Chelsea’s season so far has been something of a topsy-turvy affair.
An opening day victory away at Brighton saw The Blues stutter to a 3-1 win with a penalty scored by Jorginho, a fantastic strike from Reece James seconds after The Seagulls had levelled and a rare goal from Kurt Zouma securing the points.
A win is a win as they say but for some at least, the performance did not meet their expectations.
The following week, Frank Lampard’s men entertained Liverpool. The two sides seemed evenly matched but, on the stroke of halftime, Andreas Christensen was shown a straight red card after bringing down Mane after he beat the Chelsea defence and was about to go one-on-one with Kepa Arrizabalaga.
Reduced to ten men, Chelsea conceded two goals in a four-minute spell and were 2-0 down with 35 minutes left to play. Jorginho had the chance to pull one back in the 75th minute from the penalty spot but his effort was saved.
The defeat gave the usual bed wetters and cry-babies who claim to be Chelsea ‘fans’ (usually via a far off TV set and social media) but love to moan, the perfect excuse.
Thankfully, those of us who understand the meaning of the word ‘support’ held firm, put them back in their prams and continued to believe in both our club and Frank Lampard.
Three days later and against second-tier Barnsley in a League Cup tie, Tammy Abraham opened the scoring in a 6-0 rout. Reece James and Olivier Giroud also registered but Chelsea supporters were enamoured when summer signing and prodigious talent Kai Havertz earned the match ball after scoring a hat-trick.
The following weekend’s fixture at The Hawthorns was certainly a game of two halves.
Although they were three goals behind at halftime, Chelsea looked the better of the two sides and strikes from Abraham, Mason Mount and Callum Hudson Odoi made the score 3-3 with what should have been at least four minutes of injury time to play.
However and with Chelsea looking likely to score a fourth and what would have been a winner, the referee ‘mysteriously’ decided to cut proceedings short, thereby in all probability denying Lampard’s men the three points.
A League Cup tie in N17 against Sp*rs went to a penalty shoot-out after Timo Warner opened his Chelsea account, the game ending 1-1 after 90 minutes.
The absolutely fantastic and much loved Mount was the Chelsea player who missed his spot-kick, the Stamford Bridge side going down 5-4.
Inevitably, the Twitter trolls came out in force to hammer the youngster and some even stooped to the disgraceful gutter level of abusing his father.
As previously said, those of us who ‘know’ our Chelsea will, in the face of such negativity, respond in an ever-increasing show of support and Mount is included in The Blues’ players we will laud the most.
In their final game before this, the current international break, Chelsea’s game against Crystal Palace was scoreless after the first 45 minutes.
Nonetheless, goals from Ben Chilwell, one from Zouma (he’s making a very welcome habit of scoring) and a brace by way of two penalties hit home by Jorginho gave the home side a creditable 4-0 victory.
This time last season, after the first four games, Chelsea were in ninth place with five points. This season and having played four times, they are in fourth place with seven – a definite improvement.
With the prospect of the manager being able to choose from a full squad that is bereft of injury, the outlook for the next stage of the season looks bright.
Don’t forget, for a bet on the weekend’s internationals and the third and fourth tier of the English league, check out the best odds here.
About the Author
Londoner David Johnstone is a home, away and European away Chelsea supporter and has missed just six matches since 2001 (although he’s quick to state there are plenty of other supporters with better attendance records than him).
He has been involved with the fanzine scene at Chelsea since around 1991 and started the ‘cfcuk’ fanzine in 1999 which was, until Mr Abramovich bought the club in 2003, named ‘Matthew Harding’s Blue And White Army’.
David was also responsible for forming both the Chelsea Supporters’ Group and the Chelsea Supporters’ Trust which are the main two bodies that represent the followers of Chelsea FC and take their concerns to those running the club.
A founder of the highly regarded Chelsea FanCast weekly podcast (but is no longer involved) and responsible for the crowd surfing banners and supporter displays that are seen in the Matthew Harding Stand at Stamford Bridge on matchdays.
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