So John Terry today begins his time off from football to get his personal life and the situation he has found himself in sorted out in Dubai. Now I have said from day one since the story broke that what he does off the pitch is his business and all I care about is what he does for Chelsea on the pitch for those 90 mins.

telegraph.co.uk

Chelsea eye £34 million bid for Gonzalo Higuain if Fernando Torres bid fails

Chelsea have been offered the chance to sign the exciting Real Madrid striker Gonzalo Higuain for €40 million (£34 million) as they look to strengthen their squad this summer.

By Jason Burt

The Premier League club are now weighing up whether to bid for the powerful Argentine international should their attempts to sign Fernando Torres fail.

International friendlies are taking over the globe. Days before the start of the English Premier League. Obviously.

The Brazilians were in the Big Apple on Tuesday night for a friendly one with the Yanks. It went about as the casual supporter would have expected. A comfortable 2-0 result for the new-look Sambas, goals from The Duck and, of course, Neymar.

The title of the post says it all. Jose came back to Chelsea and said "I never lose at Chelsea" and he was right. Before I speak about the game and the players, the fact of the matter is that Jose has out-foxed Ancelotti twice now in the matter of weeks and has beaten us twice.
There are people who will have different opinons on the why and how etc but its there in black and white.

Vincono le grandi. Titolo ancora in ballo, in inghilterra, ma i londinesi hanno esorcizzato l'ultimo grande pericolo e viaggiano con grande entusiasmo verso la vittoria della Premier League.
Infatti, il Chelsea espugna Anfield Road, tana del Liverpool (che paga le fatiche dell'Europa League e ha un Benitez ormai in partenza, destinazione Juventus) grazie ai "soliti noti", Drogba e Lampard, e rende vana la vittoria, di misura, del Manchester United che doma i "black cats" con la rete di Nani e torna da Sunderland con ancora qualche flebile speranza in tasca (almeno per la matematica).

By Eric Beard

There was hope coming out of Manchester that Wigan could hold off the Blues this Sunday afternoon, but really, today was all about West London. The scenes at Stamford Bridge were nothing short of jubilant, as 41,383 became part of history as Chelsea reclaimed their first trophy since Jose Mourinho's reign at Roman Abramovich's club.

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson pulled off one of the shock transfer deals of the season in July last year when he convinced 30 year old former England international Michael Owen to sign...
Continue to the full story

The Chelsea Daily Drivel is a daily update of all the stories concerning our club, the rumours, the opinions and more....
So here are the Chelsea news updates on Wednesday 18th August 2010 including: Nico Anelka's ban from the French set up and is reaction which has caused a stir!

The what: Premier League, Round 7 – Chelsea v. Arsenal
The where: Stamford Bridge (42,450)
The when: October 3, 4pm local time (11am EST)
The how: Fox Soccer Channel (DirecTV 619, Dish Network 149)
The why: Um, because it's Arsenal.

Oh so much, dear readers, to feed on in 6's and 7's absence. While we were lost in the snowy mountains with nothing to sustain us besides frozen pizza, Straub beer, and... hmm that sounds like most nights at ours, well there was loads to watch on the football box.
We'll skip to the highlights since most of the lowlights include Manchester City unfortunately looking pretty good so far under Il Manch, and Liverpool looking, well pretty Liverpool right now.

The second of our four half-term report cards (check out the first part here) for the 09/10 Premier League season features Burnley, Chelsea, Everton, Fulham and Hull City:

BURNLEY (14th, 20 points from 20 games)

It's a breeze to sum up the Clarets' season so far: excellent at Fortress Turf Moor, lamentable away from Fortress Turf Moor; Burnley have failed to win any of their ten games on the road, with just one draw and nine defeats.

Since the season began – and Chelsea made such a good start to their Premier League campaign – much has been made of the potential impact of this month's African Cup of Nations on Ancelotti's title hopes. The loss of the influential Drogba and Essien, who have scored 23 goals and made 8 assists for Chelsea so far this season between them, would surely spell disaster for Chelsea's title charge.

1. Got it wrong v Stoke

   After Arsenal's defeat at Stoke today in the FA Cup 4th Round it looks as if its Chelsea's trophy to lose again this year, with the Blues being the only member of the so-called Big Four left in the competition. The holders dispatched Preston with ease on Saturday and the absence of Didier Drogba and Michael Essien has not slowed Carlo Ancelotti's men in their tracks.

