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Scolari aims at all four trophies in his first season at Stanford Bridge

July 31st, 2008

New Chelsea manager Luiz Philipe Scolari has said that he will aim on winning all four trophies with Chelsea this season.

In Malaysia for the club’s pre season campaign, the former World Cup winning coach said that he has set up a target of minimum one trophy.

He acknowledges that the club reached three finals last year without a proper manager and things can only get better with changes in the team as well.

Chelsea lost the Carling Cup to Tottenham Hotspur, before losing the Premiership and the UEFA Champions League to Manchester United.

Claude Makelele has left Stamford Bridge to join PSG, Hernan Crespo and Steve Sidwell who is now with Aston Villa, whereas additions to the squad this year include world class playmaker Deco and defender Jose Bosingwa, who are both Portugal internationals.

Until now, Chelsea have won both their pre season matches and scored a total of 11 goals against their oppositions, not to mention the tough pre-season campaigns that their rivals from Premiership are having around the globe including Manchester United. He even waved off the criticism of his side being too old to make it big this season.

It seems ‘ironic’ that Deco, who is a Brazil born player, was never included in the Brazil team by the then coach Scolari, and then represented Portugal. Even today Scolari believes it is the biggest regret to him as a coach. Now, it is in a way ‘iconic’ that Scolari and Deco are together to set the stage on fire.

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Posted in Chelsea FC, Premier League

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Chelsea thrashes Chengdu Blades 7-0

July 31st, 2008

Chelsea continued their Asian tour on a high by beating the Chinese league club Chengdu Blades 7-0 on Saturday. The players who gave the Stanford Bridge side comfortable lead in the half time at Macau Stadium were Nicolas Anelka, Solomon Kalou and Frank Lampard. In the second half, Chelsea was handed an extravagant lead by Franco Di Santo, Joe Cole and Shaun Wright-Philips.

Paulo Ferreira came in to replace injured Bosingwa who plays in right-back, and the other players, who were included into the club, were Alex and Wright-Philips. In their last match against Guangzhou Pharmaceutical on Wednesday, Chelsea defeated the side 4-0 at the expenses of key players like Ricardo Carvalho, Mikel Obi and key midfielder Michael Essien.

In the match against the Blades, Chelsea gained possession and dominated all the exchanges and the proceedings similar to the start they had on Wednesday’s pre-season opener. There were some excellent shots from Kalou & Essien but both of them were saved dramatically by the Chengdu goalie Lan Yi. Chelsea opened scoring after fifteen minutes of play in the first half.

Anelka went unmarked charging into the opposition’s. When the France striker went passed the Blades’ offside traps, he artistically rounded Lan to hit the ball rolling into the goal. In another terrific attempt, Kalou crossed Lampard to fire the ball into an empty net and the Chinese goalkeeper Lan made a vain attempt to save the goal.

Chelsea made five half-time changes. Cole was introduced as his first pre-season appearance, since he missed the opening game due to lack of fitness. Cole was effective after 2 minutes of his introduction and scored a wonderful goal deceiving the goalkeeper completely.

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Posted in Chelsea FC, Premier League

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Ballack hits back at Ferguson on Chelsea’s behalf

July 31st, 2008

Following remarks from Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson that Chelsea is too old a team this season to win any silverware, midfielder Michael Ballack has hit back pointing the example of last season when Claude Makelele, 34 set the stage on fire with Chelsea.

Mekalele is no longer with Chelsea, but Ballack believes that the performance by the midfielder was exactly the counter to the allegations by Ferguson.

German Captain has recently joined the rest of the club squad for a match later today with Chinese Super League side Chengdu Blades at Macau.

Coach Scolari has confirmed that the German playmaker will not participate in today’s match, or Tuesday’s one against a weak Malaysian select XI in Kuala Lumpur. However, he has said that Ballack can get a chance during the Railway Cup at Moscow in the start of August.

Ballack’s late joining to the squad made him come back to the team sans Steve Sidwell, who has left for Aston Villa and Claude Makelele, who has been sold to Paris St Germain. A new and top quality addition to Stamford Bridge this season is Portugese attacking midfielder Deco, who has impressed one and all at the club.

Talking of the transfer fiasco involving Frank Lampard, Chelsea and Inter Milan, Ballack said that he would be more than happy, if Lampard stays at Stamford Bridge, and that all the squad members support him.

In the end, Ballack said that he feels that the squad is better, and they will progress a lot with new coach Scolari.

