Who Can Replace JT as Captain Fantastic?

With plans for new managers and a younger squad, Chelsea will soon begin moving away from Captain John Terry, who is 32 this year. At 34 and 30 the vice-captain Lampard and third choice Petr Cech may not last much longer either. Too young for the role is Romeu, Oscar, Moses and Hazard, but there is a number of players in the right age group who could take the armband from John Terry. Justin Cormick takes a look at some options for the new captain of Chelsea.

International Break For Chelsea

International Break For Chelsea

10 Chelsea players have gone away to play for their country this International break. Frank Lampard is back to Chelsea early as he is still struggling with a knee injury suffered against Norwich. Also Ryan Bertrand also returned due to unconfirmed reasons.

Our Brazilian trio of David Luiz, Ramires and Oscar are all in the squad to play two friendlies against Iraq and Japan (Thursday and Tuesday). Gary Cahill and Ashley Cole are part of the England squad to play World Cup Qualifiers against San Marino and Poland. If Ashley Cole plays in both the games, he will complete his 100^th cap for his nation and will only be the 6^th Englishmen to do so and also the first Chelsea player to play 100 times for England. Great achievement by a great player.

What is our Strongest Line-up?

What is our Strongest Line-up

Roberto Di Matteo has changed around this side almost every game we have played. We continue to get results but eventually this continual experimenting with the squad will cost us. So this makes us think, what is a strongest line-up which is most likely to get us the best results, put out the most consistant performances and be the side we trust when we come up against the top clubs around the world. This is what I believe is the strongest line-up:

Ramires & Mikel Key to Arsenal win

Ramires & Mikel key to Arsenal win

Yesterday in Chelsea's emphatic 2-1 win against Arsenal at the Emirates we saw Roberto Di Matteo drop Frank Lampard from the deep positioned he's been deployed in recently, in favour of Ramires, who has looked out of place whenever he's been asked to play on the right wing. The duo of Mikel & Ramires was one that hasn't been tried very often this season, with RDM choosing to stick with Lampard, even though it's clear to see the role is hard for Frank to adjust to. But finally RDM gave the Chelsea fans what they wanted, and the result was very encouraging for every Chelsea fan to see.

What We Learned from The QPR Match : 15/9

What We Learned from The QPR Match : 15/9

Today, Chelsea met with West London rivals Queens Park Rangers. With most of the attention being on Ferdinand and John Terry, the game certainly lived up to its expectations. A feisty encounter resulted in a 0-0 draw between the two sides. This result, in my mind, is unacceptable.

There are many things we can take away from this match and use to continue our league success :

International Break For Chelsea

This may be the perfect time in the season for a international break in Chelsea's perspective.

Before our humiliating defeat at the hands of Atletico Madrid in the Super Cup, the international break looked a distraction from our fantastic form in the Premier League. Now it seems like a good time to have a break from matches for a while. Most of the first team players have been selected by their nation and flown to various parts of the world to represent their in friendlies and qualifying matches.

This break of two weeks from Premier League matches will be helpful for us, especially Juan Mata. He featured a lot for us last season and at the end of it he looked very tired and worn out. After the Champions League final, he had a weeks rest before joining up with Spain's Euro 2012 squad. Although Mata only featured once (in the final) he trained heavily for a month. After that, he had two weeks off before arriving in London to join the Spain Olympic team as one of their three over-aged players. Spain had an awful tournament and failed to score in their 3 group stage matches, they were subsequently knocked out. Soon after being knocked out, Mata joined the Chelsea squad along with with Oriol Romeu before the Community Clash with Manchester City. Juan Mata will be vital for us this season and having him fresh is a must. Spain have not selected him in their upcoming World Cup qualifiers after a special request from Chelsea.

Six Chelsea players were originally picked for the England squad but that number reduced to 5 after Ashley Cole pulled out from it due to ankle injury. Youngster Ryan Bertrand has been picked for the second time in his career after making his debut in a friendly against Italy in mid August. Sturridge will probably make his 4th and 5th appearance for the 'Three Lions'. Chelsea newbie Victor Moses was selected to play for Nigeria in AFCON qualifiers. Fernando Torres has been included in the Spanish team and the Brazilian trio of Oscar, Luiz and Ramires have also been selected to represent their country.

By - @NumanCFC

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Raul Meireles to Fenerbahce: A Questionable Transfer

Meireles to Fenerbahce: Questions Unanswered

When I heard rumours that Raul Meireles was in Turkey having a medical ahead of a proposed move to Fenerbahce, I dismissed it as speculative nonsense. I figured the club surely wouldn't let go of another central midfielder after both Michael Essien & Yossi Benayoun were carted out on loan to Real Madrid & West Ham respectively. So when the move was announced by both Fenerbahce & Chelsea, I was as surprised as anyone.

With Essien, Benayoun & now Meireles having left the club in quick succession, Chelsea look a bit short in the CM department. At the moment we have Frank Lampard, Oscar, Jon Obi Mikel, Oriol Romeu & Ramires who can play in the double pivot. It sounds good enough on paper. The reality, however, is far less flattering.

Frank Lampard has started the season on an indifferent note & is yet to find the form that he produced to help Chelsea lift the FA Cup & Champions League last season. Oscar has yet to start a game for Chelsea, having only come off the bench till date. And while he can play as a CM, it may not be the wisest move to throw him into the first team on a regular basis so quickly. Mikel has been inconsistent so far this season, playing very well in one game & very badly in the next. Romeu is yet to make an appearance for Chelsea this season & barely played during the 2nd half of last season. Ramires has only played on the right wing this season, where he has failed to impress. And while I can still justify the club loaning Essien & Benayoun (Essien has been off form for a while now & it was known that Benayoun wouldn't feature in Di Matteo's plans), the decision to release Meireles is indeed a baffling one.

