Four games to catch up on - but I'll start with the first and arguably most significant, our first defeat at Newcastle. The media quite frankly, have been doing my head in all season building Chelsea up as potentially 'invincible' like being invincible is some kind of common thing, which it isn't. Obviously it is their job to build teams up and then knock them down and I guess this is what they were doing with Chelsea this season. It annoyed me more given that it gave Arsenal fans a chance to pipe up with 'there's only one invincibles' after the game (they all went quiet though within 30 minutes when they went 1-0 down early on in their game against Stoke, so that was quite funny). I knew this would be a hard game, especially as Newcastle have beaten us at St James Park the last two seasons, and Mourinho has never won their in the league - two draws and two defeats previous to this game, although two of those results were after Chelsea had already secured the league in Mourinho's first two seasons. He has though, won twice in the league cup there, which just makes Aston Villa away as the only game were Jose has not won in any competition.
We had a strong line up for this game, bar Matic who was suspended, which I think was a telling miss. It meant John Obi Mikel deputised for him, and although he always seems a better player under Mourinho, he does slow the game down I think. Takes an age to make a decision or so it seems at times. An uneventful first half was followed by a very eventful second half where Chelsea could have taken the lead if Mikel had buried a header from a Fabregas free kick on 56 minutes. Just a minute later, Chelsea were punished. A low cross from the left from Ameobi was not cleared properly by Cahil, who only merely deflected the ball into the path of Cisse who finished from close range to give Newcastle the lead. Chelsea responded by throwing on Drogba and Filipe Luis but despite some pressure, could find the breakthrough. They thought they had their equaliser when Hazard saw his low drive come back off the post, only for Newcastle to go back up the other end 36 seconds later and score again through another Cisse tap in. How's your luck?
Chelsea had a bit come their way when Taylor was sent off for a second yellow with 8 minutes left and from the resulting free kick, Drogba glanced who for 1-2. The final 10 minutes was all Chelsea, but with Drogba, Costa and Filipe Luis all coming close, the unbeaten run came to an end. Personally I view it as a blessing in disguise as with the monkey off their backs, Chelsea can now get on with winning the league.
To bounce back, we had a dead rubber game against Sporting Lisbon who of course still had a lot to play for. I attended this game but was disappointed with how far back in the Matthew Harding lower our seats were, might have to avoid those seats in future. Mourinho made six changes to this game with qualification already restored, Zouma, Cech, Filipe Luis getting rare starts, with Shurrle also getting a run out. Azpilicueta and Matic also returned. I turned up in time to see Fabregas score a penalty, which I later learnt had been given for a foul on Filipe Luis. Shortly after then, a good Shurrle turn and strike into the bottom left hand corner doubled Chelsea's lead. Schurrle needs a good run like that a I think, rumours of his Chelsea future continue to circulate, especially as Mourinho described him as 'sometimes phenomenal and sometimes so-so'. Reports until late linked us with a move for Marco Reus as a replacement as well.
Carrillo pulled one back for Lisbon with a chest down and low shot on 50 minutes, but it only took 5 minutes to restore our two goal cushion. Fabregas' free kick was headed by Cahil, the ball was going only for predatory goal machine (not really) John Ob Mikel to tap in from in front of the goal line. Only the nigerians 5th Chelsea goal in 8 and a half years and his first in europe! In the end it finished 3-1 and Lisbon went out as Schalke won their match to go through as group runners up. Up next in the champions league? A rematch with Paris St German and a reunion with David Luiz ....
The next match against Hull was a chance to get back to winning ways in the Premier league, with City now only three points behind us, the once comfortable gap was now looking ominously small. With Courtois injured, Cech deputised in goal, with Filipe Luis getting a rare start as well, otherwise the team was as it was expected, with Mikel standing in for suspended Fabregas. I attended this game as well, but had trouble getting due to a problem with the ticket machine which was affecting everyone, and just abut missed Hazards goal so I had to catch up on that later. Oscar sent in a in-swinging cross from the left for Hazard to score with a bullet header. All in all it wasn't the best performance from Chelsea although Hull rarely troubled the Chelsea goal. This game became known more for diving in the end, Willian and Costa booked (harshly I might add) while Cahill got away with a second yellow for diving ironically as his was more of a dive than Costa and Willian's. Personally I thought the referee had a 'mare' but luckily it didn't prove too costly. Costa himself sealed the win, finding the far bottom corner from close range as Hazard dinked a through ball through a packed Hull defence.
The last game was a league cup quarter final against Championship high flyers Derby County. Jose paid Derby the up-most respect with a strong line up whilst making the odd change, bringing Zouma, Drogba and Cech in for a game in the competition that brought Jose's first trophy as Chelsea manager. Hazard gave Chelsea the lead on 23 minutes - taking advantage of some slack Derby defending on the ball, before playing a one two with Fabregas and driving low in the bottom corner. A worrying moment before half time, from a Derby corner which saw Cech accidentally punch Zouma in the head as he punched the ball away. Zouma was down for a good few minutes with blood reportedly pouring from his mouth, so the medical team were understandably concerned. I thought it was quite bad that the Derby medical team were a bit slow in bringing the stretcher on, Hazard and Fabregas even came over to give them a hand! Thankfully the injured turned out to not be serious with Zouma only losing a tooth - Ivanovic came on though to replace him. Chelsea doubled their lead on 56 minutes with a fantastic free kick from Filipe Luis, 25 yards out whipped into the top corner - with dead balls like that in his locker I'm surprised he doesn't play every game! Bryson gave Derby hope with a long range strike in off the post on 71 minutes but Chelsea wrapped up the win not long after. Firstly Remy came on and was involved in a red card for Derby. Through on goal the french striker was held back by Buxton with the Derby keeper charging the ball down and appearing to handle the ball outside the penalty area. As the linesman flagged, most people including myself though it was going to be a red card for the keeper, but ref instead showed a red card for buxton for holding back Remy as he was the last man. There is an argument on viewing replays though that Remy would not have reached the ball before the keeper, but hey ho. Remy was involved in the third goal on 82 mins as his shot was saved before Schurrle swept the rebound home to seal the win.
The draw for the semi finals brought an old foe for Jose, a tie with Liverpool - an echo of the Champions league semi final battles Jose had during his first spell in charge. He did also of course beat Liverpool in the final of the competition for his first trophy 10 years ago. Perhaps it was always destined to happen. Spurs drew Sheffield Utd in the other semi finals, while in the FA cup draw, a home tie with Watford awaits. Up next for Chelsea is a busy Christmas period with some tricky games, Stoke away on Monday night, followed by a boxing day clash at home to the West Ham and an away tie at Southampton and a visit to Spurs on new years day. I think Chelsea need to step up in their performances and re-capture their early season form as difficult as that may be, or they could face a serious struggle over this festive period.
Come on Chelsea!
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