Month: February 2016

Chelsea Football Club have confirmed that their 20-year-old midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek has signed a new contract that will keep him tied down to the club until 2021.

The England Under-21 international made his Chelsea debut in January of last year and has since played eight top-flight games for the defending Premier League champions. He’s also played two Champions League games for the club.

The youngster has been on Chelsea’s books since the early days of his career and feels he’s now in a position to repay the faith the club’s shown in him. He said, “The club have done so much for me since I started here as an Under-8. Now I want to repay the faith they’ve shown in me with my performances on the pitch”.

Loftus-Cheek got on the scoresheet for the first time as a senior player when he netted in Chelsea’s 2-0 win over Scunthorpe in the FA Cup third round on the 10th of January this year.

Chelsea also confirmed that their 20-year-old defender Dion Conroy has signed a new contract that will keep at Stamford Bridge until 2018.

Chelsea’s interim manager Guus Hiddink feels that club doctors need to start putting pressing on the Football Association and Premier League to change the way the fixture calendar works.

The defending Premier League champions have lost John Terry to a hamstring injury recently and they saw Pedro suffer a similar injury during Saturday’s victory over Southampton. The Blues now see a fixture pile-up in front of them that the Dutchman believes will put his players at further risk of injury.

Chelsea were scheduled to play Liverpool in a Premier League match on the 13th of March but that game has been re-arranged because of the FA Cup sixth round. Hiddink is annoyed that their game against Everton in that competition has been scheduled to take place on Saturday the 12th of March instead of at the same time as the Liverpool game was originally planned for.

The schedule means that Chelsea will have to play as many as four different matches in the space of twelve days, spanning games in the Premier League, the Champions League and the FA Cup. They go up against Norwich tomorrow, before welcoming Stoke to Stamford Bridge on Saturday. They then have the second-leg of their Champions League last-16 tie against Paris St-Germain next Wednesday before the FA Cup game against Everton three days after that.

Hiddink said, “Hopefully the PSG game doesn’t go into extra-time because players need time when the intensity of the league is like it is. The medical people at the FA and the Premier League should make this known. Every club has medical departments. The doctors should stand up and say: ‘FA, television, whoever…. hey’”.

Hiddink has added his voice to the calls of other Premier League managers. Manuel Pellegrini called for a change to the way the system works after he felt he was forced to play a weakened team in the FA Cup match against Chelsea in the fifth round of the competition. They went on to lose the match 5-1 and Pellegrini was criticised for disrespecting the cup competition.

The FA have themselves confirmed that the current fixture list in ‘untenable’. They were forced to schedule Arsenal’s FA Cup fifth-round replay against Hull on a Champions League night, something that UEFA expressly forbid unless under ‘exceptional circumstances’.

Hiddink is unsure whether or not Terry will be able to feature in any of the upcoming games due to his hamstring injury. He said, “I have the experience with these kind of injuries. Maybe John needs an 11 versus 11 at Cobham or six versus six or seven versus seven – but with intensity”.

Chelsea face the second of back to back away league games when they visit Norwich on Tuesday night. The Blues will be looking to put together a run to start climbing the league table, and they’ll need momentum to carry into the cup competitions that they retain ambitions of winning. Can they get a good run started at Carrow Road?

The first 12 days of March are massive for the Blues, and this game is what kicks that off. Following this match and a clash at home to Stoke, they then host PSG and head to Everton in the FA Cup. Poor league results could still see them drop dangerously close to the bottom three, while cup defeats would end their season. There’s no room for errors at the start of the month.

Luckily, Chelsea face a side who look hapless at the minute, one who are in danger of an immediate return to the Championship. Alex Neill’s men are conceding way too many goals, and they are only out of the bottom three after the Blues thumped Newcastle and hurt their goal difference. The Canaries look a little short on quality to survive this season.

Of course, they’ll be viewing this game as a chance to get points, given that they’re facing a midtable side with eyes cast elsewhere. The Blues could well be distracted here, and they’ve been known to underperform away from home, as seen when they went to Watford a few weeks ago. They need to avoid another result like that, and to do that, they’re going to need goals.

Diego Costa has already scored against Norwich this season, one of the few times the forward scored in the last few months of Jose Mourinho’s reign. He’s in great form, and he could well tear the Canaries apart here if given the chance. With Willian, Cesc Fabregas and Eden Hazard seemingly back to their best, you’d imagine the Spaniard will be getting plenty of opportunities here.

Hazard is one to pay attention to here, as he’s responded to Guus Hiddink’s call for him to prove himself again. Granted, that came against City’s youth team, but he should have some kind of confidence back. If he plays as well as he did in the cup at Carrow Road, he’ll really threaten a few of these defenders.

We see the Blues picking up a narrow win here, as they look to put a run together ahead of the PSG return leg. If we’re going to be seeing squad rotation from the manager, it’s more likely to come against Stoke than in this match. Expect basically a full strength side here, with John Terry possibly back for this clash. Hopefully the champions can get the three points, putting enough space between them and the relegation dog fight and allowing them to focus on cup glory.

LCN Verdict: Chelsea to win 2-1

Chelsea Football Club have confirmed that they will ban supporters for life if they can be identified as the fans who threw coins at Manchester City players during the club’s fifth-round tie at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.

Manchester City striker David Faupala had coins thrown at him as well as his team-mates as they celebrated their equaliser near to the Chelsea fans. Andre Marriner, the match referee, retrieved several objects from the pitch after the goal celebrations.

