Thumping Victory Well Deserved.

Chelsea 7 – Aston Villa 1

I never thought we can score seven against Aston villa. Great to see Carlos sticks to its successful combination of single striker at the top. This is working great and had worked great in Jan as well. We can analyse the game and understand that Chelsea again successfully involved full backs. Everytime Chelsea full back make a bursting run in opposition half they create chances, This is a sign of very strong squad. Even after first choice full backs are not present Chelsea can still pass the crosses with quality.

Biggest improvement for me is by Zhirkov, may be he has recovered completely for his injury and making runs as he used to do in Russia. If Ashley Cole comes back in April then we will have explosive combination of pace on both sides of pitch. Zhirkov not only one two penalties actually he won penalty which led to vital second goal before half time. This really helped Chelsea a lot. If it was 1-1 in half time then mentality of players would have been different. From start Chelsea was playing very fast, fluent football, gone are days when Chelsea used to long passes to Drogba and boring midfield battles. Chelsea attacked with such pace that even any other team would have faced the same faith.

I hope Carlos will stick to this formation even against united. This formation will help avoid quality balls to Rooney which is in red hot form and tough to handle. The match is perfect show down a match that will decide the title. Chelsea it is a big task as they are travelling to OT. Hunting ground of MANU. If MANU takes 3 points then it is over for Chelsea and it will be big mistake by MANU to loose it.

But looking at squad, current form I think Chelsea will pull out a win and go two points clear. Arsenal unexpectedly drew at Birmingham which has daunted their chances for title. Mid week fixture against Bayern Munich is also a test for MANU. I don’t think they can pull out a win against Bayern mostly it will be a draw. This will help Chelsea; players will be fresh from no mid week match thanks to their old manager. May be this will give some edge to Chelsea. But it will be all out midfield battle. Giggs, scholes, Fletcher will all be up for it. Mikel will be tested, I have no doubt about it.

Terry will be at his best to restrict united. But best way is to go and get 2 goals, we cannot have 0 goals from united at OT so Chelsea should score not once but more than twice to win the match.

Next week will be great for EPL and UEFA Champions league. Keep reading the articles as we will analyse the MANU vs Chelsea Game here.

Chelsea 5- Portsmouth 0

 

Blue is the Colour……

After disappointment of weekend where Chelsea dropped two points to Blackburn, Chelsea needed to bounce back. They had perfect opposition to do so bottom of the table club Pompy. But twist in the tale was bottom of the table team was managed by none other than Mr Grant who almost gave Chelsea its first UEFA Champions league title.

Chelsea was expected to be nervous, not confident and edgy and they were that until a gift from David James was converted to goal by Drogba. Then it was a one way traffic. Chelsea just showed the class and finished Portsmouth to 5-0 score line. Drogba scored again to make to 30 Goals this season and Malouda’s double was also special. It was nice to see Lampard score this will surely give boost to confidence.

Major talking point was selection of Daniel Sturridge over Anelka. Anelka has not scored in last 10 games and this was a reminder for him that if he fails to perform his place can be easily taken by anyone else. This was symbolic move rather than just a squad rotation as informed by Ancellotti. As expected and predicted in my earlier post Ancellotti made two holding players where surprisingly Lamprad took the holding place. Drogba alone at front gave him clear diktat that he is the one who should score and that helped overall play. Malouda was impressive over past few months and he again scored to give Chelsea comfort of second goal that was lacking in Blackburn game. This really opened them up. Injection of pace in form of Joe was also welcomed and results were immediate.

Third goal from Malouda was very good reaction and it finished the game but this side is hungry for goals. This season Chelsea are not only trying to win matches but are also scoring lot of goals. I am not a great admirer of Mikel as he lacks vision and strength shown by Essien. But the pass he gave to Drogba was worth applauding, shown great vision and precisely found the target man. Fifth goal was a comical one according to me as Goalkeeper was watching the game instead of jumping and catching the football. It gave Lampard his 17^th of the season and he is again on course to get 20.

