Are Chelsea really falling apart?

Written by Mark Brus on Monday, December 6, 2010

Well look who's top of the league! It's far from secure by any means, but it's nice isn't it? Especially considering some shocking home results in November.

Sadly it's because of Arsenal's up-and-down nature that a look at our contenders is so important. These players haven't earned our trust yet, but if Chelsea in particular continue along the path of self-destruction, it'll make our lives a lot easier.

I've been reading some Chelsea forums, and the verdict seems to be that Carlo Ancelotti has severely weakened a team that was pretty lucky to do the double last season anyway; Ricardo Carvalho, Deco, Michael Ballack, Juliano Belletti and Joe Cole - all reliable, experienced big names that were allowed to leave the club this summer, with Ramires the only notable player brought in. Hardly a recipe for success for a side that lost seven games and finished just a point ahead of Man Utd in the league.

Is it Ancelotti's fault? It's pretty clear that he did not want Ray Wilkins to leave, so perhaps he wasn't so keen on losing some of the above players, and a lack of control over off-the-field affairs has followed the Italian onto the pitch, as well as some bad luck with injuries to John Terry and Frank Lampard.

Five points from their last six league games is terrible form. They have lost more games than they had at this point last season, and instead of being top with 37 points, they lie in third place with 30.

And their next three league games? Spurs away, Man Utd at home, Arsenal away.

The loss of key personnel and the results that have followed show that Chelsea are weaker than last season, when they scraped the league. Meanwhile their rivals are stronger. Football is anything but predictable, but it's not so crazy to think that the current champions' title bid could be finished by the end of the month.

Sadly, I imagine this will benefit Man Utd more than us. Fergie's team are a bit of a mystery this season, but they remain unbeaten, and with the best home record in the league they will fancy their chances against us next weekend, even though we have the best away record in the league.

Last season was the most open title race in this country for years, and this year it looks even more so. Hopefully Arsenal will be good enough to take advantage this time. We'll know a lot more after the next these games:

Arsenal: Man Utd away, Stoke home, Chelsea home

Chelsea: Spurs away, Man Utd home, Arsenal away

Man Utd: Arsenal home, Chelsea away, Sunderland home

The real reason for our defeat

By Walter Broeckx

I think many people could write a book about us losing yesterday. They could point at the mistake player X made, or at the bad pass player Z made. Or we could blame the ref, which I partly do in fact for the first goal. As he made the mistake of playing advantage when there was no advantage on. And even when Bendtner was dispossessed he still kept giving the advantage signal which looked a bit stupid at the time.

But as most things in life are simple I just will tell you in a few moments why we lost. And no it was not down to a bad performance by any of our players. Even if we would have had all our players available it wouldn’t have mattered. Even with Cesc on fire we still would have lost. It would have been just one of those days.

And no it was not down to Shakhtar playing utterly brilliant football. No even with them playing utterly bad we still would have lost the game. It would just have been one of those days for us.

Even if Theo would have gone on a dozen runs like the magnificent run from which he scored we still wouldn’t have won it on the day. It was just going to be one of those days.

Even if Fabianski would have produced some stunning saves, you can hardly give him any blame for the goals I would think, still somewhere down the line a ball would have been deflected somewhere and would have crept in. I knew it would be one of those days.

Even if the ref would have been the best we ever had seen and had a perfect game still something would have happened. The ball would have gone flat at the moment Theo took his shot at goal or something else very strange would happen. A dog running on to the pitch and Theo falling over him when he was going to shoot. We could have known it before kick off.

In fact I could have known it before and I could have told it to Arsenal so they wouldn’t have to put up the effort of going all the way to Ukraine on a long flight just to lose a game. We could have stayed in London and given them the 3 points. It would have been the same at the end of the day and much cheaper also.

By now I can imagine some of you thinking: just spit it out Walter. Just tell us what you are talking about.

The reason we lost is religion. And no I will not start some religious war over here and tell you it’s God, Allah, Bhagwaan, Yahweh or whatever name you can give a god, who is to blame.

No it is the subdivision of gods that is involved. It is the gods that are known as football gods. It’s a bunch of er…. gods, that sit there somewhere and who arrange things in football how they like it. A ball against the post. This isn’t the players fault, no the football gods didn’t want it to go in. A missed penalty? The football gods made the player slip at the moment he was going to shoot.

They are just some evil minded gods who just do things as they like them and who enjoy fans feeling miserable. And at the start of each season they see for some things which they will use against all the teams. Because they are not anti-Arsenal. No they enjoy to mess up with all the teams. But they decide the outcome of the games by making their own rules. Rules that are not printed in the newspapers or told about in MOTD. No, one has to look for them and find them yourself to understand them.

And so I went looking and I found the answer. The answer is “3”. Just 3. Nothing more, nothing less. To understand this you have to go back one month. Go to 3 October and try to remember what you did on 3 October? I give you a clue: you were feeling rather miserable in the evening because on 3 October we lost to Chelsea.

And now exact one month later on 3 November we lose again, and again we will feel a bit miserable. So for me it is clear to see. It is those evil football gods who have declared at the start of the season: Arsenal will lose their games played on the 3th of each month. So it shall be and so it will be. And they all laughed and found it rather amusing and fun and then went on to the next team and decided it would lose their games when it would rain. Things like that.

And we could beat Chelsea on any day. We could beat Shakhtar on any day. But not on the 3^rd of each month. On that day we have to suffer. Because the football gods have decided it that way. So is this all bad and are we doomed? And are we going to sit down and feel miserable for ourselves and cry a bit?

