Chelsea 2010/11 Season Preview

Reigning Premier League champions Chelsea will have their eyes on the ultimate prize this season as they look to land the sole trophy to elude them in the Roman Abramovich era – the UEFA Champions League as well as retaining their status as English champions.

Last season

The 2009-10 season proved to be the most successful in the history of Chelsea FC as Carlo Ancelotti led Chelsea to the League and FA Cup double for the first time in his opening season as Head Coach. After a tense season of twists and turns with Manchester United, Chelsea wrapped up the league title on the final day of the season with a top flight record victory, 8-0 over Wigan Athletic to lift the trophy in style. Along the way, Chelsea set a Premier League record for number of goals scored – finding the net an incredible 103 times in the league.

The squad: 2010 summer transfer activity

An accusation levelled at Chelsea for the last few years is that the squad is too old. To combat this, the summer activity at Stamford Bridge has mainly seen experienced players in the twilight of their career leave through the exit door. Michael Ballack, Juliano Belletti, Deco and sadly for most Chelsea fans, Joe Cole, all moved on to pastures new this summer. New arrivals to the club are slim to date, Liverpool’s Yossi Benayoun replacing Anfield-bound Cole for a reported £6.5million the only likely first-team player to join, with future talent 17-year-old centre-back Tomas Kalas joining from Sigma Olomuc.

The Coach/manager

After seeing Avram Grant, Luis Felipe Scolari and Guus Hiddink all fail to satisfy their owners’ taste for trophies since Jose Mourinho’s exit in 2007, Carlo Ancelotti arrived from AC Milan after spending eight years as the head of the Rossoneri. With two Serie A titles and the Champions League title prominent on his CV, the Italian took the helm and led to the Blues to their first Premier League title in three seasons as well as a third FA Cup triumph in the last four years with the swagger and entertainment value so craved by Abramovich. His success in his first season in England should see an end to the revolving door policy to the management position at Stamford Bridge, as the Chelsea fans took the Italian to heart and the ghost of Mourinho finally seemed to be exorcised.

Anchorman: Michael Essien

For many observers as good as a new signing in itself, a fully fit Michael Essien will give Chelsea an extra boost for the season ahead. The Ghanaian’s return to fitness strengthens the Blues midfield, after he missed out on the climax of last season and the World Cup in South Africa. A serious knee injury ensuring he hasn’t played competitively for his club since December. Despite making just 13 league starts last season, Chelsea’s quest for domestic glory wasn’t hampered by Essien’s absence, yet it was the Champions League exit to Inter Milan where the talismanic midfielders’ loss was felt most. With his hard-hitting no-nonsense style of play and possessing a rocket of a shot in his arsenal, Essien’s return to the starting line-up will be an unwelcome one for many opponents this season.

Playmaker: Frank Lampard

Despite enduring a disappointing summer with the English national side at the World Cup, Frank Lampard returns to club football amongst the key players at Stamford Bridge. His consistent record of goal-scoring and assist play over the last five seasons in particular make him top of the team sheet on match-day. Contributing an incredible 27 goals in all competitions last season and now standing at number three in the all time top goalscorers charts for the Blues, Lampard will look to put international frustration behind him by earning silverware at club level again this season.

Hot prospect: Jeffrey Bruma

Excelling as part of Chelsea’s FA Youth Cup winning set-up, 19-year-old Jeffrey Bruma will look to force his way into Ancelotti’s first-team plans this season. On the back of making his Blues debut last season, Bruma, a confident centre back who can cover at right back and strikes a mean set-piece, has been recognized at national level after receiving the call from Netherlands Head Coach Bert Van Marwijk for this month’s international friendly in Kiev against Ukraine. With captain John Terry to learn from on the pitch, Bruma could make big moves this season, especially if Ricardo Carvalho departs to team up with former manager Mourinho at Real Madrid.

2010/11 prediction: Champions

Much of Chelsea’s success may be dependent on the fitness and form of star striker Didier Drogba, but if the Ivorian can produce to close to the frightening return of last season, the Blues will be hard to stop. Drogba banged in a stunning 29 league goals in a Golden Boot winning season as he led Chelsea to the title, supported by Lampard’s 22 goal return with Nicolas Anelka and Florent Malouda also scoring double figures over the season. Winning the title by a single point in 2009-10, Chelsea owed a lot to their spotless record against their supposed ‘Top 4’ competitors, overcoming Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool at home and away last season. Their rivalry with big-spending Manchester City will be renewed after finishing pointless against City last season.

Carlo Ancelotti Feels Chelsea Better Than Liverpool Even Without UCL Win

Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti is desperate to replicate last season's sensational show which saw Chelsea complete the double of Premier League and FA Cup for the first time in their history.

