7th Heaven Part III

Amazing! Chelsea thumped 7 past tough customers Stoke City to claim their biggest ever win for half a century and in the Premier League; making it the THIRD time they have stuffed 7 past opposition at home and the first time they have done it against three different teams: Sunderland, Villa and Stoke, all whom are no pushovers. An awesome return of 33 goals scored in 8 home games has seen Chelsea's GD swell to +8, leaving them 7 better off than Utd, thanks in particular to yesterday's goal glut.

Stoke were unlucky to lose Abdoulaye Faye early on in the game to a thigh injury, and later keeper Sorensen who dislocated his elbow while trying to prevent Kalou tapping in our second of the day. But the home side were simply irresistible, and the normally stubborn Stoke defence simply wilted under the intense pressure.


Kalou started the rout in the 24th minute with a superb diving header from a similarly excellent cross from the lively Drogba. A few minutes later, Kalou doubled the home side's advantage with a sliding finish; although there will be controversy over whether the goal should have been allowed in the first place as Kalou's two footed lunge could have been deemed dangerous on Sorensen. Frank stroked home the third from the penalty spot after Huth seemingly fouled Kalou to leave the Blues in cruise control by half-time.

Ice-cool Frank scores goal no. 3 and his 24th of the season in all competitions

The nightmare only got worse for the Potters after the break. On 68', Kalou bagged his first hat-trick in Chelsea colours after firing home the rebound from his initial shot which had been saved by Begovic and Frank made it five with a delightful right-footed volley after meeting a superb cross from sub Sam Hutchinson. Sturridge scored his first PL goal for Chelsea with a neat turn and sharp finish to make it six; while even Malouda found time to smash home a seventh to wrap up a fine day's work for the Blues.

Brilliant volley with the outside of his right foot to make it five-as fantastic a goal as he's ever scored

"Are you watching, Manchester?" was the jubilant cry ringing around the Bridge as the home side sent out an ominous message to the rest of the league that they mean business this year.


Next up, a daunting trip away to Anfield. The stage has been set for a titanic Clash of the Titans; a win for the Blues is a must in order to ensure the title returns to west London while Liverpool will be scrapping desperately for that final Champions League spot. Liverpool fans are surely in a quandary now: Beat Chelsea and surely United will win the title; which would see them eclipse Liverpool's record of 19 pL titles and become the only other team besides Liverpool to win 4 consecutive PL titles. My guess is they will give the fight of their lives because although they now only have an outside chance of making 4th, they are only 2 points away from Spurs; albeit having played a game more. It's really turning out to be a most unforgettable season. Chelsea could clinch the PL title with a game to spare if they win at Anfield and Utd slip up at in-form Sunderland but my gut tells me that the title race is going to go down to the wire. Chelsea have been up and down on the road this season: winning at Old Trafford and the Emirates but being shockingly beaten at the DW, Goodison, Villa Park and WHL. It's impossible to predict what will happen next Sunday but at the moment, all the momentum seems to be swinging in our direction.


In other news...


3 Mid-Sems down, one more to go! It's Accounting 1A on Thursday and hopefully the nightmare can take a backseat for a few days. I'm pretty tired of eating in my room to save time (so anti-social!) and staying in the library until the wee hours of the morning. But whatever happens, I'm so staying up to watch Chelsea v Liverpool next Sunday eventhough I have morning church next week!


Other BPL Results:-


Arsenal 0 Man City 0
Manchester Utd 3 Tottenham Hotspurs 1
Hull City 0 Sunderland 1
Liverpool 4 Burnley 0


*Hull City and Burnley relegated along with Portsmouth

Football is a B*tch

Saturday 19th April: Pundits, bookies and fans all over the world backing Chelsea to win league title for 09/10 season. 4 points clear at the top with only 4 games to go.

Sunday 20th April: Chelsea LOSE 2-1 at WHL (*groans*) and lead is cut to one point AGAIN after MU beat Man City 1-0. Suddenly, it's game on again.

Deja Vu: Guus Hiddink's Chelsea lost 1-0 at WHL around this same stage of the season to go 4 points behind Utd. We never recovered, and the PL trophy went to Old Trafford last season. If we lose the championship again, I will never support Spurs or Gareth Bale again.

Verdict: No reason to panic (according to Signor Ancelotti) but we MUST MUST MUST (3 times for each game!) win all remaining 3 games to have any chance of the trophy returning to Stamford Bridge for the first time in 3 years. However, next game is away to Anfield; a potential banana skin seeing as Liverpool will be battling hard to regain 4th spot but run-in of home games against Stoke and Wigan seems relatively straightforward. Lets hope Spurs replicate the same form and squash United as well next week, but something tells me that lightning rarely strikes twice.

The Ugliest Words in the Dictionary

GROUP PROJECT DUE ON TUESDAY

Chelsea 2 Manchester Utd 1

And it was at Old Trafford! The last we won at OT was during the 04/05 season, when we won the league title.

It was the first time I'd watched a BPL match here in Oz, it's great that they have FoxSports here at IH. The TV room was full of Asians (the Koreans are all Utd fans because of Park Ji-Sung lol!); evidently the BPL football-crazy spirit is still strong here even away from our ESPN and StarSports.

Chelsea dominated possession from the offset, putting together some slick moves and running circles around an elderly United midfield jaded from their midweek exertions against Bayern. God knows why SAF chose Giggs and Scholes over Carrick and Gibson; their midfield age was even older than ours! But hey, I'm not complaining. The goal which had been threatening to come arrived in the 19th minute, when a sublime Joe Cole backheel outfoxed VDS and rolled into the far corner. 1-0 Chelsea.

However, in the second half we had to put up with some intense pressure as United began to threaten. Paolo Ferreira spurned a glorious opportunity early on to put the game to bed when one on one with VDS but his shot was just wide of the far post. There were a few hairy moments, especially when SAF brought on Macheda and Nani to inject some pace into the Utd midfield but some inspired and dogged defending rescued Cech. However, Ancelotti responded by bringing on Kalou and Drogba which turned out to be an inspired substitution. Within 11 minutes of his arrival, Kalou set Drogba up from about 10 yards off and our top hitman fired a bullet into the top near corner of the goal. 2-0 Chelsea with about 12 minutes to go, game over. However, even I admit that the goal should not have stood as the Drog was clearly at least a yard offside. SAF was understandably furious though.

But 2 minutes later, justice was served when Macheda bundled the ball into the net with his hand, and the goal stood eventhough it was clearly handball. Another boo-boo by the officials. 10 minutes to go, 2-1 Chelsea game on. Were we up for a grandstand finish? Utd bombarded our goal with shots (many of them wayward though) but we stood firm. Berbatov had a fantastic chance to equalise in stoppage time but Cech made a good save to make sure it was a triumphant return to west London.

Chelsea replaced United at the summit of the BPL with a 2 point cushion; with only 5 games to go. It's our title to lose now and that's the way we want it.