İNGİLİZ basını, Fenerbahçe'nin Chelsea'de forma giyen Fildişili golcü Didier Drogba'yı kadrosuna katmak için uğraş verdiğini yazdı.

Carlo Ancelotti will admit the error of his ways by selecting Didier Drogba for tomorrow’s potential Barclays Premier League title...

Points and goals are down on last season but no real challengers to the Premier League top two have emerged

Chelsea have gone backwards this season, but that will offer only limited comfort to Manchester United ahead of the encounter at Old Trafford. While the supply of goals has been cut drastically, the side have been reverting to old ways and making the most of whatever impact the forwards can deliver. The 2010 title-winning campaign, garnished with the FA Cup, therefore turns out simply to have been a marvellous oddity.

The team scored 103 times in the Premier League then, entertaining everyone unaffected by a constitutional antipathy towards Chelsea. No side can stay at that level for long, least of all one in the process of being reshaped. Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard provided 51 of those goals. Their combined tally in the League this season is 20.

It would have been unnatural for them to sustain the former impact even if Lampard had avoided injury towards the end of last year and malaria had not struck the Ivorian. Drogba is 33 and the midfielder will hit that birthday next month. Apart from the individual factors, Chelsea as a whole have drooped. With three matches left, the club has 66 goals to its name. United, on 71, have done a little better, but Sir Alex Ferguson and, if he should somehow keep the job, Carlo Ancelotti will know there is more rebuilding ahead.

Whether or not the Chelsea manager is retained, he has shown resilience and there is doggedness in the squad. Arsenal, by contrast, had excellent prospects of taking the title until quite recently, but Arsène Wenger, possibly in a misconceived attempt to reduce the pressure, chose to speak like a man with no real hope of landing the prize for the first time in seven years.

The tone adopted by Ancelotti and Ferguson is utterly different. At Chelsea there has been a knitted-brow level of concentration that smacks of the José Mourinho days in its efficiency. Eight victories and a draw have been extracted from the past nine League matches. In the midst of that sequence, United eliminated them from the Champions League, but Chelsea's focus on the domestic campaign intensified when a lesser group of players would have let their attention wander.

We may not get the chance to see Ancelotti remodel Chelsea, delightful as it would be if he had acquisitions in mind to compare with David Luiz, as much pure footballer as centre-half. The Italian will most likely be gone before we learn whether the £50m Fernando Torres would be galvanised if he had a pre-season in which to work with the manager.

It does not take much to be more stable than Chelsea, but Ferguson is so secure at Old Trafford that he can go about his work methodically since it will require far more than a bad afternoon or two to inspire misgivings. With a place claimed in the Champions League final there ought to be even fewer grumbles than usual, but on broader terms they can also be seen to have dipped. Come what may, United will finish with their lowest points total in the Premier League since 2005, when they came third.

By the same token, Chelsea will have 79 at best, their poorest return since reaching that same mark in 2004. The trend is to be welcomed since it means that results have been less monotonous, but no one can claim with a straight face that the competitiveness has been caused by an influx of thrusting new challengers. Manchester City might almost exist to confirm that affluence does not necessarily create allure.

When it comes to laying on goals in home League matches, City have been outdone by, among those below them in the table, Liverpool, Bolton and Newcastle. For the time being, it is Chelsea who have enough impact and solidity to meet United on an equal footing. Any disquiet among fans will lie with long-term considerations.

It remains to be seen how much more Roman Abramovich wishes to spend before the gradual tightening of regulations compels clubs to live within their means. As with other owners, he is said to be looking forward to rules that will save him from throwing his money away. That, though, cannot stop him from expecting a return on his outlay at Old Trafford on Sunday.

Chelsea are in pole position to sign Anderlecht sensation Romelu Lukaku, according to Metro. The teenager has been monitored by some of the biggest clubs in Europe since exploding onto the scene almost two year's ago with Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho an avowed admirer and Tottenham reportedly having a big money bid turned down for the player in January. Likened to Chelsea hitman Didier Drogba, the Blues have been seen as favourites to land the 17-year-old not least due to his professed desire to play for them while citing the Ivorian as his idol. But while Anderlecht are ready to do business with the Premier League champions, they will not authorise any deal until they have concluded one of their own. Genk's Kevin De Bruyne is another off the production line of young Belgian talent and was also on Chelsea's radar at one point. However, the Brussels club are determined to land the winger to help plug the gap left by the potential £15m departure of Lukaku to Stamford Bridge. To help confuse matters even further, Chelsea will also try to include an option to by De Bruyne in the future.

Manchester United have dropped only two points at home this season as they go into crucial match against title rivals

It was when Sir Alex Ferguson was reminded that his Manchester United side had held a 15-point lead over Chelsea barely two months ago that his face hardened a little and, briefly, there was the sense he had taken it as a personal affront.

"I don't know how many points we were in front of Chelsea at any given time," he replied, and it was here that his voice picked up speed and he made sure to keep eye contact. "It doesn't matter. Where we are today is exactly where we are. It doesn't matter what happened last Sunday, four Sundays ago, four months ago, four years ago, we are where we are. We have three games left, we're three points ahead, same goal difference, playing at home, two home games and one away. That's where we are. Nothing can change it."

He was sitting in the same room at United's training ground where, in one of those epic tussles with José Mourinho a few years ago, Ferguson interrupted one press conference to point at the blue skies over Carrington. "The birds are whistling here and the sparrows are waking up at Stamford Bridge coughing." It was here, too, around the same time, that Ferguson's mobile phone went off in another conference. United had just moved to the top of the league. "It's José," he said, scrabbling around in his top pocket and grinning mischievously. "He's panicking already."

On this occasion, the mood was not so light. United have never surrendered a 15-point lead to lose the title and they will be acutely aware that Chelsea won this corresponding fixture 2-1 in April last year. Another win at Old Trafford on Sunday will mean Carlo Ancelotti's team move to the top of the league for the first time since December, with two games to go.

Ferguson, maybe not coincidentally, spoke for the first time about the importance of United overtaking Liverpool by winning a record 19th league title. "It's not important for me, but it is for the history of the club." The alternative, by his own admission, would be unbearable, comparable to any of the disappointments he has encountered in almost a quarter of a century in charge.

Ferguson, nonetheless, was emphatic when he was asked whether United should still be considered as the favourites. Away from home, it has been a strangely unproductive time for United with only five wins, meaning they could be the first team since Liverpool in 1976-77 to win the league with fewer than eight victories on the road. "Our record has been – how would you put it? – ordinary," Ferguson conceded. At Old Trafford, however, it has been a remarkable story of success, the 2-2 draw against West Bromwich Albion in October being the one occasion when they have dropped points. "We've had a lot of criticism about our away form and rightly so because I've not been happy myself sometimes because I've not been happy myself sometimes," Ferguson said. "But the realisation of that has made us really step up to the mark at home. The home form has been fantastic, probably the best in Europe."

It certainly feels like a long time now – 398 days, to be exact – since Joe Cole and Didier Drogba scored past Edwin van der Sar to condemn United to their last home defeat. In all competitions, United have played 30 home games since. They have won 27 and drawn three, scored 68 and conceded 15. Most remarkable of all, Cole's effort 13 months ago was the last time an opposing player has scored a first-half goal at Old Trafford in the league.

