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Chelsea Football Club have confirmed that defender Gary Cahill has signed a new four year contract with the side.

Cahill was signed from Bolton Wanderers for roughly £7 million in January of 2012. He has since gone on to make 177 appearances for the Blues, with his new four year contract meaning he’s likely to clock up a few more before he leaves the defending Premier League champions.

The 29 year old’s previous deal would have expired at the end of the next Premier League season had Chelsea not renewed his contract. He has appeared in 10 of Chelsea’s league games so far this season, missing just four matches.

The Blues have conceded 23 goals during their opening 14 games of a campaign that has seen them notch up just 15 points. They sit 5 points off the relegation zone and 14 points from the top of the league table. Cahill isn’t letting that worry him, though. Instead he’s choosing to concentrate on the League Cup, FA Cup, Champion’s League, Europa League and Premier League winners medals he’s won during his time at the club.

Cahill said, “I have achieved a lot here and I hope I can keep on learning, helping the team and lifting trophies over the next four years. I’m really pleased to commit my future to Chelsea and it’s great the club has put their faith in me”.

The defender was named as part of the Professional Footballer’s Association’s Premier League team of the year for both the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 seasons. He has been capped 40 times by England and remains one of the first names on both Roy Hodgson and Jose Mourinho’s team sheets. He is now contracted to the Stamford Bridge club until 2019.

Chelsea’s long search for a new and improved stadium took a step towards completion today when they submitted a planning application for a new 60,000 seater stadium to their local council.

Back in 2012 Chelsea’s owner, Roman Abramovich, rejected the idea of redeveloping Stamford Bridge and declared the notion to be ‘not feasible or viable’. Originally it was thought that the defending Premier League champions would look to move elsewhere in London, with a plan submitted to build a state-of-the-art stadium in Battersea Power Station.

That plan was rejected, however, and the Blues have struggled to find a different location for their new stadium. The need to improve on their currently capacity of roughly 42,000 is seen as paramount, with Chelsea losing out to their rivals Manchester United, Arsenal and Manchester City every week as far as gate takings are concerned. Old Trafford holds 76,000, The Emirates 60,000 and The Etihad can fit in 55,000 fans. Even Liverpool are in the process of expanding their stadium, with the new Main Stand likely to increase their capacity to 54,000.

The Blues have been at Stamford Bridge since 1905, with the last redevelopment of the stadium coming in the 1990s. Their new application suggests that they are intending to demolish the current stadium in order to build a new 60,000 seat alternative. There will be excavation works done for the new ground, as well as new outdoor areas that will include the building of platforms over the District Line and Southern mainline that run near the stadium.

The club have said on their website that the new and improved stadium will offer improved facilities ‘for every area’, as well as ‘outstanding views’ from every seat in the hope that it will create an ‘exciting atmosphere’.

The application has been submitted to the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, with the local council announcing that the deadline for comments on the club’s application has been set for Friday the 8th of January 2016.

Jose Mourinho has played down talk of a disagreement between himself and Diego Costa after the Brazilian born Spanish forward appeared to throw a bib at his manager during yesterday’s London derby.

Costa was Chelsea’s highest scorer last season, firing the Blues towards their fourth Premier League title. He has struggled to find that form again this term, however, and he appeared to be engaged in a heated argument with Mourinho as the first half of Chelsea’s Champion’s League match against Maccabi Tel Aviv reached its conclusion during the week.

Mourinho suggested the pair had been all ‘kisses and cuddles’ during the half-time interval and that there wouldn’t be any problems moving forward, but Costa found himself relegated to the bench for the London derby against Tottenham Hotspur this weekend.

Costa has only managed to find the net once in his last eight appearances for the Blues, with that goal coming last weekend against Norwich City. Mourinho defended his decision to drop the striker, saying, “I think Diego is very privileged. He is the last player to be on the bench. Everyone has been on the bench – the captain [John] Terry, [Branislav] Ivanovic, [Gary] Cahill, [Cesc] Fabregas, Pedro and player of the season [Eden] Hazard. Diego is privileged to have been kept in the team for all these matches and today we thought our best strategy was to play with this. I am happy with my decision and the players. Eden could play the 90 minutes and was so good and dangerous for us, I felt he could have scored a goal”.

