I’m not a fan of the international week given the breaks in momentum that they bring, but I suppose it has come at the perfect time for us and our ambitions.
Since the injury to Petr Cech our defence has been wobbly at best and Hilario has done his stock no good with his last few performances. The international break means we have an extra week where he can recover and we can take a chance against Sunderland before the 1st of our big showdowns this season with the trip to Old Trafford. Petr Cech should be back by then, and as far as I’m concerned, Cech at 50% is worth two Hilarios, and that will do quite fine in a game that has big repercussions.
I watched the Norwich game with much excitement and after an opener in the first few minutes from Bosingwa; one wouldn’t have been faulted for anticipating an avalanche of goals. With the defenders lined up at the Norwich rear-guard and the space our fullbacks had down the flanks, it looked as though there’d be another 8-goal thriller involving a club from the capital. This was not to be. Somewhere in the half, Norwich made a forced switch and came back at Chelsea like a team regularly plying their trade in the premier League.
The defence was caught napping on a few occasions with the Norwich attack getting behind us with only the (not so) sure hands of Hilario as the last line of defence. I kept thinking that surely we cannot carry on like this, and my fears were soon realised when Hilario alarmingly dashed the full length of the box to flail at a cross which he had no business getting to, knocking over Ivanovic in the process and leaving Holt with the goal at his mercy. We were always going to be good enough to win that game and shortly after Drogba was horrifically assaulted, the changes were made and immediately there was a spark in the team.
I was impressed with the contributions of Romelu Lukaku and Juan Mata, the latter capping a fine cameo with a debut goal. Lukaku attacked the ball in the box and had a few sighters at goal so he is most definitely going to come right in good time. Mata was on the field for less than 3 minutes when he already played in some telling passes which seemed to ignite Torres with a passion and hunger that we once saw in his earlier Scouse days. Could Mata be the key to unlocking Torres? We can all but hope!
So the transfer window is closing fast, and we don’t know if Modric is coming or not. I must admit straight up that I won’t be too upset if the window shuts and he is still a Tottenham player. With the signing of Mata who operates on both wings and even in the centre if needed, and the rejection of McEachran’s loan move, I feel that we have enough in the tank to mount a serious assault on all fronts.
If the stories are true that Mata was influenced by Torres to make the move across the pond, and the #9 has looked lively since his compatriot has donned the Blue shirt we could be in for a great ride. If Modric does sign on the last day (along with the 10 signings that Arsene Wenger needs) then again I won’t be too upset because a player of his creativity is definitely not going to be wasted at The Bridge. I think our midfield would be a force, reminiscent of the Makelele, Lampard, Robben era under Mourinho, and with AVB having been a close Lieutenant in that regime, one shudders to think what will happen when he moulds his own set of troops.
need some more
I was impressed with Mata.I think chelsea manager has knows the best player for the team.
Personally I am suprised at all the noise about Mata and Lukaku. How a 35 minutes cameo can be enough t0 judge a player is beyond me and its not against Norwich that I want to be assessing our players. We have been rather fortunate with our fixture, playing the likes of Stoke, Norwich etc for starters and we still struggled. What if we had a fixture like Tottenham’s. I will rather reserve my assessment until we play Man U cos in order to achieve what we want (CL & Premiership) that will be the closest to the competition we are going to be facing. So pls suspend all this ooohs and aaaahs.