Category: Chelsea

Day 88/ 365 – Chelsea rule the EPL

~ Akshay ~ 1 Comment

What an awesome week it has been for the Chelsea Football Club.. first we beat Manchester City on their turf and now we are on the top of the English Premier League. It wasn’t entirely unexpected as they were always keeping pace with Arsenal and Manchester City and anytime those two teams lost points, Chelsea had a very good chance to be on the top. Ideally, they should have been on top last week, however, better late than never. The team is playing the best since the season has started and I am hoping they close out the season as champions!! The game against Manchester City was billed as the clash of the champions, a free goal scoring team vs. the team which has arguably the best defense in the Premier League. It was widely expected that Chelsea will “park the bus”. However, what everyone saw was an entirely different Chelsea who after withstanding onslaught from City in the first 20 mins, took the game to the opposition. The Chelsea midfield of Hazard, Ramires and Willian was just too much for City to handle. Chelsea were a bit unfortunate to not score more than 1 goal as they hit the goal post thrice. City simply had no chance. It was a championship performance.

The following game against Newcastle, Hazard showed why he is one of the best players in the world. His strikes were simply amazing and Newcastle had no response to Chelsea. He has been tremendous form and is well supported by Willian, Matic and Eto’o. I just hope that Chelsea continue with this rich vein of form and end the seasons as Champions.

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Day 26/ 365 – Drama at Stamford Bridge

~ Akshay ~ Leave a comment

Yesterday evening, we had a great game at Stamford Bridge – Chelsea vs. West Bromwich Albion. I happened to watch the last 10 minutes of the game and it was simply amazing pressure by Chelsea team who were lagging behind by a goal. West Bromwich had already defeated Manchester United at Old Trafford earlier this season and the same was happening at Stamford Bridge. This game was Jose Mourinho’s 100th game as manager for Chelsea and he has never lost a Premier League game at Stamford Bridge (which is quite a record – considering the teams he has faced). The record was at risk. But relentless pressure by Chelsea worked and they were awarded a penalty when Ramires was brought down near the goal box. My brother who is a die hard Man U fan simply said the referee has come under pressure and made a mistake. Like there was no pressure on the referee when Sir Alex was around :P.

I was surprised that Hazard was given the chance to take the penalty shot. After all that was written about him over the entire week and him not playing the UEFA game (benched was the reason), I wasn’t sure if he would be able to convert.  But he scored and proved to everyone that he is tough character and prevented the Jose Mourinho’s record being broken. At the end of the game, Mourinho looked relieved, but 2 points were dropped. With Liverpool winning, Chelsea are now at 3rd position. Not sure what happens to this Chelsea team, the week before last they were winning everything and since last 2 weeks, the performance has been inconsistent. May be the team is yet to settle, and right combination yet to be found. However, the issues need to be fixed sooner rather than later as the crucial month of December is around and Chelsea need to be at their best to win everything going forward.

Wednesday

~ Akshay ~ 1 Comment

Wendesday, May 21st was not a good day for two of the teams that I support. Firstly, Mumbai Indians (MI) lost the game to Punjab Kings XI by 1 run. It was such a close game. I was expecting MI to go ahead and win the game easily when Sachin was still batting, but then everything went haywire and we ended up losing with the smallest of the margins. The feeling of defeat that evening had just sunk in when around 3am, my brother sends me a message saying that Chelsea lost to Manchester United 5-6 in penalties. This was not something which I wanted to hear first thing in the morning. I headed out to gym and started to watch the game, which was being replayed, while working out. I saw John Terry take the penalty and slip and the ball went wide. For that one moment, my hands were on my face and I was almost in tears, feeling the pain that JT felt on missing that penalty. I have never gotten emotional after watching any game, and I really dont know what happened when I saw that penalty. Sometimes luck plays such a huge role. Chelsea could have won the match, but they hit the bar like 2-3 times. Cristiano Ronaldo from Man U even missed his penalty shot, but Chelsea were not meant to be European Champions.. Luck.. Bad Luck to be honest.

Check out this article in honor of JT.