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.

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Sky’s Man Utd bias came to the fore with a laughable decision to make Wayne Rooney their man of the match simply for scoring two penalties. To be honest he wasn’t even Man U’s best player. What cannot be hidden though was the fact that we let a comfortable three goal lead slip after 55 minutes.

Having weathered an early storm when Sir Alex berated his favourite referee after he had the cheek to turn down a penalty, Chelsea eased into gear and dominated our friends from the north. An own goal from the hapless Evans started our scoring nine minutes before the break after good work by young Danny Sturridge.

After the break Nando set up Mata for a crashing drive into the net for our second with the third being a header from David Luiz which deflected off of ‘the other Ferdinand’ into the net. At that stage it looked like the game was home and hosed. The first of Mr Webb’s interventions came when he alleged that Sturridge barged into everyone’s favourite full back Evra and awarded the pen. The second ‘penalty’ was given for a ‘foul’ by Branner on Danny Welbeck, The third goal came from Hernandez who nodded in a pinpoint cross from ‘family man’ Giggs. Mata nearly won it for Chels with a free kick which De Gea saved. So a disappointing result after holding such a commanding lead.

With no JT, Ash and Lamps in the starting line up it was a very strange looking line up. The decision to play Boswinga at left back rather then the promising Bertrand was slightly controversial but the return to the starting line up of Bison Essien was a great lift, especially with Ramires being injured.

Gary Cahill made his much awaited debut and looked reasonably solid in handling his England team mates Welbeck and Rooney. With regards to the Premier League, this result leaves us one point ahead of Newcastle and six behind the Spuds who are third. Unless Spurs self implode, which is possible of ‘Arry goes down, then we seem to be in a battle for fourth with Newcastle, Arsenal and Liverpool.

With a tricky trip to Everton coming up next the two points dropped today were essential for us to retain Champions League status for next season. Hopefully our English trio will be back next match so that’s something to be thankful for. As for today’s bench, was that the youngest we’ve had in a Premiership match. Other than the old boy Paulo the others were in their teens or early 20′s. So another frustrating day for the blue faithful, onwards and upwards for us all and keep the faith.

ea sports

Chelsea could only take a point away from their last Premier League game against Swansea

Juan Mata covered the most ground for Chelsea in that game with 6.58 miles

Jose Bosingwa’s shot was going off target before Joe Allen deflected it in for Chelsea to equalise
Bosingwa has won 72% of tackles attempted this season and has made 44 interceptions and delivered 47 crosses making three assists

Chelsea striker Fernando Torres may be struggling in front of goal, but his tenacious work rate is paying dividends for the team. The striker has attempted 38 tackles so far this season, the 7th highest in the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index

Manchester United won and scored two penalties to beat Stoke 2-0 in their last Barclays Premier League game

Carrick covered the most ground for United in that game with 6.65 miles

Hernandez and Berbatov both scored their 7th goals of the season respectively form the spot after Ji Sung Park and Antonio Valencia won the penalties

Berbatov’s goals have come from 14 attempts at goal while Hernandez’s have come from 27 attempts

Park covered 6.36 miles in the game, behind only top runner Michael Carrick

Park has two goals and three assists to his name this season, and has also completed a pass in his opponent’s half every three minutes 40 seconds while on the pitch

Data courtesy of the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index, the official player rating index of the Barclays Premier League.

Andre Villas Boas, Manchester United

Amidst the drama of the morning, where the English FA announced the removal of John Terry as captain, there’s still a match to be played on Sunday at Stamford Bridge. Ironically, the opposition goes by the name “United,” which is exactly what the players must be thinking at the moment.

Terry, himself, will play no part in the Manchester United match, as manager Andre-Villas Boas has ruled him out due to a knee injury. Also out are Ramires, due to a knee injury and John Mikel Obi, due to a hamstring problem. Ashley Cole is set to miss out because of suspension from the red card he received at Swansea on Tuesday.

For United, they will be boosted by the returns of Wayne Rooney and Nani, who are both fit again after injury, while Tom Cleverley and Ashley Young will both travel, but are doubtful for the match.

This preview will take a different tone than my previous ones, as I’m introducing Five Things I Think about the upcoming match.

1. I think that the loss of Ashley Cole is quite a problem for this upcoming match. I’ve said it for a while now, but the illusion of attacking in wide areas is sometimes more powerful than actually doing it. By that, I mean the fullbacks can be used to pin the oppositions’ wide men back. Against United, something that Sir Alex Ferguson has been able to do comfortably, is ignore the fullback threat. His wide men have been permitted to play more inside and outnumber the midfield at every turn. Ash’s loss hurts that idea.

