Author: Adam

Former Chelsea striker Didier Drogba will remain at the Major League Soccer side Montreal Impact, putting an end to speculation that he could return to West London in some capacity this season.

The forward, who struck the decisively penalty when Chelsea beat Bayern Munich to win the Champions League in 2012, had discussions with the club in December about returning to Stamford Bridge as part of interim manager Guus Hiddink’s coaching staff. Montreal said at the time that Drogba had a ‘desire to help’ his former club and that things were ‘out of our control’.

The 37-year-old refuted the notion that he was going to end his playing career at the time, taking to social media site Twitter to say, “I have not yet announced my retirement”. That seems to have been confirmed this week when he once again used social media and tweeted, “On way to Qatar to do some preparation work for pre-season”.

The Ivorian is contracted to Montreal until the end of this year and will almost certainly go on to see out said contract. He was the club’s top scorer last season when he netted 11 goals and helped them reach the Major League Soccer Eastern Conference semi-finals.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger was angry with Diego Costa in the aftermath of his club’s home loss to Chelsea at the weekend and claimed that the striker had ‘cost’ his side for the second match in a row.

Per Mertesacker, Arsenal’s central defender, was sent off by Mark Clattenburg after he attempted to to get a foot on the ball when Costa broke free of the Arsenal defence. There was some debate about whether or not Mertesacker actually touched the Brazilian born Spanish international, however, and Wenger declared the red card to be ‘harsh’.

Wenger said, “Costa has got two of our players sent off in the last two games against Chelsea. Is the decision right or wrong? I don’t know. That is a fact, without accusing him of anything”.

The other red card Wenger was referring to came in the match between the two clubs at Stamford Bridge when Costa’s behaviour provoked Arsenal’s defender Gabriel into reacting and getting himself sent off. His red card was later rescinded and Costa himself was given a ban by the Football Association.

The red card issued to Mertesacker yesterday was the seventh that the Gunners have been shown against Chelsea and is the most red cards the North London club have received against any one team. It was also the third that they have received this season as Santi Cazorla was also dismissed in the match at Stamford Bridge.

Wenger was quick to ask questions of Mark Clattenburg’s keenness to show his player the red card, saying, “I don’t know whether Costa was offside or not or whether Per Mertesacker touched him or not. It was a decision we had to take on the chin and I thought we did that. The referee was very quick to take the red card out. We coped with the decision well and should have had a draw at least. We had the chances. Mentally we were focused. Sometimes when you lose you can still say ‘well done’ to the players”.

The Arsenal manager also felt that Diego Costa made the most of the challenge, adding, “That is the game of the striker. Diego Costa is good at that”.

Chelsea’s interim manager, Guus Hiddink, didn’t quite see it the same way as his French counterpart. He said, “There was no doubt. It was a great ball through and Diego could run straight at Petr Cech but he was tripped. That is obvious”.

Whilst the defeat saw Arsenal miss out on the chance to go clear at the top of the Premier League and remain level on points with Manchester City, the three points for Chelsea saw them climb to 13th place in the league. It meant that questions were inevitably asked about whether the club could still finish in the top four despite the fact that they are still 14 points behind Tottenham Hotspur who remain in fourth place.

John Terry, Chelsea’s captain, said he felt that a fourth placed finish was still ‘do-able’, whilst Dutchman Hiddink said, “When the captain says that then I will follow the captain. It is a gap and the Premier League is competitive with all teams whether you are down at the bottom or higher in the rankings. If the captain says ‘yes’ we will follow the captain”.

Chelsea remain unbeaten in all competitions since the owner, Roman Abramovich, decided to sack the previous manager Jose Mourinho. The self-proclaimed ‘Special One’ led the club to its worst start to a top-flight season since the late 1960s and was sacked in December after he oversaw a 2-1 home loss to high-flying Leicester City.

Chelsea’s interim manager Guus Hiddink has expressed his admiration of Arsene Wenger and said that he doesn’t imagine that any Premier League manager will be given the same amount of time as him in the future.

The 66 year old Frenchman has been in charge of Chelsea’s London rivals for nearly 20 years, winning the Premier League three times during that period. He came under pressure when he went eight years without winning a trophy, before seeing his side lift the FA Cup two years in a row over the last two seasons.

Dutchman Hiddink said, “He might be one of the last to sit on the chair that long. Him being in charge in those years without a title means there is a lot of confidence from the board. It’s always good to have men who have a long period at a club”.

