The Official Thread of Chelsea FC

[Norf Tyrone]

Good news from Holland.

Miroslav Stoch (Who is having a stormer season to date) has just scored his second for Twente.

[Norf Tyrone]

Chelsea line up as expected. Borini on the bench in front of Sturridge is a surprise one.

[anportmorforjfc]

Suprised to see Keane start ahead of Crouch.

[Norf Tyrone]

Six out of six for Ancellotti, and I think that makes it something like ten wins on the bounce for Chelsea in the league.

Funny performance today, and my first thought after the final whistle today was that Spurs might've deserved a point. However when I think about Chelsea probably played better than I thought.
People will look to Keane's shout for a penalty, but Chelsea had shouts of their own with the push on Ballack, and a Spurs hand ball. To be honest Webb got so many things wrong it was a joke. Spurs too being unlucky with injuries to King and Bassong, and Chelsea worringly losing Drogba.

Best for Chelsea > Drogba, and the superb Ashley Cole.

Onwards and upwards for the Chels...

[Norf Tyrone]

After the rivals on Sunday, it's the bitterest of rivals on Wednesday with the visit of QP ha ha. Looking forward to seeing Ancellotti's selection, as I believe he'll go for a few younger lads, with Borini's first appearance yesterday good to see.

Probably see appearances from Sam Hutchinson, Jeffery Bauma, Borni, and Sturridge with come back run outs for Zhirkov, Joe Cole, Fererria and Alex.

[Archie Mitchell]

Has Sturridge featured much this season or is he injured or what?

[Norf Tyrone]

Has Sturridge featured much this season or is he injured or what?

It's a strange one. He played a few minutse earlier in the year, and was on the bench for most or all the other games. However Borini was ahead of him yesterday.
The thing is, Chelsea had a reserve game last week against Ipswich which they won 5-2, with Sturrudge netting three clinking goals. Ancellotti, Wilkens and co were there watching so he surely would've impressed. I am guessing he had a slight knock yesterday.

[A Quinn Martin Production]

Has Sturridge featured much this season or is he injured or what?

It's a strange one. He played a few minutse earlier in the year, and was on the bench for most or all the other games. However Borini was ahead of him yesterday.
The thing is, Chelsea had a reserve game last week against Ipswich which they won 5-2, with Sturrudge netting three clinking goals. Ancellotti, Wilkens and co were there watching so he surely would've impressed. I am guessing he had a slight knock yesterday.

Keeping him fresh for when Drog goes to Cup of Nations  

Very good performance yesterday though the last two games have shown that Spurs are still a good bit off the top teams.  Shame the ref didn't card Keane for the worst dive of the season so far!

[Dinny Breen]

One for the Chelski fans....

Speaking of Drogba, interesting profile on DD in the Sunday Tribune yesterday, would genuinely endear you to the guy...

A Riddle Wrapped In A Mystery Inside An Enigma
Didier Drogba's life and actions off the pitch are utterly at odds with his on-field image, writes Miguel Delaney
Mr Nice Guy: Didier Drogba's sometimes childish behaviour on the pitch doesn't seem to tally with his charity work and political activism

Disgraceful. It's a word Didier Drogba is by now used to reading about himself. This is a rare footballer, after all, who admits he devours newspapers – not always turning to the sports pages first – and it's an adjective over-used in describing him. Him and his diving, his dramatics, his "dark side" as one coach put it.

But rarely his delivery. Yet that was exactly what Drogba had to read and ruminate on back in April. He had just scored against Arsenal to put Chelsea into the FA Cup final and nicely round off a run of nine goals in 11 games. But instead of receiving praise he was pillorised for it. One pundit questioned his professionalism and several articles followed asking why he withheld that kind of form under Felipe Scolari only to unleash it for Guus Hiddink. As if Drogba had consciously, and calculatingly, looked to cost the Brazilian his job.

It says a lot about the perception of Drogba that, when it came to last season's personal slump, many blamed his morals rather than Scolari's man-management. But then piercing perceptions is what Drogba has specialised in since arriving in England.

The story goes that, on seeing his physical frame thunder into training in the summer of 2004, one former Chelsea teammate remarked "Drogba has the worst first touch of a professional I've ever seen". And it was a statement that seemingly reverberated around the dressing-room – Drogba admitted in his strikingly candid autobiography "at the beginning, I felt that I wasn't welcomed by the English players, wasn't accepted" – as well as the stands. Chelsea supporters had by then become accustomed to tempting only the biggest names to Stamford Bridge, not some no-mark from Marseille with a few Uefa Cup goals. And an overpriced one at that. Certainly not an Andriy Shevchenko, nor a Raul. It took them a while to let him forget it. Most infamously when he was booed against Manchester City in Spring 2006.

That was then. Now? The player who questioned Drogba's control has long left Chelsea while the Ivorian's ability has helped him score some of the most crucial and cracking goals in the club's recent history. Many of them, most memorably blockbusters against Everton and Barcelona, made from his ability to turn on a single touch.

As for the rest of his teammates? Well that matter was sorted within a few months thanks to his endeavour. To the point that, after his meltdown against Barcelona in May, every single squad member backed him in the face of a board that looked to engineer a sale. It was a feeling echoed among the fans, who now bellow out his name rather than boo him. And why wouldn't they? Following his upswing in form from last February, Drogba has become the focal point of the team again. Almost unplayable at the minute, his four goals in five league games so far have been the greatest factor in Chelsea's 100 per cent record. Certain sections of the Shed End have now even taken up singing an Ivorian chant to celebrate him.

But while they may imitate his countrymen, Chelsea fans can't quite emulate them in terms of affection. Because in the Ivory Coast, love for Drogba goes far beyond what he does with a ball.

