Daniel Sturridge - Manchester City to Chelsea
Chelsea have confirmed the signing of 19-year old striker Daniel Sturridge from Manchester City. Sturridge is an England youth international and was a free agent after his contract with City expired. However, since he is less than 24 years old Manchester City will receive a compensation for his development costs, decided by an independent tribunal.
Sturridge joins Ross Turnbull as our second major signing this season. Welcome to Chelsea, Danny and wish you all the best. 
Read the official announcement here.
A defeat at the hands of Spurs is always bitter, but the way we played in the first half, we were just asking to be beaten. The goal scored by Modric was a good one, but Bosingwa should have just gotten rid of the ball. Chelsea came alive in the second half, but never really exerted our authority. A few chances towards the end, good saves from Gomes and the crossbar prevented Chelsea from taking at least a point.
ManU lost to Fulham earlier and had Rooney as well as Scholes sent off. Chelsea could and should have taken advantage of their slip-up. But we didn’t and the gap still remains at 4 points.
As things stand, we’re 2nd in the table but could be overtaken by Liverpool if they win tomorrow. Oh well, let’s just wait and watch. And pray a little, maybe.
It’s been a while. The blog stares at me with a disillusioned look in its eyes.
“You said you’re serious this time. You said you’d take good care of me. What happened to your promises?”
Without saying a word, I click on the ‘New Post’ button, as if overcome by a deep sense of guilt. Words usually don’t come easily, but this time it’s different…
A lot has happened since I last sat down to utter my frivolous thoughts on these pages. So what better way to reignite the flame, than by updating what’s happened in the past few weeks? Here we go, then:
And all is well with the world!
Lampard scores to make it 2-1 to Chelsea.
My apologies for being horribly late. Now that you’ve forgiven me, let’s get on with it already:
● Liverpool beat an average-looking Manchester United 2-1.
● Arsenal hammered Blackburn Rovers by 4 goals to nil.
● Fulham edged Bolton Wanderers 2-1 in a relegation six-pointer.
● The madhouse that is Newcastle United crashed to a 1-2 home defeat at the hands of Hull City.
● Portsmouth defeated Middlesbrough by 2 goals to 1.
● West Bromwich Albion narrowly beat West Ham United by a scoreline of 3-2.
● Wigan Athletic drew 1-1 with Sunderland. Titus Bramble on the scoresheet… for Sunderland. Yup, own goal.
● Everton beat Stoke City 3-2.
● Tottenham Hotspur remain rooted to the foot of the table with a 1-2 home loss against Aston Villa.
● Manchester City were brought back to earth with a 1-3 humbling by Chelsea.
A quick look at the table:
Team standings after Week 4 of the Barclays Premier League 2008-09
So, Chelsea reminded the noveau-rich Manchester City that ‘one swallow does not a summer make’ and that it takes a ‘team’ to actually do the business on the pitch. The win was however marred by a stupid red card to John Terry, which has now been rescinded.
That’s it, then. Champions League updates shall follow after all groups have completed their first round of matches.
Juliano Belletti celebrates his goal against Tottenham
Okay, so I haven’t been able to post anything in midweek, not even about Paul Scholes’ shocking but utterly hilarious handball incident in the UEFA Super Cup. Call it my lack of interest or my laziness, but I just coud not get myself to post anything meaningful here. All that is about to change though, because the 3rd week of the Barclays Premier League has just ended. This weekend, 18 teams were in action while Manchester United were busy embarassing themselves in Monaco and hence their fixture has been moved to a later date.
A short and sweet wrap-up is right here:
● A stylish Arsenal team swept aside Newcastle United 3-0. Robin Van Persie scored 2 goals before he hobbled off, injured again.
● West Ham United thumped Blackburn Rovers 4-1.
● Yet another own-goal scored by a Middlesbrough player almost cost them two points, but Tuncay Sanli saved their skins with a late goal, as Boro beat Stoke City 2-1.
● Hull City were hammered 0-5 by… Wigan Athletic!!! Wigan’s new Egyptian recruit Zaki scored a brace in that one.
● Everton crashed to a 0-3 defeat at the hands of Portsmouth.
● Bolton Wanderers and West Bromwich Albion played out a drab 0-0 draw.
● Aston Villa and Liverpool were also involved in a 0-0 borefest.