Hiddink himself has benefitted from Chelsea not taking the same stance with their managers as Arsenal have. His current spell at Stamford Bridge is the second time he has taken over at Chelsea on an interim basis. In 2009 he took over from Luis Felipe Scolari when Chelsea’s owner, Roman Abramovich, fired him. The same thing happened in December when the Russian decided to call time on Jose Mourinho’s second spell at the club.

Whilst Arsene Wenger has been manager of the Gunners for 19 and a half years, Chelsea have changed manager 12 times and won the Premier League on four different occasions.

Chelsea’s right-back Branislav Ivanovic has signed a one-year contract with the club that will keep him tied to Stamford Bridge until 2017.

The Serbian joined the club from Lokomotiv Moscow in the January transfer window of 2008 and has so far made 341 appearances for the Blues. He’s scored 32 goals during that time.

So far in his Chelsea career he’s collected two Premier League medals, three FA Cups, a League Cup and a Champions League medal as well as a Europa League medal, having scored the winning goal in the 2013 final against Benfica.

Although the 32 year old fell out of favour under Jose Mourinho’s stewardship, he has been invited to extend his stay in West London and said, “This is my home and there is no other place I would rather play”. He was made vice-captain at the beginning of this season and will hope that his new contract sees an upturn in his form in the coming months.

Reports emerged in today’s Independent On Sunday claiming that Chelsea’s former manager Jose Mourinho has written a six-page letter to Manchester United explaining why he is the right man to take over from Louis Van Gaal, should the hierarchy at Old Trafford decide to call time on the Dutchman’s rule there.

The Portuguese manager’s agent, Jorge Mendes, has moved to declare the report as ‘totally absurd’, however.

52 year old Mourinho was sacked as Chelsea’s manager in December after over-seeing the club’s worst start to a season since the late 1960s. It was his second spell at the club and he led them to the title for the third time last season. Behind-the-scenes, though, many people felt that the self-proclaimed ‘Special One’ deliberately burnt his bridges at Chelsea this in order to make himself available for the Manchester United manager’s position, a job he’s always considered to be his ‘dream’.

The Independent claim that Mourinho wrote a ‘forensic analysis’ of the situation at Old Trafford, including a deep look at the squad and the weaknesses that lay therein. They also suggest that Mourinho has out-lined the ways in which he will try to change himself, aware as he is that some members of the Manchester United hierarchy don’t think he’s a suitable candidate for the manager’s job.

Mendes has completely dismissed the reports, however, saying, “[It’s] ridiculous. It does not occur to anyone that a coach like Jose Mourinho can write letters to clubs offering their services”.

Chelsea signed Papy Djilobodji from Nantes on transfer deadline day in September but the defender will now join Werder Bremen on loan for the rest of the season, the club has confirmed.

Djilobodji was a £4 million capture on the final day of the summer transfer window, brought in when former Blues manager Jose Mourinho missed out on John Stones from Everton. The 27 year old has only made one appearance for the senior side since, however, when he came on as a late substitute against Walsall in the League Cup.

The defender began his career at Senart-Moissy in France but is now contracted to Chelsea until 2019. The Senegal international will head to Werder Bremen until the end of the season and is hoping to help the Bundesliga club escape their current plight. They sit third from bottom of the German top-tier and just two points from the bottom spot.

19 year old Chelsea Academy forward Alex Kiwomya is heading to Fleetwood Town on loan, the club has confirmed.

The England Under-19 international joined the Blues’ roster from Rotherham when he was a youngster but has yet to make a Premier League appearance for the senior side. He did join Barnsley on loan last season and made 5 appearances for the Yorkshire club.

Kiwomya will join League Two side Fleetwood Town on a short-term loan and the club’s boss, Steven Pressley, said, “He is a quick attacking wide player and he gives us good flexibility in that area”.

The Everton manager Roberto Martinez has admitted to feeling ‘pure anger’ after his side conceded a 98th minute equaliser at Stamford Bridge on Saturday; a goal for which John Terry was in an offside position according to replays.

The Everton manager said, “It’s heartbreaking. Seven minutes of injury time, the last action happens in 97 minutes 51 seconds and John Terry is two yards offside. Maybe refs need a bit of help. But to have a player two yards off in the box is unacceptable”.

