Nine Consecutive Wins for Chelsea

The win for Chelsea against Burnley game them the league’s nine consecutive wins for the team after the end of the last season and a five game winning sequence under coach Guus Hiddink.  Concentration is the main importance, maintaining quick movement of the ball for 90 minutes.  He’s happy because the team is on the right track, Ancelotti said.  He is also happy that there will be no movement of players anymore and he does not want to change players.  

 

Burnley already won against Manchester United this season but was defeated by Chelsea’s midfield of Lampard, Ballack, Essien and Deco.  Seconds before halftime, a breakthrough happened when Anelka scored from close range due to Didier Drogba pulling the ball back to him.  Chelsea scored after the break.  This is Chelsea’s best start to a season’s league 2005-06 after winning their first nine games and went on to win the title under the leadership of Jose Mourinho.

Chelsea 2 Arsenal 1

With the defeat of the Gunners, the Blues have pushed themselves into the FA Cup final. It was the late game heroics of Didier Drogba in the 84^th minute that broke the one all tie. Theo Walcott opened the scoring for Arsenal with a goal in the 18^th minute. Chelsea pulled abreast with Flourent Malouda’s goal on the 34^th minute.

The match then went on a see saw as both teams tried to score to get ahead after halftime and deep into the match. Frank Lampard volleyed a high ball behind the Arsenal defense and Drogba galloped his way unto the score, beating Mikael Silvestre and goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski for the tiebreaker. The win was a good farewell to Guus Hiddink, who would retain the manager’s title for the club until the end of the season as he returns to his coaching chores with the Russian national team. It was also Chelsea’s first FA Cup win over Arsenal since 1947.

Guus Hiddink Concedes Premier League Title

Chelsea skipper Guus Hiddink recognizes the fact that his Blues are behind six points from Manchester United with a game up on their schedule. With the extra game for the Red Devils, they can even extend their advantage to nine points with a victory in that match.

 

With this, he has all but conceded to the top two teams, but is looking forward to his club side’s chances in the Champion’s League semi-finals against Barcelona and the FA Cup final against Everton next month. The draw they got made them lose two points, which eventually sunk their opportunities at the top spot, or at least tie for second.

 

The Blues started slow but midfielder Tim Cahill of Australia and striker Jo from Brazil had chances that were thwarted by Everton keeper Petr Cech. As for Everton, John Terry tried to power one into the net from 35 yards out but was easily thwarted by Tim Howard for a corner kick. Didier Drogba had a chance at a win for the Blues in injury time but the shot rattled off the crossbar, ending Chelsea’s silver cup hopes for the meantime.

Hiddink to Make Strike Duo Effective

Hiddink has a secret that Scolari did not have during the latter’s stint as mentor for the Blues and that is the ability to make Diddier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka into a striking partnership that can make Chelsea contend for the Champion’s League crown.
He made this fact known as he handpicked the two for their match against Aston Villa. The strategy worked as Anelka was able to score the lone goal of the match last Saturday. Under the past manager, the Ivory Coast striker and the French international never played together in a match. Their play during the Aston Villa match was the barometer for Hiddink’s plan and it had proved to be successful. There were rumours that the two were not seeing eye to eye off the pitch but there seemed to be no sign of it in the win. The team hug at the end of the match was not a publicity stunt but a genuine show of unity and solidarity in the midst of all the controversy. Hopefully, this new Chelsea game plan and spirit would again prove effective in the next matches.

Two Masters

Guus Hiddink is the manager both the Russian World Cup Team and the mentor for the Premiere League side Chelsea. Hiddink assumed the position after Luiz Felipe Scolari was summarily dismissed by the executive.

Other managers also think that the dual role would be hard and hopefully it would be for a short term basis only, The issue that comes up would be if either side starts going on a losing skein, there may be comments that the manager may either not be spending too much time fulfilling duties and end up spreading himself too thin. Ultimately, there may be issues as to scheduling conflicts and ultimately physical health.

But many that though this is difficult, but this task is not altogether impossible to do. But it can only be a short term decision and not a long term solution to a particular plan.  These were the observations of Aston Villa manager Martin O’Neill as Guus Hiddink watched O’Neill’s side draw the match with CSKA Moscow in the UEFA Cup tie. This was the prelude to the match between the Blues and Aston Villa at Villa Park. If Villa wins over Chelsea, then Villa would surge ahead of Chelsea by four points in the team standings.

Euro 2008 Prematch Analysis: Russia vs Spain Live Online

European Championships Semi Final 2
Teams: Russia vs Spain
Date and Time: 20:45 CET – Thursday, June 26, 2008
Venue: Ernst Happel, Vienna
Match official:

Both teams met in their opening fixture in the group stages of the competition where the Spanish won 4-1, but a lot has happened since then. It’s the semi finals of Euro 2008 and both Spain and Russia can create history by being in the final on Sunday. But which team will come out victorious?

The Rematch
It must come as a conventional surprise to many that the Russians have made it this far in the Euros, but should it be surprising given the many exploits of the esteemed coach Guus hiddink?

The Russians star player CSKA Moscow forward Andrei Arshavin who did not feature in the opener will be hoping to make a difference in this crucial game.

The Russians will feature the same defense as they did in the first game and will be hoping they learnt from that experience.

The Spanish will be looking for repeat of the opener and will not doubt be cognizant of the Russian star Arshavin. The Spanish will also need to change their approach in midfield as a tighter midfield is expected by the Russians.

The outcome of this match will depend largely on each team’s ability to adapt and scoring opportunities is expected to be at a minimal even with the attacking minded Spanish. the subs could be the differnce in this game.

A Look at the teams

Russia

Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, Ivan Saenko and Alexander Anyukov all have slight injuries but should be fit to play. Kolodin and attacking midfielder Dmitry Torbinski are both suspended.

Spain

From all indications Coach Aragonés will name the same team that that faced the Russians in the Spain’s opener with Villa and Torres in front of David Silva, Xavi, Andrés Iniesta and Marcos Senna.

PREDICTION

The Russians have certainly grown since the group stages of the Euros and the Spanish seem to have lost their momentum as seen in their last game which they won on penalties. The Russians though will be familiar with the Spanish forwards and will hope to do a better job at making them. Spain seems to have lost their scoring shoes and must now try to do what they did in the group stages but with the Euros at stake. It will be close and the possibility of penalties looms, nonetheless the Russians should take it.

Spain 1 – 2 Russia

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