Tottenham 2 Chelsea 4
(20th October 2012)
After conceding just three goals in their first five home matches of the campaign, many expected Chelsea to arrive at White Hart Lane trying to nick a one goal lead, and settle for that. But much like we will need at Swansea, we did much more than that. Going behind 2-1 early in the second half stunned the visitors, but a double from Juan Mata, and a strike from the now departed Daniel Sturridge, sent the three points over to the Bridge, and if you ever needed proof that Chelsea could break down a solid defence, this was it.
A similar performance at the Liberty, with a dash of Demba Ba, and there is no reason why we can’t go and score at least the two goals needed to take the game into extra-time. However, with Swansea already having a two goal lead, letting them take the lead in this game would be suicidal. But scoring 3 goals in 34 minutes here, proved that we can still come back from the dead.
Sunderland 1 Chelsea 3 (8th December 2012)
Sunderland’s defensive home record has been great this season, apart from two games. They shipped four to West Brom, and then three to us, proving that every defence has its off day. Infact, in their other 8 games, they conceded just 5 goals.
The early goal from Torres was key, from then on, they were chasing the game, as we went 3-0 up through a Torres second, and a Juan Mata goal, before letting them pull one goal back.
If you look at Swansea’s home results this season, they are extremely similar. They have conceded 9 goals in their 9 home matches, that is taking away two results, a 4-3 defeat to Norwich, and a 3-0 defeat to Everton.
Both times, the Swans went behind to goals in the first quarter of the match, and both sides went 3-0 up, if that doesn’t give us confidence, then im not sure what will. One caution is though, that they have scored 19 goals in their 11 home matches so far, but if anything, that may benefit us, as they certainly aren’t a side to sit back and let the game end 0-0, or even to lose 1-0.
Southampton 1 Chelsea 5
(5th January 2013)
Ok, ok. So Southampton are currently 17th in the league. You’d expect them to concede goals for fun, but they don’t. In fact, they have conceded 3 goals less than opponents Swansea, and had only conceded 4 goals in the 6 previous games, before we stuck five past them last week.
Those came after going a goal behind as well, whilst four of the five goals came within 26 minutes of each other. It seems to be a recurring theme that when we score, we score a bunch, and really rattle teams, something that could well be required when he play at the Liberty in two weeks.
It may well be a tall order to put ourselves through to the final, but we have shown this season that we are well capable of scoring goals. In fact, the last time we failed to score in consecutive home games, we went on to score 26 goals in 7 games, so there is hope after all, especially with Demba Ba now available.
We are also on a run of six wins in our last seven away games, with four of them six being by two goals or more. We have also averaged 3.0 goals per games during those wins, meaning we can even be nice and let them score again.
By Brad Smith