On qualifying for the World Cup for the very first time in 2005, almost three years to the day after the Ivorian Civil War broke out, Drogba was called forward as captain to speak on national TV. There were no post-game clichés though, only a calculated speech – what Drogba felt would be a "peaceful weapon", a statement that simply had to be made.

"All players please come together. Ivorians, men and women, from the north, south, centre and west. You've seen this. We've proven that the people of Cote d'Ivoire can all live together side by side, play together towards one same goal: qualifying. We'd promised you this celebration would bring people together. Now we're asking you to make this a reality. Please, let's all kneel... put down your weapons, organise the elections and things will get better."

And Drogba himself made further efforts to ensure they did. On winning the African Player of the Year award in 2007, Drogba flew to Abidjan to have his photo taken with president Laurent Gbagbo. But he wanted something to equal the politician's blatant electioneering. He wanted the team's next African Nations qualifier switched from the capital to Bouake, the seat of the rebels fighting Gbagbo. A grand, unifying gesture. And the president had no option but to accede. The result went far beyond 90 minutes.

Which is exactly how to describe Drogba's attitude to international football. "We were like a ray of sunshine in a country plunged into grave crisis. My status shields me from misery; I'm not blind to that. This responsibility raised up our national team into a symbol of reunification. But we're no politicians. All we can do is radiate positivism and give pacifist speeches."

The kind of reflection beyond most of his peers, and even similarly influential athletes such as Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan. But then Drogba has the personal life to match. He is a UN Goodwill Ambassador and trained accountant. As his agent and friend Thierno Seydi explained, "Didier is one of the 10 best-paid players in the world but humility is part of his personality. He will be an African Michel Platini, a decision-taker." This is a footballer, after all, who castigated the European media for oversimplifying Ivory Coast's problems in their coverage.

And, put simply, all of this is hard to level with the easy image of a pantomime villain. The sort of player who goes down at the merest grapple, throws slaps in the Champions League final and coins in the Carling Cup, pursues Norwegian referees to the point of complaining about him.

While Drogba has evaded the issue of diving, in a recent interview he acknowledged his "over-acting" as Hiddink diplomatically put it. "People think footballers are all like robots, we can control everything on the pitch. But your heart is beating 200 times a minute."

That hyperactive heart then is at once his greatest failing and strength, since it fosters his play-acting but also fires his perseverance. As his "now life-long friend" Jose Mourinho put it, "his work rate is unbelievable. He's the kind of player I have to play, there's no rest for the boy."

With his powerful presence the archetype for the modern forward, this also gives rise to professionalism in the purest sense. When it comes to defending set-pieces, Chelsea coaches have lauded Drogba for doing the work of an extra centre-half with all his headers away. And while this selflessness has often softened his strike-rate, it was another matter Mourinho was quick to pick up on in his first two seasons. "People don't realise just how fundamentally important he is to the team, even when he doesn't score. He fights for Chelsea, not for statistics."

And yet he's started to provide them. All of which is offset, again, by the image of a player so unenthused by visiting Manchester United back in January, Scolari felt it benefitted the team to drop him altogether for the next game. The issue here, however, appears to lie a little deeper than any disagreement with the manager. As Drogba proffers himself, uprooting from Ivory Coast to his uncle's home in France at such a young age always left him looking to form close bonds. A sensitive character, he thrived in them. Scolari however, conscious of Drogba's then 30 years as well as the injuries that appeared to only accentuate them, wasn't willing to provide one. Hiddink was though, as were Mourinho and now Carlo Ancelotti.

Ancelotti, to the extent Chelsea's entire new formation, seems focused on Drogba's force, providing the perfect foil for Nicolas Anelka to rove around behind him and for Florent Malouda, to charge from the wing. And it's something Drogba appreciates. "I have a lot of support from four or five different players. That's good because it creates a lot of movement and allows me to make runs and score." And such praise is returned from Ancelotti. Far from put off by Drogba's age, the coach feels it's perfect. "He's a player who's in the right moment of his career to reach his best."

Whether the team itself is at that stage, despite their flawless start, is open to debate. It should be remembered, after all, that Scolari's Chelsea started with a similar charge and looked certainties for the title. That side had a very different Drogba though.

http://www.tribune.ie/sport/soccer/article/2009/sep/20/a-riddle-wrapped-in-a-mystery-inside-an-enigma/

[deiseach]

I like Drogba. His candour in admitting to diving a few years back was refreshing. Yeah, he immediately backtracked but it was better than hearing the likes of Stevie G bitching about diving while doing it themselves

[Norf Tyrone]

Good article- Thanks Dinny.

I am nearly sure that there is a film about Drogba's role in the Ivory Coast. 'African Lion' or something. The big lad has been fantastic year to date, and thankfully has parked some of the histrionics.

[gawa316]

Any word on his injury or was it actually just cramp?

[Norf Tyrone]

Any word on his injury or was it actually just cramp?

Nothing official as of yet!

[A Quinn Martin Production]

Straightforward win for Chelsea last night.  "Big" news was the return of Joe Cole and a start for Yuri Zhirkov, both seem to have come through unscathed.

[Norf Tyrone]

Straightforward win for Chelsea last night.  "Big" news was the return of Joe Cole and a start for Yuri Zhirkov, both seem to have come through unscathed.

Cole was busy, but lacked a wee bit of sharpness. The 90 minutes will do him no harm.
Zhirkov looked promising, but seemed to lack a wee bit of confidence.

Two debuts as well. Borini was very game up front, but the forward line of him and Kalou looked too similar, and light.
However Sam Hutchinson was outstanding. His game was so JT like it was unreal, tackling, marking, and barking orders to his senior pros. The big fella did not put a foot wrong, and from what I've seen to date is a much bigger prospect than Mancienne is.