Costa was an unused sub in the derby and allowed his frustration to get the better of him when he realised, after 92 minutes, that he wasn’t going to get any game time. He ran back along the touchline after warming up, removed his bib and appeared to throw it at Jose Mourinho. Thankfully for Costa it missed its intended target, but even if it had struck the self-proclaimed Special One he wouldn’t have been too annoyed. He said, “If he wants to hurt me it would not be with a bib”.

Mourinho claimed he was happy to see that his first choice striker still had some fighting spirit left in him. Before the match he claimed he was worried about the damage constantly playing Costa without him scoring could do to him, saying, “He’s playing every match and things are not going really well for his confidence”. Yet after the game the Chelsea boss was keen to play up Costa’s desire and said, “Diego is physically fine, no problems. He works well, every day his mood is positive, he is the positive guy in the team. I do not expect to have a player on the bench jumping and shouting because he is not playing”.

Mourinho will hope to see his side turn a corner after a win against Norwich in the Premier League, a win against Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Champion’s League and this draw against Spurs. It means that Tottenham are now unbeaten in thirteen games in the top flight whilst the Blue side of London are still languishing at the wrong end of the league table.

Chelsea’s former striker Didier Drogba has admitted that he hopes to return to Chelsea as the club’s manager one day in the future.

Drogba is currently plying his trade in Canada but remains one of Chelsea fans’ most beloved forwards, scoring 164 goals in all competitions across two spell at the London club. He is best loved for scoring the penalty that won Chelsea the Champion’s League in 2012, but he also won four Premier League titles, four FA Cups and three League Cups with the defending Premier League champions.

Drogba told BBC Africa, “I want to give back to the club which has given so much to me. I have agreed that with the club directors. Why not manager? Why not sporting director, trainer at the academy or maybe an advising role for strikers?”

The idea that his former first choice striker is keen on the manager’s role might not sit well with Stamford Bridge’s current boss, Jose Mourinho. The Blues have endured a torrid start to the season, losing seven of their first twelve fixtures in the Premier League, with the self-proclaimed Special One coming under increasing pressure regarding the team’s performance. The club sit 15th in the league after their worst start to a top flight campaign since 1978-1979, with a tricky away game in the London derby against Tottenham Hotspur coming up this weekend.

Drogba is certain that the club have made the right decision in sticking by their boss, saying, “If the club has kept him that means owner Roman Abramovich thinks that he is the right man. I think the players trust him and he is giving his best to change the situation”.

Drogba admits that his old team-mates are going through a ‘difficult moment’ right now, but is convinced they have what it takes to make it back to the right end of the Premier League table. Back-to-back wins over Norwich City and Maccabi Tel Aviv are certainly helping with that notion, and the Ivory Coast striker said, “They have quality when it comes to the players, and quality when it comes to the management. This is a club which usually doesn’t have a bad season twice”.

Though Drogba is unlikely to be given the manager’s job any time soon, Mourinho will be hoping that results take an upturn quickly as he fights to get his team back to the top of the Premier League. They are currently closer to the relegation zone than they are to the league leader’s Leicester City, whilst they are also ten points shy of this weekend’s opponents, Spurs.

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho moved to play down speculation about his relationship with his star striker Diego Costa after the two appeared to have a run-in with each other just before the half-time interval of the club’s Champion’s League match last night.

Mourinho gave the Brazilian-born Spanish striker some harsh words as the game against Maccabi Tel Aviv headed towards half-time, but Costa refused to take it lying down and raged back at the self-proclaimed ‘Special One’.

Many people watching the game were surprised when Costa emerged to play the second half of the match, assuming that Mourinho would substitute him for such a flagrant display of dis-respect. He did play the second half, however, though he didn’t shake his manager’s hand or salute the Chelsea fans after the final whistle.

Mourinho said after the match, “Yes we had an argument. I want him to do a certain movement that he didn’t do. I was disappointed that he didn’t and I reacted. He did too. But at half-time in the dressing room, a few kisses and a few cuddles. No problem”,

Mourinho was delighted with his team’s win, even if Porto’s surprise home loss to Dynamo Kiev means that qualification for the next round will go down to the final group game, when the defending Premier League champions will host the Portuguese manager’s old club. He said, “This was an important win. But with this group, I need a calculator because I don’t know what will happen. I know if we win we finish first. I know if we lose we go into the Europa League. With a draw, I don’t know. “I prefer to think we have to win our final match and that’s it”.