Ferguson spoke about the improvements to the Old Trafford pitch, which has not been relaid since 2003, when it was once the bane of his life. "By December, January, February, the bad winter months, that was when the pitch used to break up. It's no longer that way now. It's absolutely perfect, the best we've ever had."

Another conclusion would be that many of United's opponents appear to consider trips to Old Trafford as an exercise in damage limitation, just as was once the case at Liverpool during their period of domination. Blackburn Rovers sieved seven goals, Birmingham City five. Others, notably Sunderland and West Ham United, have meekly raised a white flag and that has left United on course to go through an entire league season unbeaten at home for only the eighth time in their history.

Ferguson (1999-2000 and 1995-96) and Sir Matt Busby (1955-56 and 1966-67) have both done it twice. There were two occasions in the Newton Heath era, in 1894-95 and 1896-97. Ron Atkinson also managed it in 1982-83, the last time United went unbeaten at Old Trafford in all competitions. There has never, however, been a home record in United's history as formidable as the current set of results.

"Everyone comes here knowing they are going to get a hard game," Ferguson said, and the manager's ethos could be summed up when it was pointed out that a draw would be a decent result. "We won't be going for a draw. Everyone knows that. Chelsea know that. Our fans know that. Everyone sitting in here knows that. There's no point discussing draws."

Nor did he want to consider the prospect of losing yet, for once, Ferguson was happy to expand on what it would mean to overtake Liverpool on 19 titles. "I certainly didn't think we could do that when I took over," he said. "The target was to win the title. I got it and, since then, the club has taken off."

Chelsea’s Carlo Ancelotti says it is not so much a gamble but more of an option to play Fernando Torres and Didier Drogba up front together on Sunday.

The Blues clash with league leaders Manchester United at Old Trafford in a match which could define this season’s champions and the Italian admits he is still unsure of which way he will go with his line-up.

Whether he starts one or the other, or both together, Ancelotti does not see it as a gamble and pointed out that it will not be the names of the players on the match sheet which wins or loses this game.

"It's not a gamble - Torres is a fantastic striker," said Ancelotti.

"I want to say one thing: the line-up will not be what decides this game.

"This game will be decided through the courage of the players, the personality, the character. We don't need to be worried about this.

“I want my players to understand that it's not so important to start the game, but that they will be involved, even for 20 minutes," he added.

"We've won games from players who have come in from the bench. It was the same last April there, when Drogba scored.

"To win the game there, we don't need just 11 players. We need all the players involved to be motivated."

 

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Chelsea striker Didier Drogba believes teammate Florent Malouda does not get enough respect from the football world.

French winger Malouda has netted 13 goals this season to be the Blues’ leading scorer in the league which they can still win with a victory at Manchester United on Sunday.

Drogba says that Malouda is not recognized enough by outsiders and insists that there is no competition between the pair in terms of goals scored.

“That is the most important thing - scoring goals in crucial games, at crucial moments, and Florent is now our league top scorer. I think he has a lot of critics but it is not deserved,” he told the club’s official website.

"People should show a bit more respect for what he has been achieving here.

“There is no rivalry over that.

“I know where I am coming from. I was out for a while and I was sick and I am happy that my form is coming back.

He also made it clear that he gets just as much joy out of creating goals as he does from scoring them.

“But I am creating and as I have always said since my first day here, I love to score and I hope to create assists too,” said the Ivory Coast international.

“I think a complete striker needs to be able to score and to create assists so whenever you don't score you know you can still be dangerous and help your team.”

 

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Having fallen out with City for the way in which they took Joleon Lescott from Goodison Park, David Moyes has exacted a deep revenge. The three subsequent matches against them have all been won, extending Everton's sequence to six victories in their last seven encounters. Several weeks ago, this match and Tuesday's much-anticipated showdown with Tottenham would have been seen as formidable obstacles to Champions League qualification. However, Manchester City require just four points to achieve their pre-season goal, a situation that should be beyond even their historic capacity for cock-ups. Tim Rich

Venue Goodison Park, Saturday 3pm

Tickets £30-37 (0871 663 1878)

Last season Everton 2 Manchester City 0

Referee Phil Dowd

This season's matches 28 Y102, R9, 3.96 cards per game

Odds Everton 15-8 Manchester City 13-8 Draw 23-10

Everton

Subs from Mucha, Hibbert, Gueye, Bilyaletdinov, Coleman, Vellios, Anichebe, Mustafi, Forshaw, Baxter, Duffy, McAleny

Doubtful Baxter (hamstring)

Injured Barkley (broken leg, Aug), Fellaini (ankle, Aug), Saha (ankle, Aug)

Suspended None

Form guide DLWWDW

Disciplinary record Y49 R3

Leading scorer Cahill 9

Manchester City

Subs from Given, Taylor, Vieira, Dzeko, Wright-Phillips, Boyata, Dzeko, Wabara, Tevez, De Jong, Jô, Razak, McGivern

Doubtful De Jong (hip), Tevez (hamstring), Zabaleta (knee)

Injured Boateng (knee, 10 May), Richards (hamstring, 10 May), M Johnson (knee, unknown)

Suspended K Touré (club suspension)

Form guide WWLWLW

Disciplinary record Y70 R5

Leading scorer Tevez 19

Match pointers

• Everton have opened the scoring in 16 league matches this season, losing only one

• City have kept one clean sheet in their last 14 league meetings with Everton, but have never conceded more than twice in a game during this run

• Since August 2008, only Cesc Fábregas and Didier Drogba have provided more assists than Leighton Baines (25)

• City have benefited from eight deflected goals this season, the most in the division

• Everton have let in just five goals between the 75th and 90th minute of matches this season, only Fulham (two) have let in fewer

• 'This game is like a final,' says the Chelsea coach
• Ancelotti yet to decide whether to play Fernando Torres

Carlo Ancelotti today claimed Chelsea's title showdown at Manchester United would be like a Champions League final for them, as they bid to complete the greatest comeback in Premier League championship history.

The Blues travel to Old Trafford on Sunday knowing victory would send them top of the table, just over two months after they languished 15 points behind United. They also crashed out of the Champions League to Sir Alex Ferguson's men last month, a defeat which appeared to end their hopes of silverware this season and left Ancelotti all but resigned to losing his job.

However, the Italian believes Sunday's match bears comparison to the biggest game in club football, saying: "For us, it's like a final. We wanted to play the final of the Champions League, but we have to be happy to play this different kind of final. We can compare it to a final. We have to prepare for this game like it's a final.

"There is a lot of pressure around us to prepare for this game, but you have to have the skills to stay relaxed, maintain good control of your emotions, not be too afraid or worried, because that uses energy, and you need that during the game."

Ancelotti felt confident enough to chastise those who had written his side off. "You thought that this season was no good and now you have this opportunity," he said. "This season has not gone as everyone suggested. Everyone said that during the season.

"This team is still alive. This means that these players have very good character, personality, are very professional. After the defeat against United, it was not easy to move on and turn. But they had a fantastic reaction."

Chelsea won at Old Trafford last season, a victory which ultimately saw them lift the title. But Ancelotti was cautious about declaring three points this weekend, which would put them top on goal difference with two games remaining, would have the same effect. "They are favourites as they have three points more," he said. "If we are able to win, nothing is decided. If they win, they will win the title."

