Chelsea 2 Hull 0

It was only when I saw Mourinho in the flesh at Stamford Bridge that it really hit me. A standing ovation and a lovely start to the season with a win against a tough Hull City side. Jose wrote in his programme notes how important the fans were and he was rewarded (at least in the first half) with a quality atmosphere. Even Roman’s name was sung several times! It was the first match in many a moon where we were sat in our seats in the West Upper an hour before kick-off to soak things in.

The performance was typical of Chelsea under Mourinho in the past. Solid and settled, the team knew when to put on the brakes after scoring the vital second goal. No risks were then taken and at last we used all three substitutes when home and dry.

That is not to say it was all plain sailing. Torres and Cole both had average games with the former making some poor decisions and yet again not entirely convincing when it came to body language. Ashley Cole was outpaced and made a couple of elementary mistakes which seemed untypical of him… perhaps too many Marlboro Menthols and WKDs over the summer holidays? Nevertheless, this is still too early to judge fully and there was much to be pleased with.

JT was dominant in defence. Ivanovic frightened the opposition. Cahill was solid. In midfield, some of the touches from Oscar were simply sublime and he was rewarded with a magnificent goal following decent, intricate play in midfield from De Bruyne. Lampard’s free kick was almost unreal in its accuracy to land plum into the corner and made up for a penalty miss (albeit one that was simply well saved). Hazard challenged well but will struggle to convince referees that he has been fouled if he continues to lie pole-axed on the ground after every mild challenge against him (even if they are genuine fouls).

I have not bothered to read the newspapers this morning as I am sure off the field matters will be discussed more than what happened on the pitch. Next it is Aston Villa and I would take another 2-0 win no questions asked. Then we look towards Manchester United away who looked frighteningly at ease against what is supposed to be a good Swansea side. Perhaps the ball boy’s antics from last season is catching up with the Welsh side.

Arsenal’s loss would normally earn a big guffaw from me but I have learnt from the past not to laugh to early. This is a club that has been run as a business rather than one that is looking to compete with the elite and the real danger for them is not finishing in the top four this season. Tottenham look strong and dare I say it – even Liverpool could be challenging for that top-four spot.

So let us see how Manchester City perform tonight. A solid win for them will signal a tight year. The Premier League is the place to be for now and the fact that the new season has actually started has rarely brought me so much joy and relief. Welcome back to the Special One!

A Fresh Season Approaches

So a new season is about to begin and I am already bored of people asking what Mourinho’s return means to me. Of course the risk is that his impact may not be as great as when he had his first stint at our club. His sporting a fresh tattoo on his wrist worries me further... as was his first attempt at mind games against the “wrong Ronaldo” which failed when the Real Madrid man did his talking on the pitch against us albeit in a friendly against a weakened Chelsea side.

We still have no real target man who can frighten defences since Drogba left. Rooney is not the answer and at Manchester United he plays a more attacking midfield role – a position for which we have plenty of cover. The only thing that Rooney could add that we miss in attack is strength and aggressiveness. We play attractive football in this area but appears a tad naïve compared to our peers. Nothing would please me more than to see Lukaku succeed but for now this seems no more than wishful, innocent child-like thinking. For a while now Torres has easily given up in matches – not even vociferously claiming for free-kicks which he has rightfully deserved when fouled. Perhaps even referees perceive him as an invisible man on the pitch too. Ba still seems the best option up front.

For Chelsea to really advance we need to be mentioned in the same breath as Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Barcelona and to a lesser extent the two Manchesters. Our initial two matches against Hull and Aston Villa should provide us with six points and no doubt will be followed by much praise. If we fail at Old Trafford before the European Super Cup Final in Prague (where flights from London cost an eye-watering £600) question marks will be raised before the season has even properly started.

Whatever happens we will support the side and shout for them… but the question remains if Chelsea’s support and more importantly our owner will be patient if results do not go our way.

On a different note, as the football league starts it is sad to see so many teams struggling. We can always look at the past with rose-tinted spectacles but to see clubs such as Coventry City having to play at Northampton and only sell 200-odd season tickets shows how important it is for genuine fans to still have a say in the running of a club. Although the away end at Highfield Road was a woeful part of the world, at least it felt like a football club in the traditional sense and we appear to be missing that heart and soul that makes this game so special.

Although the standard of football we watch these days is incomparable to that which we had to endure so many years ago, there are small parts of the game that we miss. For instance, I have been reticent to read any official news from the Chelsea website assuming that it represents propaganda – but when it comes to match reports for the odd game that I miss there is far more balanced reporting there than in newspapers which rarely describe what has actually happened on the pitch. Instead, they wish to concentrate more on other matters as if they were having a chinwag down the local boozer. There is too much pub talk and little expert opinion that is reliable or original – hence why Match of the Day is no longer a must see. Gary Neville is probably the only exception to this rule.

