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Tag: Chelsea

  • Chelsea star Hazard out of Europa League tie

    Chelsea playmaker Eden Hazard will miss Thursday’s Europa League Group L home game with Belarusian champions BATE Borisov due to back injury.

    He is expected to return for Sunday’s Premier League game at Burnley.
    “Hazard is out for sure,” said manager Maurizio Sarri. “He has a back problem. We are trying to solve the problem for Sunday.”
    The Belgian is the club’s top scorer this season, with eight goals and three assists in 11 appearances.
    Hazard was not in the squad for Chelsea’s Europa League opener against Greek side PAOK Salonika on 20 September but came on as a second-half substitute in the 1-0 win over Hungarian champions MOL Vidi on 4 October.
    Chelsea are top of Group L with two wins, while BATE are third with one victory.
    Midfielder Jorginho – who has started all of Chelsea’s Premier League games this season – will be rested as Sarri is keen to rotate his squad before the match against Burnley.
    Defender Marcos Alonso, who signed a new contract this week, will be available and Andreas Christensen and Ruben Loftus-Cheek could be handed starts.
    “This match is not a big problem, because we have to play after five days from the last match,” said Sarri.
    “The problem will be on Sunday, because on Sunday we will play after 65 hours. So we need to change some of them.
    “For example, Jorginho we need to rest now, because he played 90 minutes the two matches with the international team [Italy], and then he played for 100 minutes in the last match [against Manchester United, which had 10 minutes of injury time]. It’s time to rest for him.”

  • Chelsea assistant coach charged with improper conduct after melee

    Chelsea FC’s assistant coach Marco Ianni was charged with improper conduct by the Football Association (FA) in England on Monday.
    This was after his exuberant celebrations in front of the Manchester United bench sparked an altercation with visiting manager Jose Mourinho.
    Chelsea scored a late equaliser to hold Manchester United to a 2-2 draw in the English Premier League on Saturday and Ianni celebrated the goal in front of United’s bench.
    His action led to an ugly melee.
    On Monday, the FA charged Ianni for his behaviour, saying in a statement that he had until 1700 GMT on Thursday to respond.
    The English football governing body also said it had “formally reminded Mourinho of his responsibilities”, although the Portuguese escaped a charge for his part in the row.
    “Both clubs have received similar official reminders in terms of the behaviour expected of their staff and players at all times whilst in the technical area,” the FA added.
    Manchester United dropped two places to 10th in the table, while Chelsea are third, behind Manchester City and Liverpool.
    Reuters/NAN

  • EPL: Barkley late strike saves Chelsea against Man Utd

    Ross Barkley’s stoppage-time equaliser denied Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United victory at Chelsea following a heated 2-2 draw.
    Substitute Barkley turned home in the 96th minute from close range, prompting Chelsea second assistant Marco Ianni to run across Mourinho’s path in celebration, which angered the United manager and in-turn sparked scuffles on the sidelines and in the tunnel.
    Chelsea had taken the lead through Antonio Rudiger’s header from Willian’s corner (21) thanks to some suspect marking, but United equalised after the break as Anthony Martial finished fiercely from close range following pinball in the box (55).
    Martial then struck again to stun Chelsea (73), curling into the bottom corner from inside the box following a swift counter-attack, before Barkley’s last-gasp leveller caused an eruption on the sideline.
    Juan Mata was a surprise inclusion in Mourinho’s side, and though they started solidly enough, one defensive lapse had Chelsea ahead midway through the half.
    From Willian’s corner, Rudiger found himself free of Paul Pogba, directing a fine header into the bottom corner from 10 yards. Pogba ranted and raved, seemingly claiming Victor Lindelof’s own marking of David Luiz had blocked his path to stick with Rudiger.
    Chelsea dominated the ball from there, claiming 60 per cent of it in the first half, and could have been two up just after the break had Alvaro Morata made better connection with his low effort from just inside the box.
    United went 55 minutes without a shot on target, before two in 20 seconds resulted in an equaliser. First, Mata’s deflected effort was well beaten away by Kepa Arrizabalaga, but after the ball was turned back goalwards by Ashley Young and deflected into Martial’s path, the Frenchman made no mistake from 10 yards.
    David Luiz’s unmarked header from a Willian cross was then glanced wide, N’Golo Kante forced a fine save from David de Gea 20 yards out, but United then broke to take the lead.
    Mata found himself free on the right, squaring to Marcus Rashford and then onto Martial, who curled a fine effort into the far bottom corner from 15 yards.
    Sky Sports

  • Why I must leave Chelsea – Hazard

    Why I must leave Chelsea – Hazard

    Chelsea playmaker Eden Hazard says he will not move to Real Madrid in January, but agrees he might need to leave Chelsea to win the Ballon d’Or.

