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Never in my whole entire life as a Chelsea supporter, have I been able to witness such an amazing 2 weeks of European football. Not only have we been able to reach the Champions League final, but we were able to do it, by overthrowing the darlings of European Football, Barcelona! At the very beginning, I thought we could never do it, but here I am, sitting here, writing a blog on this site, telling you how enthusiastic I am with my Chelsea heroes!

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Chelsea 1-0 Barcelona – UEFA Champions League – 18/4/12

Didier Drogba’s goal on the stroke of half time was the only goal scored here, amid a constant early threat from Barcelona at Stamford Bridge! The Catalans had hit the woodwork twice during the game.. once when Alexis Sanchez lobbed the ball over Petr Cech only for it to bounce off the crossbar, and secondly, in the last few seconds of the game when Pedro’s effort went through everyone and bounced off the post! We were so lucky, but in the end, we were able to get a very precious victory to take to the Nou Camp!

“One Shot, One Goal”, that’s all it took! Barcelona could have had all the possession, all the passing, and all the shots.. but what mattered the most, is that the number of goals were more for us than them on the night, and we went away thinking, that only half the job was done, but that part of the job was a hard one in itself, as it meant that Barcelona had failed to score against us away from home, which meant the away goals rule was firmly on our side going into the second leg the following week!
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Barcelona 2-2 Chelsea (Agg: 2-3) – UEFA Champions League – 24/4/12

This is a night, that I will never, EVER forget!

The night we defied all the odds, the night where 10 men wearing Chelsea badges on their shirts became warriors and heroes, the night that we over-threw the darlings of European football, rubbed it in their fans’ faces, and starting singing songs about going to Munich! This was the night when I had been reminded what it was like to be a hardcore Chelsea fan! It felt like we had won ugly because of our constant sitting back and defending, but it was worth it because our defence worked so hard in keeping Barca out for a whole second half, and for it to be rounded off by a goal scored by Fernando Torres, it was just a beautiful sight!

It was difficult to begin with however, as goals from Sergio Busquets and Andres Iniesta had put the tie in their favour with goals that you had expected to see at some point in the game. Sandwich those goals with a stupid dismissal of John Terry after he had jousted a knee into the back of Alexis Sanchez which was just…. uncalled for! At 2-0 down, and with JT sent off, it seemed like we had lost the plot, and JT was to be blamed for everything……

….not on our watch!!

Ramires, linking up well with Frank Lampard puts us back in it with a tremendous lob over Victor Valdes, and puts us right back into the tie, scoring a huge and vital away goal… half time whistle goes, and we all start to believe again!

The beginning of the second half started very sourly though, as Barcelona got a penalty after Cesc Fabregas played for a foul following Drogba’s tackle on him, but Lionel Messi, whom despite his world class fame, had never scored a goal against Chelsea in his career, and has his penalty pinged off the bar and came out.. you could say, that the blue angel that had watched over us in the game at Stamford Bridge, was certainly on our side at the Nou Camp as well!

The Barcelona wave was not done there however! Alexis Sanchez almost beat the offside trap to nod the ball in only for it to be waved off. Javier Mascherano tested Petr Cech from some way out, and Messi tested Cech from the same distance, only for it to be palmed lightly onto the post! In between these efforts though, endured more than just blood, sweat and tears, as we constantly defended for our lives.. a squad that had no Terry or Cahill, Jose Bosingwa playing at “LEFT centre back” and a man light!

…. and then …. it happened!

Ashley Cole deep in the penalty box hoofed the ball up the pitch, and on the end of it, the lone substitute, Fernando Torres who sprinted up the pitch all alone in the Barcelona half, up came Valdes to meet him, but Torres was able to sneak round him and roll the ball into the net, levelling the score up at 2-2 and sending us to Munich for our second European Final in 4 years!

Now if THAT GOAL, is not worth £50 million, then I could probably sell my tatty old sofa for the same amount at a car boot sale if I wanted to! And if that goal doesn’t bring back his old self again, you might as well sign me up and put me up front and sell Drogba!

To this day, I still can’t believe how we did it, with 10 footballers on the pitch, no recognised centrebacks and no captain, we beat Barcelona at the Nou Camp.. it just goes to show, that no matter how well-recognised a football club is for their beautiful football, it doesn’t mean they’re the best and that they’re not beatable! Football is a funny game!

