Taken by me at M&T Bank Stadium. Jealous?

Alright people. Back from what felt like the longest international break in....well, ever, Chelsea will take on Wolves at the Bridge tomorrow, and will do so with what would have to be called a diminished lineup.

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So we are just shy of being one-third of the way through the season and we're already at our third (!) interlull. When we return, it will be crunch time with 11 matches in the next 42 days, including Chelsea at home, Liverpool away, the final CL group stage fixtures, and, of course, City away in the Carling Cup quarterfinals.

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Chelsea cruised to victory last night as they beat Bolton 4-0. Goals from Kalou (yes he scored again), Malouda, Deco and Drogba sealed an easy win as Chelsea progress to the League Cup quarter finals. To be honest it could of been a hat full and apart from the odd attack on goal (which Hilario will remember from the game more than anything) it was pretty much one sided. Click to continue reading...

1. A 2 Goal cushion is totally enough to kill off the game. We simply must stop letting teams think they have a chance even when they're two down.

2. We need to buy a goal keeper. Almunia is inadequate, Mannone is too young, Fabianski is scary and Sczesczny cannot get a jersey because the Nike cannot spell his name.

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Time to get back to work.

The international break is finally over congratulations, by the way, to Ghana for becoming the first African nation to win a major competition with a dramatic penalty shootout triumph over Brazil in the U-20 World Cup and Chelsea open the Premier League slate this weekend at Aston Villa.

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Who are the very best young players in the world? For the purposes of this article, "young players" are those no older than 22.

First there are the obvious: Lionel Messi, Sergio Aguero, Alexandre Pato, Francesc Fabregas, Karim Benzema, etc. Their class has been established before this mysterious "young" label vanished, and subsequently they command enormous transfer fees, if their clubs are even willing to part with them.

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Things are still pretty tight in World cup qualifiers in Africa especially in group b. Tunisia lead this group with 11 points two ahead of Nigeria. The final round of matches will be played on November 14th and it will be do or die for the Super Eagles.

Nigeria who last appeared in this tournament in 2002, will definitely want to prove that they still have what it takes to compete at the highest level.

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It's patently obvious Man Utd are not the side they were. No-one can lose Tevez and Ronaldo and be as effective - especially if you replace them with Valencia (3 goals and 3 assists last season) and Owen (perennially injured, super-sub). We maintain they will struggle this season - a slip out of the top four has even been mooted.

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Swagger jacked from the Guardian ...

Venue: DW Stadium

Last season: Wigan 0, Chelsea 1

Referee: Phil Dowd
...this season's matches: Four officiated; Yellow-13, Red-0

Read It:
Ancelotti earthed in reality as Chelsea aim to extend electric start
Ancelotti wants to see out career at Chelsea
CHELSEA

Subs from: Turnbull, Hilario, Bosingwa, Zhirkov, Ferreira, Mikel, Bruma, Borini, Kalou, Matic, Belletti, Deco

Doubtful: Drogba (calf), Ballack (calf), Zhirkov (match fitness), Deco (calf)

Injured: Alex (groin, Oct), Sturridge (calf, Oct), Hutchinson (virus, Oct), J Cole (virus, Oct)

Suspended: None

Form guide: WWWWW

Disciplinary record: Yellow-6 Red-0

Leading scorer: Drogba 5

WIGAN

Subs from: Pollitt, Koumas, Edman, Cho, Scotland, De Ridder, Kingson, McCarthy, King, McManaman, Kapo

Doubtful: Kapo (knee)

Injured: None

Ineligible: Sinclair (terms of loan from Chelsea)

Suspended: None

Form guide: LWLLL

Disciplinary record: Yellow-13 Red-0

Leading scorer: Rodallega 2

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- The cutting-edge QPR Report Messageboard: Visit - even post on - the combination quasi-blog and messageboard for additional up-to-the-minute news about QPR, combined with QPR nostalgia and even occasional general football items.
- QPR REPORT Available on TWITTER! Click to continue reading...

That Deco is so dreamy
Frank Lampard may have been the leading point scorer after Tuesday's fixtures, but it was Deco (8.5M) who impressed me most today - completely out of nowhere.
He picked up an assist in the win over Hull, and a goal today in the win over Sunderland, but will he continue in a starting role? Click to continue reading...