THE LEAGUE ... OUR BREAD AND BUTTER
Chelsea are back at the top of the league after pounding Arsenal into submission at Stamford Bridge. Who let the Drog out? 2-0 ... next stop Everton away.
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE we're having a laugh.

• Jose Mourinho is still the king of Stamford Bridge The Special One had a remarkable record there in charge of Chelsea, and in inflicting a rare home defeat on Ancelotti's men reminded everyone, especially Chelsea fans, just how good he is. Indeed, his favourite biscuits were put out specially for him, he has a wall dedicated to him and his achievements within the stadium, and was raucously applauded by the Chelsea fans.

Well what a difference a week can make in football!. Just over a week ago before Chelsea made the trip to the South Coast things we looking bleak. We had just drawn 1-1 away at Blackburn and lost ground on United as we sat 4 points behind them in the Premier League.
Things didn't look good at all.

None of us will forget the game the other weekend as it came as one of the surprise results of the season for both sides and for the Premier League. Chelsea haven't forgotten our defeat at Vila earlier in the season but come Saturday 5pm GMT, the slate is wiped clean and its a different game altogether.

Just when you thought it was all over, all bets are on again following the dramatic results from this weekend. Chelsea could almost touch the title with 17 seconds remaining of the Manchester derby on Saturday lunchtime.

As football pundits annoyingly remind us every season "never write off Man Utd".

There is one player that Chelsea have missed this season that could make a difference in any game no matter who the opposition are. He might just be back this weekened. Its the Bison Essien!.
Yes the others have had to cope with their injuries to big name players, but people have forgotten we have had to cope without Essien.

Rumour in the UK has surfaced that Chelsea are looking at AC Milan's roster and favouring to invest in two brazilians at once: forward Alexandre Pato and defender Thiago Silva. Both have international experience and are considered integral part of Brazil's next footballing generation. The amount involved may be something in the order of £70 million.

As usual I was looking around the net and came across one of the best articles I read this season from Mark Worral on the CFCNet website. This article along with our double success has prompted me to write the following apology to "King Carlo".
If you have been a follower of my blog you will know that at different times this season, for me personally, I called to question Ancelotti as our manager.

The Chelsea Daily Drivel is a daily update of all the stories concerning our club, the rumours, the opinions and more....
So here is the latest from around the web from Saturday 26th June - Tuesday 29th June 2010 including: Michael Mancienne, Deco, Scott Sinclair, Sam Hutchison, Sebastien Veron, James Milner, Joe Cole and Florent Malouda
First to the news that Wolves are very keen on Michael Mancienne.

Anche in Inghilterra l'attesa è terminata e possiamo presentarvi la nuova annata sportiva. E' stato, infatti, sorteggiato il calendario della prossima stagione calcistica di Premier League.
S'inizier subito con il botto. Infatti il 14 agosto, nella prima giornata, si disputer un emozionante Liverpool-Arsenal, da Anfield Road, e un appetitoso Manchester United-Newcastle, direttamente dal tempio dei Red Devils, all'Old Trafford.

The Premier League season kicked off this weekend and that means that it is time for another edition of Premier League Winners and Losers.

Winners
Chelsea
Written off a week ago by many pundits after losing to Manchester United in the Charity Shield, the champions showed the sort of form on Saturday that won them the title last year.

One thing that really seems to rankle with other bosses is that Arsene Wenger always dodges the opportunity to have a glass of wine with the opposing manager in his office after the game. It is one of the reasons that many of the traditional English managers really don't take to him.

Quite frankly it is pathetic, it may be classed as traditional but a quick handshake and a few words will suffice and quite frankly I can see every reason why Wenger doesn't want to be anywhere near the fat, dribbling oik that is Fat Sam.

People often talk about the ‘brand of football' that Arsene Wenger has cultivated at Arsenal. It is true that he has revolutionised the club- where less than two decades ago the name Arsenal was synonymous with negative football, now it's associated with the opposite, and this is almost solely the work of Arsene Wenger.

Everyone can admire the achievements of Jose Mourinho but, as a Chelsea supporter, I can honestly say that if I was given the opportunity to have any of the men who have managed Chelsea reinstated then he would be bottom of my list. Not counting Scolari, obviously.

