Tuesday 31 January
Swansea City 1:1 Chelsea
At least with Carlo Ancelotti you were never sure what kind of performance you’d get. Sometimes we’d dominate, sometimes stagnate but there was little indication before kick-off which team would turn up. This season seems to have developed a pattern of dire first-half displays, better in the second period but unable to muster many goals.
This time they dominated the first-half almost completely and opened the scoring when Scott Sinclair hooked in a poor clearing header from Bosingwa. 1-0.
Bosingwa was on the pitch at right-back because John Terry is injured so Branislav Ivanovic moved inside to partner Luiz. Gary Cahill sat on the bench with a puzzled expression. Why spend £7m on a player you are not going to use.
We started to hold the ball better in the second-half but with Torres still a passenger and Sturridge struggling to recapture his early form we tried to funnel everything through Juan Mata and he has been feeling the pressure.
Ashley Cole couldn’t stand the strain and picked up two yellows. He will be suspended from the visit of Manchester United at the weekend.
The get out of jail card was played in stoppage time when Bosingwa’s cross deflected in. 1-1. It was ill deserved and for once it looked like Sinclair and Brendan Rodgers might be about extract some revenge for how we squandered their talents.

In other news the transfer window closed with a dull thud. Kevin De Bruyne did sign and there were a couple of late surprises. De Bruyne signed for five years at a cost of around £6.7 when all the extras have been added on.
Philipp Prosenik has signed for AC Milan. It is hard to stand in the way of a young player when someone as glamorous as Milan bat their eyelids but it is a surprise. Philipp has been injured for most of the three years he has been working up through the youth and reserve ladder. We wish him well.
Patrick Bamford signed from Nottingham Forest for about £1.5m with add-ons, &, etc. Patrick has only two first-team games but has been prolific in the FA youth cup.
Rhys Taylor has made such an impression with the Millers that he’ll now stay on loan with Rotherham until the end of the season. After a great 3-0 win in his first game Rotherham have lost three on the trot and are having a miserable season.

Lastly, on a good night to bury bad news, Chelsea announced their results from the last financial year – a £67m loss. That is down on last term and turnover is up but a few factors kept us in the black. Firstly compensation to Carlo and his staff combined with £15m to Porto for permission to steal their boss makes up a fair size chunk of that loss. The wage bill was much smaller with Joe Cole, Michael Ballack and others no longer on the books. That figure will reduce even further now that Anelka and Alex have gone. We have to get used to a future of developing young players and selling them on to bigger clubs to break even if we are to meet the restrictions on losses introduced by Uefa. Without a naming rights deal the size of Manchester City’s ludicrous contract with their state airline or a new stadium, we will slump into the second tier of European clubs.

Wednesday 1 February
John Terry got the worst possible result from the court today as his trial for his much publicised racially aggravated public order offence has been put off until July. Normally we’d be in court in a few weeks look at the tapes with a lip reading expert and go home. But Ron Gourlay waded in and asked for a delay because they intend to call other players as character witnesses and that might interfere with training and then in the summer we have Euro 2012. So John has to wait nearly ten-months to clear his name when the explanation he gave at the time has yet to be contradicted.
The FA Cup game against a rampant Birmingham City will be the lunchtime game on Saturday 18 February.

Thursday 2 February
Not everyone is freezing their nads off in Blighty. Three of Chelsea’s youngest and brightest are in Portugal where England U17 beat the hosts of the Algarve trophy 2-1. John Swift and Jordan Houghton played from the start, while Alistair Gordon played the closing stages.

Friday 3 February
Acting on the principle that British subjects are guilty until proven innocent the FA removed John Terry from his role as England captain, again. It is no doubt a difficult situation for the FA but the principle they are abusing is a fairly fundamental one and their solution doesn’t seem to alter the situation. If John is unfit to be captain because someone didn’t hear any abuse directed at him but complained a week later after everyone said it had happened, then he shouldn’t be in the squad. This half-way of removing the captain’s armband but leaving him in the team suits nobody.
Still, John usually responds to this kind of absurdity by playing out of his skin. What are the odds he’ll score the winner on Sunday having out jumped Rio Ferdinand?

Saturday 4 February
John Terry will not be out-jumping anyone tomorrow; he has a problem with a knee. As if he didn’t have enough problems AVB had to spend half his press conference denying that Jose Mourinho was going to return to Chelsea. Some journalist got a join the dots book of football scandal for Christmas and was just trying it out.
Gary Cahill might finally get a game. AVB’s reluctance to use him at Swansea – to the extent that he moved Ivanovic in to the middle and gave the walking disaster Jose Bosingwa another game to throw away – suggests that Cahill is another player that was a target for the club not the manager. We’ll see what he does about Cole’s suspension. Bringing in Bertrand would be the obvious progression but AVB is likely to be short sighted and play Ferreira instead.
Didier Drogba scored twice as the Ivory Coast finally started looking like a team by beating co-hosts Equatorial Guinea. Sadly it means that we’ll be without our Ivorian pair for at least another week.

Sunday 5 February
Chelsea 3:3 Manchester United
Judging from the general grumbling before the kick-off a point would have been a positive outcome – judging by the general grumbling after the final whistle this felt more like a defeat than a draw.
The bad news from the team sheets came in the form of Jose Bosingwa at left-back instead of Ryan Bertrand and with Florent Malouda ahead of him it was clear we were not getting any attacking momentum down the left.
This squad looked really thin; with Terry, Cole, Lampard, Ramires and Drogba all absent for one reason or another Lucas Piazon was named among the subs.
After some bright Chelsea pressure and a couple of corners United wanted a penalty when Young wriggled into the area and flung himself to the ground. Possibly mindful that they only beat Stoke City midweek with the help of a couple of penalties United’s tactic for the rest of the season is clear: dive on sight.
Then a couple of minutes later Welbeck is played in and Cahill slides in, takes the ball off his toe and brings him down. United want another penalty and a red card for denying a goal scoring opportunity. Denying a goal by robbing the player of the ball is still ok with Howard Webb who noted that contact was outside the area. Still, if they keep asking eventually he’ll give one.
We didn’t look capable of anything, Torres kept fluffing the ball back to United and if it wasn’t for Mata and the impressive Essien we’d have nothing. As this mostly nothing was going on the ball fell to Sturridge who cut to the byline and played a wall pass off Jonny Evans and in. 1-0.
It will be classed as an own goal by Sturridge’s intention was clear.
They forced one save from Cech before the break when Young cut inside and Rooney nearly had a tap in form Cech’s save.
The second-half had barely started when blam – Mata sticks it into the top corner on the volley. What a goal, we have been starved of those special moments for a while but this was a cracking goal, we have come to rely on the little Spaniard for inspiration but this was above and beyond. The break started in fairly ordinary way but when Ivanovic won the ball back and fed Torres the cross was fizzed, the marking nowhere, the volley precise. 2-0.
We didn’t have to wait for a third Sturridge again skinned Evra and from the free-kick David Luiz headed goalwards, the ball looped in from Ferdinand’s shoulder – 3-0 and general delirium.
That positive feeling didn’t last. It seems we don’t yet have confidence in AVB’s sides’ ability to hold out, there having been one too many last minute equalisers this term.
Their fight back came when Evra ran into the box and ran across Sturridge looking for contact. Naively Daniel tried to win the ball and Evra was delighted to fall over it. For once Wayne Rooney didn’t flop it into the ’keeper or fire wide. 3-1.
The second penalty a few minutes on is a disgrace. Danny Welbeck dived because United were trailing and, as so often in the past, it worked. Until retrospective bans are handed out to stop cheating like this United will keep doing it. It is very hard to consistently come up with play that opens up defences and as the season drags into the business end of winter it is so much easier to fall to the ground and have the referee do the job for you. Webb couldn’t be blamed because from his angle the con looked convincing but Welbeck knows he is a cheat and a fraud. 3-2.
And you knew what was coming, AVB’s sides cannot hold the ball obviously don’t train for this situation, as soon as we should be getting tight and closing the game down we go hell for leather in the opposite direction. It is naïve in the extreme to play suicide football against Wolves or Genk but for god sake realise there is virtue in scruffy wins.
This time Andre Villas-Boas took off Sturridge for Romeu and the whole thing fell apart. He moved Mata out wide from his drifting role and all cohesion disappeared from both attacking and defending. We sat with our pants round our ankles and invited United on.
The sickening equaliser came surprisingly early as Rooney’s shot was parried by Cech, Ivanovic didn’t close down the cross and Luiz stood still and watched as Hernandez headed in unmarked. 3-3.
We have watched too much of this kind of shit this season. All the while we’ve been cutting AVB slack because it is a new league for him and a rebuilding job, obviously it would be unfair to expect miracles but signs of improvement, effort or imagination would help.
Torres had time to be played in seven-yards out only to cut inside and get in a tangle and lose the ball when even the United defenders had been waiting for him to shoot. Fernando, is it better to belt that effort wide or at the ’keeper rather than attempt to cut back and fumble the chance. Have some self-respect and put your laces through the thing.
Mata’s late free-kick was brilliantly turned round by their flaky ’keeper completely lacking in confidence, so that is another favour we’ve done them and the newly revived stickman also parried a late Cahill drive to keep the scores level.
You could, if you were a blind optimist, say that this was a good point won with the spine of our team absent and that they had to cheat to get back into it. But that would be to ignore the fact that this is a woeful United side that gets by on reputation and soft penalties and this just keeps happening to us. We’d be joint top if Mourinho was in charge of the side for the last ten-minutes of each game this season. Every time AVB brings on a player to shore things up defensively we ship a goal because whatever defensive shape we had usually goes out the window.
What is even more sickening is that those wankers in the media and their sad echoes in public bars the length of the land have another log to put on the pitiable whine that it is never over against United.