Well in fact, no. We are not. Because even if we know we cannot beat the football gods what we can do is check the fixture list and on that list we can see that we don’t play again on the 3th of a month. No games in the EPL on the 3^rd for us. The only thing we must avoid is that the home game against Blackburn on April 2^nd will be changed to Sunday 3^rd.

No games in the Carling cup on the 3^rd for us. No games in the FA cup on the 3^rd for us for the moment. In fact there is only one chance that we would play this season on the 3^rd of a month. And this would be in May. As the semi final of the CL is played on the 3^rd or the 4^thof May. So the only way we can be stopped to win the CL is to have some bad luck with the draw and if we would have to play the return leg of the CL semi final on 3 May. But then again if we win the first leg with a big difference even the football gods will have to let us go to the final.

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I Cannot Wait For SA 2010

FIFA World Cups are peaks, the anticipation, and the brotherhood/sisterhood of man/woman, the endless stories, and late nights - depending on your latitude. The exhilaration is tangible and portent. We all wind ourselves up with pent up tension and have that ultimate release in the either exhilarating joy of victory or the anguish of defeat. However, on close analysis, we should not be too emotional about this event, not because of that dumb reductionist logic that "it is only 22 men chasing a piece of leather" but, there seem to be a trend here, a pattern, no surprises at the supremo event.

You see, World Cup iko na wenyewe (has its owners). Out of the 18 World Cup events have been held, 9 have been held in Europe, 7 in the Americas and one in any other location (South Korea/Japan). The trend has been such that if the event is held in Europe, Germany or Italy wins, with the exception of a few instances, where the host wins - England in '66 and France in '98. If the tournament is held in the Americas then Brazil, Argentina or Uruguay wins - yes Uruguay have won twice in the '30 and '50. Brazil has been the exception, wining in Sweden in '58 and in Korea in '02. Therefore, the trend is easy. If we play in Europe watch Germany and Italy and follow the hosts in the Euro Cup to see if there will be any surprises. If it is in the Americas, watch Brazil and Argentina. In addition, one final rule always watch Brazil.

However, enough of statistics, recently we witnessed an almost upset in this long established trend. The stage for this drama was Ellis Stadium in the land of Zuma and his marital quartet, on June 28th, 2009. On this day! Yes on this day! The novice Yanks placed their studded boots on the necks of the Samba Boys for a good 46 minutes with 2 fabulous and well deserved goals. It took Dunga's masterful restructuring of the tactics and the beast that is Luís Fabiano Clemente to bring this New World Order to a screeching halt. This was not the first warning shot that 2010 will be played on neutral ground. Egypt smoked Italy the 'World Champs' 1:0, Brazil looked very ordinary against Egypt and South Africa, managing only 4:3 and 1:0 respectively on the Confederations Cup in South Africa.

Therefore, you see why I am exited about the '10 World Cup. Fédération Internationale de Football Association's decision NOT to have this World Cup on steppes of Russia, the pusztas of Hungary, the South American pampas, or the prairies of North America, but on the grasslands of Mpumalanga and those of KwaZulu-Natal gives me HOPE and I see "A Change You Can Believe In". Therefore, Ghana, Nigeria, Egypt, and Cameroon you are on home ground. South Korea, Turkey, USA, the playing field is level. So as second tier teams go into the land of Madiba, let’s not seeing ourselves as 'grasshoppers in the eyes of the giants'. Let’s bring our A GAME!!!!!! WOOOO HOOO !!!!!!!

The Beautiful Game

I love Soccer! I have loved soccer since I was 6 years old, and possibly even before. I remember Argentina winning the World Cup in 78 with Mario Kempes, Karl-Heinz "Kalle" Rummenigge and Futbol made in Germany, The Road to Wembly, Joe Masiga, Tobias Ocholla, and Micky Weche. Seared in my memory are Paulo Rossi in 82, Michelle Platini, Jean Tigana and Joel Bats verses Sócrates, Zico and Falcão, in 86 and who can forget Diego 'Armando' Maradona and the 'Hand of God' against England and Jose Luis Brown playing with a broken arm in the final against Germany in Mexico. And who can forget Roger Miller the man who invented the corner post dance................. Those were the days.

In those days the 'beautiful game' was not as it is today. We did not have the pubs with team merchandise on the wall, the ubiquitous Man -U jersey, or even players names on their jerseys. No Super Sport, cable or satellite TV. To know the game one had to work hard. You needed to read parts of the newspaper that no child dared read or sacrifice you afternoon and watch the black and white Football Made in Germany and play 'Spot the Ball" in the Standard News paper. The risks were even greater if you wanted to stay on top of the local scene - the periodic fight between the arch rivals Gor Mahia and Abaluhya FC (later AFC Leopards) were intense enough and tragically life was occasionally lost. These risks had a high payoff in my books. I was there when AFC won their 3rd EA club championship in a row 82-84. When Gor Mahia won the Africa Cup Winner's Cup with Peter Dawo's headers in 87 or the All African Games final where Kenya lost 1:0 to Egypt and we walked from Kasarani to Nairobi City Center. I was there for these moments and more. These were good times.

So this blog is a nostalgic tribute to football past and present and the good feeling that a good game generates or the lump in the throat when an underdog looses after a remarkable Cinderella story in the World Cup. Now I have my biases in club football - and who does not -these will be evident as we go along, however I am looking forward to fun and healthy 'online hooliganism'. So join me in this adventure in The Beautiful Game.

Additional writers wanted.