I have seen the huge number of hits this blog has received and while the attention I have given to football has dwindled due to many other matters I am working on, I am considering reviving this.  Breathe Football, Bleed Blue has not seen a post for just about 1.5 years and I’m thinking it would be fantastic to be able to bring this old blog back to life and gain followers once again.

To do or not to do, that is the question.

Salomon Kalou marked his return to fitness with a goal in the 6-0 win over Manchester City on Saturday, the first time he has scored for us in consecutive league appearances.

A hamstring injury kept Kalou out of the previous two matches against Middlesbrough and Schalke, but he made a goal scoring return to action on Saturday from a left-wing position in the famous 4-3-3 formation.

He was thrilled to follow up his winner at Bolton with the fifth goal at Stamford Bridge against City.

“I loved it. It was a good game to play, and I hope people enjoyed it,” he smiled, in customary Kalou fashion.

When asked whether Avram Grant had given him specific instructions to help unlock the visitors’ defence, he responded: “Not much, just that I needed to run behind the defence when Didier has the ball and that’s what I tried to do.

“It was very special to win 6-0 against Man City. I think we can say we were very good today. It was nice to play this kind of game because everyone was giving his best for the team and that’s the most important thing.”

He also spoke about Jose Mourinho’s departure and the difficulty of dealing with it at first.  Now, everything seems to be going smoothly with Grant.

“I had it at Feyenoord when Ruud Gullit left. But in that situation Gullit left at the end of the season.

“In this case, it didn’t happen like that, but it’s all experience. It’s all part of football. In this game you meet people, you work with people, but things change.

“Jose Mourinho brought me to Chelsea so in that respect it was difficult to see him go. But for me, it is also important that you keep the great memories of that person and look back on it as a good time.

“I’m a professional footballer and these things happen so we have to move on.

“The most important thing is the team. As professionals, that’s all that matters, so we have to give our best to whoever we are working with.

“Avram likes his players to be focused on their jobs and their goals. He knows what he wants and where he’s going. So we have to make his job as easy as we can by giving him our best.”

Kalou has now scored four goals in all competitions this season, added to the brace he scored at Hull, and could have had more against an under-par Manchester City defence.

“We could have looked to score more than six, but six is not bad,” Kalou reasoned. “City is a good team and play good football but we put them under pressure.

“In the next game we have to do the same, and it’s up to the team to keep working hard and keep the spirit going.”

It is now five straight wins in all competitions, and three in the league, but the Ivorian forward believes it is too soon to think about regaining the Premier League title.

“The Premier League is a difficult competition so it’s too early to say. It’s a good result but most important is to keep winning and get closer to Arsenal and Manchester United,” he said, adding: “Right now we just look at winning game to game, and hope that teams on top drop some points.”

Didier Drogba has been quoted by a French newspaper saying, “I want to leave Chelsea.”Nothing can stop me from leaving now. Something is broken with Chelsea.”

It was said to have been the result of a broken morale to a big extent among the players following the departure of Jose Mourinho.

He added, “The damage in the dressing room is big because we know now what happened and who caused Mourinho’s departure.”

Even given the rumors of superstars coming next year, Drogba still claims that will not change his mind.

“I know that Ronaldinho and Kaka are linked to come next season but even that won’t change my mind.”

Chelsea Football Club issued a statement to deny the rumors.  It said: “Didier Drogba signed a new four-year contract last year. As a top professional we are sure Didier is committed to Chelsea and intends to honour that contract.”

The player who was brought by former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho from Porto has destroyed rumours about him leaving during the January transfer window.  The manager’s exit has caused speculations that the player will follow him too.  However, Ricardo Carvalho denied this and instead reiterated his desire to stay with the Blues.

“At this moment I’m not thinking about leaving Chelsea, but how to improve as a player,” explained Carvalho.

“The Chelsea players are prepared for everything and I’m convinced that we can have a successful season this year.

“I have not changed, I am always the same. Mourinho’s exit is in the past and now it’s important to live in the present.”

A shortlist of players has just been released by FIFA for the World Player of the Year award and out of the 30 players, 5 are from Chelsea.  Put together by FIFA’s technical committee, John Terry, Frank Lampard, Petr Cech, Michael Essien and Didier Drogba were name.  The Blues become the 2nd best represented team, following Barcelona with 7.

Voting will be done by the coach and captain of each nation, with the restriction of not being able to vote for anyone from their own nation.  This means JT and Drogba will be able to participate in the votation on December 17 in Zurich but cannot vote for Lamps and Essien, respectively.

In 2005 Frank Lampard finished second behind Brazilian Ronaldinho and Andriy Shevchenko placed third a year before.

