April 2013

One of nine players aged 30 or over in the Chelsea side, Essien may well find himself on the transfer list come June-time, along with a host of the others, the likes of Hilario, Ferreira, Benayoun and Meireles are out of favour and have just the one start between them this season. It certainly seems like this will be the summer that the older players get shown the door.

However, is it possible that Essien still has a future at the club? At just 30, and with 18 appearances for Real Madrid this season, its still quite possible. He has certainly shown he can still play at the top level of the game still.

As we head into Week 35 of this years campaign, another thrilling sets of matches are on offer as the jostle for Champions League spots heat up.

Prior to last weekends games, some league fixtures were played during the week and it had a bag of mixed results for two London teams who had games in hand. Arsenal was held to a scoreless draw by Everton, whilst a confident 3-0 at Fulham sent our confidence well up

With Super Frank on 200 goals for the club, there is no doubting that we all want him to strike three more times and break Bobby Tamblings 40-year record.

However, has his pursuit of the record hindered our progress this season? I think so, and the facts suggest so too.

In 24 Premier League games this season, the midfield man has scored 12 times, but currently has 0 assists. If you compare that to other seasons, you will notice a huge difference.

Rumours making the rounds hint that Chelsea have all but wrapped up the signature of Bayer Leverkusen’s André Schurrle, with the intention of using Kevin De Bruyne as a makeshift loanee for Bayer.

Giving the enormous fee, supposedly £20 million, to be used in executing the deal, many are beginning to question the logic behind this plan whilst some feel KDB, who his having an excellent season, should be recalled to the team in the summer to team up with the trio of Oscar, Mata, and Hazard.

As we near the end of the campaign, speculation mounts, and names mentioned as to who will be putting pen to paper on a deal to move to the Bridge this summer. After all, it would be unlike Mr. Abramovich to pass up on some spending some July/August-time.

Andre Schurrle’s name was heavily mentioned in both the summer and January this year, but it looks like his move could well become a reality when the window opens this time around.

It’s been a tough time recently on our travels. Saturday 12^th January, the start of Stoke City’s current demise, and our last road victory in the league. A worrying statistic, especially as our next two games come on the road, in the space of five days, and against teams with decent home records.

We are 7-3-5 on our travels this season, not terrible, but our last four in the league have seen us lose three and draw one. Although Everton’s point at Arsenal helped us out last night, I think we have to take four points from these two games if we want to secure Champions League football next season.

From Peter Osgood, to Didier Drogba. Dave Sexton, to Jose Mourinho. Many of the Chelsea greats have lifted the famous FA Cup, and since beating Leeds United at Wembley back in 1970, we have gone on to win it six more times, with just three teams amassing more wins in its history.

After winning the last FA Cup final at the original Wembley, we have taken the trophy four out of the six seasons it has been held at the new Wembley stadium, becoming somewhat specialists in the competition during the 21^st century, with 5 wins and 6 finals so far, in just 12 years.

With just 7 games, 8 for some, left to be played in the EPL, several teams are beginning to scramble for those final undecided positions in the league. The EPL is coming to a crescendo, so sit tight and enjoy the madness that pops up the screens in the next few weeks.

For Man Utd, the league is all sewn up and any climax in that regard would be to the delight of their fans. They can start celebrating. There is also the relegation battle and in that mix is QPR, Wigan, Reading, A.Villa, Sunderland. It would be interesting to see how that pans out.