Month: September 2016

Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has denied that he hosted emergency talks with his directors following the 2-1 defeat to Liverpool last Friday night, according to Sky Football.

Newspaper reports yesterday claimed that the Russian billionaire kept his directors at Stamford Bridge until one in the morning in the wake of Antonio Conte’s first defeat as Blues manager. The Italian was reported to be unhappy that Chelsea failed to make the signings he wanted during the transfer window. That was summed up by the fact that he had to play David Luiz in the absence of John Terry in central defence; a player Jamie Carragher believes is ‘not a Conte player’.

Chelsea spent the third highest amount of money this summer, splashing out £116 million on Michy Batshuayi from Marseille, N’Golo Kante from the defending Premier League champions Leicester City, Marcos Alonso from Fiorentina and the re-signing of Brazilian Luiz from Paris Saint-Germain. It has been suggested that Conte didn’t give the green light to all of those signings but the West London club is structured in such a way that the manager isn’t the loudest voice when it comes to transfers.

Abramovich has been known to have a short-fuse when it comes to his managers. Avram Grant lasted just eight months when he took over from José Mourinho when the self-proclaimed ‘Special One’ left the club for the first time in 2007. Luis Felipe Scolari lasted the same amount of time back in 2008-2009, with Guus Hiddink not being offered the job permanently after taking over from him on an interim basis.

André Villas-Boas also lasted eight months from June 2011 until March 2012 and Roberto Di Matteo, who won the Champions League for the Blues in 2012, also survived for just eight months. Rafa Benitez was appointed on an interim basis to replace the Italian and left the club at the end of the season after six months in charge. Likewise Hiddink, returning for his second spell as interim boss when Mourinho was sacked last December, survived for the five months until the end of last season.

Chelsea won their opening three Premier League games under the former Italy national manager’s leadership before dropping two points to Swansea at The Liberty Stadium. They went in 2-0 down at Stamford Bridge on Friday night after a dominant first-half display for Liverpool was capped off by goals from Dejan Lovren and Jordan Henderson. They did pull a goal back through Diego Costa in the second-half but it wasn’t enough to stop the Italian enduring his first home defeat as a manager since 2013.

The press jumped on the poor Chelsea performance combined with the manager’s seeming ambivalence towards his new signings in order to speculate about the former Juventus boss being under pressure from the club’s owner already. However Sky have declared that there were no late-night discussions in the aftermath of the home loss and that Abramovich is happy with his managerial appointment.

Conte seemed to be likely to be under increasing pressure today when his team went 2-0 down against Leicester City at The King Power Stadium last night. The foxes took a commanding lead in the first-half of the EFL Cup before Gary Cahill pulled a goal back just before half-time. Cesar Azpilicueta got the Blues level and Cesc Fabregas scored two goals in two extra-time minutes after Wasilewski was sent off for the home team. The 4-2 win after extra-time means that Chelsea will be in the draw for the last sixteen of the competition and any pressure that had been on the manager has been eased a touch.

Chelsea’s new head coach Antonio Conte believes that his side need to learn from their 2-1 home loss to Liverpool at the weekend if they are to avoid a repeat of last season’s disappointing campaign.

Jürgen Klopp’s men were dominant for the first forty-five minutes, with Conte’s side struggling to get into the game. The Reds took an early lead through central defender Dejan Lovren’s volley from a free-kick. Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson then scored a goal of the season contender that Chelsea ‘keeper Thibaut Courtois couldn’t get near. It meant that the home side went in 2-0 down at half-time and needed to show drastic improvements in the second-half.

Diego Costa, who had been kept quiet for most of the match by Liverpool’s defence, did pull one back for the West London club but the siege that the home crowd might have expected after the goal never materialised. Liverpool held on comfortably to ensure that they have now taken seven points from trips to The Emirates, White Hart Lane and Stamford Bridge, as well as having beaten the defending Premier League champions 4-1 at a new look Anfield.

The loss is Conte’s first as Chelsea manager and his first league home loss as a boss since 2013. After the game he spoke to Sky Sports and bemoaned the nature of the goals his side conceded. He said, “You have to pay attention to details if you want to think like a great team. We must feel the danger and sometimes we don’t, that is the truth”.

The Blues were without the club captain John Terry who picked up an ankle injury in their 2-2 draw with Swansea City last weekend. It meant a second debut for David Luiz, with the Brazilian having returned to Stamford Bridge from Paris Saint-German for around £34 million on Deadline Day. The defender’s debut the first time around came against Liverpool in a match that Chelsea lost 1-0, meaning this weekend was a case of history repeating for the 29-year-old.

