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29 12 2007 Chelsea 2 Newcastle United 1
Two lessons after today:
1/. Never sing, "you're worse than Sunderland" to Newcastle when you are only 1-0 up (they equalised while we were
singing it);
2/. Never sing, "you don't know what you're doing" to the manager when you are only drawing 1-1 - wait til we win
nothing at the end of the season and THEN sing it! (only kidding)
This is not to say Chelsea fans are less than confident with Avram at the helm. A nice enough guy, just someone who
does not possess that ruthless streak or confidence building that his predecessor did have. My definition of exciting
football does not equate to shabby defending and bizarre team formations.
This was a game Chelsea dominated but won fortuitously. Yet again it seems that our players do not train hard enough
on the following: hitting the ball inside the post and bar and not the other side, and when shooting on goal trying not to
direct the ball straight at the keeper! The stats spoke for themselves... Chelsea had seven shots on target and seven
off... to Newcastle's one shot on target and one shot off. This has been pretty much Chelsea's story for the last season
and a half - many chances to score, a low ratio taken.
It's a shame that Kalou's blatantly offside goal occurred against Newcastle - it would have been far more pleasing had it
occurred against Arsenal rather than against the poor Geordies. Maybe the lineman was so used to seeing Kalou
offside on the telly that he could not believe that Salomon hadn't learnt from his mistakes and therefore allowed the goal!
In any case, it was a great first half performance with a massively depleted squad - I would never have thought I would
be happy to see Ballack back but his presence alone adds strength to the team. SWP and Joe Cole had their best
games in recent weeks, and were unfortunate to be substituted. Obi Mikel was very shaky - maybe he is thinking about
his forthcoming holiday... er, I mean African Nations Cup commitments. He was at fault for the equaliser and in the first
half his loss of the ball nearly lead to Newcastle taking the lead. Thank God it was Martins and not Owen who had the
ball, a player who makes Kalou resemble Pele.
When Newcastle equalised, the confidence in the Chelsea side drained away. This is where you need to have a strong
manager behind you - strength that Grant does not seem to possess. In the end we won with a very lucky goal but it was
a deserved victory against a poor side. Despite so many injuries, we still possess an amazingly strong squad that tends
to beat the lower ranked teams.
Unbelievably, Chelsea are only six points behind the leaders. We have already been written off to win the league
(probably correct even though we have played most of the difficult sides away from home already). It seems strange how
little negative press we are receiving despite us playing far more naively than ever before and conceding many goals...
maybe it's just that there are many people who don't want a traditionally failing side to win trophies rather than really
caring about the methods behind our recent success?
1/. Never sing, "you're worse than Sunderland" to Newcastle when you are only 1-0 up (they equalised while we were
singing it);
2/. Never sing, "you don't know what you're doing" to the manager when you are only drawing 1-1 - wait til we win
nothing at the end of the season and THEN sing it! (only kidding)
This is not to say Chelsea fans are less than confident with Avram at the helm. A nice enough guy, just someone who
does not possess that ruthless streak or confidence building that his predecessor did have. My definition of exciting
football does not equate to shabby defending and bizarre team formations.
This was a game Chelsea dominated but won fortuitously. Yet again it seems that our players do not train hard enough
on the following: hitting the ball inside the post and bar and not the other side, and when shooting on goal trying not to
direct the ball straight at the keeper! The stats spoke for themselves... Chelsea had seven shots on target and seven
off... to Newcastle's one shot on target and one shot off. This has been pretty much Chelsea's story for the last season
and a half - many chances to score, a low ratio taken.
It's a shame that Kalou's blatantly offside goal occurred against Newcastle - it would have been far more pleasing had it
occurred against Arsenal rather than against the poor Geordies. Maybe the lineman was so used to seeing Kalou
offside on the telly that he could not believe that Salomon hadn't learnt from his mistakes and therefore allowed the goal!
In any case, it was a great first half performance with a massively depleted squad - I would never have thought I would
be happy to see Ballack back but his presence alone adds strength to the team. SWP and Joe Cole had their best
games in recent weeks, and were unfortunate to be substituted. Obi Mikel was very shaky - maybe he is thinking about
his forthcoming holiday... er, I mean African Nations Cup commitments. He was at fault for the equaliser and in the first
half his loss of the ball nearly lead to Newcastle taking the lead. Thank God it was Martins and not Owen who had the
ball, a player who makes Kalou resemble Pele.
When Newcastle equalised, the confidence in the Chelsea side drained away. This is where you need to have a strong
manager behind you - strength that Grant does not seem to possess. In the end we won with a very lucky goal but it was
a deserved victory against a poor side. Despite so many injuries, we still possess an amazingly strong squad that tends
to beat the lower ranked teams.
Unbelievably, Chelsea are only six points behind the leaders. We have already been written off to win the league
(probably correct even though we have played most of the difficult sides away from home already). It seems strange how
little negative press we are receiving despite us playing far more naively than ever before and conceding many goals...
maybe it's just that there are many people who don't want a traditionally failing side to win trophies rather than really
caring about the methods behind our recent success?
