A month in Chelsea: 6/11 - 15/11

Wednesday,  6th of November

A comfortable win for the Blues as they all but assured qualified for the Champions League knockout stage. Schalke started quickly but a Timo Hildebrand howler allowed Samuel Eto'o to deflect a clearance in to the back of the net. It was comfortable game for Chelsea after that as the home side extended their lead to 2 and then 3 after Demba Ba came on, his first of the season. A point against Basel or 3 against Steaua will guarantee qualification.

Saturday, 9th of November

A controversial game at Stamford Bridge ended all square as both side will feel a bit aggrieved at the performance of the referee, Andre Marriner. Chelsea opened the scoring thanks to a poacher's effort from Samuel Eto'o.

The Baggies got two back but Marriner gave Chelsea a penalty in the 95th minute to rescue Mourinho's unbeaten home record.

2 weeks in Chelsea: 5/10 - 18/10

Sunday, 6th of September, 2013

Chelsea beat Norwich 3-1 at Carrow Road. Oscar opened the scoring but Anthony Pilkington equalised. With the game looking to head to a stalemate Mourinho switched to a 3-6-1, bringing on two substiutes. The substitutions worked well, with Eden Hazard and Willian scoring with 5 minutes to go. Willian's in particular was lovely:

INTERNATIONAL BREAK

Andre Schurrle scored 4 goals in 2 games over the break.  A goal against Ireland was followed up with a hat trick against Sweden.

A Week in Chelsea: 28/9 - 4/10

Welcome to A Week in Chelsea FC, a weekly  roundup of all the goings on at Chelsea Football Club, from Saturday to Friday.

Saturday, 28th of September, 2013

Chelsea traveled to three point lane for the early kick off on Saturday, and came out with a solid result. Spurs were in good form going into the game, being the only side in Europe's top 5 leagues to only concede one goal. Tottenham went ahead halfway through the first half.

Chelsea weren't playing well but at half time Jose Mourinho brought on Spanish playmaker Juan Mata to great effect. He played well, even tracking back to tackle on the edge of his box, and was at the centre of every move. He delivered the cross onto John Terry's head at the hour mark, a well deserved equaliser.

Fernando Torres was involved in a bit of action throughout the match. When chasing down a ball going wide down the wing, Vertonghen dived, pretending to have been clipped by Fernando Torres. Torres took issue with this and grabbed the Belgian by the face, a red card offence. Instead, he got a yellow for the clip. The two players were at each other all game, and with 10 minutes to go, they both went in to contest a header. Torres led with his arm but did not touch him, and Vertonghen cleared. Vertonghen fell, dragging Torres down by his jersey and started rolling around, clutching his face. In my opinion, the correct decision would have been to book both of them, but referee Mike Dean decided to give Torres a second yellow. Torres was sent off, in what was his best performance this season, and Chelsea batted down the hatches, bringing on another defender.

A Week in Chelsea - 21/9 - 27/9

Welcome to A Week in Chelsea FC, a weekly  roundup of all the goings on at Chelsea Football Club, from Saturday to Friday.

Saturday, 20th of September, 2013

Chelsea hosted Fulham in a bid to put their poor form behind them. A bad first half performance led to a few jitters but Oscar and John Obi Mikel (!) got second half goals to put the game to bed. Oscar's goal was messy, but Mikel's first league goal in 185 Premier League appearances was a thing of beauty.

Oscar:

Mikel:

It's also worth watching manager José Mourinho's post match interview on Sky Sports.

Chelsea loanee Romelu Lukaku also scored for Everton against West Ham on his debut.

Tuesday, 24th of September, 2013

Chelsea traveled to Swindon in the third round of the League Cup on Tuesday night. Marco Van Ginkel started but was subbed off after 10 minutes with a knee injury.

Ramires replaced him but then came off at half time with his own injury. Fernando Torres scored his second goal of the season halfway through the first half.

Ramires finished off the game five minutes later with nice chip, and the League One side were never coming back.

Chelsea were drawn away to Arsenal for the fourth round.

Thursday, 26th of September, 2013

Marco Van Ginkel underwent surgery on his ACL, and was confirmed as out for six to nine months, almost certainly missing next year's World Cup.



Chelsea play Tottenham tomorrow at Three Point Lane and Steau Bucaresti away on Tuesday in the Champions League.

A week in Chelsea - 14/9 - 20/9

Welcome to A Week in Chelsea FC, a weekly  roundup of all the goings on at Chelsea Football Club, from Saturday to Friday.

Saturday, 14th of September, 2013

Samuel Eto'o made his Chelsea debut away to Everton, a game that was lost 1-0 thanks to a Steven Naismith header on the brink of half time.

Manager Jose Mourinho said that poor finishing was the problem as Chelsea had 22 shots, but only 6 were on target. Gareth Barry did particularly well to stop Samuel Eto'o from scoring.

Tuesday, 17th of September, 2013

Demba Ba revealed that he was looking forward to joining Arsenal, but as we all know the move fell threw at the last minute. Ba had completed a medical for his loan move but Mourinho decided not to strengthen his title rivals after their purchase of Mesut Özil. Ba then refused to move to a non Champions League club, forcing Chelsea to send Romelu Lukaku out instead.

Mourinho described his squad as 'beautiful, young eggs who need a mum, or in this case, a dad'.

Wednesday, 18th of September, 2013

Chelsea under 19s played Basel in the first game of the inaugural UEFA Youth League, a shadow of the senior Champions League. Chelsea ran out 4-0 winners at Cobham, with John Swift, Islam Feruz, Alex Kiwomya and an OG from a Basel defender.

Unfortunately this did not lead to a win for the senior team in the same fixture, who lost 2-1 after leading at half time. Oscar got a goal minutes before half time, but Mohamed Salah and Marco Streller scored for the hosts halfway through the second half. It was a poor performance and Chelsea couldn't find the mental strength to come back. Willian made his debut and Marco Van Ginkel made his first start. They both put in decent showings. Goals are available here.

Thursday, 19th of September, 2013

Chelsea confirmed that youngster Nathaniel Chalobah would be loaned to Nottingham Forest for the year. Chalobah, who played under Zola at Watford last year, will wear the number 7 shirt. Chalobah has never made a professional start for Chelsea but played some part in the preseason friendlies of Asia.

Friday, 20th of September, 2013

Mourinho confirmed that the whole squad was available for the visit of Fulham on Saturday at 17:30.

Chelsea play away to Swindon Town in the League Cup on Wednesday evening.

Everton - Chelsea Preview

EVERTON - CHELSEA
Saturday, 14th of September
17:30 - LIVE on Sky Sports 1

The international break is over, and Chelsea travel to Goodison Park to face an Everton side who have made a lot of changes since their last game, a 0-0 draw against Cardiff City. Out went Marouanne Fellini and Victor Anichebe, in came James McCarthy, Gareth Barry and Romelu Lukaku. The latter is unable to play against us.

Chelsea have Willian and Samuel Eto'o available for the first time, with Jose Mourinho confirming that Eto'o should play some part.

Chelsea will probably sit back as they are away from home and will look to hit Everton on the counter. Taking this into account, it is likely that André Schürrle will start. Eden Hazard is also likely to start, and considering Juan Mata stayed at London over the international break, he should complete the trio behind the striker.

Everton will hope to have the majority of the possesion, as they have had in their first 3 games of the season. They've averaged the highest percentage of any Premier League side this season (64.1%) but have drawn all 3 games, scoring only 2 goals.

In conclusion, we should see a repeat from the same fixture last season: a closely fought game that Chelsea edge out by 1 goal.

Thanks for reading and I hope you come back regularly.