba than rely on the old Scheva. He'll be a good addition for Champions League though. But I ain't see him anywhere than 10 goals this season....

I am aware we got fratilities at the back. But Jose said John is back and we already saw during the preseason how good his partnership with Tal Ben Haim is. So not really worried from the central position nor the left back one. But Jose should find the best solution for the right back position with Johnson not reliable and Ferreira too much tender... That the question. But I think us playing attacking football should help us hide that fratility. Come on Chels' Looserpool down!!!!!!!!!!1

How did it all come to this. From the promising beginning of an exciting win over brum... to the nightmare that we face now. Without mourinho, without hope, without any silver lining...