    The 27-year-old attacker said earlier this month that joining Real had been his “dream since I was a kid”.
    Asked if he needed to play in Spain to win the game’s top individual awards, Hazard smilingly replied “that’s why I want to go, maybe”.
    The Belgian denied he would move in the January transfer window, however.
    Hazard’s contract at Stamford Bridge expires in June 2020 and reports in Spain claim Real Madrid are hopeful that Chelsea may sell at the end of this season for £70m rather than risk losing their star player a year later.
    Real signed Thibaut Courtois from Chelsea in August for a reported £35m as the goalkeeper’s contract entered its final year.
    Hazard is the Premier League’s top scorer with seven goals so far this season. That is as many goals as Real Madrid as a whole have scored in La Liga this term, with the European champions apparently struggling to adapt to life under new manager Julen Lopetegui and without forward Cristiano Ronaldo, who moved to Juventus in July.
    Hazard, who was shortlisted for the men’s award at the recent Fifa Best awards but failed to make the top three, was asked if he was the best player in the world on form. “Yes,” he replied.
    The forward has been at Chelsea since signing from Lille in 2012, scoring 76 goals in 216 league appearances.

  • I am better equipped for England now – Chelsea's Barkley

    Chelsea midfielder Ross Barkley says he is better equipped to make an impact at international level after earning his first England call-up in two years.

    The 24-year-old has been recalled by Gareth Southgate for the Nations League games against Croatia and Spain.
    Barkley set up the opener and scored the second in Chelsea’s 3-0 Premier League win at Southampton on Sunday.
    “I feel much more mature and I’m ready to show what I’m capable of what I’ve shown in spells,” he said.
    Barkley, who has 22 caps, is in the England squad for the first time since May 2016, having been overlooked by Southgate as he struggled with form and fitness last season.
    He did not play for seven months at former club Everton because of a hamstring injury, which needed surgery in August 2017, five months before he joined Chelsea for £15m.
    A brief return to action followed his move to Stamford Bridge, only for Barkley not to play under Antonio Conte between 31 January and 13 May.
    Barkley, who only played 131 minutes in the Premier League last season, says he has worked hard to regain full fitness and is enjoying the benefits under new boss Maurizio Sarri.
    The midfielder’s claims for an England recall were pushed by the Italian manager, who said after Sunday’s game he expected the Liverpool-born player to become “very important for the England national team”.
    “Everybody develops at different rates,” Barkley, who made his Everton debut aged 17 in 2011, said.
    “I understand my football better now, more than I ever have understood it before. I’m happy, confident and going in the right direction.
    “I feel I’m better equipped now. I’ve had expectations on me from a young age and I’ve dealt with them.
    “I’ve been through difficult spells but I’m coming out of it a better player. I’ve worked on my weaknesses defensively and worked on my attacking strengths.
    “I think I’m becoming a better all-round player.”
    BBC

  • John Terry: Five defining moments of Chelsea legend

    John Terry: Five defining moments of Chelsea legend

    October 1998. A close-cropped teenager by the name of John Terry steps onto the pitch for the first time as a Chelsea player.

    Twenty years later and five months after his final appearance, the 37-year-old has announced his retirement.
    Here, we look back at the moments that defined the career of the former Chelsea and England captain.

    Family and personal life

    He Is married to Toni (née Poole). In 2009, Terry was named “Dad of the Year” after he came top of a poll of UK adults in a Daddies Sauce survey.
    Terry’s older brother, Paul (born 1979), is a former professional footballer, having notably played for Dagenham & Redbridge and Yeovil Town.
    Terry was a Manchester United supporter growing up.
    Terry is one of a very small group of footballers to have been paid more than £1 million for their autobiography. His deal with publisher HarperCollins was negotiated in 2004 by Chris Nathaniel of NVA Management.
    In 2016, Terry paid the £1,600 funeral costs for an eight-year-old Chelsea fan with leukemia who died from an unsuccessful bone marrow transplantation.

    The breakthrough

    After making his debut for Chelsea in a League Cup tie against Aston Villa in 1998, it was in an unlikely setting where Terry really first caught the eye.
    Towards the end of the 1999-2000 season, he went on loan for six games to Nottingham Forest, who were managed at the time by ex-England midfielder David Platt.

    A first brush with controversy

    In September 2001, Terry was one of four Chelsea players fined by the club following a drinking binge in a hotel packed with American tourists grieving over the terror attacks on New York City’s twin towers at the World Trade Center, BBC reports.
    The incident happened 24 hours after the attacks and the drunken behaviour took place at a hotel near Heathrow Airport, which was packed with American citizens stranded by flight cancellations.
    The group included Terry, Frank Lampard, Jody Morris and Frank Sinclair. Chelsea’s Uefa Cup game that night against Levski Sofia had been called off as a mark of respect to the victims of the 9/11 attacks.
    Chelsea’s then managing director, Colin Hutchinson, condemned the behaviour as “totally out of order” and said they had each been fined two weeks’ wages.