Ballack nets the equalizer against Sunderland

I have been talking Chelsea up to anyone who would listen for the last few months and two games into the Premier League season and I couldn't be happier with my predictions of glory for Chelsea.

"Why?" You ask.

Of all of the top four teams in England Chelsea is the only squad without a glaring hole when comparing their current squads to last year's teams.

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Tough fixture. That's all that really needs to be said about today's trip to Sunderland.

Steve Bruce's renovation project looks solid. And, following a rugged 1-0 result at Bolton to begin the season, the Stadium of Light is certain to be frantic for the the Cats' home opener.

Chelsea, meanwhile, will be looking to improve upon a last-second victory at home to Hull City on Saturday.

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After game week 1 in the Fantasy league many people got of to positive starts with the average score in the top ten places of the  Arsenal-highlights league being 75.4! That is good teams!

Well done to Dan Chadwick of Mes Que Un Club who top scored with 87, his line up consisting of:

Green 8

Hughes 5   Shawcross 15 Ferdinand  - 6

Mikel 1 Jiminez 4 Arshavin (C) 12 Gerrard 7 Fabregas 22

Eduardo 5 Torres 2

Although the table is tight, heres the top ten:

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A nice opening weekend. As I watch Liverpool - Tottenham battle it out at White Hart Lane, I thought I'd share some of my observations from the Premier League's first gameweek.
Due to a combination of multi-screen viewing and Tivo-ing (Setanta on my PC and ESPN / FSC on the tele) I was able to take in 8 matches over the past two days. Click to continue reading...

 If today's opening match fixture was a litmus test for the rest of the premier league season, my bet is on the match officials. As soon as the match kicked off I had that gut feeling of "here we go again". Now I know it's easy to accuse the officials of ruining the game for you, today's match however was no excuse.

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Chelsea ended last season winning the FA Cup after falling just short in the Premier and Champions League. They have opened this season with a Community Shield win over Manchester United and look stronger by not being weaker. Despite having ridiculous sums of money thrown at him, John Terry has - for now - spurned Manchester City to stay. Click to continue reading...

Cheating bastard.

From The Chelsea Blog: Three minutes later and the boos were ringing around Wembley although whether they were for the departing Mikel or Ballack coming on, it's hard to tell since neither of them have ever endeared themselves to our opponents. And Ballack was about to cement that fact as he first went to ground far too easily, earning a free-kick from the slightest brush of Evra's shoulder.

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Raise the curtain. The season has arrived.

Chelsea and Manchester United welcome football back officially today with the FA Community Shield at New Wembley.

A lot has changed since United lifted the Premier League trophy in May.

At Chelsea, it's a new manager. Its sans bye bye Ronnie and Carlitos in Manchester.

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Sorry for the lack of posts this week; it has been an extremely hectic last five or so days. Anyway.

Chelsea netted twice in the final five minutes to salvage a 2-2 draw with Reading at the Madjeski on Saturday afternoon. Kalou bagged the first I know, shocking with an own goal, set up by the towering Alex, providing the late-game theatrics in added time.

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John Mikel Obi has committed to a five year deal with Chelsea, his current club. The midfielder joined Chelsea in 2006 from Lyn Oslo and will now be here till 2014. Mikel has been a known face in the Blues side and this deal will ensure that he is a common sight in the midfields [...] Click to continue reading...

Today on the Chelsea Website its has been confirmed that Mikel has signed a new 5 year deal with the club. He said:"It was easy to commit because I am happy here and when the opportunity came it was good to sign after speaking to the club. My future with the new manager will be bright, and I think we have a good working relationship already. Click to continue reading...

Chelsea met Inter at the Rose Bowl, Pasadena. The game was dominated by Jose Mourinho's former club and the Special One could not hide his displeasure. Lampard, Drogba, Malouda, Sturridge and Essien kept the pressure up on the Nerrazurri. Drogba hit a speculative shot on goal which Belec was unable to get fully behind and only managed to deflect the ball into goal in the 10'.

