Our scorer, Willian

By Gary Watton
September 30 2015

Not even the Champions League can provide pain relief for Chelsea's stuttering and underwhelming start to their Premiership defence in Blighty. Jose Mourinho returned to his old stamping ground of FC Porto, but left avec nul points, as Chelsea's defence again conceded twice. Begovic is not to blame, but unfortunately the same cannot be said of his captain and compatriot, Ivanovic.

Will Jose ring the changes in future, as he has threatened to do? Well, he certainly seems to be losing patience with Matic. He has been substituted a lot recently and in Portugal he wasn't even afforded a start. There appears also to be growing evidence that Kenedy and Loftus-Cheek are deserving of more starts, if their recent cameos are anything to judge by.

Meanwhile, the Blues must regroup again and hope to achieve something on Saturday that they twice failed to do last year, and that is defeat Southampton. Once more we will have to make do without the suspended Costa. In fact, it is a measure of the bizarre season that Chelsea have experienced thus far that we reach the end of September, with Willian, of all people, as our leading scorer. Suffice to say that we won't have too many players competing for any golden boot awards and such like. No-one looks likely to record twenty or more goals this season. We only have the consolation of having scored a few outstanding goals, what with the strikes by Matic at Everton and Ramires at Newcastle. Maybe there is a lesson in there. The English champions need to fire more shots at goal instead of dribbling and passing forlornly their way through well-assembled brick walls. It is patently obvious that we miss the midfield runs and goals from the long since departed Lampard.

In the mean time, we're going to be starting the season every few weeks. There'll be a win ("Chelsea Are Back") then a draw, then a defeat, then a win ("Chelsea Are Back" again). Repeat ad nauseam. It will be like a kind of Liverpoo or Tottensham season, with a false dawn every few weeks. C'est la vie. However, if we go into free fall in the Champions League and fail to qualify for the last sixteen, I doubt whether the patience of Abramovich will tolerate such a doomsday scenario.

FC Porto 2 CHELSEA 1; half time: 1-1

Chelsea scorer: Willian

CHELSEA team: Begovic; Ivanovic; Azpilicueta; Zouma; Cahill; Mikel; Fabregas; Ramires; Costa; Willian; Pedro. Used substitutes: Hazard; Kenedy; Matic.

CHELSEA LEADING SCORERS:

Willian three goals

Costa two goals

Oscar two goals

Pedro two goals

Ramires two goals

Champions League Setback

Discussion started by Chelsea FC (IP Logged), 30/09/2015 12:26

Chelsea FC
30/09/2015 12:26

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