For Chelsea this was a great result, result that was must for a team low in confidence. But this was certainly not the test of Chelsea. Portsmouth bottom of the table and in all sorts of mess was never expected to put up a fight. This game only ended bad few days for Chelsea. Players and Manager must be relieved but Challenges are ahead and they are tough one. Aston villa approaching at Stamford Bridge will be real test. I feel Ancellotti will stick to his formation on Portsmouth game and replacing Sturridge with Anelka. Two Holding midfielders are must against fast and furious Aston Villa.

For me formation will be little bit shuffled and I will like to see squad playing as below. This will be good success against Villa. I am 100% sure that Ferreira and Zhirkov will need cover in this game and Drogba require great service if Chelsea wants to Score.

Anelka and Malouda will be very fast on counter and magic of Deco can be there for long passes. Drogba again a single striker will hit the net for sure.

Unlike 4-2-3-1 it is required that Deco remains little behind to help defend as it will take a lot to avoid Villa goal. You as a manager cannot take chance with a vital game which will decide whether Chelsea remains in race for title.

--------------------------cech--------------------

Ferreira-----------Alex------------Terry-----------Zhirkov

----------Mikel-------------------------Lampard---------

------------------------Deco---------------------------

Anelka------------------------------------------Malouda

--------------------------Drogba----------------------

Chelsea 1 Blackburn 1

Disappointed, No other word can describe what fans are feeling right now. After bright start to season, after not loosing a single game when African cup of nations was on but now dropping important points which will see Chelsea Title Hopes damaged.

Even Carlo Ancellotti will not be able to tell what exactly went wrong in the game, have we created enough chances? Have we scored early? Have we defended well? Have we taken game to opposition? and answers to most of the questions is YES. if you leave incidence where ferreira was caught napping rest defence was ok considering early exit of Ivanovic.

Injuries are taking toll on Chelsea, despite of having very strong squad more than 6 injuries can hamper performance of any team. Influential players like Ashley Cole, Essien, Cech, Ballack, Carvahlo, Bosingwa are missing then your team will always be vulnerable. It is like you take out Roonie, ferdenand, vidic, giggs, and Nani or take out torres, gerrad from Liverpool or take out fabregas and arshavin from Arsenal. Loss of big players always makes an impact and that is what is happening with Chelsea. Media as usual blaming players, manager and owner for loss but they are ignoring all odds

One big reason is that, Chelsea again failed to use its full backs, this is one reason coming into picture again and again, after fantastic performance week in week out from Ivanovic, now he is not able to create quality balls in the six yard box. Chelsea scored many goals this season from such crosses and explosive runs of Ashley Cole. In game against Inter as well Chelsea failed to use full backs and this point is now exploited by all teams. Carlos Ancellotti has to device a way to involve full backs, current 4-3-3 is not allowing RB and LB to go full throttle ahead as there is one player less to cover in case of counter attack. Carlos with current players (Many key players injured) should use 4-2-3-1 with Anelka on top. This may feel crazy but this will work as drogba can create moments of brilliance, use his physic to win long balls from Centre backs and Anelka can zip past opposition CBs. With Lampard and Malouda on both Sides and Mikel and Ballack back. This will give lot of confidence to IVA and Zhirkov to go ahead and try to create scoring opportunities.

----------------------Cech/ Turnbull--------------------

IVA--------------Alex---------------Terry--------Zirkov

-------------Ballack/deco-------------Mikel-------------

Lampard------------------Drogba--------------Malouda

--------------------------Anelka-----------------------

 

We all know what Anelka did when Drogba was not there, How Malouda has suited well in winger position and lampard will have lot of room to put long hits to goals. And ballack/deco can provide the magical pass needed to set anelka free.

Chelsea needs to be calm and look at what they can achieve this season rather than what they can not achieve. They have to concentrate on next few games, get good results and suddenly they will be in again for sure. Big matches like Chelsea Vs Manu will be classic match of the year as this will decide who is going to lift the cup this year. In case of Draw arsenal will be hot favourite.

I know this is not right time to draw conclusions as Football is the game that is full of surprises.

Chelsea 4 West Ham 1- Match Report from My Eyes

It was a classic fixture in English Premier League. Title hopeful Chelsea Vs relegation fighter West Ham.