However, following England's dismal run in the WC, Chelsea's English contingents Frank Lampard, John Terry, and Ashley Cole might not have psychologically recovered to face a new challenge. Ancelotti knows the importance of this trio to his side's success in the forthcoming season.

Now Ancelotti has advised his players to put their minds back to the end of last season. And this is what you call living in the past.

Ancelotti, instead of inspiring his players, is trying to take them back to past glories. He feels that last season's taste of success is enough to inspire his team to do the same. The Chelsea boss might want to repeat last season's accomplishments.

But it will take some doing considering the improvements being made at his rival camps.

As part of a cost-cutting strategy Chelsea has been quiet in the summer transfer window. That's not the Chelsea we all know.

Extravagant spending is synonymous to Chelsea; so lack of transfer activities only suggest one thing that Chelsea does fear the proposed UEFA regulations of modulating the cash being splashed by clubs beyond their means.

The departure of Joe Cole from Chelsea underlines the same issue. Chelsea is finally trying to be within their means.

Up till now they were blindly depending on a Russian moneybag to prise their targets away from any club.

However, that had to stop now since the new UEFA rules, once implemented, would make it impossible for Chelsea to compete in the Champions League if they don't cut their costs.

Chelsea is also sweating hard to name the 25-member squad since they currently don't meet the stipulated home-grown quota. There should be 8 home-grown players in the 25-member squad but Chelsea needs three more home-grown players to complete the list.

So are they going to buy? Or are they going to name only 22 players?

If it was the old Chelsea you would straight away affirm that they will buy, buy, and buy to meet any kind of rules and regulations. But not anymore.

The only player linked with Chelsea who has got a realistic chance of completing the move is Ramires. And does he come under that home grown category? No, he doesn't. So it remains to be seen how the double-winning manager is going to sort this one out.

Meanwhile, before signing for Liverpool, the ex-Chelsea midfielder—Joe Cole—declared then that he was going to sign for the biggest club in the country.

If you take Liverpool's achievements in European Champion's League and the number of domestic League titles they won into account, he has a point there.

Although the current plight of Liverpool is awful, they still remain as one of the most successful clubs in England. Who can write off a grand comeback by Liverpool in the most dramatic fashion? Only Ancelotti.

"That is his opinion but I don’t think it is a reality. Liverpool is a fantastic club with a fantastic history and a tradition. But is normal for a player to say things like that when he joins a new club," said Ancelotti referring to Cole's comment that Liverpool is the biggest club in the country.

That was a jibe at Liverpool. He wanted to say Liverpool is nowhere near Chelsea's class but had fallen short with his twisted approach.

Even if Chelsea hasn't won any Champions League titles, Ancelotti feels his Cup and League double in his first season counts more than what Liverpool has achieved over all these years.

His arrogance makes him feel that he has achieved more than what Liverpool did in his debut season.

When other teams are persistently trying to meet the new FA governs, Ancelotti is finding joy in having a go at his rivals.

His prime concern should be Chelsea. But at the moment he seems to be overly concerned about what his rival teams and players have got to say.

In the process he may end up with a 22-man squad.

Ancelotti Rules Out Move For Real Madrid's Kaka

Carlo Ancelotti has again rejected suggestions Real Madrid star Kaka could join Chelsea this summer.

Kaka, 28, left AC Milan for Madrid last summer but, despite high expectations, he struggled for form as injury problems hindered his transition.

Reports have suggested new Madrid boss Jose Mourinho is now willing to cash in on Kaka with Mesut Ozil lined up as a replacement, but Ancelotti has again said Chelsea have no plans to make an approach.

"Kaka cannot come to Chelsea," Ancelotti told Sky Italia. "He was one player of mine and has done so much for Milan, but now he belongs to Real Madrid and he will decide about his future along with his current club.

"Certainly neither I nor Chelsea will do it (decide his future)."

Chelsea Agree Terms With Benfica Over Transfer Of Ramires

Highly rated midfielder Ramires is continually being linked with a move away from Benfica since his good performances for Brazil at the 2010 World Cup, but the reigning Portuguese champions appeared to be reluctant to let go of the 23-year-old.

The Aguias have now apparently changed their mind though, as a report in Record suggests that Benfica have reached an agreement with English powerhouse Chelsea over the transfer of the former Cruzeiro star. The Blues will reportedly pay a fee of €22 million to secure the services of the Brazil international.

Benfica recently sold 50 per cent of the player's rights to an investment group for a fee of €6m, meaning that they will only get €11m from the fee Chelsea pay. However, they only paid a reported €7m fee for Ramires to Cruzeiro a year ago and will thus still make a €10m profit on the young midfielder.