Indeed, Ancelotti warned that United – who this week reached the Champions League final – were a different prospect from last season. Ferguson's side were then without the injured Wayne Rooney, who has tormented Chelsea at times this term.

Ancelotti revealed he would not man-mark the England striker, saying: "His position is not so easy to control, he moves a lot, comes back and works for the team. But obviously we have to do something against him to control him. We never put one player against him. It'll be important to stay compact."

The Italian's major tactical decision revolves around whether to play both Didier Drogba and Fernando Torres, with many claiming it would be a huge gamble to start with the latter.

"It's not a gamble – Torres is a fantastic striker," said Ancelotti, who revealed he had yet to choose his strike force. He added: "I want to say one thing: the line-up will not be what decides this game. This game will be decided through the courage of the players, the personality, the character. We don't need to be worried, afraid about this."

Ancelotti upset Salomon Kalou last weekend by dropping him for Torres but he said: "I want my players to understand that it's not so important to start the game, but that they will be involved, even for 20 minutes.

"We've won games from players who have come on from the bench. It was the same last April there, when Drogba scored. To win the game there, we don't need just 11 players. We need all the players involved to be motivated."

He also refused to discuss what the result of Sunday's game could mean to his own future but did admit giving up hope of catching United when Chelsea were languishing outside the top four. "Nobody thought we would be able to fight," he said. "We spoke about getting qualified for the Champions League."

Asked if winning the title from so far behind would be his greatest achievement, he said: "I don't know. This season was totally different compared to the other seasons. I've never had the possibility to close this gap, as we did this year. If we were able to win, I don't know, it would be fantastic."

Carlo Ancelotti insists it is not a gamble to play Didier Drogba and Fernando Torres at Manchester United.

Didier Drogba believes Chelsea team-mate Florent Malouda deserves more respect for his achievements.

• Defender cuts off communications with Frank Lampard
• United squad retains 'hunger to be successful'

Rio Ferdinand has revealed all communication with old friend Frank Lampard has ceased in the build-up to Manchester United's Premier League showdown with Chelsea.

The former West Ham team-mates have remained in regular contact throughout their careers. However, when medals start to be polished and trophies are being prepared to get handed out, contact stops. It is a well-established tradition that is even less likely to be broken in the build-up to a match that is almost certain to determine the outcome of this season's Premier League title.

"At this time of the season, me and Frank don't really talk," said Ferdinand. "It's an unwritten agreement between us. During the season we will send each other the odd text here and there but when it comes to the business end, if we are both involved in the title race, there is not really any dialogue."

That it should come down to a shoot-out between the two teams who have shared the last six championships has surprised some. When Chelsea were trailing United by 15 points following their alarming mid-season slump, it seemed Arsenal were the most likely to deny Sir Alex Ferguson and his players. Instead, when the pressure was turned up, Arsenal's failings emerged once more.

And, with United continuing to find life hard away from Old Trafford, Chelsea have exploited the opportunity to close the gap to a stage where victory on Sunday will take them top with just two games remaining.

"At the beginning of the season everybody was tipping either us or Chelsea to win the league," reflected Ferdinand. "Arsenal made a good go of it but have fallen away. Even after Sunday, there are still two more big games to come, so I don't think it will decide the season. But it will have a big say in where the title goes."

The outcome is so difficult to judge partly because since Chelsea extended a run of three successive Premier League wins against Sunday's opponents at the beginning of March, United have hit back, knocking Carlo Ancelotti's men out of the Champions League, deservedly winning both legs of their quarter-final.

"I am not sure it proves we know how to beat them and I don't know whether it will play on their minds, but it lets them know we are capable of winning," said Ferdinand. "We played particularly well over the two legs and we are confident."

Ferguson has claimed not to be sure exactly who Ferdinand and central defensive partner Nemanja Vidic will have to mark this weekend. The chances are it will be Didier Drogba, although Fernando Torres will be introduced at some point.

Ferdinand knows the prize is great, with what would be his fifth title on offer, as well as a 19th for United, which would eclipse Liverpool's long-standing mark. Like his manager, Ferdinand does not feel that achievement in itself is of any great value in the dressing room. However, he does concede for United as a club, it would be truly momentous.

"The thought of winning 19 titles is not going to be the overriding factor as far as the players are concerned," he said. "We just want to win the league.

"There are players at the club who have not won a league title yet and there are others who have won quite a few, like Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes. We are all at different parts of the spectrum but hunger to be successful is exactly the same. We do understand what it means to the fans but if we get involved in thinking about things like that it isn't going to help us."

A disciplined and determined display from the midfielder could result in an incredible twist in the title race

It has taken several weeks, while his team have battled on to win games regardless, for Carlo Ancelotti to come to terms with identifying the positional requirement most effective for his expensive signing, Fernando Torres. So unsettling has the Spaniard's arrival appeared at Stamford Bridge that anoraks will recall the upheaval caused at Manchester City and, more recently, Newcastle with the signing of Rodney Marsh and Faustino Asprilla respectively. Torres may have to wait for his chance to make an impact from the bench on Sunday.

Yet Sir Alex Ferguson encountered a similar conundrum in assimilation when Javier Hernández, his Little Pea, blossomed to challenge the laconic craft of his Bulgarian goalscorer, Dimitar Berbatov. Just as Didier Drogba was central to everything at Chelsea, so Wayne Rooney was the main factor at United: to have a partner, or to stay single? Sir Alex's solution against Chelsea will see Hernández's sharp running and eagle-eyed movement looking to shift the visitors' captain, John Terry, while Rooney roams behind, linking the play and seeking space.

It is how Chelsea, and Mikel John Obi, react to that threat that could be key in this game. Mikel is vital as he plays with his head as well as his heart. He must not chase the ball. He must keep Rooney in sight. He must deter him by fair means in the tackle. He must not be drawn too wide and, most importantly of all, must not be drawn too deep. Discipline is so vital in this role. If the visitors are to become the first side to prevail at United this season, Mikel must play the Claude Makelele role better than the man himself.

In Chelsea's rejuvenated 4-3-3, the holding central midfielder has to be perfect in his decision-making so Frank Lampard can go forward and support with confidence, while also giving Michael Essien the security when he moves out wider to confront the advances of Patrice Evra. At Arsenal last week, Rooney, dropping off Hernández to help Michael Carrick and Anderson, never commanded enough ball to control the stage. Alex Song was key, snapping confidently in a more athletic Arsenal midfield, supplemented by Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilshere.

Expect Carrick to hold his ground, but the evergreen Ryan Giggs will need to combine with Rooney to supply the United wide men against Branislav Ivanovic and Ashley Cole. The Chelsea full-backs themselves must be brave and advance whenever opportunities arise to maintain the width. But, once again, they will only feel comfortable doing that if Mikel is controlling his territory and offering assurance.

Furthermore, David Luiz, for all his brilliant individual technical skill and buccaneering surges, has a mistake in him, whether it be a wild tackle or a rush of blood provoking a forward run. He can be overconfident and overelaborate at times, susceptible to wild movements, so Mikel must be ever ready to step back and cover Terry when the Brazilian goes wandering. The central midfielder has never truly won the hearts of the Chelsea faithful, but on Sunday his contribution may just supply the title race with an incredible twist.

Didier Drogba has had no contact with Man City amid rumours of a potential move, according to his agent.