Back to our club. Hope is there – in an ideal world a young, talented team such as we possess should become successful. Time will tell but it is hard to really think that we can dominate the league or Europe for a while. Over the past decade, big name signings such as Shevchenko and Torres who were perhaps also signed with marketing intentions in mind were failures – this could easily happen again with Rooney should he join.

So a second honeymoon period for Jose. A man who I admire for his psychological as much as his tactical skill. Let’s hope our players keep their focus on the pitch and don’t let their guard down off it. Best of luck to the Blues this season and at present I will happily accept any trophy and a top-three finish. Anything better (including a decent run in the Champions’ League) will be seen as a result in my eyes with the long-term success of my club the most important thing – especially in context with the sobering thought of what has happened to the likes of Coventry City and Portsmouth over the past few years.

Mourinho thoughts

It has been a done deal apparently. All the hacks have the inside scoop. We are going to see our greatest ever manager return to Stamford Bridge and possibly bring Ronaldo with him!

Jose Mourinho is someone who has such a strong influence on me that if he started a religious cult I would probably join. His power when he speaks and the way he deflects pressure away from footballers under his tenure is simply astounding. When in charge of Chelsea it is hard to argue that he ever really signed any "stars" of the ilk of Messi or Ronaldo. It was the purest case of what could be classed as a real team that I had seen. It is doubtful in my view that Shevchenko was a signing he wanted. If there was an example of being undermined by the power of players then Real Madrid is probably the best example. Especially when in comparison you think of the calibre of players he had underneath him at Porto and Inter Milan which still brought him success.

Nevertheless, there are several reasons why I do not wish him to return. Mostly, it is because of Chelsea fans. I type this while watching the Manchester United vs Chelsea league match where it appears that we are several hundred seats short of having sold our allocation. I have many memories of the fickleness of our support. It is hard to know whether those who attend matches these days have simply been spoilt or whether we have lost a core element of fans who were there during our more difficult times.

It is easy to join in with a vociferous, energetic minority. I am sure there are many who join in with the puerile anti-Benitez chants who regret it later - we all know the power of the crowd. The pre-season against Glasgow Rangers a few season back showed that. But I remember that Rosenberg match where we drew 1-1 (from memory, statistics showed we had over twenty shots on goal - it was simply one of those games) and the team was booed off. Then I remember the game against Mourinho's Inter Milan side at home where our so-called hardcore supporters in the MHL sang anti-Jose songs once it was clear we would not go through... and yet that same section of the crowd suddenly wants him back. What if we brought him back to the Bridge and then had a run of a few matches where we underperformed? At the back of my mind I fear the same reaction will occur.

Despite not really giving much of our youth team a solid run in the side we have a fairly young squad which needs to be given a chance. Some of the football we play is a joy to watch. Benitez is not my cup of tea and has made some odd decisions (I keep remember how he moans that the squad is tired and yet we are playing two friendlies over the course of 48 hours in the US against Manchester City just after our season ends) but has also acted with a lot more strength than I would have shown under similar circumstances. If we win the Europa League and qualify for the Champions League then ultimately you have to admit that he has not done a bad job and banners with "Rafa Out" emblazoned upon them should be burnt.
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Despite having family commitments which have limited my attendance of aways it has been a fluke that I managed to use Airmiles points (or "Avios" as they call it these days) to book free flights for the final to Amsterdam several months ago... and even luckier that I randomly decided to enter the UEFA draw for both Europa as well as Champions League Final tickets and was successful in the former. It is a pitiful allocation for our fans though - to receive less than 10,000 tickets for a final means that well over half the stadium's seats were intended for neutrals and corporates.

I chose for one season to sit in the East Middle Centenary Club - and never will again - the overhang from the East Upper kills the atmosphere in the row we are in; the service in the bar is terrible; you miss out on having the flexibility to try different pubs and restaurants before a match with different friends. I also selflishly assumed this would give me a good chance of getting tickets directly from the club for the final as I was in the posh seats. Instead, the criteria for receiving tickets are dependant on how many Europa League home matches you have officially attended. I have attended all of them bar one but have not used my season ticket as it is only eligible for my own seat which would have cost £120 vs Rubin Kazin. Eg. if I wish to buy a seat in the East Upper and have loyalty points credited I cannot do so even if the seats there go on general sale!

It is hard to admit but I covered all bases and in the semis even put a bet on Basle to beat us at home in case we did not make it through. This has almost certainly jinxed us and I fully expect us to lose in the final against a good Benfica side! Ah, Chelsea... Good luck you Blues!

