Tag Archives: Chelsea

Anelka reveals Chelsea aim

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Bet on the Premier LeagueChelsea striker Nicolas Anelka – 33/1 to finish as the top scorer in the Premier League this season – wants to sign a deal to effectively end his career at Stamford Bridge.

The 31-year-old, who won the Golden Boot for the 2008/09 season, has enjoyed a nomadic existence during his 13-year career to date, with spells at clubs including Arsenal, Real Madrid, Liverpool, Manchester City and Bolton.

Anelka has been at Chelsea since January 2008 and scored his 50th club goal in midweek as the Blues secured a 2-0 win at Spartak Moscow – and now he is hoping to bag many more providing the club wants to keep him.

Out of contract at the end of next season, the former France international still has a lot to offer and he hopes it is in the blue of Chelsea.

“When I first signed here I knew I had arrived at a big club and I wanted to stay as long as possible,” Anelka revealed.

“I don’t know what will happen in the future. After this season I have one more year on my current deal and I will see what will happen because you never know.

“But I am very happy here and I would be glad to sign for more years.

“I am just very satisfied to achieve two landmarks with Chelsea in goals scored and how long I have spent here, it has just been special to score goals for Chelsea.”

Anelka has helped himself to just two goals in the Premier League so far this term – four fewer than club-mates Didier Drogba and Florent Malouda – so he will be hoping to add to his tally when Chelsea (1/7 to win the game) entertain Wolves (14/1) on Saturday afternoon.

Carlo Ancelotti is boosted by the return of Drogba after illness but he still has injury problems to contend with for the clash.

Striker Daniel Sturridge is struggling with an ankle problem and could join Frank Lampard (groin), Alex (thigh), Yossi Benayoun (Achilles) and Ramires (ankle) on the sidelines.

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Chelsea call for Rooney

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Chelsea captain John Terry and striker Nicolas Anelka have both called for Manchester United’s want-away star Wayne Rooney to join the ranks at Stamford Bridge (Chelsea 4/1 to be Wayne Rooney’s next club).

Rooney has told United he wants to leave Old Trafford, citing the club’s lack of ambition to secure the world’s top players as the reason behind his decision to call time on his stay with Sir Alex Ferguson’s side.

Chelsea are one of a small group of clubs who could afford to capture the England international and Terry is keen to link up with Rooney at club level having been an international team-mate for a number of years.

“Wayne is one of the best young players in the world,” said Terry. “I am no different to any other player in saying that.

“You obviously have to respect Manchester United and Wayne, but who knows what’s going to happen.

“We’ve got a great squad of players and he would add to that and strengthen the squad. He is the best player in the world for me.”

If Chelsea decide to move for the former Everton striker he will compete with the likes of Didier Drogba and Anelka for a place in the starting eleven. Anelka insists he would love to partner Rooney in attack and the Frenchman remains hopeful Chelsea will try and convince Rooney to move to London.

“Rooney is a good player, everybody knows his quality,” Anelka explained.

“If he wants to come to Chelsea then he is welcome, but I am not the owner.”

If Chelsea do move for Rooney they are likely to face competition from at home and abroad, with Manchester City the current favourites to prise the 24-year-old away from United (City 7/4f to sign Wayne Rooney).  Real Madrid boss Jose Mourinho has admitted he would welcome Rooney at the Bernabeu, although he expects him to stick with United, while Spanish champions Barcelona are also believed to be keen.

Chelsea face Wolves on Saturday after seeing off Spartak Moscow in the Champions League on Tuesday, with both Terry and Anelka expected to feature in the tie with the Premier League strugglers (Match Betting – Chelsea 1/7, draw 6/1, Wolves 14/1).

Manchester United travel to Stoke on Sunday but Rooney will play no part as he is suffering from an ankle problem and it remains to be seen whether he will feature again for United after expressing his desire to quit the Premier League heavyweights (Match Betting – Stoke 4/1, draw 5/2, United 4/6).