Didier Drogba la-la-la-la-la Didier Drogba’s musical career to date has been solely confined to a rap album. But he is now branching into folk-pop with the aid of ESPN’s Talk of the Terrace presenter Chris Cohen. Cohen gives the Chelsea star the world’s shortest – and least successful – guitar lesson, before encouraging him to [...]

Fernando Torres facing being benched for Chelsea's clash at Manchester United.

The Sun says Torres has been on the fringes of boss Carlo Ancelotti's plans this week as he tried out a 4-3-3 system using Didier Drogba as the main striker.

Drogba was played wide right against Spurs last weekend, with Torres down the middle, but the experiment didn't work.

Torres, who has scored only once since his £50million January move from Liverpool, had been left out of the previous three games, all of which Chelsea won.

 

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Erik Thorstvedt vurderer Manchester United og Chelseas sjanser til seriegull.

If Chelsea successfully defend their Premier League title, it will not be the usual victory for mammon but a reflection of traditional football values embodied by Lampard, Drogba and company

In November 2006, before Chelsea were due to face Manchester United in an earlier "Super Sunday" clash, Peter Kenyon, their then chief executive, delivered an infamous pledge. Describing Stamford Bridge as "a fairly soulless place" before Roman Abramovich's takeover, Kenyon said: "By 2014 we want to be internationally recognised as the No1 club. Our revenue has grown dramatically and is now on a par with United. It's a very ballsy vision but one that has captured the interest of the owner."

This corporate bombast made most Chelsea supporters wince. It was the price they paid for ending a 50-year wait for a second English championship and for Abramovich's generosity. But the cost was higher than they thought. The shallowness of Kenyon's proclamation rendered it harder for Chelsea to spread the word around the world because audiences in America and the Far East thought it presumptuous for a Russian oligarch to think he could buy their affections.

Chelsea are a "ballsy team" again, a fact that was in doubt before the 2-1 home win over United on 1 March started a run of eight wins in nine league games. Victory at Old Trafford this weekend would lift Carlo Ancelotti's side to the summit, on goal difference, with two games left. As ever with Chelsea, the question is: would anyone outside Stamford Bridge feel anything grander than apathy should the blue bulldozer crash its way to a successful Premier League title defence?

The question is asked neutrally. The hostility to Chelsea around the land is irrational, in part, because it is rooted in the old antipathy to the idea of "buying" trophies, which is a ludicrous allegation these days, because they almost all do: either through sugardaddyism (Chelsea, Manchester City) or debt (United, since the Glazers took charge).

The lingering disgust at Abramovich's spending is not so sophisticated that it reveals our concern about the appropriation of public wealth by Russia's oligarchs. Oh no, let's not pretend it's the hungry family in the Moscow tower block people care about when Chelsea go out and snatch Fernando Torres for £50m. But there is still a visceral resistance to the ostentation: the fleet of yachts and the ex-SAS bodyguards, not to mention the inscrutability of Abramovich himself, which can come across as a kind of rich man's contempt.

Even this is selective. There are corporate people who have damaged British society far more than Abramovich ever could or would, but are still allowed their larcenous bonus culture. In the football context, though, Chelsea players are still judged in relation to their owner. Each indiscretion becomes a display of "decadence" or "arrogance" – an image that is harder to dispel when John Terry misuses the office of England captain or Ashley Cole shoots an intern with an air gun.

Harder, too, when Abramovich fires managers the way Cole dispatches work experience staff. With his sackings, Abramovich has about a 50% success rate. Claudio Ranieri was popular and capable but it took José Mourinho to drive the team over the finishing line. Avram Grant was steady but out of his depth. Luiz Felipe Scolari was a bust, as several senior players told the owner. But both Guus Hiddink and Ancelotti have been solid bets.

It is the instability that causes the damage, of course: the constant culture shifts, which this team has done well to assimilate over seven years. The global proselytising continues but with less chutzpah. This week Chelsea, who posted a loss of £70.9m in their most recent accounts, hired a firm called ECN Management to market players such as Torres and David Luiz in China. What does this really mean? Search me. But ECN says: "Chelsea players are some of the most prominent ambassadors of the world game."

Anyone whose love of the game predates this new imperialism could tell these air-mile collectors that it is all about the team, results, trophies, the personality of the manager and the ethos around the club. These are the things neutrals warm to.

Ancelotti and Hiddink have both been statesmen, and there are several Chelsea players you would enjoy having a drink with: Petr Cech, Frank Lampard, Nicolas Anelka and Didier Drogba, who, from personal experience, is charming company away from the combat zone.

Their curse is to be associated with a style that has drawn more on power than finesse, and which elevated gamesmanship to a dark art during the Mourinho years, while their bosses frantically opened soccer schools in America and started websites in Mandarin, which is standard business practice these days in the crusading Premier League.

But if Chelsea sneak up on United's blindside with a £50m striker adding little, it would not be the usual win for mammon. It would be a victory for the powers of recovery.

Chelsea have the inside running in the battle for FC Copenhagen striker Kenneth Zohore.

Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool are among English clubs scouting Zohore at this month's U17 European Championships.

Zohore, who is the son of Didier Drogba's cousin, only made his debut last season but has really begun to shine this campaign after a string of impressive cameo performances for the Danish Superliga leaders.

Just 16, he has also been capped at U21 level by Denmark.

 

Click here for the No1 coverage of all the gossip and transfer news around Chelsea.

All the stuff being covered outside the unfriendly confines of the award-winning Dirty Tackle...

Chris Cohen teaches Didier Drogba a few guitar chords and sings a very special song with him. But Drogs takes it a bit too far (as he tends to do). [YouTube]

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The Busquets allegations, a.k.a. "Mes que un what, exactly?" [BFB]

The first football films. [IBWM]

Javier Hernandez: A love letter. [Surreal Football]

Benny Feilhaber addresses his webcam accident. [Kickette]

Porto taking referees out to dinner. [The Spoiler]

Hulk will cost exactly €100 million. [Football Italia]

Rory McIlroy, Sergio Garcia prove that football isn't their strongest sport. [DBG]

The secret to Ryan Giggs' longevity. [Studs Up]

Cristiano Ronaldo

So alone. ... Just going to sit here by myself and think about how we were robbed. ... How Barcelona are a bunch of lucky cheaters. ... How Lionel Messi needs to spend way more time on his hair if he ever wants to be better than me. ...  How this weird little enclosed bench area would be a perfect place for me to make out with someone. ... Whatever. ... I'm over it. ... I just wish I could see the look on Dani Alves' face when he opens the box filled with what I pulled out of my shower drain that I sent him...

Shea Salinas

I DON'T THINK I'M DOING THIS RIGHT

Gomes

Why do people only notice the mistakes? ... I ran out on the pitch today without falling down, but nobody cared about that. ... I drank a glass of water this morning without choking on it. Nobody cared about that. ... I ate Chinese food with chopsticks last night and only stabbed myself in the eye four times. The waiter laughed, but did anybody care? No. ... I held 10 babies yesterday and only dropped seven. Did the mothers of the three babies I didn't drop say, "Hey, you're really good at holding babies, Heurelho"? No. They just got all freaked out about the babies I did drop. ... People are the worst...

Didier Drogba

(Withholding disgraces until after the Man United v Chelsea match on Sunday. ... But, needless to say, Manchester United and Barcelona making it to the Champions League final again is a repetitive f***ing disgrace.)