Ramires and Luiz

Monday 23 January
Rumours on twitter that Bobby Tambling, all time record goalscorer and all that, is in hospital in Ireland. We wish him well.

Tuesday 24 January
Norwich City reserves 3:3 Chelsea reserves
Lucas Piazon put us ahead in the first half but we needed two well taken late strikes from Islam Feruz to dig us out of our second-half hole. Bring your boots and gloves to the next match as injury and loans mean we struggled to find a goalkeeper. James Russell, Canvey Island’s stopper and youth team goalkeeping coach stepped in and pulled off a late save to keep things at three each.
Alex will not be going to QPR simply because our aspirant neighbours were unwilling to pay premiership wages. Where does that leave us? Well, Carlo over at PSG might take him, if not AVB has some major bridge building to get on with.
Meanwhile Anton Ferdinand has been urged to shake hands with John Terry before the game on Saturday. God knows why, if he wants to act the injured party like a six-year-old and sulk – let him. The police seem to believe that all the tension of the afternoon can be released with a handshake. We remember Sepp Blatter had the same idea a few months back but it didn’t catch on.
Meanwhile, the growing anger that the game will kick-off at 12 and is not on the telly threatens to boil over into open revolt, riots and running battles with Bill in the streets – apparently it was their idea.
Talking of injured parties Mario Balotelli’s agent has been explaining how hard done by he feels. The mentally-all-there Italian has been sent off three times since he arrived at City and his agent says he feels persecuted. He has a point on an afternoon when he was charged by the FA for stamping on Scott Parker, his English team mate was let off a blatant forearm-smash in the same game.

Wednesday 25 January
Kevin De Bruyne looks to be the next one in as Genk officials are apparently in town to finalise a £7m-ish deal. The expectation is that Kev will be loaned back to the Belgian champions until the summer.

Thursday 26 January
A moron sent Anton Ferdinand a bullet in the post as a threatening gesture ahead of Saturday’s game. We honestly thought this kind of stupidity was reserved for the sectarians north of the boarder.
Let’s be clear; whoever sent this cartridge is not a Chelsea fan.
They cannot have supported Chelsea when Paul Canoville played or Ruud Gullit, Gianfranco Zola or Didier Drogba. You cannot support a football team with players from so many different countries, so many different backgrounds and be racist. If you are still a racist given the nature of the club you support, we invite you to leave.
Given that level of stupidity it is hard to criticise Anton Ferdinand while he mulls over whether to shake John Terry’s hand. The simplest advice would be to grow up. Wayne Bridge looked a complete dick when he refused JT’s handshake over an alleged affair with his ex. That childish gesture has blighted his career ever since, managers don’t want to take on a player that sensitive to stories in the News of the World.
Buried under all that news Lucas Piazon signed a contract extension until 2017, so the nippy Brazilian will be around for a while to come.

Friday 27 January
Cote D’Ivoire 2:0 Burkina Faso
Didier set up Salomon this time for a sweet strike and the boys progress to the next round.
Alex will spend the next few years in Paris with PSG. Carlo Ancelotti completed the deal for £4.2m and has bought a talented and adaptable defender who has been a great servant in his time here. It is a shame to let him go for so little.
Kevin De Bruyne can expect a warm welcome from the boss. Andre Villas-Boas went out his way to explain that signing the young Belgian was not his choice: “You have to speak to the people from the club about that. It’s not within my immediate projects. He’s a player the club has scouted for some time. I’m a manager who respects club policy.”
He added: “A club has to look to the future, whether it’s with this manager or another. He’s a good bet for the future.”
Is there a hint in there that he feels he’ll be leaving soon, if not it is worrying for a couple of reasons. Firstly it suggests that AVB is not in control of signing players and, if he isn’t, we might as well give up now, and it might mean that in future managers will look elsewhere – who, after all, wants to work somewhere where they buy the players and you take the flack.
Meanwhile Kaby Djalo has left us for Cyprus and AEL in Limassol. Kaby is Portuguese by birth and won a FA Youth Cup medal during his time here.

Saturday 28 January
Queens Park Rangers 0:1 Chelsea
After the grope-the-public exercise outside (honestly, what was point of that? Was a crazed Chelsea fan going to bring a bazooka?) the rest of the afternoon was a bit flat. Punishing all of the class because two boys cannot behave the FA decided that it Anton and John were not going to shake then nobody would be allowed to.
Branislav Ivanovic made a welcome return at right-back with Malouda in for Frank. Gary Cahill made the bench.
Nothing happened in the first-half, at all.
QPR were dreadful throughout and the longer you watched them struggle the more you realised why there were so many gaps in the home seats. Not even QPR fans will pay to watch this rubbish.
Chelsea dominated, simply because QPR were hardly there. Mata’s cross resulted in the penalty. All the commentators since have said soft call or dive but really what is the difference between Clint Hill blundering into the back of Sturridge and David Luiz on Helguson. Except, of course, the latter, everyone agreed, was a nailed on penalty and Luiz was a joke and that brave Clint Hill was harshly done by a Chelsea con. Same old Chelsea, always…
Mata put away the penalty with ease and that was that. They mustered one serious shot on target with the last kick of the game but Cech pushed the ball wide.
The real worry is the injury to Ramires who was carried off after appearing to twist his knee. He could miss a vital part of the season with Europe in the near future.
Thankfully, we don’t have to travel up to White City again this season. Given that we have family members unfortunate enough to support them it is probably best for all concerned if they are relegated at the end of the season and we have a few years apart.

Norwich City youth 2:1 Chelsea youth
A bit of a sloppy start left the side two down at the break and unable to find a leveller despite, substitute, Ismail Seremba scoring late on. He had a beautiful lob ruled out for offside as well.
Ramires looks to have a meniscus tear and will miss at least four weeks.

Sunday 29 January
As a reward for yesterday’s plunder – all the papers have labelled us cheats – we will play Birmingham City at home.
Brighton and Hove Albion go to Anfield while Spurts will be knocked out at Stevenage

Chelsea reserves 2:3 Wycombe Wanderers reserves
Jacob Mellis scored both the goals as the reserves played a loosener. Wycombe were too big and too experienced opponents for a young Chelsea team but there were positives in a game where we dominated possession and chances.