Everton took a 2-0 lead before being pegged back to 2-2 thanks to goals from Diego Costa and Cesc Fabregas. They then re-took the lead when Ramiro Funes Mori put them ahead in the 90th minute and thought they’d won the tie, only for the Chelsea captain to atone for an earlier own goal with his controversial equaliser.

The equalising goal was a great piece of improvisational skill from the former England captain, back heeling it past the onrushing Tim Howard. That won’t have appeased Martinez, though, who felt that the officials made ‘two major errors’ in the build up to the goal. Terry being offside was one, with the goal coming after all of the stoppage time had been played being another.

The Toffees are now without a win in their past four games and have only one won of their last nine matches in the Premier League. Of the decision not to flag Terry as offside the Spaniard said, “There is no explanation. It’s a big, big error. It’s not good enough”.

Surprisingly for a Premier League manager Guus Hiddink, the defending champions’ interim manager, was quite candid about the referee’s decision and admitted that Chelsea were lucky. He said, “is quite right, he was offside. Sometimes it’s in our favour, I’ve seen it. Oscar touched the ball and John was offside but he made a beautiful goal”.

Hiddink also felt that the referee was justified in playing an extra minute of added time because of the fact that Everton’s players celebrated their goal for so long. He said, “There was seven minutes extra time. I said to the fourth referee, ‘OK they are celebrating at least one minute in the corner’”.

A scan has revealed that Diego Costa suffered a bruised tibia in Chelsea’s 3-3 draw with Everton over the weekend.

The combative striker scored one goal and assisted another in the game at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, but he had to be substituted when he limped off after 80 minutes. The club’s interim manager, Guus Hiddink, said this is star striker had been in ‘a lot of pain’ when he spoke to the press after the match.

How long the defending Premier League champions will be without the Brazilian-born Spanish international remains to be seen, though their next match is against title-chasing Arsenal on Sunday afternoon. Costa, who struggled to find the net when Mourinho was manager earlier in the season, has scored 5 goals since the self-proclaimed ‘Special One’ was sacked and Hiddink took over in December.

The 27 year-old was top scorer for the London club last term, netting 20 goals as he helped to fire the Blues to a Premier League and League Cup double. He appeared to fallout with Jose Mourinho towards the end of the Portuguese manager’s time in charge, however. The pair had a public spat towards the end of a match against Maccabi Tel-Aviv before the striker appeared to throw his bib at his then manager when he was an unused substitute during a 0-0 draw with Spurs at White Hart Lane.

The forward has returned to form under Hiddink and the Dutchman will be hoping that the bruised shin will not keep him out of action for too long.

Chelsea’s interim manager, Guus Hiddink, has admitted that the threat of relegation is a very real one for the defending Premier League champions.

Despite remaining unbeaten since the Dutchman took over from the departed Jose Mourinho in December, Chelsea remain closer to the relegation zone than to the top four. They are six points away from Sunderland who occupy the last relegation spot, whilst they are twelve points away from Tottenham in fourth.

The next five fixtures for the Blues are Everton at Stamford Bridge, Arsenal at The Emirates, Watford away, Man United at home and Newcastle also at the Bridge. Looking slightly more short-term Hiddink said, “We have two difficult games coming up. If you don’t gather points there, you don’t know what the others do. The Premier League can surprise you”.

There has been a slight improvement in the club’s fortunes since the departure of the self-proclaimed ‘Special One’, with Chelsea sitting just one point above the relegation zone when the club’s owner, Roman Abramovich, decided to sack the Portuguese manager for the second time.

Hiddink said, “There are 12 points difference to fourth place, which is Tottenham. We all like to look forward and to the top of the table, but also don’t be unrealistic – you’re six points off the line of relegation. That’s also a fact. We have to work hard and be very concentrated and gather our points to step up. [Relegation?] It’s reality.

The London club are still going to be without Eden Hazard and Radamel Falcao for the visit of Everton, whilst Pedro’s position could be under threat after a decidedly poor display against West Brom during the week.

Everton could welcome back Tom Cleverly who has been out with an ankle injury but Seamus Coleman and James McCarthy will not be able to turn out for the Merseysiders who won the reverse fixture 3-1 in September.

Speaking ahead of the match Everton’s manager, Roberto Martinez, said, “Chelsea are a team full of winning footballers. They won the league so the quality is there. They have players that can produce magic. They have had a couple of very impressive performances under Guus Hiddink, and have shown plenty of fight”.