The victory was a much needed one for a manager who has found himself under immense pressure after the London club endured their worst start to a league campaign since 1978-1979. The win followed a 1-0 victory over Norwich in the Premier League last weekend and sets Chelsea up perfectly for their London derby match against Tottenham Hotspur this Saturday.

Chelsea Football Club have released their annual financial results and it appears that it cost them £23.1 million to win the Premier League last season.

The London-based club is owned by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich and is considered to be one of the richest in the world, with their improvement in performance on the pitch coinciding with Abramovich’s arrival in England. They have reportedly spent over a billion pounds of his money during that time.

The £23.1 million loss meant they were able to remain within the limits of UEFA’s Financial Fair Play regulations, with the club chairman saying that is something that they consider to be very important, “It was a primary aim in the past financial year to be one of the clubs with a continuous record of meeting the regulations”.

The club’s revenues for the last year were £314.3 million, which is less than the record of £319.8 million that they achieved in the 2013-2014 season. Buck expects revenues to improve in the coming year or so, however, with a lucrative shirt sponsorship deal worth £40 million a season due to kick in soon. He said, “These will be powered by new commercial deals, including our record-breaking partnership with Yokohama. They will also be enhanced by revenues related to this season’s Champions League which improve due to entering as Premier League champions and an increase in TV revenue for English clubs”.

With Chelsea struggling on the pitch and their manager Jose Mourinho coming under increasing pressure, Buck is hoping that the club can qualify for the knockout stages of the Champion’s League in order to relieve the financial burden on the club’s owner.

In the aftermath of their win over Norwich City this weekend, Jose Mourinho confessed that it’s Mission: Impossible as far as Chelsea’s defence of their Premier League title is concerned.

The Portuguese manager, who was back in the dugout for the Blues after serving out a one match stadium ban during Chelsea’s outing against Stoke City before the international break, still feels as though his side can reach the top four, but thinks that an unlikely title win is a job for Tom Cruise, not him.

Chelsea won their first league game since the 17th of October in a nervy win over the newly promoted Canaries thanks to a 64th minute Diego Costa goal. The victory moved them to 15th place in the league, five points clear of the relegation zone and allowed the Chelsea fans to sing a somewhat tongue-in-cheek rendition of ‘We are staying up’ towards the end of the game.

The Blues sit twelve points away from fourth placed Arsenal and the title favourites Manchester City, thirteen points off Louis Van Gaal’s Manchester United and fourteen points shy of the unlikely league leaders Leicester City.

Their woeful league form led Mourinho to tell the press in his post-match press conference, “Fourth position for me is not an impossible mission. If you ask me about winning the the title, I would say impossible mission. Maybe Tom Cruise can do it but it’s complicated”.

History is not on Chelsea’s side. In the last five Premier League campaigns the fourth placed team have managed an average of 72 points. That means that the defending Premier League champions would need to register another 58 points before the end of the season, or 19 wins and 1 draw from their remaining 25 games.

The self-proclaimed ‘Special One’ has no intention of bowing to history, however, suggesting that there could yet be some movement at the top of the league table. He said, ‘You have to recover points from four candidates. But one of the teams that go up may also have a little bit of a collapse. The fourth position is a difficult position but a possible target”.

Diego Costa’s goal was his first in his last seven appearances and Mourinho confessed that the Spanish forward has been affected by his lack of form. He had managed eleven goals at the same stage as this in the last campaign, but he’s only notched up four so far this time out. Mourinho said, “You don’t score goals, you get heavier. Every game that you don’t score goals, you get 5kg more. You get heavy and the pressure is there. In the first half he missed two chances. The second one, in the last minute, is really a big one. So it was important for him. He’s working well, he’s a happy guy, he tries everything. He’s positive, so if I had to choose somebody to score the winning goal, I would go exactly with him”.

Mourinho will be hoping that the goal takes some of the weight of Costa’s shoulders. He’s also be hoping that Chelsea can use the victory as a springboard to go on a run as long and successful as Tom Cruise’s career has been, proving that it’s not just the diminutive Hollywood actor who can pull off impossible missions.