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Villa not haunted by Chelsea mauling

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Aston Villa defender Luke Young admits Chelsea (7/1 to win the game) are looking a strong force already this season, but his side will not be running scared after their 7-1 humiliation last time the two teams met.

Back in March, Carlo Ancelotti’s side ran riot at Stamford Bridge and condemned Villa to their heaviest defeat for 24 years.

Young was part of former manager Martin O’Neill’s side that day, but claims that defeat has “no relevance” ahead of the two teams meeting at Villa Park at the weekend.

Gerard Houllier has begun masterminding a revolution at the club since taking charge in September, introducing double training sessions at Villa (19/5 to beat Chelsea, draw 5/2) to improve the players’ fitness and preparing them for a new brand of attacking, passion football he wants them to play.

Results have improved since he took over, despite their loss to Spurs last time out, and they sit in eighth in the table – though are a distant eight points behind Chelsea (8/13 to win Premier League title) after only seven games.

The west London outfit have been impressive going forward so far this season, and already have a mammoth plus-21 goal difference already.

Despite this, veteran defender Young claims there is “nothing to be daunted about” for Villa.

He told the Birmingham Mail: “They’ve been scoring bundles of goals.

“They’re always a good side and one we’ve got to be at our best against.

“But if we put in a performance like the one we did at Spurs we won’t be far short of picking up some points. You know whenever you play any of the top sides it’s going to be a tough game.

“We’re at home and hopefully we can build upon the results we have had at home so far.”

Chelsea go into the game sweating over the fitness of their captain John Terry after he sustained a back problem that forced him out of England duty in midweek.

He is doubtful for the clash and with Alex and Jeffrey Bruma already out injured, Ancelotti may have to call on Paulo Ferreira or Jose Bosingwa – the latter has not played since sustaining a terrible knee against Villa 12 months ago.

It is expected that Frank Lampard (7/1 to be first goalscorer) will return to the first team after being out with a hernia problem since the end of August as Chelsea look to preserve their four-point lead over Manchester City (15/2 to win title) at the top of the Premier League table.

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Toure fires Chelsea warning

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Kolo Toure believes Manchester City (12/1 to win 2010-11 Premier League title) are capable of ending Chelsea’s unbeaten start to the season and feels stopping Didier Drogba is the key.

City are up to fourth in the Premier League following their win at Wigan last weekend – seven points behind Carlo Ancelotti’s men.

The defending champions have made a faultless start to the season, with five wins out of five, but they face their toughest test yet as they travel to Eastlands on Saturday (Man City 21/10, Draw 9/4, Chelsea 6/5 – Match Betting).

City (4/6 Top Four Finish) beat Chelsea home and away last season and Toure admits confidence is high that they can claim the three points again this weekend.

The former Arsenal man said: “We need to make sure we take something from it. If we can get one point that would be great, but if we can get all three like we did twice last season, that would be fantastic.”

Toure has revealed that Roberto Mancini has had his squad working hard in training on the defensive side of the game, which looks to be paying dividends.

City have conceded just two goals in their opening five matches and will need to be at their best again to keep the free-scoring Chelsea at bay.

Toure has pinpointed Ivory Coast team-mate Drogba (6/4f to be 2010-11 Premier League Top Scorer) as the main danger for Mancini?s men and feels the Chelsea striker has been better than ever this season.

The centre-back added: “It seems like he’s getting better with age because he’s such an intelligent player. He’s had to change his game. He knows he needs more help from his team-mates now.”

“I know his game well, but he’s still difficult to play against because he’s so powerful,” he said. “He’s playing so well and with all these assists, he seems to have improved his style of playing.

“At the moment, I’d say he’s on fire. So we’re going to have to defend really well as a team to stop him. We’re going to have to be really strong on Saturday.”

Meanwhile, Roberto Mancini has played down suggestions of a bust-up with Emmanuel Adebayor.

There have been suggestions that the City boss had a row with Adebayor regarding the striker’s current injury – with a dead leg seeing him miss the last three games.