Tuesday 17 January
Fulham youth 2:1 Chelsea youth
A bit of a backward step for the academy; Adi made several changes from the side that played in the youth cup last week and his young side passed up a host of chances to win this. The goal we did manage came from Swedish/Bosnian wonder kid Anjur Osmanovic.

Alex had been given permission to speak to QPR. No fee has yet been agreed but a fine, successful Chelsea career is to come to an end in the hoops of disgrace. Alex has been a brilliant servant of Chelsea football club. It will always be to AVB’s discredit that two players as valuable as Nicolas Anelka and Alex were made to play with the youth team for asking for a transfer.
Josh McEachran and Patrick Van Aanholt are out on loan. Josh, to everyone’s surprise, has joined Swansea City and links up again with Brendan Rodgers. Patrick will take part in the Vitesse Arnhem experiment that is going steadily at the moment. Vitesse sit sixth just seven points from the top.
Everyone’s attention will be focussed on Swansea for the rest of the season. Josh has shown such promise and 18 games between now and the end of the campaign should develop him into an automatic first choice for next term. It worked for Daniel Sturridge last year at Bolton.
Patrick is in a different situation, he has demonstrated time and again that he is ready for this level but is perpetually stuck behind Ashley Cole. We wish them both well.
Meanwhile the BBC is reporting that we have signed three brothers from Luton Town. Dasilva wins Rio and Cole (12) along with their older brother Jay (13) have been snapped up by the academy in a deal that could bag the Hatters £1m if all three make the first team.

Meanwhile, in late news: QPR thrashed Milton Keynes, a side two divisions below them, by one goal to, erm, nil. So we’ll be back down there the weekend after next.

Thursday 19 January
Sam Walker has joined Yeovil Town until the end of the season. Huish Park is getting a very good ’keeper and one who is starting to get noticed. Yeovil’s manager, Gary Johnson, had Sam at Northampton earlier this season said: “I didn’t want to lose Sam because there’s a few clubs who know about him, so I’m pleased he’s back working with me.”
Reports emerge, in a thoroughly reputable newspaper and one unconnected in any way to phone-hacking, that Chelsea’s board attempted to buy the 75% majority it needed for the CPO vote last year.
It couldn’t be true though – Abramovich gives the impression of a man who doesn’t mess about. If he were determined to get a majority we’d already be on our way to Battersea Park.

Friday 20 January
The CPO AGM was almost as extraordinary as the summer’s EGM and passed off without actual fisticuffs but it is a sign of how far we have come that the CPO’s annual shindig gets reported at all. This year the board were elected and that was it. They wanted to sell more shares and expand the board but both resolutions were voted down when the new chairman, Steve Frankham swung the proxy vote against the bids. So, the CPO will do no new business for a year and another EGM will be scheduled to give shareholders an opportunity to voice suggestions.

Saturday 21 January
Norwich City 0:0 Chelsea
What a washout: we are treated to the same recipe for a soggy pudding of a performance topped off with a creamy swirl of racist chanting. Since the draw with Tottenham we’ve stunk, it seems that this team, set up this way cannot exercise control over a match against any opponents; cannot create enough chances, cannot take those we do and can do little or nothing to protect our goal from average teams.
This performance came on a weekend when we knew at least two of our direct rivals at the top would drop points. So obviously the squad was pumped up and eager to close the gap.
Gary Cahill sat in the stands for this one so we’ll have to wait a week for his bow. Daniel Sturridge was back on the right with Lampard and Ramires behind and Meireles in the holding role.
Norwich City had answers for our early probing and Holt and Morison cut through our back line three or four times without reply. The best moment of the first-half came when Torres remembered his lines and stabbed an effort that Ruddy in the home goal tipped round the post.
Lampard hobbled out of the action after a little more than half-an-hour, to be replace by Malouda.
The second period started much as the first with Norwich finding early space before we started to impose ourselves. Torres swiped at one from a corner but missed the ball before poking and excellent chance wide after Bosingwa had wriggled into the box.
Mata was playing his socks off again and had a low effort saved shortly before Meireles got away with a two handed block.
Torres and Meireles were replace by Lukaku and Essien and the rangy Belgian made an impact running hard down the right he muscled defenders out of the way before his cross is cut out and apart from a few fluffed efforts from Malouda that was really that.
To put this afternoon into perspective this is the first time Norwich City have kept a clean sheet this season.

The racist chanting happened on the train on the way home, just to add a charming note to a miserable day.

Sunday 21 January
Didier Drogba scored for the Ivory Coast as they overcame Sudan 1-0 in their opening game of the African Cup of Nations.
Meanwhile, Manchesters City and United beat Tottenham and Arsenal, we are prepared to bet that neither side will play as poorly against us. City were lucky not to finish with nine-men as both Lescott and Balotelli assaulted Tottenham players without punishment. Both incidents were straight red-cards and it’ll be interesting to see what the FA decide to do about it.
After the match yesterday the squad flew off for a spot of warm weather training in the med but poor Frank has had to stay in London for tests on his calf.

Tuesday 10 January
Spare a thought for poor Paul Clement this morning as news breaks that he has been forced to take a job in Paris. Yes, Paul will be turning up for work with Carlo Ancelotti and Claude Makelele at Paris Saint-Germain for the foreseeable future. PSG’s owners appear to have no idea what they are doing; sacking a popular ex-player as manager, flashing money at a French club and expecting the Champions’ League to fall into their lap. Still, if they give us ten million for Florent Malouda and we’ll give them a break.
Arsenal have employed a bloke who looks like a fat version of Thierry Henry, only with a beard. It won’t last.
Lionel Messi has won the Ballon D’Or for the tenth straight year.

Wednesday 11 January
Norwich City youth 0:0 Chelsea youth
(Chelsea won 2-4 on penalties)
Too much to cover in a weekly diary but well worth a watch on-line; skip the first-half. Jamal Blackman deserves special mention after Norwich had wafted their first penalty he saved their second brilliantly down to his left and suddenly we were 0-3 up in the shoot-out and hosed. Spare a thought for Danny Pappoe who was returning from a knee problem that kept him since October and, with barely half-an-hour gone, he twisted it again and had to be subbed.

Thursday 12 January
Gaël Kakuta has finally got the switch he was looking for and will play for Dijon in the French first division. No official word on the Chelsea site or details of the loan but he will stay in France until the end of the season.
Swansea confirm that they have reached an agreement over Josh McEachran’s loan for the remainder of the season but there is no confirmation of when Josh will be allowed to leave with AVB certainly keeping McEachran ahead of Saturday’s home game with Sunderland.

Friday 13 January
Ben Gordon’s loan to Kilmarnock for the rest of the season has been confirmed. Ben was with Kilmarnock for a spell last season as well as time with Scunthorpe. This year he had a brief stint at Peterborough.
AVB conformed that the club has received a bid for Alex but refused to say that it was from Fulham or that it was only £2m.
He reiterated that Frank Lampard was still part of his plans; Manchester United had been linked with Frank as the papers resort to simply making this shit up in an otherwise slow transfer window.