I will never forget this night, and I hope to the heavens that we can beat Bayern Munich in the final. The odds are stacked against us because Munich will be playing on familiar grounds, but to me, that’s bullshit! If we can beat one of the greatest football clubs, who play the greatest football ever seen.. in their own back yard, we can dispose of the Germans, and we will finally win what Roman Abramovich has been dreaming of having for a whole decade… the European Trophy! ….. and we will be the first London club to do so as well!!

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With every game we win, I’m really starting to trust Roberto Di Matteo’s philosophy because judging from the results we’re getting under his leadership, albeit an interim one, it’s giving us all the confidence we need to turn our season around, and hopefully end the season, either with a Champions League place, or even winning the Champions League.

And our great form under Di Matteo continued today with a very well-deserved 4-2 away win over Aston Villa. Considering that this was only our 2nd win at Villa Park in 12 meetings, I’d say this was a key win today.. and Arsenal lost 2-1 away to QPR, so it’s smiles all round for us blues. If Swansea can defeat Spurs tomorrow, then that would just be the icing on the cake!

Daniel Sturridge got us off the mark with a tap in on 9 minutes, and then it stayed 1-0 until Branislav Ivanovic popped up to nod in our second goal. Villa fought back however through goals by James Collins and Eric Lichaj to make it level at 2-2, and suddenly, all hope looked bleak.. another game at Villa park without a win was looming… until Ivanovic smashed in our third, and then Fernando Torres, after 6 months without a league goal, ended his drought with a last minute strike.

Speaking of Torres, I think he deserves all the recent plaudits given to him by the Chelsea fans. It wasn’t very long ago that he was playing second fiddle to Didier Drogba because he was on the decline under Andre Villas-Boas, and there were question marks on his future at the club.. now under Roberto, he has found the sparkle in his form, and is now linking up well with Juan Mata and Daniel Sturridge in attack, and it looks like we’re finally seeing the Torres of old.

Another player I want to talk a little briefly about is Mata. When I first saw the team sheet before the game, I said to myself, “oh goodness me, why is he starting again for Chelsea? He NEEDS to rest!” .. but to tell you the truth, Mata certainly plays well for someone who’s played 4 straight matches without being able to rest.. he was one of our star performers until he had to come off for Florent Malouda.. definitely deserved the plaudits, and should have definitely scored a goal for himself.

And just a little more here about David Luiz coming off at half time? What was wrong with him. Some people say that he came off with an injury to his ankle. Well, when he walked off the pitch to be replaced by Gary Cahill, he was walking perfectly fine to me. Maybe it was a slight injury to his ankle, and nothing more than that. I reckon he will be fit for the home leg against Benfica next week.

In conclusion, great win! Especially at a venue where we don’t win very often, and Roberto Di Matteo is certainly getting it right in terms of rotating the squad, and letting players work in the way that they want. It was never like that under AVB.. players emotions and feelings were all over the place back then, and hence the barrage of defeats.. but under RDM, players play because they care about the club, and the turnaround of results in all competitions we’re in really proves that. Can we snatch 4th place from Tottenham… I say YES… we can!

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In the middle of March, after the 4-1 win over Napoli in the Champions League, it got me thinking.. is this the crucial stepping stone needed to lift our spirits and get as much confidence as possible to push for 4th place in the Premier League and be once again playing Champions League football?? …  Then, a 5-2 defeat of Leicester City in the FA Cup Quarter Finals emerged with Fernando Torres getting 2 goals and 2 assists during the game… and there I was again, thinking and pondering to myself… has Torres finally found his touch of scoring goals again, and is he the one to steer us in the right direction??

Then, along come Manchester City and Tottenham, and in both those games, we’re only able to squeeze out a point, and then, I was like… “oh screw that then”!

There are a few points I’d like to go over in terms of the sheer frustration that was bellowed during the disappointing 0-0 draw at home to Tottenham today. First and foremost, Daniel Sturridge… I don’t know what it is with him, but he has turned from being one of the hottest prospects to come out from a loan spell with Bolton Wanderers, to being one of the most selfish and useless wingers in the Premier League. There’s no problem with the way he gets to the byline and out-runs his opponents for pace, but he has GOT to work on his passing, and just stop going for glory all the time, because it’s beginning to get really tiresome for a Chelsea fan, like myself, to watch something as selfish as shooting from such impossible angles, and hitting nothing but the side netting; or just getting as forward as possible, only to pass it straight to the opposition, and waste all of that effort getting into that space.