The Blues had their worst start to a top-flight campaign since the 1960s last season, leading to the sacking of José Mourinho in December. The self-proclaimed ‘Special One’ was replaced by Guus Kiddink on an interim basis. The Dutchman had previously been appointed in a similar capacity when Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich sacked Luis Philippe Scolari back in 2009. Then he won the Blues the FA Cup but in his second spell in the Stamford Bridge hot-seat he was only able to lead them to a tenth placed-finish.

Conte, perhaps aware of Abramovich’s trigger-finger when it comes to under-performing bosses, is keen to ensure that Chelsea avoid a similar season this time around. He said, “we have to reflect a lot on this game because it is important to understand the situation if we don’t want to have another bad season. Chelsea is a great team but we must be a great team on the pitch and think like one. We have to pay attention in all situations and sometimes we don’t feel the danger”.

Conte was disappointed that his side didn’t stay focussed for the duration of the match and took too long to get going in the first-half. He said, “At this level it is important to pay attention to every detail if you want to win. We conceded two goals and the game became very difficult”.

The Italian felt that his side improved in the second_half and were maybe a little unlucky not to find an equaliser. He did, however, praise Liverpool’s attacking play and admitted that Chelsea were perhaps punished for giving them too much room to play in. He said, “In the second half our approach was good, we scored and could have had another through Costa. When you concede space to Liverpool it is very difficult because their three forwards are very fast with good technique. We tried to not let them have space but we conceded two goals, the first after a quick free-kick and the second after a throw-in and Henderson was free”.

Steve Hopcroft, the youth team coach of West Bromwich Albion, still considers Izzy Brown’s move to Chelsea three years ago to be ‘the one that got away’.

In an interview with BBC Radio WM the Baggies youth boss said that he thinks the teenager is regretting his decision to swap the Hawthorns for Stamford Bridge back in 2013. The youngster has failed to make the breakthrough in West London and is currently on loan at Rotherham United.

Hopcroft, who is the head of recruitment for the West From academy, think that Brown’s decision to move to Chelsea when he was just sixteen was ill-advised and that it was perhaps poorly timed; though he hasn’t ruled out the possibility of the youngster succeeding altogether for the Blues. He said, “It might turn out a correct decision. At the moment, it doesn’t look a great decision”.

The England Under-17 international was the second youngest player of all time to appear in the Premier League when he ran out for the Baggies as a sixteen-year-old back in May of 2003. Hopcroft believed that even then you could see his potential and that he could easily have notched up his 100th appearance for West Brom by now if he had decided to stay in the Midlands. He said, “I absolutely loved Izzy Brown. I thought he was the best of all the players that have left here. He could have gone on to play a similar number of games as Saido Berahino. He could have made his 100th appearance for West Brom and be in a better position than he is now”.

Hopcroft had been linked with a move to Manchester United’s set-up recently but decided to sign a new deal with West Brom instead. He feels that Brown may be ruing his decision to do the opposite and sign for a big club before he’d proven himself. He said, “For whatever reason he chose not to go down that route. He chose to go down another route with a bigger club. He made a decision and his parents made a decision that West Brom wasn’t for them at that time. I wasn’t party to it, but I know really good offers were made”.

Chelsea are notorious for sweeping up young talent and then sending them out on loan, with an incredible 38 players currently on the West London club’s books but plying their trade elsewhere. Hopcroft felt he had it all as a youngster and that he could have become a real crowd favourite at The Hawthorns. He told BBC WM, “He was the one that got away for me. The manager at the time, Steve Clarke, was ready to make him an integral part of the team. We had a potential £20-30-40 million player that the fans would have loved, full of flair and skill. He could on take six players from his own half and score”.

Having brought through players like Saido Berahino, Sam Field, Kane Wilson and Jonathan Leko it’s fair to say that Hopcroft knows a thing or two about young talent. For him, though, it was the departure of Izzy Brown that has hurt the most. The nineteen-year-old has scored once in four games for Rotherham so far this season but his former tutor believes he could have achieved so much more if he’d remained in the West Midlands. Hopcroft: “I was bitterly disappointed, as was everyone in the Academy. He’s still potentially a world-class player, the best we’ve lost, without a shadow of doubt”.

The new Chelsea head coach Antonio Conte has confirmed that the club’s Deadline Day signing David Luiz will earn his second debut at Stamford Bridge on Friday night, replacing the injured John Terry for the Blues’ match against Liverpool.