Breaking newts … Gary Cahill is on his way to London … according to Sky Sports News … personal terms have been agreed … lunking defender to have medical tomorrow …

Breaking news II (voice over: If you thought breaking news couldn’t get more exciting, CFCnet pictures brings you breaking news II rise of the Ivory) … Coast, who beat Tunisia 2-0 in a friendly in Abu Dhabi. Salomon Kalou opened things up and Didier sealed them from the spot. The Elephants look strong enough on this showing to win the Africa Nations Cup, which means the boys will be away until the middle of February

Saturday 14 January
Chelsea 1:0 Sunderland
Our nerves can’t take much more of this: three times Sunderland flew through our defence in the last ten minutes. We could do nothing to stop them, we failed to defend, hold the ball, block, tackle anything really than just watch the Makems play round us. The sickening equaliser has become such a feature of the play that it was genuinely a surprise when they didn’t score and we somehow left with the points. But there were positives in that Torres looked to be getting back to his best – providing, arguably, the assist of the season – and the biggest cheer of the day for Michael Essien’s short cameo. You have to hope that Michael’s third serious knee problem means that he comes back bionic.
The game started with Stéphane Sessegnon waltzing forward unopposed but the chance went wide. Torres bouncy castle of a header was the best we’d managed before we exploded out of nowhere again: Meireles had a shot blocked and we eventually worked the ball out to Mata on the right – what happened next could have been goal of the season – Torres’ Spun off the back of the defence and executed a perfect scissors kick with such power that the ball to smacked off the bar and in off Lampard. 1-0.
Surely we would go on and rack up a cricket score of blistering goals? Er, no, this was the same performance as the previous five – we were unable to score more than one, never appeared to dominate, never looked in control at the back and we had our opponent’s wastefulness to thank for a clean sheet.
We didn’t create too many more chances in the first-half Torres had a header blocked; Ashley Cole tried to sneak on in as everyone anticipated a cross. It was Sunderland who came closest when Sessegnon fed Bendtner who dragged just wide. Torres almost repeated the exact move at the other end but half-time saw us with just a slender lead.
Phil Dowd had a quiet game until it came to giving penalties. First Torres was bundled over in the box around the hour, then Cole was accused of barging Bendtner in the back and it is hard to argue and then Torres, again, cuts inside a defender into the box and is clearly flattened by a defender’s knee; nothing doing for Dowd, who booked Fernando for diving. Meireles then tried to chip Mignolet in the Sunderland goal but the ’keeper was just quick enough to cover back.
We didn’t really have control of the rest of the match and were overwhelmed at the end when Bendtner missed the last offering from a frazzled defence.
Frank Lampard’s goal is his 181st and moves him just 12 behind Kerry Dixon and 21 behind Bobby Tambling’s 202.
That is not the only positive – Essien’s back and will require a few games for the old bullishness to return, Gary Cahill passed his medical and agreed personal terms so he is pretty much in the bag and Fernando Torres is starting to look like the player who started the season.

terry, tottenham hotspur

Thursday 5 January
New deals abound today; Nat Chalobah, George Saville and Adam Phillip all got new contracts. Nathaniel Chalobah’s first professional contract is a natural step for the gifted defender-come-midfielder who has spent the last year captaining England and scoring goals. Comparisons with John Terry are no exaggeration.
The train to Cardiff has been cancelled. Not enough takers.

Friday 6 January
Patrick Van Aanholt will be raising a few glasses of non-alcoholic beverage as his miserable loan to Wigan has been terminated by mutual consent. Patrick played well when he was given the chance but a struggling Wigan relied on Figueroa despite a tide of fan opinion that Van Aanholt was the better player.

Saturday 7 January
Chelsea youth 2:3 West Ham United youth
We’d become so accustomed to battling wins from Adi Viveash’s youngsters that we assumed that this score was the wrong way round. After a number of early misses and slips we had to come from behind twice (no, snickering at the back) as Amin Affane and Nathan Ake scored to bring us level. Only for Jamal Blackman to make the calamitous decision to pick up a back pass – he doesn’t have the excuse we do because he was born after the back pass rule came into effect, probably – West Ham walloped in the free-kick through the crowd.

Sunday 8 January
Chelsea 4-0 Portsmouth
The last ten minutes might have put a gloss on another struggle but you have to look on the bright side and say two games and two wins in 2012.
AVB played the strongest side available to him and was rewarded with a result that was never easy but never really in doubt.
We struggled to create chances in the first-half, a Torres header that was pawed away at full stretch is the only real threat that comes to mind. While Portsmouth created little of their own we seemed determined to hand chances to them. Cole twice in explicably passed straight to a Portsmouth player.
Suitably chastised at half-time Chelsea’s players looked more focussed and with more speed. Malouda glided to the touchline and pulled back for Mata to score. 1-0.
David Luiz was in his usual form first giving away a free-kick and then losing possession to concede a chance that Terry eventually cleared off the line.
Everything was huff and puff until Malouda came off for Romeu and Ramires was pushed up on the right. Suddenly the game was easy Mata’s cross was headed on by Torres and Ramires toe-poked in. 2-0. With 84-minutes on the clock we’d certainly been made to wait for healthy lead. But it got better. The next move saw Torres break and Ramires speed beyond him and flick a delightful finish past the Pompey ’keeper. 3-0.
And the, just as you were edging to the exit, Frank Lampard cropped up to drive a low chance beyond a dispirited Portsmouth defence. 4-0

The draw could have been kinder as we’ll play away at either one of QPR (charming place, charming people) or Milton Keynes (football’s pariahs). Still the completely arbitrary and fair draw spat out Liverpool v Manchester United. Aren’t ITV lucky to keep getting these plum draws?
Manchester United had beaten their city rivals, er, City after defoying a secret weapon: Chris Foy decided to send off City’s Vincent Kompany but only after Wayne Rooney reminded him of the arrangement. Kompany’s crime was to win the ball cleanly and make no contact with his opponent. If the letter of the law says that was a red card then the letter of the law needs changing. It is more probable that Foy was looking for any excuse, as usual. Foy also failed to act before being told to by a United player. To act in collusion like that invites charges of

John Terry, Tottenham Hotspur

ed to replace the manager who got them there Antoine Kombouaré.
Florent Malouda has already been linked with a move to Paris in January

Saturday 31 December
Chelsea 1:3 Aston Villa
Great news before kick-off that Manchester United had lost at home to Blackburn Rovers obviously spurred Chelsea to slash the gap to the top of the table – er, Happy bloody New Year.
What is the point of beating Manchester City if you subsequently play like clowns. Nobody bothered to prepare for it so what is the point of reporting what happened during the game? Oh, yeah, work …
Chelsea started with the usual patchy defensive tactics, Ferreira replace Bosingwa but the trouble at right-back remains unaddressed five months into the season. Villa had not scored in five of their last seven games and missed both Bent and Heskey, so naturally they tore through us at will. Agbonlahor running into the gaping holes; even Steven Ireland looked classy, we were that bad.
Didier won and scored a penalty after 23 minutes. He managed to squeeze the shot in, just. 1-0. The goal was his 150th for the club and he celebrated like he was saying goodbye. Possibly because he has had an offer to go to China, possibly to twist the club’s arm on a new contract.
We then melted away at the back as the usual combination of incompetence; the defence was turned on its heels, Cech hesitated, Terry handled on the line, everyone stood still while Steven Ireland netted the rebound. 1-1. It was embarrassing.
We pressed in the second-half but the substitutions screwed us again. Lampard came on for Romeu and any cover our defence has went with the young Spaniard. As we pressed forward in the second-half we again substituted Daniel Sturridge. Torres did contrive a volley that hit the bar but was a spectator for the most part.
Villa carved us open at will at the back Agbonlahor ran through one on one with Cech but we got lucky with the save. The substitutions followed as AVB looked to shoot himself in the foot but bringing on the hapless Bosingwa with fifteen-minutes to go.
Their winner was a disgrace from front to back. Ciaran Clark was allowed an unimpeded run and Petrov literally walked through the middle of our defence to slot past Cech. 1-2. No defence, no challenge, no future. David Luiz was even looking the other way when the ball was played.
The third was more of the same only this time it was a rusty Frank Lampard playing the through ball for Ireland to run on, play in the substitute Bent and goodnight. 1-3. The boos at the end were thoroughly merited. To be presented with the chance to close the gap to the top and throw it away with another dreadful overall performance. The manager doesn’t seem to appreciate the problems his side have or if he does he doesn’t have the answer to them. Why does he persist in his defensive tactics when even limited sides like, Norwich, Villa and Fulham find it so easy to attack through them as if they were not there. Why persist with Bosingwa? Why ostracise Alex? What are you going to do about it?
Today’s only positive was that Sam Hutchinson was named on the bench for the first time since coming out of retirement.

