BlueFlagFlyingHigh

I haven’t felt like this in a very long time. Probably not since losing in Moscow 2 years ago. After beating Utd at there place 2 weeks ago, I thought we were on course to win the league. Then after beating Bolton on Monday, days after Man Utd dropped points at Blackburn, I was certain the League was coming home. This is one way to set yourself up for a fall.

Well I have fallen. And fallen hard. This was the first of 2 really tough away games in our last 4 fixtures in the league.

When Utd grabbed that late winner against Man City a few hours before, that should of made us even more motivated than before, but we just didnt turn up.

You wont ever hear me criticise John Terry. Not because im blindly in love with him, but because hes done too much for us over the years to ever deserve it. The Spurs fan were on him from the first whistle today, worst then iv heard since the Bridge scandal. Thats no criticism of Spurs fans, because I would do the same. But I think it really got to him today. That combined with the frustration of losing 2-0 at the time, lead him too make 2 very silly challenges, and get himself needlessly sent off. Leaving us with no centre back for our game with Stoke next weekend.

He didnt cost us the game, but he has caused / and is causing us alot of problems this season.

The only positive of the game was the reaction of Frank Lampard at the final whistle. I know he would of felt this defeat just as all us fans do, but he made a point of gesturing to the crowd that we are STILL top of the league.

So, a massive 3 weeks of football to go. I feel sick already.

Blue Flag Flying High!

So its FA Cup Semi Final weekend, featuring 2 very interesting ties. Firstly, Chelsea Vs Aston Villa. Some would say this fixture is fairly straight forward. 3 weeks ago, Aston Villa came to the bridge and got battered 7-1. But, lets not forget in the fixture earlier in the season, Aston Villa beat Chelsea 2-1.

Aston Villa will surely want to settle some scores after being battered so easily a few weeks ago. With a FA Cup final place at stake, this will surely be a totally different game.

My real point though is about the venue of these Fa Cup semi finals. Is it just me who still thinks its wrong that its at Wembley? Obviously its been done for financial reasons to help the FA get some money together to help pay for the ridiculously expensive stadium. Its just that going to Wembley before, had be saved for only the biggest of occasions. It was part of the prize of making it to a cup final.

Either way, ill enjoy my day out at Wembley tomorrow with the rest of the Chelsea boys. And, to the FA’s credit, we did get 35,000 seats, which is much more than they give out for the final, and were all priced at a reasonable £30.

Lets hope its more packed then it was last time I was there! (See Photo Below)

Keep The Blue Flag Flying High!

Today, I watched my first ever football game in 3D at a pub near me. For any of guys who havent seen it yet, heres my review. I work in live video, so iv got a bit of knowledge of it and have been behind the scenes with Sky Sports a few times.

So with it still being quite a novelty, we ended up arriving at the pub a good 90mins before K/O of the Chelsea vs Utd game. You pay your £1 for some glasses and take your seat. The TV’s are special 3D Plasma tellys. From talking to the landlord at the pub, they are only easily available through Sky. He paid £1500 for his 42inch from them. Then all you got to do is pay for your SkyHD subscription, stick your glasses on, tune into SkySportsHD and your good to go.

PLUS POINTS

The close shots look fantastic. Any shot which has a big depth of field, or a few different subjects which are different distances away looking awesome. For example, Fergie standing up, with the crowd behind him look awesome. Fergie really lifts off the screen. The same with any other close up, like a player taking a throw in. From the main game camera, there isnt a huge amount of difference, but with your class of it is very fuzzy. So the 3D is alot harder to notice from a distance.

All in all, its great to watch in the 3D, but is nothing more than a nice novelty. Id recommend going to see a game in it if its local, but I wont be rushing out to see every game possible in 3D. Will it be the future? Not while I have to wear 3D glasses everytime.

Heres some photos of me and oldman looking class in our specs.

Well…this is massive.

Here we are in what we can only describe as the business end of the season, and at the top of the league, the stakes are massive. With 6 Games remaining, only 4 points separate Arsenal, Chelsea and Man Utd. More importantly, only 1 point separates Chelsea and Man Utd. With Chelsea facing Man Utd at Old trafford tomorrow lunchtime, this is the biggest game of the season for both teams.