Manchester United have 3 in Rooney, Ronaldo, and Tevez while Liverpool have 2 in Gerrard and Torres.  Arsenal surprisingly have none.

The full list follows:

Buffon (Juventus, Italy), Cannavaro (Real Madrid, Italy)

Cech (Chelsea, Czech Rep), Ronaldo (Man Utd, Portugal)

Deco (Barcelona, Portugal), Drogba (Chelsea, Ivory Coast)

Essien (Chelsea, Ghana), Eto’o (Barcelona, Cameroon)

Gattuso (Milan, Italy), Gerrard (Liverpool, England)

Henry (Barcelona, France), Juninho (Lyon, Brazil)

Kaka (Milan, Brazil), Klose (Bayern Munich, Germany)

Lahm (Bayern Munich, Germany), Lampard (Chelsea, England)

Marquez (Barcelona, Mexico), Messi (Barcelona, Argentina)

Nesta (Milan, Italy), Pirlo (AC Milan, Italy)

Ribéry (Bayern Munich, France), Riquelme (Villarreal, Argentina)

Ronaldinho (Barcelona, Brazil), Rooney (Man Utd, England)

Terry (Chelsea, England), Tevez (Man Utd, Argentina)

Thuram (Barcelona, France), Torres (Liverpool, Spain)

Van Nistelrooy (Real Madrid, Holland), Vieira (Internazionale, France)

From among the 30 players, Kaka is favorite to win for leading the Rossoneris to Champions League victory last season.

Remember the good old days when a couple of wins were greeted by a gleeful roar of approval as opposed to a massive communal sigh of relief?

The satisfaction at the Reebok Stadium was mixed with relief because a draw or a defeat up there would have, to put it mildly, made the league table look less than pleasing to anyone with blue tinted specs.

Valencia in eastern Spain and then Bolton in eastern Lancashire may appear as alike as sparkling wine and brown ale, but both of the single goal victories were just as highly commendable, just as important and just as potentially difficult in the circumstances.

The side had a reassuringly familiar look about it in both games, particularly when Frank Lampard finally appeared back on the scene on Sunday. That comfort of having the usual suspects available would have been a great help to everyone.
You would hope this could be the start of a period of stability at the very least in the area of player availability. Of course the moment you say that, or even think it, they are off gadding around the planet again, playing for their countries, getting worn out, picking up injuries or getting upset after losing their Louis Vuitton luggage in Lagos or wherever.

Mislaid man bags were however the last thing on the players’ minds on Sunday. There were pivotal moments in the game, other than the goal by Salomon Kalou which ended a frankly disturbing goal drought in the league, but for me the defining moments happened before a ball was kicked in anger.

I take great care to look at players’ body language before a game to get an idea of their states of minds. Some clearly look relaxed while others appear nervous, but there are plenty more giveaway signs as to whether or not individuals are ‘up for it’ or not.

The solidarity and the determination of the players was immediately apparent to anyone who watched them gee each other up in the minute or so before the whistle was blown for the start of the game. Various tactics are tried to elicit this response from teams, of a group huddle is a current favourite of many, but it is often an empty and rehearsed ritual.

At the Reebok it was clearly spontaneous and heart felt.

Throughout my career I witnessed this on many occasions and it is all to engender that most precious, but most difficult to quantify and even more difficult to reproduce component, genuine team spirit.

It can be the coach, the manager, the important players in the group, the circumstances or even the crowd that can make this happen to a special level. It certainly cannot occur every time, that would be unnatural.

One thing is for sure, the Chelsea players will have to attempt to have that spirit more often than not if they are going to challenge in the league this season. Difficult though it may be, winning the league isn’t however impossible as each of the other top four teams have shown their weaknesses recently.

Man Utd have only just started scoring, Arsenal looked peerless for 30 minutes against Sunderland, then looked gormless for the next 20, losing two goals.

For my sins I went to watch Liverpool at Anfield in their game against struggling Spurs (working for BBC radio, the things you have to do to earn a crust) and I could not believe how insipid they looked.

They undoubtedly have top quality players and plenty of strength in depth, but they lacked balance and cohesion. The question still remains whether the lack of continuity caused by the rotation system is conducive to winning league titles?

They will also have there own stresses with call-ups at this most important time in the international calendar. Due to either burn out, injury or whatever Stevie Gerrard at Liverpool currently looks a shadow of his former self and without him they can be very ordinary looking outfit.

It is a good time to be positive at Chelsea now that we have Cech, Terry, Carvalho, Lampard and Drogba all fit through the central area of the side, just make sure you all come back in one piece lads!

It seems I am wishing them well every other week on their international travels. Last time they joined up for duty I decided not to wish Florent Malouda and Claude Makelele ‘bon chance’ as they were playing against Scotland. Did I happen to mention since then that we actually won that game?