Photos: AP, Reuters, Getty

The Guardian

FA Cup final 2011: Manchester City captain Carlos Tevez to sit out Premier ... Telegraph.co.uk The Argentina striker has resumed light training after suffering a hamstring injury in Manchester City's 3-0 defeat to Liverpool last month, and the club's medical staff have now allowed him to run at full pace and ... Man City put £50m price tag on Tevez ahead of expected summer exitDaily Mail Man City want £50m for TevezA Different League Home > Soccer > Chelsea FC to sign Carlos Tevez and sell Didier Drogba to Man ...Crunchsports.com Metro -GiveMeFootball.com all 64 news articles »

Eastlands star to get his wish to leave Manchester and could be on his way to Stamford Bridge. Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is lining up a sensational player plus cash swap offer for Manchester City captain Carlos Tevez. The Manchester Evening News reports the Russian billionaire wants the Argentine to form a dream partnership with Fernando Torres. [...]

Independent Online

Man City put £50m price tag on Tevez ahead of expected summer exit Daily Mail The view is shared by other members of the City hierarchy but they are determined that the Argentina international will not be allowed to leave for anything less than his market value. Having seen Tevez score prolifically during his time at the club, ... Man City want £50m for TevezA Different League Didier Drogba lined up by Manchester City as Carlos Tevez replacementMetro Manchester City demand £50 million for Carlos TevezClick Manchester Sportingo all 52 news articles »

 Déjà intéressé par Didier Drogba l'année dernière, Manchester City devrait revenir à la charge cet été pour recruter...

Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich will offer Manchester City £30m plus Didier Drogba to bring Carlos Tevez to Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti has hinted that Fernando Torres and Didier Drogba will start up front against Manchester United.

Carlo Ancelotti has indicated that he could start with Didier Drogba and Fernando Torres up front for Sunday's clash at Old Trafford.

Bu videoda kimler yok ki? Cristiano Ronaldo, Didier Drogba, Gilardino, Steven Gerrard Rivaldo, Pedersen, Jo... Futbol sahalarının yıldızları, hakemleri aldatmak isterken bakın nasıl alay konusu oldular...

Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti is ready to go with Fernando Torres for their title clinker at Manchester United.

The Italian will face a major selection dilemma surrounding £50m Torres ahead of the game - which could decide his own fate as Chelsea manager.

Torres was substituted at half-time in last month's Champions League defeat at United, and the Spanish striker was hooked against Tottenham on Saturday to make way for Salomon Kalou, who scored the late winner to keep Chelsea in the title race.

However, Ancelotti appeared to indicate that he favours a partnership of Torres and Didier Drogba for the title shoot-out, even though the ex-Liverpool striker has struggled to find his form.

"To make a decision about the line-up, I have to forget the past," said Ancelotti. "I have to look at the next training session.

"For 60 minutes [against Tottenham], Drogba and Torres played with good combination. But he [Torres] got a little bit tired and I put Kalou on to try and find some more space to attack.

"It's not so important, the shape. It's more important that you put the players with the best ability together. It's important to have players in good form, in good condition. If we want to win there, we have to use intensity.

"We did our job [against Tottenham], to stay three points behind Manchester United. That's fantastic. Our job was to win, we won and now our next job is to prepare well for Manchester United."

 

Click here for the No1 coverage of all the gossip and transfer news around Chelsea.

The failure of the leaders to seize the initiative means the run-in will be fraught, anxious and potentially entertaining

Chelsea have presented themselves with a streamlined season. Their week is not to be interrupted by a Champions League semi-final and any risk of striving for the FA Cup at Wembley was halted when Everton knocked them out on penalties after a replay as long ago as 19 February. Elimination from tournaments is not a sight to please the owner, Roman Abramovich, but there have been benefits.

In a line-up where key men such as John Terry, Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba are all aged 30 or more, it may not be such a blow to have only one prize in mind. Defeat by Manchester United at Stamford Bridge in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final proved irreversible in the return. If Chelsea seemed bedraggled around that time, they now look pristine on occasion.

Highly fortunate as they were to beat Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday, the resurgence of Carlo Ancelotti's side has still been noteworthy. After all, it was only in February that they appeared an irrelevance. Chelsea's elimination from the FA Cup had been preceded by a goalless draw at Craven Cottage and a loss to Liverpool on their own pitch.

This unintentional paring down of the programme has done Chelsea some good. Specifically, Drogba's recovery from malaria may have been complemented by a reduced workload. The odds do continue to be heavily against the team, but were they able on Sunday to repeat the win at Old Trafford notched in April of last year Chelsea would top the Premier League on goal difference.

With United's progress to the title all but taken for granted, the steadiness of their rivals' form got only cursory attention. Now, however, it is noted that Chelsea have run up eight wins and a draw in nine League fixtures since the deadlock at Fulham. Such consistency is formidable and it has taken its toll of Ferguson's men.

Over the same number of matches, United have scraped together nine points fewer than Chelsea's 25. With the teams converging in the table, the tension can lead to a little eccentricity. It is agreed that each side should have had a penalty in Arsenal's 1-0 win over United at the Emirates on Sunday, but, so far as any sense could be made of the pronouncement, Ferguson implied that his men had been wronged more deeply because the offence was blatant in their case.

We must be in that phase of the campaign where anxiety does the talking. If the managers are on edge, it will be because they are fully conscious of their sides' flaws. Even if United win the last three matches their total of 82 points will be the lowest for Premier League champions in 10 years. Ferguson would not care about that and, in view of such fallibility, the rest of us can hope to be engrossed in the twists and turns of the closing afternoon of the League programme.

This ought to have been a season of opportunity for other clubs. While Manchester City look sure to take the significant yet still small step from last year's fifth position to a Champions League qualifying slot, it is valid to ask if they could not have made an even deeper impact. Roberto Mancini may need time but, given such a budget, it does seem regrettable that he has treated us to a modest 23 away goals in the League.

Arsenal have frustrated people in their own particular manner. It is no longer so simple to accuse them of having a flimsy character while the side have the best away record, but there does not seem a great enough benefit when they perform in front of the 60,000 crowds at the Emirates. Regardless of the weekend win, anticlimaxes at their own ground have been too regular. The same syndrome besets Manchester City at Eastlands.

That sort of trend should be particularly galling for Arsenal, since Arsène Wenger has had much longer to shape a side than Mancini. Arsenal verge on the perverse in remaining just outside the struggle for the title. In away matches, Blackburn Rovers have the worst defensive record in the Premier League, yet they achieved their only clean sheet on the road at the Emirates last month and did so with little fuss.

Perhaps we should give thanks for all the quirks and flaws. Regardless of United's anticipated appearance in the Champions League final, true fascination has lain in the muddling of all the leading clubs. In such a period, nobody will rule out the possibility of Ferguson's team losing their first home match of the season when Chelsea arrive on Sunday.

Both managers face big decisions before for what could be the title decider at Old Trafford on Sunday

1 The momentum is with Chelsea …

Manchester United are not a team on the slide. Their return over the last nine league games is 16 points which, while not staggering, remains respectable. Their displays in the Champions League, with the victories over Chelsea and Schalke, within that sequence certainly caught the eye. And yet they are steadily being caught as the London side generate rhythm to match their breathless start to the campaign.

