Winning at Swansea has proved a bridge too far for most teams this season, but Arsenal are 1.8...
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The Frank Lampard preservation society proudly offers another edition of the groundbreaking, intimate, and kinda shallow life of a Chelsea legend. In this episode, Frank smirks, gloats, and then smirk-gloats. A lot.

FEBRUARY 26, 2012

Yes, I have kept my New Year's Resolution to not speak poorly of Mr.

Today's post is written by Neil, a QPR supporter who we met up with before the game last Saturday. These are his thoughts on the game and the Emirates experience.

I got the chance to visit the Emirates stadium as I have always wanted to, as iI had heard a lot about it and it always looks great on TV.

Ruddy nora and crikey hell! What about that, then? An absolute thunder-punt from everyone's favourite Smart Car-driving, Oyster card-carrying Evening Standard columnist/community support worker/international superstar footballer/all round good egg. If I was describing it using the medium of retro beat 'em, Street Fighter II, I would conclude thusly: sonic boom + flaming hadouken x hurricane kick= that goal.

Chelsea legend Gianfranco Zola featured on Skysports' Goals on Sunday programme yesterday after sitting in the stands for Chelsea v Sunderland at the Bridge. He was asked for his opinion with the situation with Fernando Torres and his lack of goals at Chelsea. Zola was impressed with Torres but felt that he finds himself out of position far too often and it's costing him.

Well it's another week and another massive game coming up for our football club (Chelsea are 1.63 in Champions League betting to progress to the quarterfinals). As expected, the press are out for AVB's neck once again after another rubbish performance at the weekend but as yet it hasn't happened and he is still here.

With news that Barcelona are putting together a bid of around £35m to tempt David Luiz into leaving Chelsea and heading off to Spain, Luiz was keen to reconfirm his intention to remain at Chelsea.
Speaking of the speculation, Luiz said:

"I'm very happy in London, I like London and Chelsea.

Frank Lampard has spoken of the task ahead of us on Wednesday night shortly after Chelsea beat Spurs and is keen to point out that any team is beatable and that Chelsea have to take them on to beat them and he believes that we can do it!.
He said:

"From the start of every game, it's 50-50.

It looks like Chelsea are on the rise again, beating Barcelona 1-0 at the Bridge with diving Didier Drogba scoring the only goal of the game on 46mins.
Roberto Di Matteo, the Interim-Manager has galvanised the Chelsea team, reinstalling the eastiblished old guard of Drogba, Lampard & co.
It certainly seemed to have worked as Matteo's Chelsea have won 9 of their last 12 games under the new Manager, accumating 57 points, 2 behind Newcastle United & Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League.

By Chris Wright

No doubt Chelsea fans will be eager to see a bit of this when Kevin de Bruyne turns up at the Bridge next season: a sweet-as-you-like first touch, swiftly followed by an even better second to flick the ball past his marker before rolling a measured pass out to set his Genk teammate barrelling off down the pitch against Standard Liege a couple of evenings ago.

29.04.2012 - Con goles de Daniel Sturridge (´1), John Terry (´13), Fernando Torres (´19, ´25 y ´64) y Florent Malouda (´80), Chelsea venció (6-1) a Queens Park Rangers (Cisse ´84) en Satmford Bridge (Londres) por la 36º jornada de la Premier League para mantenerse en clasificación europea.

It's headlines like this we wake up to this morning with The Sun claiming from their so called "Chelsea source" that there is player unrest and AVB has lost the dressing room.
The basis of this information has come about because apparently Nico Anelka was banned from the club's Xmas do by AVB so the players organised a separate one and didn't tell AVB for Anelka.

Eddie Johnson's quest to revive his playing career appears to have hit a major snag after he was reportedly dumped by Mexican club Puebla because he was out of shape.

According to Medio Tiempo, Johnson showed up for Puebla training camp before the New Year, but he failed to meet the team's expectations of fitness and sharpness and was let go.

