London is Blue is a soccer fancast created by Chelsea FC fans from America and covers all things Chelsea. Hosts are@BBBusbee, @DanDormer and @NickVerlaney.
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Guest: Dan Levene, Chelsea FC writer for Get West London
Dan is the 1st for CFC news/comment for live match coverage over land and sea and Leicester.
@BluesChronicle
QUESTIONS
- Are Mourinho’s comments about “know you see why I don’t rotate” show that Chelsea really don’t have the depth we thought?
- Will this result force Chelsea into the transfer window? Who’s coming in and who’s going out?
- Is this Chelsea’s worst result ever? Dan thinks it was at least the biggest upset in FA Cup history.
Chelsea FC at Liverpool
Capital One (League) Cup
Chelsea 1-1 Liverpool
Predictions
Brandon: CFC 4-1 Scousers
Dan: CFC 3-0 Scousers
Nick: CFC 2-0 Scousers
Chelsea FC entered Anfield with what you’d expect to be the upper hand, but in typical Mourinho fashion, he sent his stronger, deeper, more skilled team out on the pitch with the plan to sit in and let Liverpool batter them while looking to break on the counter. This style reminded me a lot of what Chelsea did last year every game due to the lack of an in-form striker (which Chelsea has at least two of at the moment — you choose between Drogba and Remy).
The overarching stats from this game show that Liverpool dominated possession (62%) and shots/shots on target (19/6) compared to Chelsea’s (2/1 not including the penalty kick).
I know Chelsea were traveling to the “dreaded Anfield” which is cause for concern, but looking at Chelsea’s goal, it came from clumsy defending which Liverpool have done consistently this season having only 7 shutouts this season and two of those are 0-0 draws.
I think Mourinho played this like a Champions League semi-final and not a League Cup final and didn’t make too many changes to the starting lineup only bringing in Mikel for Oscar really. This set the team up in a more defensive 4-3-3 with two holding midfielders and Willian and Hazard on either side of Costa.
Unfortunately not even that defensive shell in front of our normally strong defensive unit could keep out Raheem Sterling with his blistering pace who created his goal out of nothing really. Clearly Chelsea struggle with pace as seen on Sterling’s solo effort.
All-in-all it wasn’t the result I wasn’t impressed with, it was the style in which Chelsea played. If Chelsea want to be seen with fear, then I think they need to have more attacking aggression in a game like this. If the Blues were to have gone at Liverpool all game and pinned them back, maybe even won by a couple of goals, it would have sent a message across England and killed off the second leg which is tomorrow (Tuesday, January 27th) at Stamford Bridge.
C’mon, Blues, bring that League Cup back home!
Chelsea vs. Bradford City
FA Cup
Chelsea 2-4 Bradford City
(No Predictions)
Headline: Chelsea take on League 1 behemoth Bradford City and get sent home with their tail between their legs (printed by no one ever)
Unfortunately you all have read everything that needs to be said about this match which ends with Chelsea FC unable to respond to a 4-goal run by the Bantams in the FA Cup draw. Since this game was a TV blackout for reasons unknown, I can’t read too much into the stats or what people are saying in the comments around the internet.
Thankfully we did have Dan Levene (@BluesChronicle) join us on the podcast to breakdown the match since he was there. If you don’t want to listen to the whole episode (which you should!) his summary of the game were that Chelsea got their lead and coasted into halftime and, upon returning for the second half, looked completely uninspired.
More from The Pride of London
- Bournemouth 0-0 Chelsea player ratings: Abysmal, reckless, wasteful
- Bournemouth 0-0 Chelsea: 3 Blues talking points
- Bournemouth vs Chelsea: 1 Blue Mauricio Pochettino should drop
- Bournemouth vs Chelsea: 3 Blues who must start
- Predicted Chelsea lineup vs Bournemouth: Palmer starts in 4-2-3-1
Credit to Bradford City for taking it to a much superior team on the road and not backing down. Clearly Chelsea thought that it was implied for the Bantams to lie down for the Premier League leaders, but that was not in the cards.
Crazy enough, Chelsea were not the only Premier League team dumped out of the FA Cup this weekend. Here’s a graphic of the table so you can see who is still left in the competition plus a nice little meme below to show who the new favorites are to lift the cup:
Current League Rank & FA Cup: pic.twitter.com/rNpd0nmreL
— Football Factly (@FootballFactly) January 24, 2015
DOWNLOAD EPISODE HERE
Upcoming Match
Chelsea vs. Liverpool (Second Leg)
Capital One (League) Cup
Predictions
Brandon: 2-1
Dan: 2-0
Nick: 3-1
Dan Levene: 1-1 Chelsea win in penalties
What’s your prediction? Leave it in the comments!