Chelsea's return in the same period is 25 points, starting with the victory against United at Stamford Bridge. At half-time that evening, when they trailed to Wayne Rooney's goal, the reigning champions were facing an 18-point deficit from the leaders. Win at Old Trafford on Sunday and they will be top. The momentum has been whipped up late, the rat-a-tat of victories initially masked by European commitments but, after a slight stumble at Stoke, reinvigorated with five wins in succession. They remain the division's stingiest defence while players absent, injured or ill, in the winter are revived, imposing themselves again.

This is the kind of run that United are more used to generating, the type to chase down Newcastle in the mid-1990s or to prove Arsenal were no longer Invincibles. It is also the kind that secured Carlo Ancelotti's side their title last season, when United were one of the sides beaten in an eight-game sequence that brought 21 points and 33 goals. The manager joked at the weekend that his team are happiest when the temperature is warmer. They are unrecognisable from the shambles that secured only 10 points from 11 games as winter set in.

2 … but United's home form still makes them favourites

If United need reminding that the title remains theirs to lose, then a glance at their home record this season should provide the fillip. Sir Alex Ferguson's side have not lost at Old Trafford since Chelsea prevailed there 13 months ago and, of the 17 clubs to have visited this season, only West Bromwich Albion have left with a point. That is the form that has sustained United's challenge given a paltry five wins on their travels. If they go on to claim the title, they will do so having achieved the fewest number of away victories since Liverpool needed only five in 1976-77.

They will take heart from the Champions League victory achieved at Old Trafford last month and that all five of the league meetings between the division's top three have been won by the home side this season, an indication again that Chelsea's task is onerous. "United are still favourites because, when you play at home for the title, you have an advantage," said Arsène Wenger. "I believe United, every year they win the title, they win it at Old Trafford. You compare the record of United and Arsenal away from home and you see that we are always really comparable. They get the points at Old Trafford." They have done just that this season and, if they end the campaign unbeaten at home, they will surely be crowned champions.

3 Time for Fernando Torres to return to the bench?

Ancelotti appeared to take an unnecessary risk by trying to reintegrate Fernando Torres from the start on Saturday. A first goal for his new club and a week of training had apparently convinced the manager to play the £50m Spaniard in alongside Didier Drogba for the first time in six games, despite the fact that the combination has always previously felt so awkward. There was no quibbling with Torres's movement or commitment yet again but the system still seemed disjointed.

The striker had been selected instead of Drogba at Old Trafford in the Champions League but was so ineffective that he was withdrawn at the break. But, even with time to prepare, it seems inconceivable that the champions will not return to their more conventional 4-3-3 with the Ivorian barging through the centre of the front trident, flanked by the energetic Malouda and Salomon Kalou for the season's defining fixture. They had revelled in the familiarity of the return to the comfortable shape of last year in recent weeks, the midfield even benefiting from Mikel John Obi's presence at its base. That gives Lampard and Michael Essien, or Ramires, scope to be more adventurous. Smoothing Torres's passage into the team remains the long-term objective but at present Ancelotti is concerned only about the short term. The Spaniard may have to wait.

4 United must address their midfield conundrum

Ferguson's side need only avoid defeat on Sunday to maintain their advantage going into the last two fixtures, with logic suggesting he will return to the system and personnel who beat Chelsea home and away in their Champions League quarter-final. That would see Anderson, disappointing at Arsenal on Sunday and still an erratic and inconsistent performer, dropping out of the starting line-up to be replaced, most likely, by Ryan Giggs. The veteran could sit deep alongside Michael Carrick – impressive in the European ties – with Park Ji-sung and one of either Nani or Antonio Valencia offering width. Wayne Rooney, upon whom so much depends, could drop back if required to ensure the home side are not outnumbered in the centre, leaving Javier Hernández to explore the channels.

United should not be fatigued by any midweek European exertions. Schalke were swept aside so easily in Gelsenkirchen last week that the semi-final appears settled with Ferguson intent on resting personnel with Sunday's match in mind. Paul Scholes, Dimitar Berbatov and Michael Owen may all start on Wednesday night, offering the likes of Rooney, Hernández and Giggs time to recharge batteries. This should be a collision between these sides' strongest selections.

5 Can Chelsea combat Hernández and Rooney?

Chelsea will include one player who could not feature in the Champions League tie. They should be more confident at their ability to nullify the Hernández/Rooney partnership given David Luiz's availability. The Brazilian has settled in smoothly to life in the Premier League – Chelsea have yet to lose a game in which he has started – and, while there has been the odd flash of ill discipline in terms of his instinct to maraud up-field, and his eagerness to dive into a tackle, his involvement strengthens them as a unit.

Branislav Ivanovic, who played in the centre in the European games, is a more reliable right-back than either Paulo Ferreira or José Bosingwa and has already struck up a partnership with David Luiz. On Saturday against Tottenham the pair switched whenever Gareth Bale veered infield, each covering the other's duties. That bodes well, given Hernández's ability to drag centre-backs out of position and create space for Rooney to exploit. There was uncharacteristic defensive vulnerability to Ancelotti's side in both the Champions League games, for which David Luiz was ineligible. This time the man who scored the equaliser at Stamford Bridge in March will be hoping to make an impact once again.

Michael Essien has been told he is a required player at Chelsea next season.

The People says the Ghanaian has been mentioned among the likes of Didier Drogba, Jon Obi Mikel and Jose Bosingwa as players that could pave way for a new set of stars at Stamford Bridge.

But Drogba had talks this week and will stay, and Essien had similar discussions days earlier.

The club will again step up their game as they hunt for the Champions League trophy they crave – but Blues officials have told midfield enforcer Essien that he should have no worries as he is still in their plans.

Essien, 28, has four years left on his Chelsea contract.

 

Click here for the No1 coverage of all the gossip and transfer news around Chelsea.

• Lampard deserves his share of good luck, says John Terry
• Linesman's decision could have big impact on Premier League

Decisions supposedly even out over a season but try putting that to Manchester United if Chelsea somehow retain their title, and to Tottenham Hotspur if Manchester City claim the final Champions League berth.

These scenarios are still on due to this controversial win by Carlo Ancelotti's side that had Harry Redknapp joining the chorus for goalline technology after Frank Lampard's long-range effort was fumbled by Heurelho Gomes and the ball appeared not to wholly cross the line.

Mike Cairns, the assistant referee charged with making an instant decision on an incident that none of the 41,681 inside Stamford Bridge had a clear view of, seemed to hesitate. Then the goal was awarded and seconds later Chelsea walked off for half-time boosted by having levelled Sandro's spectacular 19th-minute opener.

There was a second chunk of ill fortune for Redknapp to swallow on 89 minutes. Chelsea had dominated throughout but Spurs looked to have claimed a valuable point to close to three behind City in the hunt for a Champions League spot worth an estimated £15m. United, meanwhile, were anticipating running out at Arsenal with a five-point lead over Chelsea, having played a game fewer.

When Didier Drogba, who started alongside Fernando Torres, sliced a shot across the six-yard box Salomon Kalou scrambled the ball home from an offside position. But the strike was ruled legal and suddenly Spurs were four points behind City having played a game more and Chelsea had closed to a win behind United after being 15 points behind on 1 March.

Redknapp is clear he does not want an attritional Europa League campaign next season but this is what he is now facing. Ferguson's ire will be sparked on Sunday if Chelsea depart Old Trafford having turned United over and will intensify on 22 May if the champions go on to retain their title following proceedings here.

