Month: March 2014

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho ruled his side out of the title race after they lost 1-0 at struggling Crystal Palace on Saturday.

An own goal from captain John Terry sent Chelsea on their way to a second consecutive league defeat away from home, stealing all of the momentum from last week’s thrashing of Arsenal.

Palace started the game much better, playing quick, physical football against the sluggish Blues. Many looked to have one eye on the clash with PSG in mid week as they never really got back into the game.

Palace seemed to grow in stature as the contest progressed, with the hosts threatening a few times in the first half. Yannick Bolasie fired wide while Petr Cech was forced in to making a few good saves as Palace bossed the first half. They could have even had a penalty when Gary Cahill went in to Cameron Jerome late in the half.

Oscar’s substitute appearance for the second half did little to get the Blues firing, with Palace still in control of the game. The home side made their pressure count after 53 minutes when John Terry headed the ball past his own keeper under pressure from Joe Ledley.

Eden Hazard would have levelled but for a good save from Julian Speroni, but Palace didn’t stop there and Jason Puncheon shot just wide, while an effort from Jerome hit the post and bounced out. Chelsea pushed for an equaliser but a total of 21 shots and just two on target shows just how close they came to picking up a point.

After the game, Jose Mourinho ruled out his side’s title chances and blamed the defeat on complacency in the squad. “Now it’s impossible to win the title. When you depend a little it’s possible, when you depend a lot I don’t think it is possible. Mathematically it is still possible but one thing is mathematics and another is reality.”

When it came to the result, Mourinho was quite open about what caused the defeat, saying, “Clearly we have some players who because of their profile they find it difficult to perform in some profile of matches.

“You can find things in common with every match we lost this season — to Stoke City, Everton, Newcastle away and at West Brom where we dropped two points.
My four defenders, phenomenal performance, as always. The others I’d prefer not to analyse individually.

“You have Terry, Ivanovic, Cahill and Azpilicueta and they perform in the sun, the rain, small pitches, big pitches, aggressive teams, possession teams. They perform every game from day one to the last day.”

The Blues next game is away to Paris Saint Germain on Wednesday night in the Champions League. Given they are now two points adrift of Liverpool in the Premier League and just two points clear of Man City having played two games more, European glory may be their best hope of silverware this term.

LCN Chelsea player of the match : Branislav Ivanovic

Chelsea landed a hammer blow to Arsenal’s title chances after they ran out 6-0 winners in Arsene Wenger’s 1000th game in charge of the Gunners. That rout has put seven points between Chelsea and Arsenal, and maintained Chelsea’s lead at four points.

Arsenal conceded twice in the opening seven minutes, first to Samuel Eto’o and then to Andre Schurrle after two perfectly executed counter attacks. A penalty from Eden Hazard extended that lead to three after Kieron Gibbs was bizarrely sent off despite Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain conceding the spot kick with an obvious hand ball.

Brazilian playmaker Oscar scored either side of the half time break to inflict further misery on Arsenal, then substitute Mohammed Salah completed the rout after some terrible Arsenal defending.

The result goes down as Jose Mourinho’s biggest ever Premier League victory, but the build up to this game was all about his opponent Wenger. After 18 years at the club the Frenchman was managing Arsenal for the 1000th time. He was looking to celebrate that by beating Mourinho for the first time, and end the Portuguese’s unbeaten league record at Stamford Bridge.

Those hopes took a blow very early on in the game. Oliver Giroud saw his goo1d chance saved by Petr Cech, and then Chelsea broke away and took the lead from a neat finish by Eto’o with just five minutes on the clock. Two minutes later Schurrle latched on to Nemanja Matic’s through ball and doubled the lead.

Oxlade-Chamberlain then pulled off a save that any keeper would have been proud of to block a shot from Hazard, even though it was going wide. Referee Andre Marriner strangely sent off Gibbs instead, getting the two mixed up. Hazard stepped up and slotted the penalty home, effectively wrapping up the points.

Chelsea weren’t done though, with Oscar tapping in a Fernando Torres cross three minutes before half time. Oscar also scored the 5th, with Wojciech Szczesny at fault after the Brazilian’s long range shot slipped past him. Mohammed Salah beat the offside trap before slotting home.

