It was inevitable. The return of Romelu Lukaku was the undoing of Arsenal’s recent dominance of Chelsea. At times, he was unplayable as far as the Gunners’ defence was concerned. Lukaku has the potential to be a game changer for Thomas Tuchel’s side going forward. His ability with his back to goal, bringing others into play, was something that’s been missing since Diego Costa left the club. I think we’re all going to enjoy Lukaku 2.0. Maybe the Belgian though will be looking for a better chant than the revamping of the old ‘Super Frankie Lampard’ song.
The summer’s transfer window is coming to a close and slowly but surely the club is beginning to slim down Thomas Tuchel’s squad. Tammy Abraham had a good start to his Roma career grabbing two assists in his first game. Fifteen others have left, either permanently or on loan. Still hanging on though, is Danny Drinkwater and why wouldn’t he. If Marina Granovskaia can offload the former Leicester City man before the window slams shut, she’ll have pulled off the deal of the summer.
The Father of the Pride speaks again, this time on Chelsea’s transfers, the Blues’ clash with Liverpool and the UCL group stage draw
This weekend, Chelsea faces Liverpool. It is almost impossible to discuss the clash without mentioning ‘Slippy Stevie G’, a.k.a Jesper Gronkaer’s goal that secured Champions League football and Roman Abramovich’s chequebook back in 2003. I won’t be mentioning either of those, however, the game itself is a big one.
As far as a lot of Chelsea fans are concerned, any game against the red side of Liverpool is the biggest we’ll encounter in any season. That’s certainly the case for me as of all our rivals, Liverpool is the one I like to see us dispatch the most. Recent years and the advent of social media has the hostility between the clubs ramped up. With Liverpool’s rich history in the Champions League, it will be good to face the Merseyside outfit as European Champions. The feud that exists between the two sets of supporters has been nurtured in Champions League history.
There was a period in the 2000’s where we seemed to be pitched against one another every season and there were certainly some tasty encounters. One game I particularly remember was back during a time when we were able to do something called ‘going on holiday or vacation,’ depending upon your locality. It was back in April 2009 and the competition was at the quarterfinal stage. Chelsea led 3-1 from the away tie at Anfield and you would imagine an easy return leg at the Bridge would see us through. Of course, media darlings Liverpool had other ideas and Chelsea was, well, just being itself.
I was on the Spanish island of Lanzarote with my family. With the girls not interested, my 10-year-old son and I readied ourselves in a beachside bar along with a collection of fellow fans of all denominations. Liverpool took a goal lead on the night with 20 minutes gone, I couldn’t watch, so we walked to another bar, I barely dared to look at the screen. 2-0, damn! Halftime came and we headed off again, it was torturous. Finally, Didier Drogba eased my stress, 2-1. An absolute thunderbolt of a free kick by Alex evened the game up and I could relax at last, but the goals kept coming. Frank Lampard scored, 3-2. Liverpool equalised, 3-3. Liverpool went in front, 3-4. Lampard again 4-4.
Game over, we went onto the semifinal and I was able to enjoy the rest of the holiday.
The draw for this season’s Champions League has taken place this week and, in the group stages, we’ll face Juventus, Zenit St Petersburg and Malmo. It was great to see two Chelsea legends, Branislav Ivanovic and Michael Essien, making the draw. Not only did Chelsea dominate draw proceedings, but the awards that were scattered amongst it, as well. Around these parts, Jorginho has never been the most popular of players, but having cleaned up in European competitions this past year, he rightly won men’s Player of the Season. Thomas Tuchel picked up the top manager award, Edouard Mendy the Champions League goalkeeper award and N’Golo Kante the UCL midfielder award. It was an impressive night as far as the Blues were concerned.
With that, another week is over and I never even mentioned ‘Slippy Stevie G’ or Gronkjaer again. Hopefully Saturday evening will see us all celebrating a famous victory over our friends from the north.