    Captain at the double in 2010

    Terry’s first two league titles under Jose Mourinho have often been seen as workmanlike, but the third in the double-winning season of 2009-10 was anything but.
    The title was clinched with an 8-0 thumping of Wigan on the final day, meaning Chelsea ended the season on 103 league goals. Carlo Ancelotti’s side were the first team since Tottenham in 1961 to score three figures in the top flight.
    Terry was once again integral, playing in 37 of the 38 league games and making more than 50 appearances in total.
    He only managed two league goals but both were vital. The first was the only goal in a 1-0 victory over Manchester United, who finished as runners-up. And the other was a late winner in a 2-1 success against Burnley.
    It helped Chelsea to become just the seventh club to claim the league and FA Cup double.

    Extra touch from Terry

    In 2005, Terry became the first defender – and the first Chelsea player – to be named the Professional Footballers’ Association Player of the Year.
    He was recognised after helping the Blues to just their second top-flight title, while his part in Chelsea’s run to the Champions League semi-finals saw him named the Uefa club defender of the year. He would go on to receive that recognition again in 2008 and 2009.
    Honours
    Chelsea:
    Premier League: 2004–05, 2005–06, 2009–10, 2014–15, 2016–17
    FA Cup: 1999–2000, 2006–07, 2008–09, 2009–10, 2011–12
    Football League Cup: 2004–05, 2006–07, 2014–15
    FA Community Shield: 2005, 2009
    UEFA Champions League: 2011–12
    UEFA Europa League: 2012–13
    FA Cup runner-up: 2001–02, 2016–17
    Football League Cup runner-up: 2007–08
    FA Community Shield runner-up: 2006, 2010, 2012, 2015
    UEFA Champions League runner-up: 2007–08
    UEFA Super Cup runner-up: 2013
    Individual:
    Chelsea Player of the Year: 2000–01, 2005–06
    Premier League Player of the Month: January 2005
    PFA Players’ Player of the Year: 2004–05
    PFA Team of the Year: 2003–04 Premier League, 2004–05 Premier League, 2005–06 Premier League, 2014–15 Premier League
    FIFA FIFPro World XI: 2004–05, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2007–08, 2009
    UEFA Club Defender of the Year: 2005, 2008, 2009
    UEFA Team of the Year: 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009
    FIFA World Cup All-Star Team: 2006
    PFA Team of the Century (1997–2007): 2007
     

  • Former England captain, John Terry retires from football

    Former England captain, John Terry retires from football

    Former England and Chelsea captain John Terry has retired from football.

    Terry, 37, has been without a club since leaving Championship side Aston Villa in the summer.
    The defender made the announcement on his Instagram account, saying: “After 23 incredible years as a footballer, I have decided now is the right time for me to retire from playing.”
    Terry, who earned 78 England caps, left Chelsea in 2017 after two decades at the London club.
    He won five Premier League titles, five FA Cups and a Champions League title in his time at Stamford Bridge, becoming the club’s most decorated player.
    The centre-back also won five league cups and a Europa League in more than 700 appearances for Chelsea.
    Terry spent the 2017-18 season at Aston Villa and his last game as a professional was the 1-0 Championship play-off final defeat to Fulham in May.
    He left Villa Park when his one-year contract expired and turned down a move to Spartak Moscow last month, despite reportedly having a medical, saying it was not right for his family.

    A career of highs and lows

    Terry made his debut as a 17-year-old against Aston Villa in the League Cup in October 1998, and scored his first goal for the club in an FA Cup sixth-round tie against Gillingham in 2000.
    However, the following year Terry was one of four Chelsea players fined two weeks’ wages by the club following their behaviour at a hotel in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in the United States.
    He was integral to the Blues claiming both the Premier League title and the FA Cup in 2009-10, making more than 50 appearances as Chelsea became just the seventh club to do the double.
    However, he was twice stripped of the England captaincy, before being banned for four matches and fined £220,000 for racially abusing QPR defender Anton Ferdinand.
    He also missed the 2012 Champions League final, in which the Blues beat Bayern Munich on penalties, through suspension.
    Terry scored four goals in 35 league games as Chelsea claimed the Premier League in 2014-15, but has found his playing time limited under Antonio Conte.
    He joined Aston Villa on a one-year deal and played 36 times, scoring once, in his final season as a footballer as the Birmingham club finished fourth in the Championship before losing in the play-off final.