2. I firmly believe that Rooney comes back into the side, and I also think that his goals won’t hurt us, but his ability to shift between striker and midfield will be a key. Something that we used to do to United repeatedly was take advantage of the 3 v 2 that we enjoyed in the midfield playing 4-3-3 vs. 4-4-2. What Ferguson has done brilliantly is find players to sink into the midfield in transition to combat the effects. Rooney has been key to that because he can come from a forward position and drop deep, making him harder to pick up unless you mark him with the holding player, again negating the 3 v 2 advantage.

3. If Gary Cahill is to ever get his debut, this is the perfect time. Terry has already been declared out, and the one player that’s given David Luiz headaches over the last few years is Javier Hernandez. “Chicharito” has been able to play in the spaces and exploit the fact that Terry and Luiz both like to attack the ball, with neither really being great at covering for a defensive partner. That’s why Ricardo Carvalho was the perfect partner for Terrry, and even with his absence, Luiz has a lot of the same skills. Cahill’s a more natural covering option at center back and might aid in stopping the Little Pea from breaking the back line.

4. Daniel Sturridge must have a much better game than he did at Old Trafford in the fall. That day, Sturridge seemed overawed by the moment and never seemed to really settle and play his game. He must settle on Sunday because there are no ways of changing the side if he doesn’t. At the moment, we have no cover for the right-sided attacker with Salomon Kalou still at the African Cup of Nations. Sturridge must create some level of danger push Patrice Evra back, otherwise, United will attack that flank with no fear.

5. I don’t think United are unbeatable. I think the way to beat United is to force Sir Alex to have to attempt to change the course of the match without making a substitution to his starting 11. The sides that have given United problems have been teams that have forced the 11 men of United to do things that they’re not accustomed to doing. While Ferguson gets all sorts of tactical plaudits, his system is quite well defined with specific jobs assigned to specific players. When you force those players to have to think outside those jobs, they have trouble adapting. It’s why Ferguson’s subs are also usually effective. He swaps in players with different job assignments that change the match. We have the potential to do that under Villas-Boas, but it requires the players to work as a unit and think as a unit, something that we haven’t done to great effect this season.

The last thing is that I think this will be just as cagey as every other Chelsea/United meeting over the last few years. However, we must be careful because with certain personnel absent for this match, United could exploit those absences and overrun us very quickly.

Fernando Torres, Manchester United

One of Chelsea’s biggest games of the season takes place on Sunday when Man Utd visit Stamford Bridge and it could be a game where form goes out of the window with Chelsea looking to maintain a recent domination over Sir Alex Ferguson’s side on home turf. For those that don’t have a ticket for this exciting match, it will be live on Sky Sports 1.

Chelsea are the favourites to win this match and it is easy to see why. In the last ten domestic matches between these teams at Stamford Bridge Chelsea have six wins and there were also four draws. That means there were no wins for Man Utd during that run and that is a great achievement considering the battles at the top of the table in recent years. Chelsea are a fair price to win this match at odds of 8/5 whilst the only other option that really makes any appeal is the draw, which has been a bit of a problem for Chelsea recently, that outcome is 21/20 at the time of writing.

Man Utd may have gained more points recently but they have also lost more games than Chelsea. No team has lost fewer matches than Chelsea in the last ten Premiership matches, Chelsea have only lost once in that period of time whilst Man Utd have suffered two league losses in their last ten matches. Unfortunately Chelsea have drawn more than they have won in that period, four games have gone the way of Chelsea whilst Chelsea have drawn half of their last ten matches. It is worth noting that Chelsea haven’t won by more than one goal in over two months and five out of Chelsea’s last six wins over Man Utd at Stamford Bridge have been by a one goal margin. If you fancy Chelsea to win, why not boost the odds by backing them to win by exactly one goal, that outcome is 10/3 with some bookies currently.

Another thing that stands out from Chelsea’s recent matches and recent games between Chelsea and Man Utd at Stamford Bridge are the lack of goals. The last ten games between these teams when Chelsea were at home had under 2.5 goals as a winning bet seven times and under 3.5 goals as a winning bet in all of those matches, those outcomes can be backed at even money and 4/11 respectively. It is worth noting that six of Chelsea’s last eight matches have had under 2.5 goals in them also giving a further boost to that bet.

So if Chelsea win by a one goal margin in a game with two goals or less in then the only possible outcome can be a 1-0 home win. It is therefore a little surprising to see that bet available at 8/1. If the game is a draw then the only two realistic options are 0-0 and 1-1, those outcomes can be backed at 11/1 and 6/1 respectively whilst if you fancy a bigger margined win for Chelsea then 2-0 is the obvious choice at 12/1 with most bookies.