West Ham has nothing to loose and Chelsea has plenty to worry. First goal after 15 Min by a defender tells you that everything was not going as expected for Chelsea but the lead is a lead and Chelsea players must be relieved to see Alex put one In. It was a good header but a poor marking from West Ham. If you were a Chelsea Fan then you were happy till Parker formal Chelsea man hit a stunner. I always think why footballer hit those stunners, amazing goals against Chelsea only and not any other club, I think opponents love to celebrate at Stamford Bridge. So 31 Minutes and you are on the edge of the seat already. Anxious about progress of Chelsea to top of the league. Wary about ManU’s Match against Fulham and already started hoping Fulham can do it again. This is problem actually fans start to think about others loosing then Chelsea winning.

Second Half started OK but JT … Leader… Captain… Legend inspired run helped by Malouda’s cross and Drogba header put Chelsea in Driving seat again. Hope of title reignited. Then there was no looking back. Malouda was inspiring creative and was looking dangerous. 11 Minutes were sufficient to prove that at 76 minutes he sealed points for Chelsea, I am not sure why he celebrated like that but he has whole right after a wonderful performance.

Chelsea was a different team this season, i knew it as they pushed for 4th goal, the hunger to score more was very good. This was not the case few seasons back where Chelsea was comfortable with 1-0,2-1 score lines.

Lampard stuck but Green saved but could not hold on to it and Drogba did what he does best latching onto opportunity. And finished West Ham of. I think 4th goal was little harsh on hammers but this is EPL and no mercy for teams as Goal difference is very important in 3 Horse title race this season.

When everybody is taking about Malouda’s contribution and Drogba’s desire for goals. I think it is Ferreira who helped in this, he played well and allowed Malouda to play in his favourite position in Midfield, that also gave balance to Chelsea side and allowed Alex, Terry to go forward and avoid any situation like we had in MAN City game.

Biggest problem for the game was Anelka, of course he gave 100% to the team and was doing his duty very well but somehow this team formation is taking toll on him for all 4 Goals he was a silent spectator. This is a problem, your lead striker can not do that at least he should have 1 assist to his name in 4 goals, I think Ancelotti has take a hard look at this game and decide whether to make Anelka as target man. He loves that position scores many. Drogba have a physical presence and can easily provide many assists, i think he has ability to be play maker and great finisher, but anelka is not a play maker for me, he is fast and accurate and will be delightful as a target man.

Let us see what happens when Inter comes to Chelsea, I don’t think they can score but problem is that Mourihnio side will defend well and I predict Chelsea 1- Inter 0 for this.

 

Come back and read Inter vs Chelsea Review on the same page. Till then Happy Footballing.

Website for My School

Today I am very happy, Today I completed first step towards paying tribute to my school, the place where I learnt so many things, a place where I became who am I.

Website www.utkarshmandir.org and Alumni Forum www.utkarshmandir.org/forum is live now. Also facebook page

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Utkarsh-Mandir-Shikshan-Prasarak-Mandal-Malad/10150120389665244?ref=nf is also live

I think this is a great way to say thank you. I was working on this for quiet some time and will continue to work on to finish the remaining work.

I expect all my school alumni will be delighted as they will be able to share information, reconnect with old friends on our school website. They will also be able to see what is happening in the school which they were part one day. They can even go ahead and contribute to school. Contributions from alumni will be very important to grow the school, financial support, help in management of school, help in arranging events and seminars will make our school a landmark. I request my fellow alumni friends to contribute to best of their ability to make this a success.

You can see the website and give your comments and suggestions to me via email nikhil_parchure@rediffmail.com

Cheers

Woman Reservation Bill Cleared In Rajya Sabha

Today one day after World women day Indian Rajya sabha (upper house) cleared a historic bill to give 33% reservation, this is really path breaking because this will empower women to stand against dominating men population, this will really change how we work, impact our culture and will bring prosperity surely.

I am not saying this a magic stick that will change the situation in one go but this is a big step forward, and one big step in right direction. If bill was passed without fiasco of yesterday then it would have been great but all is well that ends well. Now only hurdle of Loksabha is in line and considering huge majority by which It was passed i think loksabha will pass it easily, I really like to know who is member only one who voted against, great courage to stand against tide, LOL

So one day to remember in not so remarkable indian politics. Congratulations to all women who received this gift one day late.

Signing OFF

Nikhil