Another point I’d like to talk about is the contribution of Jose Bosingwa. Now, before I ramble on about how useless he is generally (most notably going forward), I have to commend his efforts at trying to keep tabs on Gareth Bale during the game. Bale is not an easy player to mark, as he is incredibly quick, and sometimes gets past lightweight players like Bosingwa with absolute ease. But, credit to Bosingwa, he did okay keeping him quiet at times. However, going forward, he is as much use as a brain-dead monkey on a unicycle. The guy just cannot make a good pass… and whenever he does bottle it with that kind of pass, always expect to hear three quarters of the Stamford Bridge faithful groan with agony at an opportunity wasted at the hands of Bosingwa! Put it this way, if a player like Ivanovic was fit, not only would Bale be in his pocket all game, but his determination would have shined through even more in terms of going forward, as we have seen in a lot of recent games. Anyone remember the Extra Time goal against Napoli??

One person I must talk about in great depth, and in a positive way, is Gary Cahill, or “Gazza” as I like to call him.. not to be confused with one England great Paul Gascoigne, but right now, I use the term, Gazza, for our current generation of players… in this case, Cahill. He has barely been at our club 2 months and he’s already won my charms. He has that style of defending that makes me feel as though John Terry cloned himself 7 years ago and that clone hadn’t aged. Seriously, if Cahill had not have been in our back four against Tottenham today, we would have lost 3-0. He’s quick, he gets back, he’s not afraid to go in for a tackle, and he’s stable, just like JT was 7 years ago. I say, if we can keep hold of Cahill for at least 3 years, he will be so important to us! You read it here first!

Last of all, the overall synopsis of the game. The first half was probably the most dull and depressing half I’ve seen this season, particularly when Tottenham looked as though they opted for a dull approach to the game, and, knowing us.. not capitalising on the opposition’s faults. As for the second half… well, I don’t know what Harry Redknapp said to his players at half time, but whatever he said, his side certainly came out of the blocks and immediately  took the game to us.. especially in terms of the number of shots that were seen during the game. Tottenham managed around 13 shots, and we were only able to achieve 5. Now if you can consider our overall record against Tottenham at the Bridge over the last 20 years  in the top flight, that’s just fucking disgraceful.

In conclusion, a 0-0 draw at home, is not good enough to push “The Turds” and “Lucknal” all the way in terms of fighting for 3rd/4th place in the League. I think we’re completely out of it now. If you look at our run-in compared to the likes of Tottenham, they have an easier time of it than we do, while “Lucknal” just keep winning at the moment, and I just cannot see us chasing them all the way, if all we’re going to do is just keep dropping points at every opportunity. It makes our Champions League campaign even more of a priority, if we’re going to compete in it next season. The thing is, I don’t see us dethroning Barcelona with the kind of form they have this season, but strange things have happened, and in this bygone era, you just never know what football might throw your way!

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In what proved to be a disappointing result for us away to City, it was still a stern performance for us at the Etihad Stadium where no team this season has come away with a point or more, especially in defence. Gary Cahill for me, has come so far! Excellent display at the back, and I believe he is the long term replacement for John Terry!

It was in fact Cahill’s goal that gave us the lead, and at that point we Chelsea fans were all thinking of an unthinkable victory that would further propell  Di Matteo’s populaity as our interim manager… but it was cut short in the 78 minute when Michael Essien handled in the penalty area, and Sergio Aguero netted from the spot, and then, yet another late goal conceded as Samir Nasri sealed our fate.

To be totally honest, I wasn’t expecting a victory tonight, because City have been so strong at home all season, while our overall form, particularly under AVB was more than just a questionable one.

The truth is, that ever since we had gone 1-0 up through Cahill’s strike, it was nothing but City threat… our midfield just didn’t want to know half the time, and players such as Bosingwa and Ashley Cole just didn’t possess any fight in them whatsoever! I think our main dagger to the heart in the whole game was the injury to Ivanovic. Had he have not got that knock in training, I would have expected to see a more vibrant Serbian defender at right back, and players such as Nasri and Silva would have had to work a lot harder.

Overall, I can’t fault the defence for the defeat because they pulled off a stern performance, keeping out City at home for just under 80 minutes, but I can blame some of our midfielders for not taking the initiative of City’s careless mistakes and frustration. Still, even though we lost, it was still a valiant attempt!