Sunday 1 January
Nicolas Anelka has said his farewells and heads to China after today and, if you can stand the blaring music Sky Sports are eager to remind you that the transfer window is open – we haven’t signed anyone yet.

Monday 2 January
Wolverhampton Wanderers 1:2 Chelsea
So the new year gets off to a stuttering start but at least the result went the right way. The bad news is that we looked shaky at the back and could have lost another hectic match.
No Drogba or Sturridge because of injury meant Ramires running up the right and Torres in the middle. Reminders about how to start a match saw Chelsea fly out of the blocks. Mata lift one over, Lampard had the ball nicked off his toe and Ramires hit the side netting from a tight angle but we were getting forward.
Frank Lampard is not a dirty player and even with a helping of Chelsea bias, blue tinted spectacles and all he really should have been sent off. The ball had already gone when Lampard’s studs caught Adam Hammill half way up the tibia. Frank got away with a yellow.
The injustice seemed to spur Wolves as first a free-kick was headed onto the post, then another just wide before Doyle shot wide just before the break.
The second-half looked much the same as we failed to get much over half-way until Torres won a corner and the ball fell to Ramires who smashed it in to the roof of the net so hard everyone looked stunned. 0-1.
Suddenly we looked more comfortable as Torres tried to dribble through the middle and Mata had a crack deflected just over.
However, the spectre of the sickening equaliser is never far away this season and Jose Bosingwa is rarely far from the scene of the crime. This time he had his back to Fletcher who delivered the cross for Stephen Ward to level. 1-1.
The prospect of dropping nine points in little over a week was averted by a late, great, Frank Lampard burst into the box to hammer in Ashley Cole’s driven cross. 1-2.
We could well have flucked it from there as the defence scrambled and Cech pushed one over the bar with the last touch of the game.

On the loan front: Rhys Taylor has been loaned to Rotherham United until the end of the season. Rotherham are mid-table in league two and also have Jon Harley on loan from Notts County. Yes, that Jon Harley, the whippersnapper who excelled when Luca Vialli ruled the Bridge. It might shock to discover how old he is – look away now if you don’t want to feel any closer to death – 32.

Drogba, Valencia

Monday 12 December
Chelsea 2:1 Manchester City
It didn’t take more than two minutes for our high defensive line to look more like a clothes line than a Premiership defence: Aguero turned Terry near half-way and fed Balotelli, round Cech. 0-1.
It could have got worse: Balotelli repaid the favour only for Bosingwa to cover as Aguero threatened. Meireles did manage a couple of pot shots in reply but Aguero was again free but fired wide. Then Silva tries to dance round Bosingwa and the referee, Mark Clattenburg failed to spot the trip – Bosingwa actually managed to kick Silva while appearing to get out of the way.
Given the surprisingly direct start from a team only a few points ahead of us who have struggled to score more than five in a game in recent weeks, Chelsea wisely reverted to plan B and started to defend more deeply. It worked. City started to get frustrated as avenues to the edge of the Chelsea box became congested. Toure was clearly getting frustrated when he first kicked Mata, ever so gently, while the latter was on the floor and then slapped him in the face. While we are grateful to Clattenburg for failing to spot the penalty, are officials simply looking the other way this season? Have Fifa issued new guidance (Directive number: 666 “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil”)?
The agony of waiting for them to break again was briefly interrupted on the half-hour: John Terry pinged a superb ball left-footed out to Sturridge on the right, he cut inside and for once chose to cross not shoot and an unmarked Meireles arrived to volley home. 1-1.
Shortly afterwards the Meireles almost got himself a red for a studs-up tackle.
And so half-time with few additional scares; Chelsea really do look extremely solid when defending deep, why we don’t try it more often is anyone’s guess.
Sturridge started the second-period with a bang. First he was hauled back by Gaël Clichy, who was booked, out on the wing only to meet Mata’s delivery but fire over. Ramires and Mata were probing forward, making Kompany and Toure look mugs but the referee was still being stingy with his cards … until … Ramires breaks, Clichy upends him and a second yellow means red.
Having sent one off the ref went card happy. Romeu was booked, again, while winning the ball cleanly, again. Ramires went in the book a little later again for an innocuous looking challenge. But we were keeping the pressure on, crosses rained in but defenders by an large got in the way until … Sturridge (what would we do without him?) cut in onto his left foot and fired goalward. Well, in the general direction of too hard, too high and too wide but Lescott managed to get both hands in the way. Lampard, on as a sub, pulled rank, whacked the penalty down the middle. 2-1.
You have never seen so many freezing, soaking wet people celebrate quite like that.
The party atmosphere lasted through the last ten minutes as Didier Drogba indulged in a master class of keeping the ball in the corner and frustrating your opponents. At one point he turned the attentions of two defenders and blasted toward goal from 30-metres. It would have been him goal of all time but in the end we had to settle for 2-1.
Oriol Romeu deserves further praise. The young Spaniard has made the holding position his own and shown a very cool head under pressure and a good range of passing. But for one early slip that nearly allowed a chance he had a flawless night.

Meanwhile, in the morning Shanghai Shenua announced a deal for Nicolas Anelka to sign in January. No fee was mentioned but Nic has got himself a three-year contract worth more than we could even earn in a lifetime. Since becoming Avram Grant’s first signing, from Bolton Wanderers for £15m, Anelka has scored 59 goals in 184 appearances.

Tuesday 13 December
Frank Lampard expressed his bemusement at being on the bench over the last few games and diplomatically – of course, Frank’s middle name is tact – moaned about a lack of communication with the new boss. Juan Mata doesn’t think it will be a problem for the England international: “He has the experience to remain calm, even when he’s not playing, to know that there will be times when he will play because there are so many games. He still has a lot to give. He will score a lot of goals and play a lot of games this season, I’m sure”.

Wednesday 14 December
Chelsea youth 2:1 Doncaster Rovers youth
Stains Town FC’s Wheatsheaf Park is step back in time for the modern premiership fan. Holding 3,000 (and nine, 3,009 don’t forget the nine) it is cold, difficult to find and when you concede after a few minutes, charmless. That said, the youth team would probably be happy to call it home after battling back from an early free kick to seal a win with goals from Lucas Piazon and John Swift.

Thursday 15 December
New evidence in the Loftus-gate affair: apparently, unseen video footage has been submitted to the CPS as they dwell on their decision whether to press charges or not.
It speaks volumes for the thoroughness of the police enquiry that was submitted to the CPS in the first place that new video evidence could become available. Remind yourself how many broadcasters covered the game nearly two-months ago – erm, one.

Friday 16 December
The annual balls out of the bag exercise in Nyon paired us with Napoli. Before you all troop off to the travel agency remember your stab vest. Things have been hairy in the last few years but Man City made it out pretty much unscathed.
Arsenal drew AC Milan, while Manchester United, oh, no hang on, their draw will be on in an hour.
Bayer Leverkusen proved how important that draw with Genk was by pulling Barcelona.
Group winners are away in the first leg and dates will be announced soon … as soon as today – we’ll be playing Tuesday 21 February and at home on Wednesday 14 March three, er, weeks later.
The academy boys got Norwich City away in the next round of the FA Youth cup.