The Chelsea captain picked up an ankle injury during the club’s 2-2 draw with Swansea City at The Liberty Stadium last Sunday. The injury came when Terry went in for a tackle with the scorer of Swansea’s second goal Leroy Fer; a player who was involved in a number of contentious issues including a tackle on Gary Cahill before the Swans made it 2-1 that Gary Cahill said was a foul that the match referee ‘could have seen from the moon’.

The problem with Terry’s ankle has ruled him out for up to ten days, meaning that Luiz will be starting for his former club for the first time since returning to Stamford Bridge from Paris Saint-Germain on the final day of the transfer window. The Brazilian was signed by the French club back in 2014 for £50 million, a record fee for a defender. The 29-year-old signed a three year deal to return to West London in August, with Chelsea paying the French club £30 million to re-sign him.

During his first spell with the Blues Luiz made 143 appearances in all competitions and notched up twelve goals. He actually got his Premier League debut for the Londoners against the Merseyside club when he came off the bench in a 1-0 loss for the home side. Antonio Conte will be hoping that history doesn’t repeat itself in Chelsea’s first Friday Night Football of the season.

Speaking in his pre-match press conference, the Italian hinted that he’d rather not be starting Luiz just yet. The former Juventus player and manager said, “When you sign new players it is normal that they need time to adapt to a new concept and a new idea about football. He’s worked a lot in recent days on the defensive situations with the ball when we are in possession”.

Despite his slight misgivings, however, the former Italy national boss isn’t too worried about chucking the expensive addition to his defensive backline in at centre-back in a game of such magnitude. He said, “I’m confident about his performance. He’s a good player and I’m very pleased because I have seen good things from him in the training sessions”.

One player who is unlikely to start against Liverpool, though, is Marcos Alonso. The 25-year-old left-back was also brought in during the summer for a feee believed to be in the region of £24 million. The former Real Madrid youth prospect has previous experience of playing in England, having signed for Bolton Wanderers in 2010 and also made sixteen appearances for Sunderland in 2014.

It is believed that the Spaniard has been brought in as backup for Chelsea’s first-choice full-backs Branislav Ivanovic and Cesar Azpilicueta. He is fit and available for the Blues tomorrow night but is likely to be on the bench as neither of the other defenders are injured and Antonio Conte is unwilling to make too many changes to his backline. He said, “Alonso is ready to play and if there is the necessity he can play”, suggesting that he may be called upon from the bench but won’t start Chelsea’s biggest home game of the season so far.

Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp has declared that Chelsea’s new head coach Antonio Conte is like the ‘Pep Guardiola of Turin’, in his pre-match press conference ahead of the two sides meeting on Friday night.

Conte was brought in as Chelsea’s first permanent manager since José Mourinho was sacked last December, with Guus Hiddink having taken over from the self-proclaimed ‘Special One’ on an interim basis for the remainder of last season. He guided them to a tenth-place finish in the Premier League but Conte has already helped the Blues return to their winning ways. The West London club have won ten out of a possible twelve points since the start of the new campaign, only dropping two points against Swansea City on Sunday afternoon.

The German, who took over from Brendan Rodgers as Liverpool manager in the middle of last season, has been impressed with his Italian counterpart’s work since taking charge at Stamford Bridge. The Reds boss, who is known to be animated on the touchline during matches, sees something of himself in the former Juventus manager. He said, “He looks quite emotional, even when they don’t score. Obviously he is involved in the game, but that’s not the most important thing. The very important thing is he is a great manager, something like the ‘Pep Guardiola of Turin’ if you want”.

Liverpool won this fixture 3-1 last season when Mourinho was still in charge. Hiddink led his Chelsea side to a 1-1 draw at Anfield in the reverse fixture but this is the first time that Klopp and Conte are coming up against each other in a competitive match. The Blues did beat the Merseyside club 1-0 in a friendly match in America during both clubs’ pre-season tour, but Klopp believes that they will be a different proposition again in the Premier League.

The German feels that Conte, who was the Italy national manager before taking on the Chelsea job, is already instilling some of the success he enjoyed at Juventus into his new squad. Klopp was quick to point out, however, that it is not the two managers who have to play each other. He said, “He created [Juventus’] special type of play and had a very successful time there and with the national team. It is quite impressive what he has done until now, but I don’t play against Antonio Conte”.

Both Liverpool and Chelsea will be hoping that their lack of European football will give them an advantage over the other teams aiming to finish in the top four, with Arsenal, Tottenham and Manchester City all getting their Champions League campaigns underway this week and Manchester United having Europa League football to contend with. Conte would much rather that his side had performed well last term and finished in the European places, but Klopp believes that the Blues are now back to their best after a disappointing season last time out.