Mancini says the former Arsenal striker trained with the squad on Monday and could come into contention for the visit of the league leaders (Both Teams To Score – 5/6).

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Lampard impressed by Chelsea

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Frank Lampard has poured cold water on claims that Chelsea are too old to win the Champions League (Chelsea 11/2 outright).

Lampard is confident Chelsea can lift the trophy at Wembley in May, finally securing the honour for the Blues – who won the Premier League and FA Cup double in Carlo Ancelotti’s first season in charge at Stamford Bridge last term.

The 32-year-old does not believe that there are any concerns over the age of the squad, though Nicolas Anelka, Yossi Benayoun and Didier Drogba are all over 30 and John Terry and Ashley Cole both 29.

Lampard is relieved to be available again after suffering a hernia injury which ruled him out of England’s opening two Euro 2012 qualifiers, and is loving life with the Blues, who sit top of the Premie League.

He said in the the Daily Star Sunday: “It is a load of rubbish when I hear talk about there only being one or two years left in our spine. This has been going on for a year or so.

“Sometimes that is mind games from other managers, or press talk. But we proved them wrong last year.

“We have got players here who are experienced and you can’t buy experience in football. Look at Didier, he will overpower any player who is 24 or 25.

“People have been talking about Paul Scholes and rightly so. If you took him out of the United team now, they’d need to replace him – and probably wouldn’t be able to.”

Meanwhile, Ancelotti has denied coming under pressure to win the Champions League from owner Roman Abramovich.

Reports have claimed that the Russian was insisting on European success, putting pressure on the manager as he takes his team into the Champions League campaign with a match against MSK Zilna on Wednesday night.

But the Italian says most of the pressure he feels comes from within himself.

Ancelotti said: “I speak with Roman a lot, but he is not obsessed with the Champions League He wants to win everything, but he’s not desperate. I don’t have pressure from outside.

“I want to put myself under pressure because I want to win, he wants a team with a clear identity and we have created that.”

In last season’s Champions League they were unbeaten in the group stages and topped their group, but were beaten 3-1 on aggregate by Inter in the first knockout round.

This season’s group stage pits them against Zilna from Slovakia, Russians Spartak Moscow and French side Marseille (Chelsea 2/9 to win the group).

Ancelotti said: “We don’t want to say the Premier League is not very important – we would like to win it again. But the normal step is to do things better than we did last season in the Champions League. We went out too early.”

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Chelsea stars close to comeback

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Carlo Ancelotti is hoping that Chelsea (6/5 to win Premier League) stars John Terry and Frank Lampard both continue their progress returning from injury in time to face West Ham at the weekend.

The duo both missed the latest round of international games, but that has allowed the Italian manager to assess the rehabilitation of his captain and vice-captain at Chelsea’s Cobham training base.

Chelsea have had an impressive start to their Premier League season and are the only side with maximum points from their first three games.

In that time the Blues have scored 14 goals and conceded none and their fans will be hoping that impressive record can continue against West Ham at Upton Park this weekend (West Ham 15/2, Chelsea 1/3, draw 18/5).

The Hammers are currently rooted to the bottom of the Premier League with three defeats from three games, and things could be looking even worse for their fans as Ancelotti has claimed there is a chance that both Lampard and Terry could line up for the game.

“Lampard had surgery on Tuesday and I think that he will start to train this week. I don’t know when but we will see how he trains and we will take a decision for the game against West Ham,” said the manager.

“Terry didn’t have surgery but he used the last week to improve his hamstring. He will start to train with the squad this week and I think he will be able to play against West Ham.”

After the West Ham game, Chelsea then get their Champions League campaign underway with a trip to play Slovakian side MSK Zilina (Chelsea 11/2 to win tournament).

For all their success since Roman Abramovich took over the West London club, the Champions League trophy has been the one that has eluded them over the years.

Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien recently said that he was confident that curse could be broken this season, especially after the club looked so impressive winning their first ever league and FA Cup double last season.