● The prodigal son returns… That’s what they’ll be thinking at Manchester City, as Shaun Wright-Philips returned from his misery at Chelsea and scored 2 goals to inflict a 3-0 defeat on Sunderland.
● Finally, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur drew 1-1, with both goals coming from defensive errors and mistakes.
A look at the table then:
Team standings after Week 3 of the Barclays Premier League 2008-09
So that’s about it, then. No change at the top, with Chelsea leading Liverpool on goal difference. Spurs get their first point of the season, so do West Brom. There’s an international break coming up for the World Cup qualifiers, so there’ll be some time before the next update.
Till then, I’ll be hoping to post something useful over here!
2 games, 2 goals!
So another week, another round of matches done and dusted. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither will the title be decided after 2 rounds, but early form suggests that Liverpool’s luck might just be an added advantage to them. Despite being second-best for most of the game and going down by a goal, the Reds somehow managed to nick all 3 points in the end. The big four except Arsenal, all won their fixtures this week. Here’s how it all went:
• Fulham shocked Arsenal with a 1-0 victory over the Gunners. Arsenal look very lightweight in midfield and their defense isn’t in great shape either. Arsene knows?
• Everton beat West Bromwich Albion by 2 goals to 1. Despite being very, very good in the Championship and being tipped as the most likely candidates to survive in the Premiership, the first two weeks of the season haven’t exactly given a reassurance to WBA.
• Same old, same old. New faces, same disjointed performance. Tottenham Hotspur lost again. This time going down 1-2 to Sunderland. French stiker Djibril Cisse scored on his debut for Roy Keane’s men.
• Stoke City turned the tables on Aston Villa by beating them 3-2. Villa were coming on the back of a good win against Manchester City, but the newcomers swiftly brought them back to earth.
• Newcastle United beat Bolton 1-0. Michael Owen scored, so apparently he is not injured. Yet.
• As mentioned earlier in this post, Liverpool rode their luck to win 2-1 against a spirited Middlesbrough side that went ahead thanks to the new leaner, meaner Mido. An incredibly lucky deflection brought Liverpool level and Steven Gerrard scored in the dying seconds with a good half-volley to win it.
• Blackburn and Hull City drew 1-1.
• Manchester City bounced back from their on-field and off-the-field problems to hand out a 3-0 thrashing to West Ham United.
• Manchester United beat Portsmouth 1-0. Darren Fletcher on the scoresheet. That tells you a lot, doesn’t it?
• Finally, Chelsea beat a plucky Wigan side 1-0 thanks to a sublime freekick from Deco.
Here’s how things stand at the moment:
Team standings after Week 2 of the Barclays Premier League 2008-09
Here are the highlights of the Wigan vs Chelsea game. Don’t miss Deco’s freekick!!
Anoher week gone by. Chelsea on top. Can’t wait for the next round!
So the first round of the Barclays Premier League is over and most of the results were quite predictable. Here’s a roundup of this weekend’s action:
And this is how the table looks like after the 1st round of matches:
Team standings after Week 1 of the Barclays Premier League 2008-09
Take a bow, son. Take a bow.
Bosingwa looks like the real deal and could be the solution to the right-back problems that have plagued us for so long. As for Deco, the man has got a point to prove to his former club Barcelona and boy, is he on the right track! A man-of-the-match performance in midfield topped off with a debut goal. What more could you ask for?
Overall, Chelsea were a delight to watch, probably the best performance I’ve seen from them in a long time. Felipao seems to have removed the shackles from the players and given them a lot more freedom to express themselves. And the outcome was there to be seen. As they say, ‘It’s just like watching Brazil!’.
Hopefully there’s a lot more to come from this team over the course of the season and we’ll be at the top again, come May. CAREFREE!!
After an agonizing few months of close-season, the Barclays Premier League is now back in action! Saturday saw a host of new-look sides battle it out for that “perfect start to the season”, including 2 members of the so-called ‘Big Four’. And today the remaining 2 biggies will enter the fray.
The Barclays Premier League Trophy
On this blog here, I won’t be devoting too much space to each and every side in the premiership. Sure, there will be a weekly round-up of results and the points table, but I’ll be concentrating more on the happenings in and around Chelsea FC. Blue Is The Colour, ya know!!
Stamford Bridge
Today’s opening fixture sees the FA Cup winners, Portsmouth, visit Stamford Bridge. I can’t wait! 