After the game Mourinho was delighted with the performance, but he still refused to call his side title favourites.

“We came to kill and in 10 minutes we destroyed them. The way we started, the way we pressed them and recovered the ball, it was fantastic. Everyone in the stadium felt it would be an easy Chelsea win after only 10 minutes and it was then easy and comfortable.”

When asked if they were favourites for the Premier League crown Mourinho replied, “No. Obviously not. We go match after match. We play Crystal Palace next and after that we go to Paris. It’s a different situation to Arsenal. It’s a different situation to Liverpool, and Manchester City are also not in that situation. We are happy to be in that situation.” We bet you are, Jose!

LCN Man of the match: Oscar

Chelsea eased through to the last eight of the Champions League on Tuesday as they recorded a comfortable 2-0 win over Galatasaray – and returning hero Didier Drogba – at Stamford Bridge which gave them a 3-1 aggregate victory.

First half goals from Samuel Eto’o and Gary Cahill ensured that Chelsea wouldn’t fall to the same fate as Manchester City and Arsenal, who both crashed of the Champions League last week. The hosts dominated the game throughout, completing a straightforward win that could well have been by an even greater margin.

The Blues had 20 shots in all, but despite having marginally less possession they controlled the game, with their Turkish visitors not even managing a single shot on target in the 90 minutes. Eden Hazard was a thorn in the side of the Galatasaray defence throughout, and he probably deserved a goal.

Drogba’s return to Stamford Bridge rightly dominated the news agenda ahead of this tie, just as it did in the build up to the first leg. Just before kick off the stadium united in appreciation for the Ivorian striker, but once the game began Chelsea made sure there would be no fairytale return for the former fan favourite.

Eto’o gave Chelsea the lead after just four minutes when he latched on to a pass from Oscar, and fired past Galatasaray keeper Fernando Muslera for his 30th Champions League goal. The Cameroon striker was good value for the goal, starting the game well and looking sharp.

Chelsea continued to press and Frank Lampard, Willian and John Terry all wasted good chances to double the lead for the Blues. However, with half time looming Terry got on the end of a Lampard corner, forced a save from his header and Cahill fired home the rebound.

That goal from Cahill effectively wrapped up the game for Chelsea but they could have recorded an even bigger win. Hazard continued to threaten in the second half and the Belgian forced a good save from Muslera, while Oscar, Lampard and Willian all had good chances. Drogba had the chance to score a consolation goal in stoppage time but he uncharacteristically missed the target.

Jose Mourinho was delighted with the win over Galatasaray, and even managed a parting shot at Rafa Benitez in his post match press conference.

“To come from the Europa League to the quarter-finals of the Champions League is important for the club, important for the players. We are a Champions League club and now we are among the best eight, the best clubs in the world, and we are there. The players deserve to be there.”

He also said that they have no preference about who they play in the next round, “All the big teams are there. All the big candidates to win the competition are there. And we would welcome any one of them. It would be very good for our evolution as a team and very important for us to play one of the best. We wait for the draw. It doesn’t matter who. They are all welcome.”

Chelsea’s title hopes took a huge hit after losing at Villa Park on Saturday, in an ill-tempered game that saw two players and manager Jose Mourinho sent off.

Chelsea, who had a goal disallowed for offside late in the first half, went reduced to 10 men when Willian received a harsh second yellow card. Villa midfielder Fabien Delph hit the winner after a breakaway before Ramires and Jose Mourinho were sent off in added time.

The Blues boss was sent to the stands after coming onto the pitch during the fracas following a two-footed challenge by Ramires on Karim El Ahmadi. Chris Foy has now sent off six Chelsea players in the last eight games he’s refereed for them, plus Mourinho.

After that defeat Mourinho’s side sit six points ahead of Manchester City, who have three games in hand and are now favourites for the title following their 2-0 win at Hull. It means Mourinho’s claims before the game that they weren’t really league leaders look even more true now.

The game started as a quite drab affair, with little happening before Nemanja Matic was denied what would have been his first Chelsea goal in his second spell at the club after he handled the ball before finishing.