On a personal note, I haven’t been this nervous in such a longtime. We haven’t won the PL in 3 years now, and with the Champions League causing us blues fans more heartbreak than a family death, we need to produce a top prize this season. Im a loyal enough fan to remember the early 2000′s when just an FA Cup semi alone would make the season a positive. Sadly, those days are over and we have our eyes set on much higher prizes.

I just cant deal with seeing us lose the title to the Mancs again. Espically when we have lead the league for 3/4 of the season, and at one point had a very very healthy lead.

I even remember at one point thinking ‘This is now ours to throw away’.

Obviously, Rooney out the game tomorrow is a massive plus point. Im not one to saying Utd are a 1 man team, but there is no doubt that the lose of Rooney is huge for them. The key for us tomorrow is all in Mikel. He needs to really raise his game even higher tomorrow to offer essential extra cover for the centrebacks, but also for making sure he is spraying the balls up towards our front men. He really will be holding the team together tomorrow, and aslong as he can get the ball up top, down the wings, and get Lampard plenty of the ball, I think this could be ours.

As big as tomorrow is, it still isnt a title decider. If Utd take the 3 points, they still have some tricky fixtures ahead, including Man City away next week. If we take the 3 points, that will put us 2 points clear, but we have some huge fixtures still to come including Liverpool and Spurs away. A draw keeps it massively wide open, and really brings Arsenal into the picture, although with the injuries they have picked up this week, I dont think they have the legs to be still there in 6games time.

COME ON YOU BLUES.

Had a good month or so away from the blog. Basically, because I was lacking serious motivation to write about Chelsea, its been a rubbish month. Infact, its been a terrible 2 weeks. Knocked out of the champions league and dropped 2 huge points away at the Rovers. To top that, we have put in bad performances through out.

Going into the game against pompy tonight, I had my concerns. Pompy are obviously in the position of nothing to lose, and had put in a few great performance of late, and got some good results. The games started much like the game against Rovers the weekend before, with Chels having almost all the possession. Great to Pompy though, they kept us from creating any real chances, or even getting any balls into the box. I felt we were really feeling lacking any creativity down the wings, as pointed out by my blogger friend UnderTheBridge.

We worried that we would continue with all the possession but never be able to break into the box, to start creating some real chances. But then the goal came in the strangest of fashions, and one that you really should find on the net tomorrow morning.

Zhirkov put in a tasty challenge just outside are box, which was debatably a foul. (By debatably, i mean, a foul. The ball then gets hoffed up towards the pompy in, and after a naff clearence, then a head from Deco, the ball comes gently rolling towards Englands No.2 David James. In a beautiful moment, that only ever happens to Englsih keepers, David James takes a swing and a miss at the ball, which sees to begin to roll towards the empty net. Drogba follows it in to give it a little helping hand towards to goal. 1-0, and a goal we REALLY needed.

From then on we continue to take control, started making some chances for us, and the goals begun to flow. Malouda scored a cracking finish for the 2-0 which is also worth checking out. Lamps was back on top form as well, and deserved his goal, Chelsea 5th.

The only other talking points were an elbow from Malouda and another from Sturridge resulting in injuries to Rocha and Smith. Both looked pretty nasty, but when you know those 2 players, you know they are not malicious players. The commentator on Nova Sport 4, the fantastic Greek sports channel which my local picks up allowing me to watch every chelsea game, strongly disagreed. Adamant that we should of been down to 9men.

So the Chelsea boys are feeling a bit happier tonight. We need to start grinding out the results, and HAVE to win the games against the big boys. Especially that massive game at Old Trafford. The Champions League should provide a nice distraction to the other 2 title contenders as well.

Finally, I declare my support towards West Ham in there bid to stay up. It has nothing to do with a love or appreciation of the club. Or the fact I don’t like seeing WestHamProcess upset after every game the poor lad, its that one day I dream of Zola leading Chelsea to great glories. And that wont happen if he turns out to be a crap manager.