Speaking to the press ahead of Liverpool’s first Friday night fixture of the campaign he said, “They were champions two years ago and then had a difficult year and they changed their manager. Last season was not a Chelsea season and now they are back on track, so we need to be ready for a real challenge”.

Klopp’s team are coming off the back of an impressive 4-1 victory at home to the defending Premier League champions Leicester City, having already put four past Arsenal at The Emirates on the opening day of the season. Chelsea, meanwhile, have won three of their opening five games in all competitions by a single goal and could only manage a draw against a Swansea City team that had lost their previous two league games.

Diego Costa has been in fine form for the West London club, finding the net against West Ham on the opening day of the season, Watford on the following weekend and twice in the Liberty Stadium on Sunday. He was lucky to stay on the pitch in all three matches but Jürgen Klopp believes that the Brazilian born Spanish international is doing everything right. He said, “He’s world class. If other supporters love you that’s not a good sign. He’s a warrior on the pitch and uses his body. He was nearly unstoppable against Swansea”.

The former Borussia Dortmund manager will welcome Dejan Lovren back into his starting line-up, having had to select Lucas Leiva in the centre-back spot when Lovren suffered a black-eye in training the day before the champions arrived at Anfield. He will still be without Emre Can who is back in training but won’t be fit enough. The German is excited by the idea of his team playing their first Friday Night Football of the season, saying, “Friday night is one of the best moments to play football. Let’s go for it”.

A scan on Chelsea captain John Terry’s ankle has revealed some slight damage that will rule him out of playing any football for ten days, meaning that he will miss this Friday night’s Premier League clash with Liverpool.

The club released a statement on their website on Tuesday afternoon saying, “John Terry’s injury suffered in Sunday’s game at Swansea is strained ligaments in his foot. He will be out for approximately 10 days”.

Terry went in for a challenge with Swansea player Leroy Fer in the closing minutes of the match and appeared to roll his ankle. He was later seen leaving the Liberty Stadium on crutches and soon after posted a video onto his social media account Instagram of him having treatment on the injury.

It was a fiery encounter between the West London club and the Welsh side, with the former hoping to achieve four straight league victories and the latter looking to avoid three straight defeats. Diego Costa was involved in a number of altercations and was booked for a poorly timed tackle on Federico Fernandez and could have been sent off for a second bookable offence when he appeared to dive after a challenge with Swansea goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski.

Chelsea central defender was critical of the match referee Andre Marriner for failing to see that the tackle on him by Swansea’s Leroy Fer was a foul. Marriner saw nothing wrong with the challenge and Fer went on to score the Swans’ second goal of the game, with Cahill suggesting “you could be sat on the moon and see it [was a foul]”.

It was Fer again who was involved in the Terry incident, though no malice is suggested to have taken place when the two players came together. It left the Chelsea captain bruised and battered and now likely to miss the club’s crucial game against Liverpool. Chelsea lost 3-1 to the Merseyside team in the equivalent fixture last season under former manager José Mourinho. The self-proclaimed ‘Special One’ was sacked in December and replaced by Guus Hiddink on an interim basis. The Dutchman earned a creditable 1-1 draw at Anfield.

The two sides also faced each other in their pre-season campaign, with new Chelsea head coach Antonio Conte’s side beating Jürgen Klopp’s team 1-0 thanks to a Gary Cahill goal. That was also a fiery match despite being a friendly, as Blues midfielder Cesc Fabregas was sent off.

The absence of Terry from the starting line-up means that David Luiz is likely to make his Chelsea debut during his second spell at the club. He arrived in 2011 and was sold to Paris Saint-Germain for £50 million three years later; a record transfer fee for a defender. He was re-signed on Deadline Day last month as the club’s Italian manager looked to try and bring in some fresh legs to his defence.

Luiz’s Premier League debut during his initial spell in West London came in a game against Liverpool at Stamford Bridge, with the Merseysiders winning 1-0. Conte will be hoping that history does not repeat itself, given that during his time as Juventus manager the Italian side only lost two Serie A games in the three years he was in charge.

Terry now faces a race against time to be fit for Chelsea’s away match against the defending Premier League champions Leicester City on the 20th of September. The Blues head to The King Power Stadium for the next round of the EPL Cup against the Foxes. The Chelsea captain is hoping he will definitely be back in time for the London derby with Arsenal a week on Saturday.