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The full travelling squad for Chelsea has been revealed by MLSR partner ProstAmerika Soccer.
Here they are:
FULL CHELSEA TRAVELING SQUAD

GOALKEEPERS:
Petr Cech
Hilario
Ross Turnbull
DEFENDERS:
Branislav Ivanovic
Ashley Cole
Jose Bosingwa
John Terry
Alex
Juliano Belletti
Ricardo Carvalho
MIDFIELDERS:
Michael Essien
Frank Lampard
Deco
Michael Ballack
John Mikel Obi
FORWARDS:
Didier Drogba
Claudio Pizarro
Franco Di Santo
Florent Malouda
Scott Sinclair

Salomon Kalou
Andriy Shevchenko
Daniel Sturridge
Nicolas Anelka
Michael Mancienne
Sam Hutchinson

To read more about all of this please read the entire story here at Prost Amerika Soccer.

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A last minute winner from comeback kid Gorka Elustundo ended Real Sociedad's season on a high and gave Coach Lillo a good end to his tenure after the bitter disappointment of failing to get promotion. Incredibly the win means that txuri urdin finished with more points away from home than at the Anoeta - something that will need to change next season for sure. Click to continue reading...

Real Sociedad picked up a brilliant win at the weekend over Huesca to keep the club in the promotion hunt. A fantastic goal by Abreu in the 1st minute (see video below) was doubled by Aranburu in 31 minutes. Huesca pulled a goal back through Camacho but Real held on despite losing Markel to a red card in the 56th minute. Click to continue reading...

Real Sociedad go into Saturdays game with Albacete knowing nothing less than a victory will do at Anoeta as they hope Zaragoza can slip up at home to Celta Vigo and close the gap on them to 5 points. Real have the same squad from last weeks 2-1 win over Alicante (see goals below) to call upon but one surprise is the call up to the first team squad for young midfielder Javi Ros. Click to continue reading...

Real Sociedad kept their slim hopes of promotion alive yesterday after an own goal by defender Mainz in the 90th minute gave Real a slender 1-0 victory when it looked like being another disappointing result for the hosts. The highlights can be viewed in the video below.
Real Sociedad: Bravo, Carlos Martinez (Gerardo, 28 mins), Labaka, Mikel González (Ansotegi, 56 mins), Castillo, Rivas, Markel, Moha, Prieto, Marcos (Necati, 60 mins) and Abreu. Click to continue reading...

Everton's Pienaar launched the ball into the box from the left side. Chelsea's Mikel got his head to it but could not clear. Fellaini headed the ball back into the danger area where Louis Saha waited, unmarked, uncontended. He spins into the volley to catch it perfectly with his left foot, catapulting the ball past keeper Petr Cech.

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No no I am not jumping the gun about the result of FA Cup Final.

But even if Everton lose on Saturday David Moyes can have the consolation of collecting a personal piece of silverware this season - The LMA Manager Of The Year Award.

It is the first time a manager has won the award three times, after the Scot received the accolade in 2003 and 2005 - even Sir Alex Ferguson hasn't done that!

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Jose Mourinho is planning a double swoop on Chelsea this summer - with Ricardo Carvalho and Mikel John Obi in his sights in a combined £21million move. Inter Milan chief Mourinho is hoping to capitalise on the uncertainty surrounding Chelsea at the end of this season, as the club waits for a new manager to take [. Click to continue reading...

I would be foolish and disrespectful towards you readers if I write my usual full time match report as you guys are intelligent enough to judge a game like this. Just when you think Wenger reached the peak of his stubborness, there he goes again with Diaby in the line-up, on the left, rather than picking Carlos Vela for the job.

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Why can't any of our recent managers have come up with a nickname like the people's club?! In the same way The Rock was the people's champion, Everton are a side that most football fans seem to like and have respect for (Liverpool fans not included obviously).

He may look like a nutcase, have regular head butt matches with Duncan Ferguson, and put players in torturous submission holds when they make mistakes, but David Moyes is certainly one of the best managers in Premiership history.

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How long will he stay at Goodison Park?

For me a leading contender for manager of the year is none other than Everton's David Moyes. The steps he has taken with Everton, comfortably 6th in the Premier League, an F.A Cup final to look forward to and although lacklustre during the first few months, Moyes has brought the Toffees forward, only to occupy that all to familiar area just below the big four.

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Chelsea are one good performance away from a shot at revenge in the Champions League final. But even a good performance might not be enough to ensure they get past Barcelona.
I watched Barca demolish Real Madrid last weekend, 6-2 at the Bernabeu. Generously, Madrid tried to play football against the visitors, a kamikaze move that was doomed to fail. Click to continue reading...