    Terry’s farewell statement

    In his Instagram post, Terry made a statement thanking his family for their support.
    It read: “As a 14-year-old, I made my best and biggest decision: to sign for Chelsea Football Club. Words will never be enough to show how much everyone at the club means to me, in particular the fans.
    “Right from the outset they have given me total support, on and off the pitch, and I have a tremendous bond with them.
    “We achieved so many great memories together and I couldn’t have succeeded without you. To me, you are the best fans in the world. I hope I have done you all proud wearing the shirt and the armband.
    “My club career and heart will always belong to Chelsea, but I am grateful for my loan spell at Nottingham Forest in 1999, which was invaluable for my development as a young player.
    “And I also want to say a huge thank you to Aston Villa for giving me the opportunity to play at such a big club and captain it throughout the 2017-18 season.
    “It was a privilege to represent such a renowned football club with great fans.
    “I look forward to the next chapter in my life and the challenges ahead.”
    BBC

  • Cesc Fabregas reveal plans to remain at Stamford Bridge

    Cesc Fabregas is keen to stay at Chelsea but admitted talks over extending his time at Stamford Bridge are yet to have begun.
    The Spaniard’s current deal expires at the end of this season, and the former Arsenal and Barcelona man is yet to play in the Premier League under Maurizio Sarri. Chelsea have a policy of only handing out one-year extensions to players aged 30 or older and the 31-year-old faces a nervous wait to see if Sarri wants to keep him around at the club.
    With AC Milan among the sides linked with his signature, Fabregas’ future may well lie elsewhere – but he’s keen to stick around in west London. ‘I’m very open about it,’ Fabregas said. ‘To be the honest the club has not said anything.
    ‘At the end of the day I have eight months left and at the moment I’m gone. But I’d love to stay at the club.
    ‘I’ve been very happy for the last four years and a half. We’ve had great success, won many things.
    ‘I think I have a good understanding with the fans and players. I feel I still have a lot of football left in me but it is now up to the club.’ While he’s keen to stay at Chelsea for the time being, Fabregas has his eye on a move away from European football to finish off his career.
    ‘Probably in a few years I’d like to go away from Europe and experience something different at the later stage of my career,’ he added.
     
     
     

  • Chelsea: David Luiz was confused under Conte – Sarri

    Chelsea: David Luiz was confused under Conte – Sarri

    Maurizio Sarri admits he has been pleasantly surprised by the ability of David Luiz and says the defender was left “confused” by his lack of game time under former Chelsea head coach Antonio Conte.
    Luiz had been an integral figure in Chelsea’s title-winning season in Conte’s first year as boss, but made just four appearances in the first half of 2018 as a result of injury and a rumoured falling-out with the Italian.
    However, the Brazil defender has featured in all seven Premier League games in this campaign for Chelsea, who remain unbeaten and third in the table.
    “Two seasons ago, he was a protagonist,” said Sarri. “Then six months ago, he was not playing, so he was a little confused.
    “He’s direct. If he has to say something to the manager, he has to talk to me. I like very much direct people.
    “When I arrived here, immediately I had the feeling he’s a very good player for my way of football because he’s a centre-back who is very technical.
    “Then I appreciate his qualities as a man. He’s really better than I thought before.”
    Sky Sports

  • Bournemouth banking on past experiences to beat Chelsea – Howe

    Bournemouth banking on past experiences to beat Chelsea – Howe

    Manager Eddie Howe says Bournemouth will take inspiration from last season’s matches against Chelsea as they try to beat the London outfit in the Premier League on Saturday to maintain their unbeaten start to the campaign,.

    Bournemouth narrowly lost their home league match against Chelsea as well as a League Cup encounter between the two sides but secured a shock 3-0 win at Stamford Bridge in January.

    Howe said Chelsea are likely to be a completely different threat under new manager Maurizio Sarri, but he is confident that Bournemouth will be motivated by previous meetings between the two sides.

    “Tactically, I thought we had a really good battle against Antonio Conte’s Chelsea team last year,” Howe told a news conference. “But this is going to be a totally different game.

    “A new season, new players, a new manager so we need to draw on the past experience and use it as a confidence-builder.

    “There are no guarantees that we are going to perform it is up to us that we do.”

    Bournemouth have drawn two and won one of their three league games so far and beat MK Dons in the League Cup on Tuesday, but Howe knows that continuing that streak will not be easy.

    “It’s been good so far. I was really pleased to progress midweek in the Carabao (League) Cup that was a really good step for us.

    “It backs up our good early league form. Of course now, the challenge gets harder.

    “We go to Chelsea and we know how difficult the game is going to be, but we are really keen to keep the momentum from what has been a very positive beginning.

    They are really well coached and managed, so we are expecting a tough game,” Howe added

    Bournemouth will be boosted by fullback Diego Rico’s return from suspension while new arrival Jefferson Lerma is also available to play against Chelsea.

    Reuters/NAN