For a full list of the most generous free bets, visit OLBG.com.

Jose Boswinga, Newcastle United

A Jose Bosingwa deflected equaliser denied former reserve team coach Brendan Rogers’s Swansea team a famous victory , on our first trip to Wales for a top flight league clash for over fifty years, and our first outing at the Liberty Stadium.

With the Blue’s two longest serving players Terry and Lampard both out, Petr Cech took the captains armband. There was still no place for new signing Gary Cahill as Bosingwa was recalled and Ivanovic moved to centre back. Romeu was selected to replace the injured Ramires in the only other change from the 1-0 win at QPR on Saturday. The front three of Mata, Torres and Sturridge was unchanged for a fourth consecutive game, while Brazilian forward Piazon was on the bench for the first time, just days after his 18th birthday, where he sat alongside fellow youngsters Bertrand and Lukaku. Swansea were unchanged from their previous league game. Chelsea loanee Josh McEachran was ineligible under the terms of the deal.

There was a late referee replacement, with Andre Marriner replacing Kevin Friend.

Swansea came out of the traps the quickest, making a positive, confident start, as they usually do at home, where only Manchester United have taken three points. The first chance of the game fell to Danny Graham, who hit a shot a few feet out from a free kick after a foul by Romeu.

Chelsea didn’t have a real attack until around the 10 minute mark, although Bosinwa, using his pace to make a run down the right on his 100th start for the Blues, was dispossessed by Sinclair, a former blue with a point to prove. Danger returned at the other end moments later, although it was prevented due to Graham being flagged offside.

Chelsea were at this stage careless in possession, particularly Meireles who misplaced a couple of easy passes. Then suddenly, from nothing Chelsea nearly went ahead, Sturridge coming so close from the edge of box. Sturridge was looking the liveliest of our forward players, and after getting the better of Sinclair, was caught by Neil Taylor, who could have no complaints about a deserved booking.

There was panic in the Chelsea rearguard as Sigurdsson had a shot blocked, Luiz hit a Graham effort on the line as Chelsea backs were to the wall. Swansea were certainly asking most of questions in opening 20 minutes and having most of play.

Chelsea’s best option looked to be on the break, although Vorm comfortably saved Sturridge’s shot, whilst Torres, a year to the day after signing for the Blues for £50m(more than the whole Swansea squad is worth) was left a frustrated figure in centre, and was then constantly taunted with “what a waste of money” chants that he is now accustomed to.

Chelsea then settled, came more into game and had more possession. Meireles was denied by Swansea captain Ashley Williams in the box, and Luiz was denied by two defenders after a barnstorming run down the left hand side. Torres couldn’t quite find Sturridge, when a tentative pass with not enough conviction was blocked by Williams, a big chance missed. Just after, Mata tried to dink a cunning shot over Vorm to no avail.

At the other end, a Dyer shot was held by Cech, before Romeu shot through bodys but had his attempt saved by Vorm at the near post, this was followed by a succession of Chelsea corners, although Swansea cunningly continued to clear the danger.

Scott Sinclair then put Swansea 1-0 up by remarkably looping the ball into net over Cech, the lack of celebration, despite being bombared by his team-mates, shows he still has feelings for the club that educated him. His 27goals in the Championship last season, including a hat-trick in the play-off final and 7 so far this season, would suggest to many he shouldn’t have been sold.

The half finished with Chelsea failing to create any clear cut opportunities to equalize, while Cole and Malouda were both booked.

Chelsea started stronger after the interval. Rangel impeded Malouda and became the second Swansea full back to be cautioned. Romeu on the half volley, dragged a shot wide, as Chelsea upped the pressure. Torres was unselfish in the box when he could have and probably should of shot.

A change in shape with Malouda going left, Sturridge right and Mata behind Torres, to provide him with more support, was clear to see and seemed to be fairly effective, as the away sides good spell saw them have 75% of the possession in the first 15 minutes of the second half. Cole will have been disappointed when he put too much on a cross with bodies waiting in danger zone.

The first change of the game saw Essien replace Romeu on 65mins.

A Mata corner saw an Ivanovic header deflected for another, before an Essien strike, reminiscent of him in his prime, hit with severe power rose just over. Aguestien replaced the hard working Sigurdsson for the Welsh side.

Essien’s next strike was not quite as impressive, a wayward shot spinning well off target.