Ancelotti agreed his side had been "lucky" to win but John Terry, again outstanding, offered the following take on Lampard's 45th-minute goal. "Throughout the season you get some. Frank's certainly had his share when he hasn't [got the decision]. Frank deserves it after last summer," he said, referring to the midfielder's strike for England against Germany in the World Cup that was clearly over the line but was disallowed. "I wasn't too sure. I was a similar distance to the ref, and the linesman was a bit away as well. He gave it. We've seen a picture from our photographer and it was just over. But we deserved that because we never give up and that's the mentality of the football club. Manchester United have done that: you don't get these decisions by luck, you get them by your desire and hunger never to give up."

Chelsea's momentum may be the key to winning in Manchester. This was their eighth victory in their past nine league outings, a late-season surge that takes them to Old Trafford brimming with confidence. Having removed Torres and kept Drogba on, Ancelotti's best chance against United may be to start with the Ivorian, leave the £50m man on the bench and push Lampard higher up the pitch. Beyond Sandro's lone strike, Chelsea's defence was watertight. This also augurs well as they approach their crucial match on Sunday.

Redknapp, asked if finishing fifth was worse than seventh, which would leave Spurs clear of Europa League football next season to concentrate on returning to the Champions League, said: "It's not ideal. I thought last year the reason we finished in the Champions League positions was because we had a big advantage [as] we weren't involved in Europe."

Redknapp's team must beat City on 10 May to have any realistic hope of finishing fourth. But the Spurs manager is still content with his club's progress. "This shows how far we've come over the last year or two. We can play against anybody now. I really believe there's nothing between the top five or six teams. I hate when people say: 'Oh well, if they don't make the Champions League they're going to sell [Gareth] Bale or they're going to sell [Luka] Modric.' That's not the way forward. The way forward now is to say: 'OK, let's go and find one or two top-drawer players and move on again, and lets get back in the Champions League.'

"I haven't spoke to Daniel [Levy, the Tottenham chairman] about it but I'm sure he's got to be positive: where do you go if you don't do that? Chelsea looked like they might have dropped out of the top four around about transfer window time so they went and spent £75m on two players because they wanted to stay in there. I'm not saying we should spend £75m but we have to keep positive."

Redknapp is confident Bale and Modric will want to stay beyond the summer. "Yeah – they came here without Champions League football, we weren't in the Champions League when they came. I don't see that being a problem. They know we are a good side but what you've got to do now is add one or two players and show them we do mean business."

• Ramsey goal leaves United three points ahead of Chelsea
• "We don't get decisions in big games," says United manager

Sir Alex Ferguson watched Arsenal blow the Premier League title race wide open with a 1-0 victory against his Manchester United team at the Emirates Stadium and cited a refereeing injustice among his post-match regrets, going so far as to claim that "we're not going to get the decisions in these big games, I'm afraid".

The United manager was astonished not to be awarded an 88th-minute penalty for what looked to be a foul by Gaël Clichy on the substitute Michael Owen. Arsenal had earlier been denied a penalty of their own for a handball by the United captain, Nemanja Vidic, which even Ferguson admitted should have been given, yet he has long been unconcerned about accusations of him being one-eyed.

In his criticisms of the officials Ferguson has increased the pressure on the team that will take charge of Chelsea's visit to Old Trafford on Sunday, in what looks increasingly like a title decider. Chelsea beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 at home on Saturday, with the help of two fortunate decisions, to close to within three points of United.

Ferguson was furious with the officiating in his team's 2-1 league defeat at Chelsea on 1 March and was unhappy with key decisions in both the league fixtures between the teams last season, which Chelsea won, notably when Didier Drogba was in an offside position when he scored what proved the decisive goal at Old Trafford. Chelsea might point out that they were wronged in the Champions League quarter-final first leg at Stamford Bridge, when Ramires was denied a late penalty.

"It gives Chelsea a major chance now," Ferguson said, after Aaron Ramsey's 56th‑minute goal condemned United to defeat here. "They got great decisions for them [on Saturday] and they seem to get these decisions at the moment.

"They got one to win the league last season at Old Trafford. So that's a worry. You go into a game worrying about these things. But in terms of ability, a game at Old Trafford ... the league at stake ... our supporters will be ready for it and so will my players."

Ferguson has only just returned to the dug‑out after serving a five-match touchline ban for his comments about the referee Martin Atkinson after the Stamford Bridge league game and his latest remarks are sure to go down badly at the Football Association.

Arsène Wenger, the Arsenal manager, conceded that "you can give a penalty" for Clichy's challenge on Owen. "It must have been a penalty," Ferguson said, ruefully. "I think the first one was definitely a flick of the hand from Vida but it was very difficult to see that one. I never saw it and nor did the linesman or the referee. But I think we all got a clear view of the second one – it was a clear penalty kick. We are not going to get decisions like that in a major game. It's too big a game and we don't seem to get these decisions."

Robin van Persie, who might have converted Theo Walcott's 33rd‑minute cross but for Vidic flicking the ball away with his hand, said the incident represented "a clear penalty and, in my opinion, a straight red card".

"It balances out in that respect," Ferguson said. "It was a flick of the hand from Vida but it was difficult to see that. Van Persie was the only one who saw that; he was the only one who complained. The one at the end Clichy immediately knew. He threw his hands up in horror. Owen was definitely brought down."

Owen said, in a tweet: "Not seen tv replay but don't need to as I know mine was a pen. Heard people saying Arsenal should of had one too so can't complain too much. That was a kick in the teeth. We were not happy with our performance but it is important to put today behind us now and focus on things we can affect in the future. Still in a great position so time for one final push."

Ferguson was disappointed that his team had started to play only after they had fallen behind to Ramsey's goal buthe sounded a note of optimism and defiance. United entertain Schalke on Wednesday in the Champions League semi-final second leg, 2-0 in front from the first leg.

"We're in as good a position as you could ever wish for at the start of the season – semi-final of the European Cup, second leg, two-goal lead and we go into [Sunday's] game equal goal difference and it's a home game," he said. "I'll make some changes on Wednesday without question ... bring Scholes back in, Berbatov, Michael Owen, fresh players ... also probably keep my experienced players at the back.

"We deserved a point here. Bear in mind, I don't think Edwin van der Sar had to make a save. Arsenal play a lot of nice football but they never looked like scoring. They got a goal from their only shot on target so it was a bit disappointing."

Wenger lamented how his team could beat United yet drop points against lesser opposition at home. "It makes it more frustrating," he said. "But I prefer to be more frustrated than to lose the game today.

"We had a good performance with everything in it – discipline, fighting spirit and our usual passing game. The team maybe lacks a bit of maturity under pressure and it has also had to deal with some big disappointments. We were really unlucky this season until now. Let's hope we have a bit more luck in the final three weeks. I am very happy for Ramsey. When you think that his injury happened 14 months ago. Now he looks back to his best."