A Real Lack of Corinthian Spirit at Anfield

The Suarez goal at the end of today’s game brought a strange reaction in me. It was not one of violence, spit or swearing but a simple, emotional sigh. It did not stir up the blood pressure but triggered a series of thought processes that led me to the conclusion that this is simply the way football has been and will be for many years.

Liverpool should have suffered two red cards and yet received none. Six minutes of added time when there were four substitutions and two goals in the second half simply did not add up. The schoolboy-ish excuse that they were at their home ground may have affected it some extent. Of the two reds, Sturridge’s challenge which could have left our player with a broken ankle was arguably the worst… Suarez’s bite was more symbolic rather than the first course of his afternoon tea. What irked me more was how Suarez then pretended that nothing had happened and protested his innocence so vehemently that the referee then seemed to simply not believe Ivanovic’s accusations. I mean come on – when has a player ever bitten another player on a football pitch? Oh, apparently Suarez did while at Ajax....

The fact that neither manager wished to comment on the incidents shows how those who are supposed to be leaders have their hands tied. What are the positive consequences of criticising a player? Our manager perhaps still has too much connection with today’s home side and fears the possible disappearance of belongings in the homes he owns within the vicinity of Anfield should he say something negative.

For the Reds the risk lies in the value of Suarez if it is made clear that the club wish to transfer him for negative reasons. Balotelli is an example – a player one Manchester City fan I spoke to at Wembley last week thought was the best player he had seen in a light blue shirt. He was sold for under £20 million, scored on his debut for Milan and then was caught smoking inside a train toilet! With only a certain amount of wages that a club can deduct for poor behaviour players have the power.

It brought bigger questions about football in general. Once a professional’s career has been established then he is in control. Having personally suffered job turbulence recently I only wished that I could have a four-year contract where even the most ridiculous unprofessional conduct goes relatively unpunished. In most normal careers even serious speeding fines can lead an individual to struggle to find work, let alone keep it. We can all forgive a person making a mistake but when we see continual misconduct what are we supposed to think?

There is a purity that is missing in football and this needs to be addressed. Poor behaviour at the most supposedly respected clubs in Europe does not help. Then FIFA is a body that few look up to when it comes to finding good examples of conduct so where do we begin? It is also hard to type this without feeling hypocritical considering some of the on and off the field antics of some players at the football club that I love. However, in recent years the myopic, partisan nature of my support (at one stage I refused to watch televised matches of any team unless it involved my own club) has diminished when I realise that Chelsea itself is not perfect either on the pitch or the terraces.

There is simply so much at stake these days that players could easily exchange roles and become professional actors. Surely this sport can be seen as a form of art considering we are all allegedly searching for beauty in football? Do we wish to reach a stage where authorities have to step in and take retrospective action on every single bad incident until football returns to being played in the correct spirit? The original team that tried to set such an example, Corinthian Casuals now play in the Isthmian League which is perhaps the best reflection of how football has developed in a world where we are supposed to be advancing as a human race.

Chelsea on the Brink

Finally! We use our squad, give a few of our main players a rest and hey presto – not only have we given our fringe people a chance to shine but come back with a win! Why did you not use this tactic earlier Rafa? Then you would not have to moan about how tired the players are! The downside is that we face Manchester United in the next round of the FA Cup and with morale at such a low I dread to think how we perform. Maybe it is a chance to play our fringe squad at Old Trafford too so that at least we can use that as an excuse should we lose against a side which is only superior to us when it comes to strikers.

Some say we should be happy and grateful for what we have achieved over the past decade but I cannot rest on our laurels – we should be a lot further ahead of our peers than we currently are and mentioned in the same breath as the traditional European giants. In the league it is simply depressing to realise that suddenly we are sharing roughly the same points as Tottenham and Arsenal. On paper (Gareth Bale excluded) the strength of our squad should be putting us well clear of our North London rivals.

There is such a morose atmosphere attending Chelsea matches now. The stands have been hijacked by those who have nothing better to do than direct anger at our club’s management. It was almost comical that Sparta Prague scored in the sixteenth minute just as some Chelsea fans began their minute’s worth of applause for Di Matteo. Although I have not joined in with the anti-Benitez chanting I am firmly becoming disenfranchised with the club and am dreading what my own gut reaction will be when season ticket renewal forms hit my doormat.

The days of simply supporting your club and getting behind your team when the chips are down are firmly gone. Any youngsters attending matches at Stamford Bridge these days must wonder if this is what football matches have always been like! Maybe we have been spoilt but the club does no favours for itself with a lack of a clear strategy when it comes to footballing matters. Do they not realise that if we fail to qualify for the Champions’ League then the Tokyo Chelsea Supporters Association (est. 2012) will cease to exist with fewer lucrative replica shirt sales to follow?