Chelsea’s attacking trio of Oscar, Willian and Eden Hazard were brighter after the break, until Willian tripped Delph and received his second yellow card. Chelsea continued to press with their 10 men but they were hit on the break with just eight minutes to go. Marc Albrighton sent a low cross across to Delph, who managed to back-heel the ball past Petr Cech and into the bottom corner.

Chelsea’s day got even worse when Ramires saw red during stoppage time for an ugly lunge on El Ahmadi. After that, tensions boiled over on the pitch as both benches ran towards the ref. Mourinho, who has now not won in five visits to Villa Park, was sent to the stands for his part in it.

The Portuguese manager didn’t want to comment on Chris Foy’s perfromance, but he left no one in any doubt about his anger over the sending off. “I prefer not to comment because I don’t want to bring the game into disrepute,” said Mourinho. “I prefer not to speak. If I speak I am in big trouble.”

“I ask, ‘If you can give me just five seconds, Mr Foy?’ [But he said] ‘No.’ So I have to go home and close my mouth.”

The Chelsea manager went on to say, “It’s a big occasion for me to know about the character of Mr Foy, because I want to know what he’s going to write about my sending off. I was two, three metres inside the pitch or four, five metres, but there was like 10 persons there. It was me, my two assistants, Paul Lambert, Paul’s assistants.”

And despite saying he would keep his mouth closed, he didn’t, going on to question the decision: “So if I was sent off because I was on the pitch, I ask why not the others, especially one player that made an aggression on another one, Agbonlahor on Ramires? Agbonlahor came from the dug out, he went to Ramires pulled him from his neck and Agbonlahor was not on pitch he was on the bench.” All in all, it was certainly not a special day for the Special One.

Chelsea took another significant step towards the Premier League title with an emphatic 4-0 victory over Tottenham at Stamford Bridge on Saturday. The win maintains the Blues’ position at the top of the table and moves them to 66 points from their 29 games, seven points clear of Liverpool and Arsenal (who have each played 28 games), with Manchester City two points further back. But Jose Mourinho is still insisting it is Manuel Pellegrini’s City who are favourites for the title as they have three games in hand on Chelsea and a better goal difference.

Clearly the Special One is trying to relieve any pressure his players might start to feel and there is no doubt he would rather have the points on the board than games in hand (despite him insisting on the contrary view). And the latest victory will give the Pensioners a massive boost as we edge towards the climax of the Premier League season.

It didn’t always look like a match from which Chelsea would get both the three points and a healthy boost to their goal difference as, after a fairly even first half, it was goalless at the break. The deadlock was broken soon after however when Jan Vertonghen slipped and managed only to play the ball into the path of Samuel Eto’o in the 56th minute, who slotted home for the opener. Eto’o was only on the pitch because Fernando Torres sustained an injury in the warm up, and the Cameroonian looked sprightly up top – and he made light of recent jibes about his age from his boss by celebrating his goal like a decrepit old man at the corner flag.

Chelsea found some rhythm after their goal, and when Eto’o was adjudged to have been shoved over in the box by Younes Kaboul, Eden Hazard made no mistake from the spot. Kaboul was also shown a red card for the foul, which was perhaps a little harsh given there were other defenders around who might well have snuffed out the chance.

Demba Ba – who replaced Eto’o in the 76th minute – took just over 10 minutes to make an impact when he pounced on a mistake by Sandro to make it three and Spurs looked spent. There was worse to follow for Tim Sherwood’s men, however, as Kyle Walker tried to head goalkeeper Hugo Lloris’s clearance back to him, only to play it straight to Ba, who gratefully accepted the gift to make it 4-0.

After the match, Spurs’ rookie boss Sherwood all but admitted his side’s hopes of making it into the Champions League spot were blown, and for the first time in his short tenure he looked visibly angry and frustrated with his players.

Mourinho, meanwhile, was clearly happy with the day’s work which – for once – saw goals from not one but two strikers! If Ba and Eto’o can keep knocking them in, Chelsea have to be the big, big favourites for the Premier League crown, however often the Special One pretends otherwise.