A Chelsea spokesman said, “We condemn such idiotic and dangerous behaviour. It is also worth stating this is a criminal offence and we will support any police prosecution if they can be identified”. How easy it will be for the club to identify who was responsible for the incident remains to be seen.

On Saturday West Bromwich Albion’s forward Chris Brunt was struck with a coin just beneath the eye. The incident happened as he went over to throw his shirt to one of the visiting fans after the Midlands club was knocked out of the competition by Reading.

Talking of the incident after the match, Chelsea’s interim manager said, “I saw it and I condemn it strongly and I think Chelsea will react. These people must not come into the stadium”.

He also felt that Manchester City were guilty of disrespecting the competition by making so many changes ahead of the game. Manuel Pellegrini gave five teenagers their Manchester City debuts in the game as he prepared for their Champions League last sixteen tie against Dynamo Kiev, which is coming up on Wednesday.

The Dutchman said, “Many people worldwide are focused on the FA Cup. As a youngster I knew which Saturday was the FA Cup. It is the temple of football worldwide and we must be careful not to devaluate it”.

The draw for the next round of the FA Cup has been made and Chelsea will play Everton at Goodison Park in the quarter-final of the famous competition.

As the competition gets to the business end there have been some interesting draws made for the quarter-finals. Reading, one of two Championship teams remaining in the draw at the time of writing, will host Crystal Palace at The Madjeski Stadium, whilst Watford will go up against the winner of the replay between Arsenal and Hull. Manchester night will host West Ham after beating Shrewsbury Town 3-0 on Monday night.

Guus Hiddink won the FA Cup with Chelsea when he came in as interim manager to replace Luis Felipe Scolari in 2009 after the Brazilian had been sacked by Chelsea’s owner, Roman Abramovich. History won’t repeat itself in exact fashion this time around, owing to the fact that the Blues went up against Everton in the final last time, not the quarter-final.

Hiddink will fancy his chances of winning another FA Cup trophy with the defending Premier League champions this time around, having once again been brought in to replace a sacked manager by the club’s Russian owner. Jose Mourinho led Chelsea to their worst start to a top flight campaign since the 1960s before being released by Abramovich. The self-proclaimed ‘Special One’ is rumoured to be heading to Manchester United next season, having ruined his reputation with the powers that be at Stamford Bridge.

Speaking of the fact that he’ll be going up against Everton once again, Hiddink said, “It was a long time ago. They are longing for revenge. We hope to maintain the flow we are in in the FA Cup”.

Having beaten Premier League rivals Manchester City 5-1 in Sunday’s fifth round match, Hiddink’s men were entered into the draw for the matches that are due to be played between the 11th and the 14th of March.

Chelsea’s interim manager has declared that their Champions League tie with Paris Saint-Germain is hanging in the balance after the defending Premier League champions lost 2-1 to the French champions in the first leg of their last-16 tie on Tuesday.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored the opener for the French side before Jon Obi Mikel scored a vital away goal for the visitors. Paris Saint-Germain then spent most of the second period of the game camped in the Chelsea half, eventually earning their victory through an Edison Cavani goal.

With the second leg due to take place at Stamford Bridge on the 9th of March, Hiddink believes that Chelsea are still very much in the tie. He said, “Scoring away is always good. I’m never happy with a loss but it’s not a dramatic loss”.

The Blues have faced Les Parisiens for three successive seasons in the Champions League. The London club triumphed at the quarter final stage of the 2014 competition, whilst PSG got their revenge in the last-16 stage this time last year.

Despite being one of the richest clubs and football and spending billions of pounds building their squad in the Roman Abramovich era, Hiddink admitted that he was a touch envious of PSG’s substitutes bench, from which £55 million rated Cavani emerged to score the winner. Chelsea’s bench only had the likes of Bertrand Traore, Kenedy, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Matt Miazga to turn to.

Hiddink said, “I envy a bit the bench of PSG. They have a very strong bench. If you see what this team can bring on in the second half – world-class players as substitutes. This is a very strong PSG”.

Hiddink struggled to put a recognisable defence together for the match in Paris after injuries in successive weeks to Chelsea’s talented young centre-back Kurt Zouma and the club captain John Terry. The Dutchman chose to push Branislav Ivanovic into the centre alongside Gary Cahill, whilst Baba Rahman started in the right-back slot. Hiddink was pleased with the defensive work from his whole team saying, “The players did well, not just the four in defence. We also had a disciplined midfield”.

Meanwhile PSG’s manager, Laurent Blanc, said he was confident that there would be goals in the second leg. He said, “When you play at home you need to be stronger in defence because, if you concede a goal, it effectively counts double. Chelsea scored, so we go to Stamford Bridge eager to score ourselves. We’ll have chances, most likely, so it’ll be about defending well but we are an attacking team. I don’t think Chelsea will change their approach for the second leg. Neither will we. So the return game will probably be open and, hopefully, with some goals”.

Chelsea had been unbeaten in all competitions since Hiddink took over from Jose Mourinho as manager in December. The self-proclaimed ‘Special One’ was sacked by the club owner, Abramovich, after leading the Blues to their worst start in a top-flight campaign since the 1960s. It’s the second time that Hiddink has come in on an interim basis, taking over from Luiz Philipe Scolari when the Brazilian was sacked in 2009. One loss at the end of a twelve match unbeaten run won’t both Hiddink too much, but PSG will feel they have the upper hand heading into the second leg of the Champions League tie.