It has become very hard for analysts and pundits to predict Chelsea results as their roller coaster form has led to inconsistent results for much of the season. However, could Chelsea's performances be linked to the supposed rift between senior players and the coach?

Chelsea did win last night's game against Wolverhampton 2-1 and despite that making the news, more controversy was raised during AVB's post match press conference where the young tactician denied there was a rift between him and some senior players after both Frank Lampard and John Terry were not seen celebrating with him.

Anxiety is mounting among Chelsea fans as to whether the club will offer their icon Didier Drogba a new deal that would keep him at the bridge longer. Drogba's contract is set to run out this summer and according to coach Andres Villas-Boas he is hopeful that Drogba will sign a new contract with the club.

As we told you earlier this week, the München Men have been biding their time at a training camp in Doha. Bastian Schweinsteiger recovered well enough from his shoulder operation (which quite honestly, left a sexy scar!) to play in their win over Al-Sailiya last night.

So AVB speaks of Cahill and one possible other signing, dependant on value for money in this window which leads me to ask "Who is the second signing?".
You do have to wonder who it would be coming into the club as we have to consider the players who are due to be leaving or reported as doing so as early as this month or the end of the season when their contracts expire.

This afternoon is a must win game for Chelsea and it really is as simple as that. We cannot afford to drop points over the next few weeks as we need to try and close the gap to the sides above us now in the league.
AVB and his Chelsea players have a job on their hands this afternoon as a rejuvenated Sunderland side under new man-manager Martin O'Neill travel to the Bridge with nothing to lose and everything to gain.

By Chris Wright

Much like the first-string's executive decision to stop playing after 45 minutes, it seems like the Chelsea media bods also forgot to bring their 'A' game at the Bridge yesterday...

I distinctly hope that someone in the club's marketing department was flogged with barbed wire until the first light of dawn for this grave dereliction of duty.

A record 88 teams will play in Madison United's 19th annual President's Cup indoor soccer tournament this weekend.

And it looks like a record that won't be broken – unless event organizers decide to make a significant format change or expand to a third facility.

"We can't go any more.

Chelsea lost tonight 3-1 away in Naples in a strange game that literally was end to end. After a difficult start, Chelsea nicked an away goal after a bobble on a dodgy pitch found Juan Mata who calmly slotted the ball past the keeper to make it 1-0.
With that you'd expect Chelsea to keep their shape try and remain solid and compact but it never happened.

Saturday's game against Bolton has now turned into a massive game for our club. The manager is under pressure, certain players are under pressure and as for us Chelsea fans, we are sitting here dreading what's going to happen next aren't we. Who would have thought that Bolton at home would become such a pivotal game in our season?

It's YET ANOTHER game we simply cannot afford to drop points in. Bolton have nothing really to lose and everything to gain and for Chelsea and AVB, a draw or defeat would pile more and more pressure on us in the battle to finish fourth.
Looking back to the game at The Reebok earlier in the season, Chelsea were on a high and playing fast, flowing, attacking football scoring five.

There is a storm brewing at the bridge between Chelsea players David Luiz and Frank Lampard. According to reports emerging, David Luiz is accused of criticising team mate Frank Lampard during an interview with a Portuguese newspaper.

So just what did Luiz say that has got him making all the headlines today?

It was interesting to see Roberto Di Matteo's first team selection as the interim Chelsea Manager against Birmingham the other night. He reverted to a 4-2-3-1 formation and brought into the side the likes of Ryan Bertrand, Mikel and Salomon Kalou.
This weekend against Stoke will be the first real indication from RDM of his intentions from now until the end of the season.

Roberto Di Matteo Rather like Steve Kean at Blackburn earlier in the season, you rather feel for Di Matteo. Although he is woefully under-qualified for the position he currently holds, that is through no fault of his own. Mr Abramovich has trusted him in the hotseat at the Bridge, and there is nothing Bobby can [.