Saturday 17 December
Wigan Athletic 1:1 Chelsea
This was the most anaemic disappointment of the season so far. With Luiz absent from defence Bosingwa retained his place and Ramires has a slight knock so Lampard came into midfield. That we missed the two Brazilians became painfully obvious as the match wore on.
The first-half trundled along with little incident; they tried an early dive, John Terry tried a thirty-yard thunderbolt, and they squealed about a handball when Ivanovic was doing his best to get out of the way Drogba made on effort to beat the defender but he headed just wide from Mata’s cross and that was it in a deathly poor match, against Wigan for god’s sake.
The half-time change was a doozy, Romeu went off and Salomon Kalou came on. While it was an opportunity for poor forgotten Salomon, the change felt forced, as if the manager was trying to influence the match but couldn’t think how to do it. Romeu had been his usual calm and effective self. So Kalou will play on the left and Mata will float in behind, erm, something like that.
Kalou did break to the byline and square for Drogba to shoot wide before Ashley Cole sent a long diagonal and suddenly Sturridge is in, excellent first touch and shot. 0-1.
Shortly after the goal AVB took off Mata for Mikel and we started to struggle. First John Terry looked to have injured knee ligaments then an Ivanovic back pass failed to reach Cech only for the big Serbian to get back and head the chance away. We were rocking with quarter of an hour to go.
AVB seemed to be struggling as well. He took Sturridge off and replaced him with Malouda? The one reliable outlet going forward and he’s replaced with an out of form sulking get. So the midfield, missing the drive of Ramires from the start remember, has now lost Romeu, Sturridge and Mata. We struggle to mount an attack or, after Monday master class of keep-ball, hold possession for more than a couple of passes.
The late, sickening but inevitable, equaliser came when Di Santo found Rodallega bursting into the box and Chelsea players flailing around. Cole and Cech got in each other’s way as the ball squirted across and Gomez tapped in. 1-1. On the balance of play you couldn’t argue that it wasn’t deserved. We were hanging on towards the end as Wigan threw bodies at the box and we struggled to keep them out.
This was another shambles. AVB got this wrong, it seems Luiz and Ramires were rested ahead of Spurs on Thursday and most of the team that played looked sloppy and uninterested. The substitutions compounded things as the three most effective players on the pitch Romeu, Mata and Sturridge all gave way to clearly inferior replacements. If AVB thinks we are going to win something he will have to cure the problem of pissing away a lead, especially away from home, against Wigan Athletic.

Sunday 18 December
Predictably everyone around us won their games, QPR didn’t have Foy to help and lost 0-2 to Manchester United. Arsenal had their moments but lost to City 1-0. Tottenham go above us again by beating Sunderland 1-0, even Liverpool managed a 0-2 at Villa, where we would probably ship a late equaliser having picked Hilario as holding midfield and Bosingwa as a lone target man. Sorry, but what is the point in beating City to cut the gap to seven, only to hand back two of the points you’d won and in a manner like yesterdays. Angry.

Daniel Sturridge, Liverpool

Monday 5 December
Amid the hoo-ha crated by the media in full Chelsea meltdown mode – apparently, if we fail to win tomorrow night, the East stand, burning with fire will fall unto the pitch and the number seven shirt shall be rent in sunder – on the back of his first senior goal last week, Conor Clifford has extended his loan to Yeovil for another month.

Tuesday 6 December
Chelsea 3:0 Valencia
A resounding up yours from everyone at the Bridge to the press and television. Andre Villas-Boas sent out a side to prove his critics wrong and sure enough his gamble paid up as Genk held Leverkusen and Valencia fired blanks. We top the group so Uefa cannot lump us with Barcelona in the next round.
The pre-match controversy saw Frank Lampard on the bench with Meireles on in his place. Oriol Romeu kept his holding role in a midfield that looked set up to close down and defend. Wise move.
We started blisteringly; Daniel Sturridge picked up the ball in midfield, he fed Drogba who laid the ball back to Meireles who drew a fine save from Diego Alves in the Valencia goal.
Sturridge again popped up to cross deep into the box where Mata controlled fed Drogba, side step, shot, goal. 1-0.
The goal was a cue to the home side to suddenly sit deep and defend. Little or no pressing just get your body in front of your man. It nearly cost an instant equaliser as Sturridge let Jordi Alba run round him but the Spanish striker rifled the ball against a post from a tight angle.
David Albelda then thrashed a shot at Cech from 20-yards that the big Czech tipped round. Chelsea looked woeful, unable to get close to press players in the way that Valencia did convincingly whenever we had possession.
News filters through that Genk have taken a lead against Leverkusen and suddenly the night has real promise. Not just qualification but top spot.
So woeful did we look that a simple break by Didier Drogba made it two. Ramires was suddenly onto the through ball, round a dawdling defender and nicked past the ’keeper. 2-0.
The second-half started much as the first ended; we kept breaking they kept pressing. Sturridge found his usual narrow angle to hit the goalkeeper when he should have crossed, while Valencia managed nothing more threatening than a cross that almost sailed in.
Oriol Romeu was then absurdly booked for a fine tackle on Pablo Hernandez, before Drogba out-muscled the defence but sent his shot wide of the far post.
He stayed down after the effort as if refusing to believe he’d missed but managed to haul himself up to join an attack as Ramires sprang forward fed the Ivorian who touched the ball into the net with the outside of his right foot. 3-0
That was surely that; Valencia tried but apart from a few pot-shots they rarely threatened.
Andre Villas-Boas had a post-match pot at the media and Gary Neville in particular but he can be forgiven for blowing off a bit of steam after the last few weeks.

Wednesday 7 December
Nicolas Anelka is apparently having talks with Shanghai Shenhua in what would be a three-year deal. Shanghai had a bit of a stinker last term but our old friend from the Cottage, Jean Tigana, is in talks to become manager.
Meanwhile sincere condolences must go to both shades of Manchester as City and United both plunge into the murky pool of Thursday night on Channel Five. City could do no more than beat Bayern München but events were out of their hands as Napoli won at Villarreal. Manchester United on the other hand needed a draw with FC Basel but they, ha, couldn’t, as goals from Marco Streller and Sebastian Frei sent the Swiss side through. The Red side of the City also lost Nemanja Vidic to serious knee injury.
OK, so that jibe about Channel five was a little uncalled for – the Europa League is also covered by ITV4 and ESPN.

Friday 9 December
AVB might be starting to show the signs of strain. He laid into Gary Neville – who has not wanted to do that over the years? The man has a nasal whine more irritating than a mosquito in a tin can – but, having had a dig after the Valencia match, AVB returned to the subject with some ferocity in the build up to Man City. Neville apparently said he wouldn’t want to be in our dressing room before the Valencia game, AVB replied: “What does he know about the Chelsea dressing room? What does Gary Neville know about our dressing room? How can you imagine what is going on in the Chelsea dressing room? How can you know? Have you been here? Do you know where Cobham is? You don’t even know how to get here. I’m normally indifferent, not watching on the telly to see what these people say. But I was watching the television at that moment and I was gobsmacked.”
Gobsmacked described the faces of hacks writing all this down. It is being reported that AVB has asked that the players celebrate with the bench as well.
Meanwhile the identity of the monkey of Genk will remain a mystery after the club announced that interviews with those present in the executive club section failed to identify an individual.

Saturday 10 December
Chelsea youth 5:2 Portsmouth youth
Adi Viveash’s youth team have been on the rise in the last few weeks and another solid performance saw goals from Tom Howard, Islam Feruz, Reece Mitchell, Ishmael Seremba and Lewis Baker. The two goals back will not worry the staff too much on was a bit of luck and the other a dubious penalty. The concern on the day is with Alex Davey who collapsed into a heap with nobody near him. The worry will be a ligament or tendon tear.