The real fear I have is of losing the considerable talent we have at the end of the season should we finish outside the top four. The club needs a drastic overhaul of policy as soon as humanly possible – I am available and love my club to such an extent that am happy to join the board for free to help!

Brentford 2 Chelsea 2

It has not been easy being a Chelsea fan this season. From such highs to such lows. The truth is that football in general just does not feel as fun as it used to be and not just because of so many failings we have on the pitch. Off it, we yet again appear to be the brunt of hatred and are inconsistent with our battles against it. The vitriol against our manager (although sometimes justified - why did we replace one right back with another when behind today?) is not helping the side. While our fans remain so unenamoured with Rafa it is hard to see us going forward as a club and I fear for our long-term future.

It is maybe because I have such high expectations of my football club that draws against Brentford and losses against the likes of Swansea and QPR hurt the most. Sandwiched in between all this was a win against Arsenal which although just about deserved could easily have ended up as a stalemate.

It was a beautiful winter's day today with the sun shining and a light breeze welcoming me into Brentford. It was almost a rugby-like atmosphere with pubs on every corner of the stadium, no petty chants from the home fans (unlike some of our peers in West London who act like schoolchildren) and to top it all - terracing! I only stood for the first half as the away end in Brentford provides one of the many reasons why so many despise standing - awful views, no facilities and a feeling of dread should an emergency evacuation be required. The seats in the upper tier would only have suited a quadriplegic and the hamburgers tasted like they contained not just horse but dog meat.

The first half performance was fairly woeful. I can forgive a side sometimes not being able to play flowing football due to a poor lower division pitch but there were other reasons to feel ire. The backpass that Turnbull picked up was simply embarrassing. Foul throws here and there. And a tendency for the side to want to pass the ball back and forth in our own half near the front of our penalty area where the pitch was at its worst.

I have rarely sat with such an air of resignation as I have done under Benitez. At least Di Matteo had the benefit of my doubt but when such basic footballing formalities cannot be completed then to me it reflects a more general problem. The two goals we scored were quite sublime but were overshadowed by such negative feeling from Chelsea fans that the chant, "Things are so bad, we miss Avram Grant" even had a following. At least the good old Chelsea humour was there with, "I would rather be a wasp than a Bee" making rounds as a song.

You do feel quite helpless. You wonder if Hazard's reaction to the ballboy time wasting earlier on in the week reflected something deeper - or is it too difficult to read so much into football these days? Sad times.

Chelsea 0 QPR 1

Alarm bells rang yesterday morning when a newspaper article wrote of squad rotation at Chelsea and interviewed our manager. Benitez was quite open to the idea and stated that sometimes players needed to be rested. Five key players did not start (admittedly Cech was absent through injury). To leave Cole, Mata, Hazard and Ramires on the bench was quite baffling. If key players need to rest then they should not be in the squad at all. Peripheral participants should not start in an important league match and instead they should show their worth during forthcoming fixtures in the FA and League Cup.

To be fair we do have a light squad – no Mikel and Romeu does not help and up front Torres has no player to complement or pressure him. Although many lament the boos he receives from some of the crowd it was hardly his fault that Chelsea lost last night. Commentators will however argue that he should have done better when his only one-on-one was blasted straight at the ‘keeper.

We have dropped five points against QPR this season and it is simply not good enough. There were excuses at the away game with politics dominating, but at home last night the first half was one of the worst I have ever witnessed. Some of the shots from outside the box were simply embarrassing with Ivanovic one of the worst offenders.

The feng shui that we had under di Matteo is missing and the way Chelsea appear to be procrastinating on contract negotiations with arguably our greatest ever midfielder in Frank Lampard makes me feel uncomfortable. The Ba signing is baffling when we have Lukaku in reserve although I will not miss Sturridge and his general arrogance. Moses works hard but produces little.

It was a big victory for our rivals who mention our name in almost every song they sing – but Chelsea fans did not rise to the occasion with the atmosphere muted and return banter lacking. It is after games like yesterday that you question what difference Benitez will make compared to di Matteo over the course of the season. Odd player selections, players visibly angry on the pitch (Lampard in particular when substituted) and Marin lucky not to have received a red card in the opening minutes as the QPR player he fouled stood up sportingly and did not roll over five times as our rivals in the World Club Championship Final did.

It is absolutely vital that this club finishes in a Champions League position at the end of the season. Our priority should be the league but last night was the first time where the Spaniard’s experiments truly failed. Something is not right in the heart of the club at the moment and compared to our Manchester peers (who we still have to play away from home this season) we appear much weaker. Even worse, the defeat was mostly met by a passionless shrug of the shoulders and a slow shuffle home.