Emory, emery... whatever. "Board" yet?With a few roster spots still remaining and with the sudden departure of Geovanny Caicedo creating a (bigger) hole in their defence, Toronto FC have signed American defender Logan Emory. The 24-year old, who has been trialing with TFC this spring, has spent the large chunk of his pro career in the USL with Puerto Rico Islanders where he made 51 appearances.

"I think that Napoli are superior to this Chelsea team, Mazzarri's Napoli are doing better and they have all the cards in their favour to give the English trouble even at home," said former Napoli player Moreno Ferrario earlier this week. Whether this is true or not, this is probably not the attitude the Partenopei will want to take into their date with Chelsea at the Bridge.

As you know im away in Florida on holiday with no internet so am just using my phone so didn't see the game.

What i will say is YES GET IN! what a fantastic performance to turn this round with the old guard making a great contribution to get on us our way!.

I knew we had it in us and its great that the lads delivered but for now its over to you guys

What i want you Chelsea fans to do is post your match report as a comment on here to give me more of a realistic view of the nights action.

For all those lucky enough to have ordered themselves one of our "Barry Bridge Bullies" tees, we have good news- they're ready for you. But just as we were trying to jam them en masse into the mailbox in front of PUT world headquarters, a notion struck us- why not just hand them to you? To save on shipping and therefore raise the total amount we can donate to the good folks at Camden Youth.

By Alan Duffy

Sweet Relief!!!

The poor chap (well, £50million pounds of poor chap, that is) has become the but of many jokes this season, but finally, Fernando Torres got on the scoresheet for Chelsea, not once but twice in their comfortable demolition of Leicester City in the Cup.

PUT would like to extend the full length and girth of its considerable gratitude to all of you who purchased a "Barry Bridge Bullies" tee in the run-up to this year's 'Stache Bash. Thanks to you, we were able to present the Camden Youth Soccer Club with a modest donation courtesy of our fine readers.

After a fantastic result against Benfica with a team selection that surprised us beforehand, the question remains who will Roberto Di Matteo decide to go with in this one and who do you think he should start?.
We saw for Benfica the main focus was on players who were fresh for the game and hadn't featured beforehand.

In difficult circumstances today Chelsea have to be professional and get three points at Villa Park this afternoon. Yesterday news broke that Stillian Petrov has been diagnosed with acute Leukaemia (cancer of the blood) and has immediately come down to London to a specialist hospital to start treatment.

Chelsea have a great chance of progressing into yet another Champions League Semi Final and yet another two legged affair against Barcelona but it's important to remember that this game is far from won. We cannot and should not, think of the next round and concentrate our focus on this one game for the time being.

Of course leading up to Barcelona in a couple of weeks time, there will be plenty of build up. Alot has already been made of the fact that Chelsea "Owe Barcelona" and will be "Seeking revenge" based on our last encounter a couple of seasons ago.
Along with what happened back then, it's also important to remember that it was a great game with two stunning goals.

John Terry has taken the opportunity to speak of the fact that Chelsea are through to yet another encounter against Barcelona in the Champions League.
He is keen to point out that Chelsea are back on song winning games and we will take the game to Barcelona and have had success in the past in doing that.

Motherwell made a very timely visit to Easter Road for a match against Hibernian on Sunday and on the way home, their driver got a little ambitious. He tried to fit under a bridge in Edinburgh and he didn't quite make it.

No one was hurt, but the bus got stuck and forced the team to travel the rest of the way by train.

By Chris Wright

Presenting: the new Adidas strip that Chelsea will be sporting at The Bridge as of next season a very slick blue and gold affair...

We like. We like a lot though perhaps the gold seems a little presumptuous and over-stated given Chelsea's piff paff season.

By Chris Wright

Presenting: the new Adidas strip that Chelsea will be sporting at The Bridge as of next season a very slick blue and gold affair...

We like. We like a lot though perhaps the gold seems a little presumptuous and over-stated given Chelsea's piff paff season.