Sunday 11 December
Chris Foy has been at it again, this time in the potteries, where he contrived a win for Stoke City at home to Tottenham Hotspur. He did his best to look even-handed by awarding a penalty to Spurs for a comical dive but ensured Stoke held on for the win.
Don’t get us wrong we’re happy to see Spurs drop points ahead of our game with Man City but some of this was farcical. First Peter Crouch handled, not just a bit but obviously, before Stoke took the lead. For his next trick Foy allowed Stoke to manhandle Spurs at every corner, throw and free-kick; at one such Younes Kaboul was yanked back under the referee’s nose only to show the Spurs player yellow for complaining. Spurs should have had another penalty when Shawcross elbowed the ball off the line. In the follow-up Spurs equalised but Adebayor was ruled offside. We don’t need to tell you what the replay showed. Foy’s trademarks followed, first he carded Kaboul a second time for nothing, literally two players competing for the ball but it was Foy’s first opportunity to send someone off. Then, towards the end, as his failing eyesight made him miss another handball, he allowed Luka Modric to be bundled over, under his nose, no free-kick. The Stoke player made no attempt to play the ball, the referee made no attempt to award the foul.
Harry Redknapp will be in trouble with the usual authorities: “To be honest, from the start of the game I felt like he wasn’t going to give us much. I just felt like he was quite enjoying not giving us anything.”
We only mention this because since the QPR game we’d been wondering if we hadn’t lost our marbles as commentators and professional sofa-dwellers declared Foy within his rights to destroy the Loftus Road game. Now we feel vindicated.

Daniel Sturridge

Monday 28 November
Fulham reserves 2:2 Chelsea reserves
A glorious second-half from Dermot Drummy’s side saw the stiffs almost nick the match from 2-0 down.
We weren’t really at the races in the first period as Jamal Blackman had to make a save after only a minute. The let off lasted only another ten minutes as we gave them a free header from a cross. Their second was a little less embarrassing but left the team struggling.
The second-half was a completely different affair as Nat Chalobah started asserting himself and chances started to appear. Lalkovic crashed in a volley on the hour before Chalobah headed in a corner. Lucas Piazon was causing problems for the Fulham backline and he was tripped in the box just before the end. Lalkovic however blasted the spot-kick over the bar.

Tuesday 30 November
Chelsea 0:2 Liverpool
The scouse bad-taste-in-the-mouth came and plundered, again. A young Chelsea side could have few complaints in the end. Turnbull, Lukaku, Bertrand, Romeu and McEachran all started. Liverpool went with more recognised strength but included starts for Jay Spearing and Sebastian Coates
We’ll start, as the game should have done with a penalty. David Luiz ran forward accepted Josh McEachran’s backheel into the area where he was cut in two by a tackle from Coates. Given our luck in this area you can probably guess that instead of a spot-kick Luiz was booked.
That Luiz was pissed off was evident when he then pushed Andy Carroll in the back as he went for a cross.
When Dowd finally gave a penalty it was a strange one. Alex and Carroll went for a cross and as Alex jumped the ball hit his hand. Carroll appealed but to most it looked an accident. For five seconds the ref thought about it, his linesman’s view was obscured, and then pointed to the spot. If the referee saw a penalty offence why the delay?
Andy Carroll is such good value for money at £35m he smashed the ball straight down the middle and Turnbull, at £0m, saved with his legs.
This was a messy first-half with penalty claims about the only bright spots. Josh McEachran limped out to be replaced by Ramires. Florent Malouda went into the book followed by Ryan Bertrand for a foul he didn’t commit. Lukaku came in at leg-break height on the back of Lucas’s ankle only for Bertrand who made no contact to get the card. Not one of Phil Dowd’s best nights. Lukaku might be trouble with the FA in the morning.
We did muster one attack – no really, only one in 45-minutes – Bosingwa crossed and Lukaku’s flicked header sailed wide.
We did fashion a chance at the start of the second when Malouda knocked back a Lampard corner but Luiz couldn’t get past the blacking players on the line. And then we were behind: high-line at the back simple through ball to Bellamy he squares to Maxi and it is de ja vue all over again. Didn’t he do that last week? 0-1.
The defending is becoming comical.
It took five minutes for their second as Ramires was pulled up for a foul on Bellamy where he made no contact and cleanly won the ball, as we said Phil Dowd wasn’t watching the same game, but at the same time the ref wasn’t organising the Chelsea back line and allowing a free-header Martin Kelly heading in unchallenged. 0-2.
Mata and Anelka came on and the Frenchman had a one-on-one with Reina by the ’keeper did just enough to allow covering players to smother the chance. The rest of the match saw us with plenty of possession in front of the Liverpool defence but no way through.
Torres had another wretched night.
The list of clubs spending on agents puts us fourth behind Man City, Liverpool and Tottenham. Still, £6.5m doesn’t grow on trees.

Thursday 1 December
Sam Hutchinson has been given a one-and-half-year-contract. The 22-year-old youth team product had announced his retirement after successive knee problems but seven appearances for the reserves following a strong pre-season have earned him a second shot. You have to keep your fingers crossed he stays injury free. Sam was one of a handful that Jose Mourinho regarded as good enough during his time here, so Sam could be an excellent signing.

Friday 2 December
Conor Clifford scored his first senior goal for Yeovil in the cup tonight. Playing through midfield Conor made the score 0-2 to the league two side against Fleetwood Town but the hosts struck back o earn a replay.

Saturday 3 December
Newcastle United 0:3 Chelsea
Back to rollercoaster thrills and for once, in recent weeks, the right result.
Saturday morning kick-off times are rightly unpopular, trips to the other end of the country doubly so but the lift it gives the rest of the weekend shouldn’t be discounted.
Newcastle started the day a point and a place higher up the league, with one of the meanest defences. We started with fragile confidence and the way our luck has been going David Luiz could have been sent off four minutes into the match. Demba Ba was released down the middle and was upended by Luiz; the referee blew for a foul and waived a yellow card. For most commentators this was the clearest case of ‘denying a clear goal scoring opportunity’ they’d ever seen and clear favouritism towards Chelsea. As if we’ve seen much of that recently.
To be fair to the ref – aren’t we always – when watched back in slow motion the first thing you notice is that Ba is behind Luiz when the ball is played. The second thing you can see is that Luiz follows the ball not the man and the third that Ba has to come through Luiz to get the ball. The challenge looks clumsy but Ba was offside and tussling with Luiz as much as the other way round. That Petr Cech simply picks up the ball should have put to rest the red card argument.
From the moment the free-kick clattered into the wall Newcastle started to experience a wave of injustice and righteous indignation. Whether that contributed to their poor cover down their left is debateable.
First Sturridge ran down the right into the box and was clattered, penalty, obviously Mike Dean didn’t get the memo. Frank Lampard used to be safe as houses from the spot but in Tim Krul Newcastle have a fine goalkeeper and he tipped it onto the post.
The story of the rest of the half was one of Daniel Sturridge running riot, found by Lampard or the excellent Mata the young England international flew into the empty acres and should have had a hat-trick of assists. Instead he hit goalkeeper, post and side netting.
Mata set up a glorious chance for Drogba who fired wide and while Cech had to make a smart save from Ba the Geordies could only fashion half-chances, including the ball that smacked off the post rebounded to Terry whose clearance hit Luiz and Cech clawed the ball round the post for a corner. Phew.
The deadlock broke five minutes before the interval. Mata accepted a throw, jinked and crossed for Didier to do his thing with a towering headed into the top of the net. 0-1.
Newcastle started the second period with more effort but it took Drogba’s thumping header off the bar to present them with a chance. All the while we kept nearly breaking but not quite.
Lampard was replaced on the hour and looked really pissed off. Meireles replaced him.
Ramires, Mata, Drogba and Sturridge all had chances on the break that Krul dealt with or that went wide, while they had plenty of possession but post and bar were on our side for a change. It always looked as if we’d nick another on the counter and when substitute Torres was released down the inside left you expected him to score but after fluffing his lines he found his fellow sub Salomon Kalou who fired in off the despairing Krul. 0-2.
Daniel Sturridge had so many chances in this game it was fitting that he finished one of them. Dropping his shoulder after a run down the right he finally beat Krul. 0-3.
The score line might have been harsh on Newcastle but we richly deserved the points.
Up to fourth and we didn’t even have time to praise the performance of Oriol Romeu who looked the part in front of the defence.