Meireles may not have been seen as the most prolific of signings by certain fans (me included) but I never thought he was a bad player. He had a decent 2010/11 season at Liverpool & did well at Chelsea when he arrived. Truth be told, he performed better than Lampard at times under AVB. This shouldn't be seen as an insult to Lamps, but as a compliment to Raul. And while he was erratic at times under Robbie & mostly used as a bit-part player, his performances at times weren't as bad as people thought they were. He mostly did a decent job when given a chance. No one will forget that last-minute goal against Benfica in the Champions League Q/F's. He never even voiced his displeasure at a lack of game time, which made him the ideal squad player: someone who didn't mind being benched on a regular basis but who could do a job whenever called upon. Which leads me right back to the exact same question: why exactly was Meireles sold?

It's fair to say the fans deserve an answer from Ron Gourlay, Bruce Buck & Co. about how the affair was handled.

Shayne Dias

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5 Lessons to be learnt from the Super Cup Match

5 lessons we learnt from yesterday clash in super cup 

I don't know what to say about the performance that we all saw yesterday against Atletico Madrid and how to describe it but i think we should all concentrate on the things we learnt from yesterday match and try to avoid them next time .

Where Is Ramires’ Best Position?

Where Is Ramires’ Best Position?

Ramires won the hearts of many Chelsea fans last season with his energy and goals. He was superb at times, and it was great to see him finally getting the credit he deserves. But with the addition of three attacking players and arguably more to come, where does Ramires feature in di Matteo’s plans this season?

Well its worth remembering Ramires was brought to Chelsea to play primarily as a central/defensive midfielder. He enjoyed fine spells for the club last season, before operating as a make-shift right winger under the management of Roberto di Matteo, playing a crucial role in the side’s FA cup and Champions League runs. But let’s not forget that before Ramires’ change to the right flank, the Brazilian was having a fantastic season in centre midfield, joining Mata and Sturridge as Chelsea’s early season performers. His skill, work rate and energy were apparent. This is why Ramires could emerge as a potential partner for Lampard in Chelsea’s midfield pivot. He is quick, loves a tackle and has bundles of stamina.

Naturally not a wide player, Ramires played in Centre Mid for Benfica before he moved to Chelsea in 2010, so there is no question about his ability to play there. He is at his best when charging from a box-to-box, as this allows him to showcase both his defensive and attacking abilities perfectly. This is why I think Ramires could provide the perfect partner for Lampard in midfield, okay Ramires may lack the physique of Mikel, but he is taller than Makelele was.

Season Review: Ramires

Our Super 7: Ramires

Ramires had finished the 2010-11 season on a high after a string of decent performances towards the end of the season. In 2011-12, he became one of Chelsea's most important players.

Ramires began the 2011-12 season as a part of the midfield trio in Andre Villas-Boas' trusted 4-3-3 formation. Even though the Chelsea midfield were often criticized for being slow & having no creativity whatsoever, Ramires was one of the more consistent performers in the middle of the park. He netted a brace against Swansea in a 4-1 victory, & also scored a key goal in a must-win match against Valencia in the Champions League group stages.

Few other stand-out performances come to mind, but he had already established himself as a key member of the Chelsea midfield. However, the sacking of Villas-Boas brought about a change in Chelsea's formation. Interim coach Roberto Di Matteo preferred playing a 4-2-3-1 formation, & his preferred players for the 2 central midfield positions were Jon Obi Mikel & Frank Lampard. Ramires was deployed as a right winger, a move that worked wonders for the team as Daniel Sturridge (the first choice right winger under AVB) was experiencing a dip in form at the time.

His performances improved considerably during the latter half of the season. During the must-win Champions League match against Napoli at the Bridge, his sublime cross was met powerfully by Didier Drogba to open the scoring. He scored against Spurs in the FA Cup semi-final, whilst also providing the assist for the only goal of the game against Barcelona in the first-leg of the Champions League semi-finals. In the return leg against Barcelona, he scored with a beautiful chipped effort to help Chelsea claw their way back into the tie, although he would miss the finals due to a yellow card received moments before he scored. He also scored the first goal against Liverpool in the FA Cup final after making one of his customary runs to latch onto a ball played by Juan Mata.

season. Trust me when I say his best is yet to come.
Ramires bagged 12 goals & 9 assists this season. His goal against Barcelona won Chelsea's "Goal of the Season" award, while he was also named the Players' Player of the Year for 2011-12. Expect great things from Ramires nex

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The New Era At SW6 and Who All Will Be A Part Of It?

 

We went down at times, we were written off mostly, we were told this is the worst time at the Bridge and some labelled the Club and its players as fallen heroes and warriors. And against all odds we conquered Europe with our motivation and never say die attitude. The beauty was in grinding out results out of nowhere. Yes people and the media did critisice but despite this intense scrutiny we got a DOUBLE from a team which was called old and had nothing much left in it. This was because of some huge characters and one man to whom the credit has to be given that is RDM.

Ramires wins Brazil's Futebol No Mundo Award For 2011/12

Ramires Wins ESPN Brazil's Futebol No Mundo Award For 2011/12 ahead of the likes of Thiago Silva, Hulk, Marcelo and David Luiz (best foreign based Brazilian player).

Congratulations Ramires, you deserved it!

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