The Ghana star said the club aim to “win every competition” they enter and, while they seem a certainty to get out of the group with MSK Zilina, Spartak Moscow and Marseille (Chelsea 2/9 to win Group F), he thinks they stand a great chance of winning the Champions League.

“As a player you get the inner feeling that something big is around the corner and I feel the same way I felt last season when we won the double,” said Essien.

“However I am sure we can go one further and add the big one – the UEFA Champions League to our collection of trophies.”

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Chelsea lay down challenge

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Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti has laid down the challenge to fellow Premier League rivals by declaring his team are good enough to win the treble this season (6/4 Chelsea 11/5 draw 15/8 Man United – 90 minutes).

The Blues did the double last season, picking up the Premier League title and FA Cup, but Ancelotti believes they can go one better this time around and pick up the Champions League as well (6/1 Chelsea – Champions League outright).

Speaking ahead of the Sunday’s Community Shield fixture with rivals Manchester United, Ancelotti said:  “Last year every player did their best and we want to do the same again.  We plan to be competitive and do better in the Champions League.”

Ancelotti has also denied rumours that the left-back Ashley Cole was heading to Real Madrid to join up with old boss Jose Mourinho, and added: “I don’t need to speak with Ashley Cole. I read that Ashley Cole wants to leave.

“My answer was I want Ashley Cole to stay at Chelsea because he’s a fantastic player and there is no price for which (I would) sell him.”

Cole will start at left-back against United in a back four which will include England team-mate, John Terry, Branislav Ivanovic and Paulo Ferreira.

United look set to give England internationals, Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen, at least 45 minutes in tomorrow’s game at Wembley.

New Mexico striker, Javier Hernandez, is likely to partner Rooney up front in his first competitive fixture having impressed in pre-season.

United boss, Sir Alex Ferguson, has already said that Chelsea are the team to beat this season having pipped his side to the title by just one point last season.

“I think with the experience they have you always have to look at it that way.  I feel that the team that won the title last season is the one you have to look at,” said the Scot.

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Scholes fearful of Chelsea threat

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Paul Scholes believes Chelsea (13/10 Community Shield winners) will pose the biggest threat to Manchester United’s hopes of winning the Premier League title this season.

Having halted United’s run of consecutive league wins last term, the Blues will start next season as the outright favourites to win the title, with totesport pricing them at 13/8.

While United pushed Chelsea all the way last season, taking the race to the last day, it was the west London side who ultimately controlled the destiny of the silverware for much of the campaign.

While last year eventually developed into a two horse race once again, this season promises to be a lot closer with the likes of Arsenal (4/6 top four finish), Manchester City (1/2), Tottenham (3/1) and Liverpool (7/4) all hopeful of being involved in the title picture.

Despite City having spent nearly £80million on new players already, with more set to arrive before the transfer window shuts, Scholes still believes it will be reigning champions Chelsea who will give United the biggest test.

“Who will our biggest rivals for the title be? You have got to say Chelsea. And the rest… you just do not know,” said Scholes, as he gets ready for Thursday’s pre-season friendly against MLS All-Stars.

“City? We will have to see what happens there. They have bought so many players. Whether they can gel together remains to be seen.”

Despite having lost their crown last season, United have so far failed to spend anywhere near the amount their city rivals have in the hope of claiming their 19th league title. Forward Javier Hernandez and defender Chris Smalling have been the only new arrivals at Old Trafford thus far.

Much like United, Chelsea have also failed to break the bank in a bid to strengthen their position as kings of England, with Yossi Benayoun their only big name arrival thus far.

While there is just over a month of the transfer window left, it seems unlikely either Chelsea or United will make more than one, if any, big money signings, instead relying on the stars of last season.

Scholes is confident that the crop of players, who pushed Chelsea so close last season, will be able to go one place further and get back to the top of the table.

“We have to be confident. Last year we didn’t win what we wanted to win, but, looking back, we definitely were not that far off,” added the former England international.

“You do not want to use excuses, but the injuries we had were shocking really. Hopefully most of us can stay fit this year and hopefully we can go one step further than last season.”