AVB confirmed that both Alex and Nicolas Anelka have handed in transfer requests and can leave in January. Both have been marginalised in recent weeks. In the summer Bayern München made serious noises about taking Alex but will expect a knock down fee. It seems a waste but if the defender cannot adapt to AVB’s system then he’ll have to go. We will always have the memory of that thrashed free-kick against Arsenal.
Anelka is a different prospect; Sturridge has been shining so far this season but without threatening against the bigger teams. Nicolas Anelka would have been a useful player to have on the bench for the rest of the season.
They will both need to be replaced.
In the light of Frank Lampard’s clear displeasure at being substituted it seems our young manager has his work cut out to keep everyone pulling in the same direction.

Chelsea youth 2:0 Norwich City youth
Islam Feruz scored a couple of first-half goals to give the improving academy side another win. The second-half was more of s struggle but the defending and clean sheet will have encouraged Adi.

Sunday 4 December
The FA Cup third round draw presents us with Portsmouth at home. It will not be on the telly because, purely by chance, a plum draw pitted Manchesters United and City together. Would you believe it?

Nicolas Anelka, Norwich City

Monday 21 November
Chelsea reserves 1:1 Swansea City reserves
Lucas Piazon made his debut at this level. Given the passing reputations of both these team you wouldn’t expect a static game but apart from their second-half penalty and Ryan Bertrand’s lever a few minutes later, there really wasn’t much in this match. It could be a symptom of the reserves having a month or so off twice so far this season; it can’t help their rhythm, confidence and preparation.

Jim Lewis died today aged 84. Jim earned a league winners medal with Chelsea in 1955 having signed as an amateur from Walthamstow Avenue three years before. 40 goals in 95 game for Chelsea mark him out as a prolific winger. He remained an amateur throughout his Chelsea career because he earned more than the maximum wage as a salesman.

Tuesday 22 November
Andre Villas-Boas will have to pay £12,000 for voicing his opinion of Chris Foy’s refereeing of our game at QPR. He has requested a written verdict from the independent disciplinary panel so he can decide whether the verdict infringes his freedom of speech, natural justice, or simply common sense.
Nicolas Anelka has been told he can leave the club in January. It might explain why he has featured so little in recent weeks; he didn’t even travel to Germany for tomorrow’s showdown with Leverkusen.

Wednesday 23 November
Bayer Leverkusen 2:1 Chelsea
Another late kick in the teeth – this is starting to become familiar – followed a generally positive display. AVB will come under more pressure and doesn’t really look any closer to solving the conundrum – if you defend a high line you need more cover in front of the defence.
David Luiz retained his place, Bosingwa played left-back (Ryan Bertrand will be delighted) as Ashley Cole is injured but the most significant aspect could be that Meireles came in for Obi Mikel and played a stormer.
For the most part the early exchanges were even; we got a few balls into their box but not bodies. They got to the edge of ours but not into it. David Luiz looked like he was obeying orders to be sensible and apart from a stray pass with his first touch looked solid.
Daniel Sturridge was tearing holes in the Leverkusen left flank almost finding Mata with one through ball and winning plenty of free-kicks as the German defence struggled.
The second-half started with a peach from Didier Drogba: Sturridge, who else, crossed to the Ivorian who held of a challenge and slotted the ball low into the corner. 0-1.
Lampard almost made it two but hit the goalkeeper, as Leverkusen’s response opened up the play. One flick of the outside of Lampard’s boot would have put in Sturridge but Didier was offside as he intercepted it.
Michael Ballack tried an overhead kick on the hour but Cech was equal to it and the follow-up point-lank header.
The tide appeared to be turning for the home side as Sturridge manage a rare shot but Meireles was suddenly working extremely hard to cover for the struggling Luiz. The Brazilian defender had been struggling on since a high boot caught him in the midriff. Alex replaced him on 70 minutes.
Only for an equaliser to appear from nothing; a simple through ball was reversed and headed in by Eren Derdiyok as the defence scampered back but failed to cover.
To prove that we are on a penalty blacklist as Didier Drogba is clearly hacked down under the nose of the officials. Nothing doing. It is getting really absurd that Chelsea players can be tripped, hacked, barged, and pushed we will never get a decision. Meireles was replace by Obi Mikel and we suddenly looked weaker and less effective.
Their winner was entirely predictable. A simple header with Alex floundering as Manuel Friedrich headed in. 2-1.
The defeat increases the pressure and means that barring a miraculous win for Genk in a fortnight means we cannot to the group. As it is we will need either a win or a 0-0 against Valencia just to progress. The chances of a 0-0 – ask a bookie.

Thursday 24 November
The club are actively pursuing the Battersea sight for a possible new stadium. A development company called Almacantar has been appointed to do our bidding on the 18-acre sight. Battersea is owned by Real Estate Opportunities but owes £300m to its creditors, Lloyds and the Irish National Asset Management Agency.
Michael Ballack put in tuppence yesterday after the game. Saying that Chelsea were not as mentally strong as before he said: “I don’t know what is going on in their squad now – I’m not at the training ground every day with them – but I played at Chelsea for four years and I know how quickly it can go. I had a few managers in that short time, and I know it is always difficult for the coach. Villas-Boas is young and has ambitions, and he is a good guy. He had success at his last team, Porto, too. At the moment it is not easy for any of them, but that is not just about the coach. It is about the players, too. They have to get themselves out of this situation.” Amen.

Friday 25 November
A quick word for the six Chelsea U16s who played some part for England as they won the victory shield as usual. Ola Aina, Aaron Hayden, Ruben Loftus-Cheek (captain for two matches), Connor Hunte, Charlie Colkett and striker Alex Kiwomya all played during this year’s tournament, which finished with a 2-4 win against Scotland tonight

Saturday 26 November
Chelsea 3:0 Wolverhampton Wanderers
Thank you Wolves: if ever a team needed a comfortable afternoon it is this Chelsea side and from the opening few passes Wolves let us do our thing.
Oriol Romeu came into the side for a first league start and made up a midfield with Meireles and Ramires. The energy and pressing certainly improved from last week but given Wolves’ compliance it is difficult to judge the relative success of Chelsea. Ashley Cole returned to the line-up after recovering from an ankle problem that kept him out of the side that played Leverkusen.
Ramires started things rolling by nicking the ball in midfield breaking and having his shot turned round by Hennessey but from the resulting corner the visitors decided against marking John Terry who headed in 1-0.
The second came on the half hour, when Cole and Meireles combined to find Mata on the left; there was space aplenty all afternoon down the flanks. Mata stayed on his feet through a rough tackle and his cross found Sturridge ghosting into the box to volley home with his usual aplomb. 2-0.
Mata himself made it three before the break; Drogba’s shot was block and he fed Cole and the England left-back found Mata for a simple finish. 3-0.
Half-time Bovril hasn’t tasted so sweet for a few weeks but expectations of a bumper second period were too optimistic. We certainly had chances but Wolves started to come into the match more. Ebanks-Blake was a late first-half sub as Wolves reverted to 4-4-2 and the big lunk was causing problems by distracting the defence. Ward wriggled free to shoot wide six minutes after the break. Hennessey did brilliantly to keep out first Sturridge and then Mata but Cech had to reciprocate as first Matt Jarvis and then Ward threatened.
The clean sheet will have pleased the manager the most while we looked sloppier at the back second-half the nil we started with was still there at the end; a rare bird this term.
A further boost came from John Terry’s fifth booking of the season. He will serve his one-match suspension against Liverpool on Tuesday.
Other results will also have made the manager smile: Arsenal could only draw with Fulham while Newcastle and Manchester United shared a 1-1.

Sunday 27 November
The death of Gary Speed the Welsh manger has taken everyone by surprise. We can’t pretend to have loved the guy as an opponent especially when Leeds were winning the last first division title but as a person and manager he was impressive – turning Wales into a watchable team. For pity sake, if you feel suicidal phone the Samaritans.
Liverpool and Man City drew meaning we are now only ten points off the top of the table, see, there can be reasons for optimism even in the gloom.