Bosingwa was getting forward regularly, his cross to the dead ball line headed away by Rangel. His next cross saw Sturridge shoot just wide in a crowded box.
Andre looked to the physical presence of Lukaku, bringing him on for Malouda, who’s poor crossing, control and passing during much of the game made him look like a shadow of his former self, on the 80th minute. Luke Moore came on for Sinclair for Swansea, whose defence stayed stubborn and continued to thwart Chelsea’s attacking attempts. The impressive Dyer stretched the Blues defence and hit just wide on break in what was a rare attack for the home side in the second half.
Bosingwa couldn’t keep his shot down as Chelsea were worryingly starting to run out of time.

A frustrated Ashley Cole was sent off for a second bookable offence on the 86mins, just before Luiz clattered Dyer and was lucky not be booked. Chelsea tempers looked frail at this late stage, as the board signified four minutes stoppage time.

A Lukaku shot was collected well by Vorm before Bosingwa equalised, with a shot that deflected off the thigh of Taylor. The Welsh side may feel hard done by after the cruel blow, but statistics point towards a game slightly dominated by Chelsea, despite the fact their seemed to be a lack of conviction and creativity as has been the case so often lately.

Next, we face Manchester United at home on Sunday.

It’s easy to do and only takes a minute.

Ramires, Swansea

For the first time in the Premier League era Chelsea travel to a different country to play a league fixture, heading west to south Wales to take on Swansea City. Much has been made of the Welsh side’s excellent home record this season and rightly so; they have only lost once at the Liberty Stadium, to champions Manchester United, and boast the accolade of having conceded the fewest goals on their own turf, a measly six. Considering Chelsea’s last three games have produced only two goals, both in favour of the Blues and including a very harsh penalty, it seems unlikely those in blue venturing down the M4 will be rewarded with a feast of goals. Indeed just a performance with a bit more energy and quality than Saturday’s dire effort at Loftus Road will suffice.

Issues off the pitch will once again cloud tomorrow’s fixture. A little over an hour after the final whistle will mark Fernando Torres’s first year at Stamford Bridge. The £50 million spent in the very last hour of the 2011 January transfer window has yielded a return of five goals from the Spaniard which, if my maths is correct, have come at a price of £10 million a hit. But hey, while we’re here, let’s celebrate each and every one of them again – first up, the wonderful turn and shot in the pouring rain in a 3-0 home win against West Ham (remember them?) in April. Then came the delightful chipped finish past David de Gea in our 1-3 reverse at Old Trafford in September; sadly this goal was blighted by a miss later in the game of quite epic proportions. The following Saturday marked the height of Torres’s Chelsea career when he notched for the second successive game, against tomorrow’s opponents Swansea, with a neat finish. This zenith was also short-lived, however, as he saw red barely ten minutes later for a reckless lunge on Mark Gower. Two more goals followed in October in a 5-0 rout against Belgian no-hopers Genk. And there we have them, all five – West Ham, Manchester United, Swansea City and Genk, the victims of Torres’s quality. It is now sixteen games in the blue of Chelsea since he last scored in a time of just under fifteen hours. Interestingly, this run of impotence in front of goal is now longer than the one he endured having signed for the club in January.

He has, of course, been the victim of some bad luck – the miss at Old Trafford stands out, especially following such a piece of brilliant skill to get himself in front of the goal with nobody to beat, as do seemingly endless strikes against the woodwork. That the team have also found it so hard to play to his strengths hasn’t helped, nor have the occasional flashes of brilliance from Didier Drogba which have made it impossible for first Carlo Ancelotti, and now Andre Villas-Boas, to appoint Torres as the club’s main striker and figurehead up front. Only with Drogba in Africa can Torres feel like the position is his. His work-rate has been mostly faultless and he has produced some performances of the very highest quality which haven’t been rewarded, but unless something changes, and fast, one fears for the future of the fourth most expensive player in the history of the game.

Elsewhere in the all-too-predictable soap opera that defines Abramovich-led Chelsea, Wednesday morning sees club captain John Terry in court facing charges of racial abuse. Returning to the scene of the alleged crime on Saturday Terry performed excellently against a side even blunter going forward than our own. Whether he will be able to put his neck on the line in typically dramatic fashion in a West London courtroom remains to be seen. It is ten years to the month since JT was last in court and all those in blue will be hoping that the (eventual) verdict is the same as the one given in January 2002.