I would, without doubt, choose to keep Ancelotti.

Let's be completely honest here, Chelsea have a considerably better side than we do and we have little practical reason to expect to beat them, yet their record at Villa Park isn't that good. Over the last five visits now they've won only once, lost twice and drawn twice.

We beat them 2-1 last season despite having just 32% possession and being out-passed 407 to 167, a 29% share of the completed passes.

Chelsea on Saturday beat Wolverhampton Wanderers in an unspectacular but positive way. On paper a 2-0 win over Wolves looks slightly disappointing and the home support may have hoped for more but, in reality, it should be considered a very satisfying victory.

Wolves' performance from the beginning was strong and aggressive; the game had ‘potential slip-up' written all over it until Salomon Kalou scored yet another goal after coming on as a substitute.

Arsenal welcome West Ham to The Emirates Stadium on Saturday for a 3pm kick-off. This local derby has often thrown up some great matches in recent seasons, with West Ham famously spoiling the party when Arsenal were carrying out their centenary celebrations. That day Aston Villa's Nigel Reo-Coker was on West Ham's books and he put in a man of the match performance to give the East London side the points.

"Scolari reckons that Chelsea's success is all down to him", "Scolari insists that Chelsea's current domination of England is thanks to him" and "I made Chelsea Great!" are ludicrous statements from a number of newspapers recently.

I'm sure many other football supporters, like me, were intrigued by how ridiculous and audacious these claims sound.

Chelsea and Man City are both stuttering and that's far from where the parallels end. Both sets of fans are unhappy after the weekend. Both clubs have billionaire foreign investors who have poured millions into the club. Both are nouveau-riche neither has previously been a the forefront of the English game.

Another weekend, another loss. Three weekends in a row, now: is losing becoming a habit for the champions? Well, no. But things aren't pretty on the pitch at the moment.
Off the pitch however, things are probably worse. Just as Chelsea seemed to be throwing a past of almost continual behind-the-scenes turmoil behind them, Ray Wilkins' departure chucked a large, slightly rusting spanner in the Cobham works.

The more I am thinking of tomorrow's game, the more I am thinking about where the difference could be, someone to create something out of nothing and someone to step up for Chelsea to be the difference. I believe the with the news on Frank Lampard yesterday being out, I am not sure if Ramires will play next to Mikel and Essien, and I think it is too much of a big game for McEachran in Ancelotti's eyes, so I believe Kalou will get the nod tomorrow to start.

This festive spirit malarkey is being hosed down our throat more than usual this year. Everywhere you turn it looks like a bloody Christmas card- only the reality is less robins landing on fence posts and more Nissan Micras skidding around car parks and taking elderly folk and their shopping with them.

"Now is the winter of our discontent, made glorious summer by this sun of York" (Shakespeare- Richard III)

Yes, I know a bit of culture is always welcomed by the Soccerlens readers and who better than The Bard himself to open this piece? Of course Will actually meant that the time of discontent was waning (in it's 'winter'), while I borrow the great man's phrase to suggest that down Stamford Bridge way the words winter and discontent are becoming synonymous in recent seasons.

First of all, my apologies to regular readers: it's been a long time since I've posted. Christmas, New Year and too much work have put paid to regular writing.
Without further ado however, it is suddenly that time again: the time to look back over the previous month and what the stats tell us about Chelsea's progress this season.

First of all, my apologies to regular readers: it's been a long time since I've posted. Christmas, New Year and too much work have put paid to regular writing.
Without further ado however, it is suddenly that time again: the time to look back over the previous month and what the stats tell us about Chelsea's progress this season.

It's not entirely misleading, but just enough that the article was definitely not what I thought it was about.Chelsea skipper Terry: Trio of players run the club (ESPN Soccernet)Instead of being a story about how Terry, Lampard and Droga are actually running club and Ancelotti is just a figurehead, it's .

Since the season began – and Chelsea made such a good start to their Premier League campaign – much has been made of the potential impact of this month's African Cup of Nations on Ancelotti's title hopes. The loss of the influential Drogba and Essien, who have scored 23 goals and made 8 assists for Chelsea so far this season between them, would surely spell disaster for Chelsea's title charge.