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Chelsea awaits Jose Bosingwa’s injury reports

July 29th, 2008

London based football club, Chelsea, has informed that it expects to assess fully Jose Bosingwa’s thigh injury today. This decision has come after the scan, which the player was supposed to undergo, was delayed.
Jose Bosingwa, the 25 year old right-back from Portugal, last summer joined the Stanford Bridge side after a transfer from FC Porto. He unfortunately managed to play for only twenty minutes on the field while complaining about a thigh problem in Southern China on Wednesday.
Initially, Chelsea insisted on the fact that the right-back from Portugal was withdrawn from the match, as a part of a precautionary measure. However after sometime, it was revealed that he needed to undergo a scan to determine about the seriousness of the injury.  For this reason, the player was asked to have a scan on Thursday itself. However, due to a sudden change in the schedule of Chelsea’s flight from Guangzhou to Macau for a friendly match against Chengdu Blades, which was to be played on Saturday, the scan was delayed for a day.
Formal Brazilian and now present coach of Chelsea, Luiz Felipe Scolari, told the media on Thursday that they are looking forward for the report of the scan, since the results will have an impact on further pre-season preparation of the player.
If Bosingwa is declared fit enough to be a part of the Chelsea team for the remaining matches of their Asian and Russian tour, he will stay or else he will be returning to London at the earliest.

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‘Pre-season’ mind games begin in Barclaycard Premier League!

July 25th, 2008

Even before the beginning of the Barclays Premier League 2008-09, the mind games have begun with Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, attacking London club, Chelsea. Stanford Bridge side was the only one that made life difficult for Manchester United in the previous season in all leagues.

He has straightaway said that the new manager, the world cup winning Brazilian coach Luiz Philipe Scolari, has no chance in bringing the level of success to Chelsea that was brought by previous coach Jose Mourinho, who was dismissed last November, much to the disappointment of many players, including striker Didier Drogba.

Ferguson has pointed that Chelsea have several players, who are at the wrong side of 30 years of age. In his opinion, due to the modern day fitness techniques, it is not a problem for older players to play but it is difficult to witness any ‘outstanding progress’ from an aging side.

However, he seemed kinder to other rivals, Arsenal and Liverpool, whom he expected to see in the top four this season.

United, who are right now on a pre season tour to South Africa, today defeated Orlando Pirates 1-0. Now, the Pirates and the Kaizer Chiefs will play in Port Elizabeth on Thursday, and the winner will get another match with The Red Devils.

This match was special for center midfield Lee Martin, who scored the winner for the Red Devils. Goalkeeper Ben Foster’s spirited performance today made Ferguson to say that he could even be England’s first choice goalie for years to come.

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Posted in Chelsea FC, Man U, Premier League

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Transfer Market Here is some hot transfer news in English Football.

May 30th, 2008

  The Latest hot transfer news in English Football

  • The agent of Espanyol midfielder Albert Riera says that there is no truth in the reports that Liverpool has a bid for his player.

  • Marseille midfielder Samir Nasri is heading to Arsenal, but the clubs are still negotiating terms of the deal.

  • Chelsea’s out-of-the Peruvian striker Claudio Pizarro May return to Germany with the former club Werder Bremen and Bayern Munich are interested. But the combination of Spanish Valencia and Villarreal have also considered for a move.

  • Middlesbrough midfielder George Boateng has stated that he expects both sides of the Old Firm – Celtic and Rangers – to move for him this summer.

  • Harry Redknapp, Portsmouth for the financing of five new signing this summer as he prepares to chase another top-10 place Premier League and UEFA Cup success. And he could start with a surprise bid for Wigan the former England striker Emile Heskey.

  • Czech goalkeeper Petr Cech will open contract talks with Chelsea in the coming weeks.

  • David Trezeguet the agent, Antonio Caliendo, revealed that Barcelona have joined him to try and sign of the Juventus striker. “Barca are interested in David,” he said. “They have been known for years.

  • AC Milan  manager Carlo Ancelotti is favourite to land the £6m-a-year manager’s job, but Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon wants to interview several candidates, with Blackburn boss Mark Hughes also a pioneer.

  • Tottenham have agreed a £12m deal for Barcelona’s Mexican 19-year old wonder kid Giovanni Dos Santos.

  • Manchester City defender Richard Dunne is also on the verge of signing a £ 5m deal with Tottenham, a step that could ignite a player exodus from Eastland.

  • Rangers are on the trail of £5m-rated Italian wide player Raffaele Palladino of Juventus.

  • Liverpool plan to give Liverpool star striker Fernando Torres a £4m salary increase. The extra £ 400,000-a-year is intended to see out the interest of Chelsea.

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Posted in AC Milan, Arsenal, Barcelona, Celtic, Chelsea FC, Football Transfer Market, General, Juventus, Liverpool, Manchester City, Middlesbrough, Newcastle United, Portsmouth, Rangers, Tottenham

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