Before United begin the new season against Newcastle on August 16 they will contest the annual curtain raiser, the Community Shield, against Chelsea on August 8.

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Early injury woes for Chelsea

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Chelsea and Ivory Coast star Didier DrogbaThe Premier League season doesn’t even begin until August 14 but Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti already has an injury headache to deal with (Chelsea 13/8f to win the Premier League).

Earlier this week it was revealed that keeper Petr Cech would miss the first few games of the season.  The Czech Republic international injured his leg in a training session and is expected to be out of action for around a month, with Chelsea’s trip to Wigan on August 21 a possible return date for the gifted shot-stopper.

Cech’s injury means Ancelotti will have to decide which of his stand-in keepers, Henrique Hilario and Ross Turnbull, will stand in for the crocked star for Chelsea’s Community Shield showdown with Manchester United as well as their first few league fixtures (Chelsea 13/10, draw 11/5, Man United 2/1 – 90 minutes).

Brazilian defender Alex has also  been ruled out for a month after picking up a thigh injury in training, and with fellow centre-half Ricardo Carvalho tipped to depart Stamford Bridge before the start of the new campaign, Ancelotti could be left short of defensive cover.

New-signing Yossi Benayoun is also struggling with a groin problem and remains a doubt ahead of the Community Shield, although Ancelotti remains hopeful that the Israeli midfielder will recover in time to face United.

To compound Ancelotti’s woes, key-man Didier Drogba has now been ruled out for around three weeks after undergoing “minimal invasive surgery” to resolve a groin problem.

The striker was dogged by the problem last season and at this summer’s World Cup with the Ivory Coast, and Chelsea have now confirmed that he has gone under the knife to correct the issue.

A Chelsea statement read: “Didier Drogba successfully underwent minimally invasive surgery yesterday (Friday) on the groin injury that had troubled him for some of last season.

“The decision to perform the procedure after his return from the World Cup was made to optimise his rehabilitation, and he is expected to return to full training in approximately three weeks.”

Drogba will certainly miss the Community Shield on August 8, while he remains a doubt for Chelsea’s opening fixture against West Brom but the powerful forward should return before the end of August.

Chelsea are currently the favourites to secure the Premier League title but without Cech, Drogba and Alex, the first few games of the campaign could be tricky for the Stamford Bridge side.

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Chelsea attempt Silva hijack

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Valencia winger David SilvaValencia winger David Silva could be on his way to London according to his agent as Chelsea (13/8 to win the Premier League) and Manchester City battle for the player’s signature.

Silva is looking for a move to the Premier League as Valencia are struggling financially and will look to cash in on the player.

Negotiations between City and the Spanish club were thought to be ongoing with a potential £28m move on the cards.

However, Premier League champions Chelsea could hijack the move as they look for a replacement for Joe Cole who will leave Stamford Bridge this summer.

Silva’s agent Julio Llorente has stated that the west London club have declared their interest in the winger.

He said: “We’re weighing up offers from three clubs and one is Chelsea.

“If Silva doesn’t want to go to City, the transfer isn’t possible,” he added.

Valencia’s deputy chairman Javier Gomez has stated that the Eastlands club were talking with the winger but that no firm deal had been made.

He said: “As has been said, there is interest from Manchester City and we have permitted them to talk to the player, but we have reached no agreement and we have not talked about a fee.”

Silva is currently with the Spanish World Cup squad as they prepare for their final Group H game against Chile on Friday.

The 24-year-old featured in the pre-tournament favourite’s first game – a shock defeat against Switzerland, a match in which they dominated.

However, Silva did not play against Honduras and will now be battling with the likes of club team-mate Juan Manuel Mata who came on and impressed in Spain’s (11/2 to win the World Cup) second group game.

Mata has been linked with a move to Barcelona and Valencia look likely to sell as the cash strapped club look to lower their wage bill.

If this move goes through it will be the second deal between the two clubs in a month after fellow Spaniard David Villa (7/2 to be top goalscorer at the World Cup) moved to the Catalan giants.

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