Ramires was left out of Benfica's starting XI in their 4-1 friendly win against Aston Villa on Sunday in order not to take any unnecessary risks with the upcoming transfer in the back of their minds.

Both clubs involved in the transfer have yet to confirm the transfer, but an official statement from Benfica is expected to be released on Tuesday.

Carlo Ancelotti Warns Jose Mourinho Ashley Cole Is Staying Put

Carlo Ancelotti reignited his feud with Jose Mourinho by warning him: You’ve got NO chance of signing Ashley Cole!

The bad blood between the pair spilled over again as Ancelotti told the former Chelsea boss to forget a reunion with the England left-back.

Fresh reports over the weekend suggested that Cole had told Ancelotti he wants to quit Stamford Bridge to join Mourinho at Real Madrid.

But the Italian angrily insisted Mourinho will not be getting his hands on one of his top summer targets.

Ancelotti said: “I’m not interested in the relationship one of my player’s has with other coaches.

“It’s normal that Mourinho has a good relationship with Ashley Cole.

“But nothing has changed our position. He is a Chelsea player and will remain a Chelsea player for the future. There’s no way he will leave.

“We believe he’s the best left-back in the world – and because of this, he will stay at this club.”

Former AC Milan boss Ancelotti and Mourinho have been at each others’ throats since ‘The Special One’ moved to city rivals Inter Milan in 2008.

Cole – together with fellow England World Cup flops John Terry and Frank Lampard – made his first pre-season appearance against Eintracht Frankfurt on Sunday.

But the Three Lions trio, who played 45 minutes each, could not prevent a 2-1 defeat in Germany. Terry looked a yard off the pace in his first run-out since returning from South Africa. The ex-England skipper and goalkeeper Hilario were responsible for the howler which gifted Patrick Ochs a 25th-minute opener.

Lampard equalized midway through the second half, but Halil Altintop’s late penalty won the game for the Bundesliga side.

The performance of second-choice keeper Hilario will have worried Ancelotti, with No.1 Petr Cech battling to recover from a calf injury in time for the Blues’ Premier League opener against West Brom a week on Saturday.

The Italian tried to sweep Hilario’s poor display under the carpet but is banking on Cech getting fit.

He said: “We have to maintain trust in these goalkeepers and we hope Petr Cech can recover well before the start of the season.”

Didier Drogba will train today ahead of Wednesday’s trip to Hamburg.

The Ivory Coast striker had groin surgery last week, but Ancelotti is hopeful his star striker will play some part on Wednesday.

Match Report: Eintracht Frankfurt 2 - 1 Chelsea

Chelsea suffered a second successive friendly defeat after a late penalty gave our German hosts a narrow victory.

On the balance of play it was perhaps a fair result, though it should be noted that Eintracht Frankfurt are a week ahead of the Blues in their preparations, with the Bundesliga kicking off next weekend.

It was individual slips that cost us, first Hilario made a hash of his clearance and then a shirt pull by Branislav Ivanovic handed our hosts a penalty, either side of substitute Frank Lampard's equaliser.

Results however are not the key factor in these games, and Carlo Ancelotti will have been pleased to see his World Cup players, and a couple of injury victims gaining some minutes on the pitch.

For our third pre-season fixture, the manager was boosted by the presence nine returning World Cup internationals, and the Italian opted to start with six of them.

Also available for the first time was Yossi Benayoun, whose groin injury had eased to allow him a debut, and Yury Zhirkov, who had recovered from his hamstring complaint for a first run out of 2010/11.

It was a hot day in central Germany, made all the more uncomfortable with the presence of the Commerzbank Arena's roof, shadowing a patchy-looking pitch that had hosted two American Football games the day before.

Following the pre-match meet and greets, it was the Blues who started the brighter, Nicolas Anelka squaring across the Eintracht area early on, and Jeffrey Bruma heading Florent Malouda's corner over after the initial cross was cleared behind.

Malouda, Salomon Kalou and Benayoun interlinked well after eight minutes, Kalou shooting high after some inventive touches from his team-mates, and then home goalkeeper Oka Nikolov had to rush from his line to punch clear a through ball from John Terry as Malouda closed in.

Ten minutes later though it was the Germans who were celebrating the game's first goal, as another goalkeeping blunder blighted Chelsea's pre-season campaign. Last week it was Ross Turnbull, today it was Hilario's turn.

With the ball rolling towards the custodian, Terry opted to touch the ball back with a forward bearing down. It seemed to throw the Portuguese goalkeeper who then tried to beat his man, lost possession and the ball ran loose to Patrick Ochs, who made no mistake in looping the ball over into an empty net.

