Would Ancelotti's Diamond midfiled work for Chelsea ?

Chelsea are moving away from the orthodox 4-3-3 that was used
by Jose and later inherited by Grant and Scolari. A bold
decision but a system re haul was very much on the cards.
There are critiques of the diamond and then there are the
ardent believers.

Chelsea line up this season would be something like this

- - - - - - - - - - - - - back V - - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - mikel/deco - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - essien/joey - - - - - - ----malouda/yuri - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - frank/joey - - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - drogba - - - - - - - - - - anelka - - - -

One major positive this formation offers us is the fact
that it allows Ancelotti to play both Drogba and Anelka
upfront in the natural positons. Mid-field is one of our
major strength's. This formation will allow us to use
that strength to a great extent.

This formation looks great on paper, But one of the major
concerns will again be width. We will have to rely on the
full-backs to provide us width again.
When the player who plays behind the strikers (lampard in
our case) gets marked tightly , centre play becomes very
difficult. In this case you have to bank on your wide
players (those on either side of diamond) to bail you
out.you need to have great quality in that department.
It never works against big sides or organised defences
and we end up looking very very narrow.

But Ancelotti has experienced success at AC Milan with this
diamond formation in the midfield.But then AC Milan had two
play-makers Kaka and Pirlo in his midfield which Chelsea lacks.

Lets wait n see how it works out for Chelsea.

EPL season 2009-2010

It only seems a moment ago that the 2008-09 season came to a
close, but the new EPl season is just abt three days to start.
We had a slight trailor to this last weekend itself when
chelsea played with Manchester untied for the community
shield.Chelsea won the game in the penalties after the
scores were level at 2-2.the controversies were fair and
square in the game.

Champions Manchester United (recent slow starters in the
league) will face off against newly promoted Birmingham
at Old Trafford on opening day. Chelsea play with Hull
at StamfordBridge.Spurs against liverpool and arsenal
take on Everton on the opening day.

For a more detailed fixture list please click the below link.
Premier league fixtures list

The new season looks very promising.Manchester city investing
millions of money to get in players like Tevez,Adebayor,
santa cruz,Barry,Kolo toure.I believe there would be stiff
competition for the Top 4 finish.The Big 4 would face
severe competition from Manchester city,Everton,AstonVilla
and the spurs.

Need to wait n see whether losing Ronaldo and Tevez would
cost united.Chelsea have more or less the same team barring
two new additions(Yuri zhirkov and Sturridge).The major
change in chelsea in manager Ancelloti.

Liverpool Vs Chelsea Q/F april 8th 2009 champions league

The most eagerly awaited champions league Q/F first leg between chelsea and liverpoool was held at anfield yesterday. Champions league clashes between chelsea and liverpool has sort of become a cliche these days.

Meetings since the 2004/2005 season
2008/2009
Sun 01 Feb Liverpool 2 - 0 Chelsea Premier League
Sun 26 Oct Chelsea 0 - 1 Liverpool Premier League

2007/2008
Wed 30 Apr Chelsea 3 - 2 Liverpool Champions League
after extra time, 90 minutes 1-1, Chelsea won 4-3 on aggregate
Tue 22 Apr Liverpool 1 - 1 Chelsea Champions League
Sun 10 Feb Chelsea 0 - 0 Liverpool Premier League
Wed 19 Dec Chelsea 2 - 0 Liverpool League Cup
Sun 19 Aug Liverpool 1 - 1 Chelsea Premier League

2006/2007
Tue 01 May Liverpool 1 - 0 Chelsea Champions League
after extra time, 90 minutes 1-0, aggregate 1-1, Liverpool won 4-1 on penalties
Wed 25 Apr Chelsea 1 - 0 Liverpool Champions League
Sat 20 Jan Liverpool 2 - 0 Chelsea Premiership
Sun 17 Sep Chelsea 1 - 0 Liverpool Premiership
Sun 13 Aug Chelsea 1 - 2 Liverpool Charity Shield
played at Millennium Stadium, Cardiff

2005/2006
Sat 22 Apr Chelsea 1 - 2 Liverpool F.A. Cup
played at Old Trafford
Sun 05 Feb Chelsea 2 - 0 Liverpool Premiership
Tue 06 Dec Chelsea 0 - 0 Liverpool Champions League
Sun 02 Oct Liverpool 1 - 4 Chelsea Premiership
Wed 28 Sep Liverpool 0 - 0 Chelsea Champions League

2004/2005
Tue 03 May Liverpool 1 - 0 Chelsea Champions League
Wed 27 Apr Chelsea 0 - 0 Liverpool Champions League
Sun 27 Feb Chelsea 3 - 2 Liverpool League Cup
Sat 01 Jan Liverpool 0 - 1 Chelsea Premiership
Sun 03 Oct Chelsea 1 - 0 Liverpool Premiership

Out of 22 matches Chelsea have won 9 matches Liverpool 7.

The line ups for the match

Liverpool:
Reina; Arbeloa, Skrtel, Carragher, Aurelio; Lucas, Xabi Alonso; Kuyt, Gerrard, Riera; Torres.

Chelsea:
Cech; Ivanovic, Alex, Terry, Ashley Cole; Ballack, Essien, Lampard; Kalou, Drogba, Malouda.

One of my roommate is a die hard liverpool fan and am a chelsea fan.
We both were eagerly waiting to c this match.The kick off started at 12.15 am IST.

The atmosphere at anfield was simply amazing and the liverpool fans were making a great noise.
this is why liverpool is so strong at their home games and particularly when they play champions league.

chelsea were lil nervy initially and then a superb back pass by kuyt to arebola whose cross perfectly found Torres within the D line and el nino doesnt misses such simple chances and a fine finish took liverpool to lead under 6 mins.I was damn pissed off .To make my worries more ,drogba missed a sitter a one on one with reina.then Liverpool took a majority of possesion frustrating chelsea players.And again a long pass from ballack found drogbas left foot with no defencer around him one more one on one with reina this time drogba fired it above the post.
I was beginning to believe it wasn't our day.



Then ivanovic turned out to be a savor for chelsea striking his foal goal for chelsea impressively.
He made swift movement accross the penalty box before heading into the net.Moments later Drogba had one more chance and almost succesfully netted into the goal if at all carragher didnt had made a imposible save.Man i thought this was not Drogbas day at all.Ivanovic's second header took chelsea to lead.and a fine cross later from malouda found drogba who didnt find difficult to launch it inside the nets.That almost finished of the match.

Essien was the man for chelsea he was like a shield surrounding gerrard preventing him from moving much.With Gerrard contained by Essien and Mascherano's absence liverpool's midfield lacked pace and width.The replacement for mascherano Lucas was a disaster.

Liverpool in the last 20 mins tried scoring in vain except for one decent effort from Alonso else chelsea were pretty much in control.It was a night when everything went perfect for chelsea at anfield except for Terry's yellow card which forces him to sit out the next leg at home.
I guess chelsea are almost sure to reach the semifinals if at all for some brilliant display form
Gerrard and torres


A special mention to Petr Cech with his ' out of this world ' catching and two world class saves from Alonso and Kuyt

Still meeting Barca in semis is very ominous considering the display they showed against Bayern munich.Lets wait n see :) .