It was the second time my country had beaten France in the competition and apparently if we beat them once more we get to keep them.

So this week good luck to everyone, with the obvious exception of Andriy Shevchenko whose Ukraine side come to Scotland on Saturday.

-Pat Nevin, ChelseaFC.

Following a clean sheet last Sunday against Bolton at the Reebok Stadium where we won 1-0, Petr Cech has climbed up the ranks in Chelsea’s all-time top goalkeepers. Moving one spot up, he climbed past Ed de Goey who served the Blues from 1997-2003 and accumulated a total of 72+1 clean sheets in 178+1 games. Cech’s record stands at 73 clean sheets, representing over 52% of his appearances for the Blues.

Immediately above Cech are Jim Molyneux (1910-22) and Sam Millington (1926-32) who kept 77 and 78 clean sheets in 239 and 245 games, respectively during Chelsea’s early times. On the second spot is now second-choice keeper Carlo Cudicini who got 85+4 clean sheets in 189+5 games.

It will surely be tough to take over the all-time top goalie Peter Bonetti who accumulated a massive 208 clean sheets in almost2 decades he spent with Chelsea.

Others on the list are:

Vic Woodley (1931-45) 60 (272 games);
Eddie Niedzwiecki (1983-88) 55 (175 games);
Dmitri Kharine (1992-99) 51 (146 games);
Dave Beasant (1989-93) 41 (157 games);
Jack Whitley (1907-14) 39 (138 games);
Bill G Robertson (1946-60) 38 (215 games);
Ben Howard-Baker (1921-26) 36 (93 games);
Petar Borota (1979-82) 36 (114 games);
Colin Hampton (1914-25) 32 (82 games);
Harry Medhurst (1946-52) 32 (157 games);
Kevin Hitchcock (1988-01) 30+2 (131+4 games);
John Phillips (1970-80) 30 (149 games);
Peter McKenna (1924-31) 25 (66 games);
Steve Francis (1981-87) 21 (88 games)

 Before departing for England duty, John Terry has discussed his pleasure with the new coaching setup at Stamford Bridge, praising the work of Avram Grant and his support staff.

The Chelsea captain has played the last two games in a protective mask to prevent damaging his fractured cheekbone, and his willingness to put himself on the line is a great tribute to the new management, and Terry’s commitment to turn things around.

In that time, we have achieved two important victories, with wins away at Valencia and Bolton, and Terry believes to pick up the three points at the Reebok Stadium was vital.

Despite his injury, Terry is determined to continue playing for both club and country, and insists he is happy just to be on the field, following a frustrating 2006/7.

“I didn’t play too much last season so I’m delighted to be out there playing, I’ll do my best and I’m fit and ready to be out there week in week out,” he said.

“We definitely needed the points and put in a great team performance today,” Terry added. “It’s a tough place to come, they make it difficult for the opponents and they certainly did that today but we fought together, got a great goal from Salomon and held on in the end.

“We dug in and needed to do that as a group of players. Results haven’t gone as well as we liked. We needed this win in the league after a big win on Wednesday night in Valencia, against another great side. Then we’ve come here, picked up three points and are moving in the right direction. It’s important we maintain this.”

There is now a fortnight’s break before our next match away at Middlesbrough, and while there is no time to take stock for Terry and his international colleagues, Avram Grant will be looking to find his own backroom staff following the departure of José Mourinho and the majority of his coaches.

“Avram’s come in and with the likes of Clarkey and Brendan [Rodgers] about it’s been fantastic. It’s great to have familiar faces,” Terry said.

“Clarkey knows the club inside out, and when he speaks it really goes in. It’s from the heart with Clarkey, not just for the English lads but the foreign lads as well.”

JT is also impressed with the new first team coach/manager, and reiterated previous statements that the players believe in him, and, he believes, the fans do too.

“They’re turning up and travelling all over the world for us, so they’re still behind us and behind Avram. Having spoken to them, they’ve got great feelings for Mourinho and they’ll always sing his name, but Avram is the next step and we move forward,” Terry said.

“They’ll certainly love him in the future. He’s definitely the man for the future, and you can see we were always going to have that first week or two where it didn’t go as well as we liked, but he’s putting his thoughts and feelings on to the training pitch and we’re developing that in the matches. He’s the right man in charge and everybody has to get behind him.

“There’s always a lot more to come from Chelsea. He’s trying to do his bit along with Steve Clarke and the likes of Brendan Rodgers in there. It’s great to have people like that around you, and it’s important for us because the lads fully respect him, are fully behind him and we’re happy with him.”

-ChelseaFC.com