Keep The Blue Flag Flying High!

For the second midweek game in a row, we have dropped points. For most teams, thats hardly the end of the world. But when you are major title contenders and your are in the real business end of the season, its fixtures like this which will haunt you come May.

Don’t get me wrong, I knew Everton away would be tricky, and even Hull away would require a fight, especially with them now scraping for every point they can get. But you cannot afford to only be taking 1 point away from those 2 fixtures.

One wasted beer and a change of pub later, me and fellow blogger Hicksy (BLOG), had found a pub showing the game. The first 30mins were proper scrappy, with neither team really taking control. Both teams had a few chances, but nothing real clearcut. It was until Malouda smashed home a Drogba flick on, did the game really pick up. It was a fantastic finish. Im not going to lie, as we celebrate that goal, it came with great relief.

I generally thought to myself…’Nothing can go wrong from here’. Error.

After the goal we enjoyed so much of the ball. We were knocking it around for fun and Everton weren’t touching us. But we didn’t create anything with all the possession, which soon came to bite us. Just when we thought we had  got over our set-piece problems, we go on to concede another. This time isnt a lot harder to be pointing the finger. It was a brilliant ball into the box meet with a Saha header into the back of net. It was a great run from him in the box, just getting a few yards on John Terry. The second half ended in fairly scrappy manor. Everton did also get themselves a penalty when Carvalho left a leg hanging out in the box, but a fairly average penalty by Saha was saved by Cech.

Into the second half and possibly one of the worst 20 mins i’ve seen from us this season. We couldn’t string any passes together and without doubt in the first 10 mins of the half Everton were far better than us. Then just when we started to work ourselves back into the game, a long ball towards the Chelsea box, which was meant to by a terribly misstimed jump from Terry to clear, instead loop straight over him and into the feet of Saha who lashed the ball home.

10mins to go, and Chelsea try and go looking for that goal. But we simply couldnt break them down. Our passing was poor and we didnt create any shots. Nothing at all to really note from those last 10 mins apart from a Drogba header which hit the bar. 3 points dropped.

The blow of losing is soften by the fact Man Utd only picked up 1 point, so we stay 1 point clear at the top. Before the game we knew Everton would be bring long ball and good set pieces, so to concede from both of those is really disappointing. After 3 brilliant performances from JT, we got a bit of a naff one tonight, with the blame from both goals pointing slightly in his direction. Maybe he plays better with the negative headlines.

Looking forward, we’ve got a lunchtime kick off with Cardiff in the cup. No excuses there, just need to get the job done. Hopefully Sturridge will start, plus some of the other younger boys mixed in with the experienced players. Looks like we could be without John Terry at the weekend, but Alex should slot in just fine. Hopefully Terry will get a few things sorted out while he’s away and we can get on with the football. Then its back to the league. Its all got very tight at the top very quickly. Lets also not forget the Champions league in only a few weeks now. Time to say hello to Jose….excited much?

Keep The Blue Flag Flying High!

I felt a bit suspicious about tonight’s game. Mainly because we were the only team playing tonight, almost felt a bit spooky. But with Drogba back in the team and no other injuries to worry about, I felt confident for a win, as I sat down to watch it in my Manc supporting Surrey based pub.

First half they closed us down really well in midfield and it really stopped us from playing the ball around. Our passing was also a bit sloppy and we failed to get the ball to either Drogba or Anelka to really create some decent chances. To Hulls credit, they kept our wingers hushed and we barely got a cross in either, in the first first half. Once again we let ourselves down by conceding from a set piece. Marking could of been better, but, it was also a great header.

With 15mins left of the first half  we created a few half chances before Drogba got himself a free kick just outside the box. Being my normal pessimistic self when it comes to Chelsea freekicks,

I offered up a bet that it would hit the wall…seconds later, Drogba slams it into the bottom right.

Second half Hull really stopped us playing in midfield once again. Not even the introduction of the 2 Coles and Sturridge (aka, Dizzee Rascal) could help us create decent chances (All 3 of our subs were English I would like to add).  In the last 10mins when we should of been pressing, we were giving the ball away so easily.