Anyway, back to matters on the pitch. With Player of the Season-contender Ramires ruled out for three to four works with a knee injury sustained at Loftus Road a place in Chelsea’s midfield three opens up, with Frank Lampard (who has around a 50% chance of returning for this game), Michael Essien and Oriol Romeu all vying for a place in the starting eleven. Chelsea’s front three is unlikely to change, not because of their sparkling form but simply because there is nobody to replace them, and it would be churlish to drop David Luiz now he’s hit a run of very good form. What the Blues have lacked in creativity in recent weeks they have made up for in defensive solidarity and Luiz deserves much credit for the four consecutive clean sheets Chelsea have kept.

Swansea’s game is built around keeping possession in the middle third then inviting wingers Nathan Dyer and Scott Sinclair to wreak havoc closer to the goal where predatory forward Danny Graham continues to impress. Leon Britton has won the hearts and minds of football pundits and journalists up and down the country with his remarkable ball possession statistics (better than Xavi, in case you hadn’t heard), although the contrarian in me would point out that the Welsh wizard has yet to score a goal or record an assist this campaign. Instead, it is left to Mark Gower to provide the attacking ingenuity to unlock defences – he has six assists to his name. The defence hasn’t changed from the one that won promotion through the play-offs last season and is all the better for it, whilst new custodian Michel Vorm has proven a revelation in the Swans’ goal. Dorus de Who?

Ex-Blue Scott Sinclair will be excited to show his former employers that they were foolish to let him go, but in truth he has endeared himself to Chelsea fans more so in recent weeks, with crucial goals against Tottenham and Arsenal, than he ever did whilst playing at Stamford Bridge. That victory against Arsenal in their last outing at the Liberty Stadium was impressive, but defensive flaws were evident too – a more clinical Arsenal, perhaps like the one we witnessed at Stamford Bridge in October, might well have scored four or five. This will hopefully give the visitors some confidence as they seek to end a dry spell in front of goal. Indeed the Swans come into this game on the back of two defeats, at Sunderland and Bolton, whilst Chelsea’s last five games point to four wins and a draw, and they are unbeaten on the road since October. Whether this record remains intact as they return from foreign lands remains to be seen, but perhaps it will be Fernando who brings some symmetry to proceedings with a winning goal against the team he last scored against in the league exactly a year to the day since he signed for the club? Ok, perhaps not, but forgive me for dreaming.

In the summer an away trip to Swansea may have seemed an easy three points but looking at the league table it is certainly unlikely to prove that, Swansea may sit in thirteenth place, fifteen points behind Chelsea, but they have been outstanding at home this season. Only Man Utd have won at the Liberty Stadium and even that game ended up 1-0. No team has conceded fewer home goals than Swansea (six goals from eleven games) and it is worth noting that they are only two points behind Chelsea’s home record this season.

This is why you can get pretty generous odds on a Chelsea win in this match, at the time of writing the best odds available on Chelsea are 17/20 giving Chelsea fans the opportunity to almost double their money if Chelsea win the match. Swansea have won five and drawn five at home this season, another home win for Swansea is priced up at 4/1 with most bookies whilst the draw is available at 11/4. Chelsea have only lost two away matches this season so a home win looks doubtful but worryingly the draw looks quite a realistic option with Chelsea tough to beat on the road and Swansea very tough to beat at home, Chelsea have drawn four of their eleven away matches and if looking for a value bet in this match the draw isn’t a bad option at 11.4. It would also cover the disappointment of dropping two points in this match.

If Chelsea are to win then it looks extremely likely it would be a narrow win, Swansea haven’t lost by more than one goal at home all season whilst Chelsea haven’t won a league match by more than one goal in two months. If you fancy Chelsea to win this match than why not boost the odds of a Chelsea win at 17/20 to 11/4 by backing them to win by exactly one goal. Whatever the superiority a low scoring game looks likely here, Chelsea have not conceded a goal in four matches and have scored only two goals in the last three matches, clearly the loss of Didier Drogba to the African Cup of Nations is having an adverse effect on the team’s goalscoring capabilities. Meanwhile Swansea have a great defence at home but haven’t been prolific in front of goal, scoring just 15 goals in 11 home matches. Under 2.5 goals looks a great option here at 5/6 with most bookies.

A low scoring game narrows down the correct score possibilities, if Chelsea are to win by a one goal margin and the game ends with under 2.5 goals than the only possible winning scoreline would be 1-0 and that outcome is 6/1 generally. If you fancy the draw in this match then 0-0 and 1-1 are the selections to concentrate on, a goalless draw is 10/1 whilst a 1-1 draw is available at 13/2. If you are a major pessimist and think Chelsea will lose then back 1-0 to Swansea at 12/1!

Before placing any bets for tonight’s match, be sure to visit the Free Bets page of OLBG.com for a large list of generous free bets.