It was a messy little episode for Chelsea in what had otherwise been a reasonably tidy opening, if showing signs of a little rust in the eight who had not previously featured this summer.

Just after the half-hour, Frankfurt's summer signing Theofanis Gekas almost caught Hilario out with an overhead kick after he was afforded space inside the area, but the keeper was alert enough to make the save.

A moment later another hashed clearance was almost punished, but Hilario parried well, first from Gekas and then from Ochs. There was only one side looking like scoring now, and just before the break Amanatidis nearly did, crashing a half-volley just wide.

Eight Chelsea changes followed at half-time, among them Frank Lampard, Branislav Ivanovic and Ricardo Carvalho all getting their first taste of pre-season action, and Michael Mancienne on at right-back, his first Chelsea game after a season with Wolves.

Malouda and Essien, another sub, both came close in the opening exchanges, while Gekas sent another Frankfurt effort just wide.

Chelsea's equaliser came courtesy of Lampard, who had only flown into Frankfurt on Sunday morning after illness.

Patrick Van Aanholt made a surging run down the left, and sending a pass inside which Lampard could only half reach before sub goalkeeper Ralf Fahrmann, who got his legs to the ball but not enough to continue its forward momentum, allowing the midfielder to run on and smash it over the line to level things up.

There followed the type of quiet period that comes with multiple substitutions in a friendly game, but with nine minutes remaining Frankfurt were awarded a penalty after a tug inside the area, and Halil Altintop, smashed it straight down the middle and in.

Two minutes later Chelsea had Carvalho to thank for keeping the deficit down to one, as he prevented Altintop from shooting into an empty net after another Hilario clearance was charged down.

At the other end Fabio Borini beat the offside trap and should have levelled, but goalkeeper Fahrmann stayed big and saved with his legs.

It was to be the last chance of the game, and so it is two straight defeats, but several important returns for Chelsea. Next up is Hamburg on Wednesday before the big one against Manchester United later this week.

Let The Clear Out Begin

Right. As you'll be able to tell from the time this article is published, the Frankfurt friendly has just finished.

I believe it is now time for a few players to say goodbye and move from Chelsea.

Number 1? Hilario.

The only things Hilario did right were make saves after he'd created the chances for Frankfurt himself. It was as if he was saying, 'I need the practice, here you go, I give you ball, shoot.' The sheer arrogance of the player to waste time on goal kicks in the first half and to waste time on clearances which led to goals and chances for the opposition.

Carlo, I expect him gone by the start of the PL. Bring in Delac as the third keeper.

Number 2? Borini.

Some will not agree with me and perhaps its Carlo's fault that he looked awful today but you can't play him as the lone striker. 2 reasons, a) he's not good enough in that role and b) he's not good enough for Chelsea. He might be the captain of Italy U-19s but they were atrocious at the tournament that has just finished. Wasted his opportunity at the end which was an easy sideways pass for Sinclair to score.

And Number 3? Ferreira.

First game back since WC and he looks like he's got even worse. Age is not on his side anymore and we have enough youth coming through to cover for him. Along with Deco we could save some money each week by not having to pay his wages.

Carvalho: More To Come

Ricardo Carvalho came through his first 45 minutes of club football this summer on Sunday, and immediately admitted he was feeling the effects.

The Portuguese defender only returned to training last Monday after three weeks off following his World Cup exploits, where he was one of his country's outstanding performers before their second round elimination by Spain.

Against Eintracht Frankfurt yesterday, he was a half-time substitute as Carlo Ancelotti gave vital game time to each of his nine returning World Cup men. Their afternoon was made harder by a soft pitch that quickly cut up.

Asked afterwards how he was feeling, Carvalho said: 'Good, it has been a hard week with double sessions every day, so it is normal to feel a bit more tired than usual but we are getting fit.

'I think we could play much better but the pitch was a little bit difficult, you could feel it during the game, and we made a mistake with the penalty and they scored, so I think we should have had a draw at least.'

Frankfurt's Bundesliga season commences this coming weekend, and so it is to be expected that they are a yard or so sharper than our boys, whose Premier League campaign begins in 12 days' time against West Bromwich Albion, but Carvalho felt this was not the case in the Commerzbank Arena.

'I am not sure if Frankfurt were fitter, both teams played more or less at the same level, I think we could play better but so could they, and in the end they were a little bit lucky with the penalty,' he explained.

'For us now the next game is on Wednesday, and I look forward to it and improving my condition, and for the team it is time to get results, to start to win and to play better.'