John Terry got another lovely reception from the Hull fans. Though lets be honest, thats the last of his problems right now.

Points dropped, but we are still top!

Keep The Blue Flag Flying High!

I’ll warn you, before you starting reading this blog, it has no real point to it. Apart from outlining just a couple of reasons why I hate Man Utd. And if you do read on, i’m sorry, but you wont be getting the 5mins back.

I entered my local pub tonight for some midweek football, to be greeted by about 40 Man Utd fans. In SURREY. What does that tell you about Man Utd fans? To make it worse, after Wayne Rooney snatched victory over Man City tonight, they played ‘Glory, Glory, Man Utd’ over the pubs speakers. In a pub, in SURREY.

I could literally go on for days listing things I hate about Man Utd. The fans just have the worst footballing tunnel vision around. I don’t think i’v ever heard a Man Utd fan compliment any other football team in my life.

And this has nothing to do with them beating us in Moscow…Or winning the league the last 3 years. No, not to do with that at all.

And don’t even get me started on Fergie…

Keep The Blue Flag Flying High!

So after months of hype that we would be missing Drogba for large part of January, it turns out, he’ll only actually miss 3, possibly 4 games due to Ivory Coasts early exit in the African Nations. 2 of which have been against teams outside of the premiership. We also scored 14 goals in those 3 games. So much for a Chelsea collapse during the African Nations…

Right, time to write my first blog for Football United. In fact, the first football blog iv written. Actually, the first blog iv ever written!

Firstly, bit of background as to why i followed the Chels. The blue blood has been passed down for a couple of generations, so when at the age of 6, I was taken to the Bridge for the first time with my older brother and Dad, it was clear than this was going to become my new way of life. I cant remember where I sat, who we played, or even what the score is, but I do remember Graeme Le Saux playing. Strange thing to remember.

I also remember in 2003, a few seasons before the Russian Revolution at the bridge, after 2 games of the season, going top of the league. We sang ‘We are top the league, say we are top the league’, knowing full well this would be our only chance to sing this for the rest of the season as we had a difficult away trip to Newcastle which would see us almost certainly drop points and put as back where we blog. Somewhere between 8th – 5th place in the league.

So 6 years on, we have had about 19 different managers, some more successful then others. We have reached a champions league final despite UEFA’s best efforts to stop us getting there. We were only denied but UEFA’s crafty moving turf that they installed secretly into the pitch seconds before JT stuck his penalty. Some people don’t know about that, but its the only circumstance that I am willing to admit.  Then last year, again cheated out of a a Champs Final appearance, but im not going to dwell on that either. im not bitter. Honest.

Now a bit of a season recap to bring us up to date. Its been a bit of strange 1st half of the season with no one really taking command at the top. Without getting the fact book out, we have pretty much been top all season, but never really creating any distances over United or Arsenal. Though we have definately looked like a better team then them. You cant complain about still being in all 3 major trophies at this stage of the season. Without getting cocky, the FA Cup almost seems like ours to throw away with all the other ‘top 4 teams’ out, as long as we avoid Leeds, I hope we will be on our way to Wembley again. Champs League going strong, but its tough the rest of the way now. Iv alway said that to get to the final, you HAVE to ride your luck at some point. Lets hope we get that bit of luck. For me, the priority has to be the Champions League, because it has been so painful the last 5 years, also coming close but never getting our hands on it. To win it after all the years of coming close, it will most certainly be our sweetest achievement.

So lets hope we keep pushing for the rest of the season. JT continues to risk life an limb for that clean sheet, Ashley Cole continues to dominate that left wing, Lamps continues to dominate the midfield and bringing the goals in the big games, and the Drogba stops whinging and stays on his feet. Well, we can dream.

Finally, unlike some fans of other top teams, or even other Chelsea fans, im aware how lucky we are to be in this situation. If we never win anything again, ill still be happy, just to lift the Prem once, is once more than I thought 5 years ago.

Keep The Blue Flag Flying High!