John Terry bersikeras bahwa tidak ada perselisihan di antara pemain Chelsea menyusul kebijakan Carlo Ancelotti memasang Fernando Torres sebagai starting line up menggeser Salomon Kalou, saat Chelsea bertemu Tottenham Hotspur, Sabtu kemarin. Dalam laga yang dimenangkan Chelsea 2-1 itu Ancelotti memasukan pemain barbanderol 50 juta pounds itu dengan Didier Drogba di lini …

• Frank de Bleeckere named for Barcelona-Real Madrid match
• Mourinho said ref was among those who have favoured Barça

Uefa has handed Frank de Bleeckere the task of refereeing the Champions League match between Barcelona and Real Madrid on Tuesday – an appointment unlikely to go down well with the Madrid manager, José Mourinho.

Mourinho last week accused referees of favouring the Catalan side after his team lost 2-0 to Barça in the first leg of their semi-final at the Bernabéu.

The Portuguese was enraged by the dismissal of the makeshift midfielder Pepe by Wolfgang Stark and afterwards read out a list of officials he believes have made decisions which have benefited Barça in previous years.

The Belgian De Bleeckere was on that list after opting to send off Thiago Motta in the last-four clash last season between Internazionale, then managed by Mourinho, and Barcelona.

Television replays later showed there had been little contact between Motta and Sergio Busquets, with the Spain midfielder even peering through his fingers to see what action the referee was taking as he rolled about on the floor.

"I can't say what I feel. I only leave one question. Why?" said Mourinho on Wednesday. "Why? Ovrebo, Busacca, Frisk, Stark, De Bleeckere. Why to all these people. Each semi-final always brings the same. We're talking about a fantastic football team. So why?"

Tom Henning Ovrebo turned down a number of penalty appeals for Chelsea when Barcelona knocked out the London club two years ago, Massimo Busacca harshly sent off Arsenal's Robin van Persie in the round-of-16 clash this season, and Anders Frisk dismissed Didier Drogba six years ago as Barça came from behind to beat Mourinho's Chelsea in a last-16 first leg match.

Ivorian striker will see out career at the Bridge, confirm club and player's agent

Carlo Ancelotti plays down significance of his decision to take Fernando Torres off for Chelsea against Spurs.

Real Madrid's head coach is brilliant but volatile, though seldom has his rage been so extreme as after last week's defeat by arch rivals Barcelona

It was billed as a cross between a religious happening, a rerun of the Spanish civil war and the greatest sporting event in history. But to those who care about these things, the current series of football games between the Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona has so far proved something of a disappointment. With the exception of Lionel Messi, the only participant to have lived up to the hype is the Read Madrid head coach, José Mário dos Santos Félix Mourinho, otherwise known as "the Special One".

Last week, Mourinho turned in one of those mesmerising performances from the side of the pitch that have made him the most talked-about non-sportsman in sport. Bestriding his technical area like Olivier on stage at the Old Vic, by way of George Clooney on the red carpet, he unleashed his repertoire of magnetic mannerisms. Head-shaking, face-pulling, winking: he aimed them all at the embattled fourth official after Madrid's Pepe had been controversially sent off.

"Well done," said Mourinho, raising his thumbs in semaphored sarcasm. "Well done!" For this act of insolence, he was sent to the stands, symbolically imprisoned behind bars, as he scribbled notes to his bench. The Spanish TV director was understandably reluctant to return his cameras to the undistinguished football game, while the Portuguese popinjay, coolly dressed in a grey suit and black shirt, was fizzing in his theatrical pomp.

But it was only the beginning. After the match, which Real lost 0-2, Mourinho gave a press conference in which he implied that European football's governing body, Uefa, had fixed the game, that several top referees were biased in favour of Barcelona and that a dark conspiracy was in train. .

It was vintage stuff, although even for Mourinho, who has turned the persecution complex into performance art, and even for football, which thrives on paranoia, it verged on the excessive. What did it all mean? Was it the sour grapes of defeat, a genuine complaint, a desperate attempt to distract the media from his team's shortcomings or merely the latest instalment of the epic psychological drama: José Mourinho against the world?

No one, perhaps not even Mourinho himself, can be sure of the answer, for as well as being among the world's most successful football coaches – and, arguably, the world's most successful sports coach – of recent times, he is also a highly public enigma. A rebel who wants to be loved, a brilliantly creative individual who specialises in producing relentlessly functional teams, a vanity project with mass appeal.

Seasoned observers like to think that Mourinho's every utterance is calculated for effect. Perhaps, but what effect? None of these antics will have endeared him to his employers, Real – "Royal" – Madrid. The club likes to see itself as not just the aristocrat of football but a historic cultural institution, an emblem of Spain's bourgeois heartland. That's not the sort of image projected by Mourinho's assault on football's hierarchy.

No doubt the Madrid board, which is not renowned for its indulgence of coaches, might overlook such embarrassing behaviour if Real had actually beaten their hated rivals. But to lose and to lose it – that's going to be a challenge for the coach to explain to his board.

Yet not the least of his talents is the gift of the gab – in five languages. Mourinho's golden rule as a communicator is to speak the language of the host nation to the team and the language of the individual to each player. It seems to work. As Didier Drogba, the Chelsea forward, said: "He has a way of getting into players' minds as a manager."

It was, in fact, Mourinho's linguistic ability that gave him his leg-up in big-time football. Most successful football managers and head coaches, with just a few exceptions, are ex-footballers who've played at or around the top.

Mourinho, whose father was a goalkeeper who played once for the Portuguese national side, never made it as a footballer. He was too slow and lightweight and quit the game when he was in his mid-20s. His mother came from a wealthy family and wanted him to attend business school, but he left after one day and instead studied sports science in Lisbon.

After graduating, he was a school PE teacher for five years. He then worked his way up from youth coach of his local club to assistant manager of a lowly Portuguese side. His breakthrough, however, came when Bobby Robson employed him as his translator at Sporting Lisbon. From there, he followed Robson, first to Porto and then to Barcelona, all the time taking on more and more coaching responsibilities.

He stayed on at Barcelona after Robson's departure, although he's still referred to dismissively in the Catalan media as the "translator". Returning to Portugal, he joined Benfica and then left in a contract dispute, and eventually became head coach of Porto, a European backwater. Yet rather as Brian Clough – to whom Mourinho is often compared – succeeded with humble Nottingham Forest, Mourinho made the small Portuguese club European champions in 2004.

He could have remained on Portugal's Atlantic coast, a local deity. As he said of this position in the town: "There is God, and after God, me." Instead, he answered the call of Roman Abramovich's chequebook and joined Chelsea. The British media were not sure what to make of this swaggering ego with playboy looks. So he helped them at his introductory press conference. "I'm not one from the bottle – I'm a special one."

After that, and for the next three years, he effectively annexed the back pages. If it's true that he used the media to wage psychological campaigns against officials, opposing managers and players, it's also clear that these weekly diatribes were not simply about gaining an edge for his team. For it was apparent that Mourinho relished the attention for its own sake, taking joy in his eloquence and the effect it had on grateful, quote-starved reporters. His briefings were filled with elaborate metaphors and striking images.

Discussing Chelsea's injury crisis, he said: "It is like having a blanket that is too small for the bed. You pull the blanket up to keep your chest warm and your feet stick out. I cannot buy a bigger blanket because the supermarket is closed. But I am content because the blanket is cashmere. It is no ordinary blanket." In a world dominated by mangled grammar and cliches, he was football's own poet in residence.

Unfortunately, despite Mourinho's instant results – winning Chelsea's first championship in half a century and repeating the feat the following season – Abramovich was not as beguiled as the British press. It's said that the Russian billionaire was dissatisfied with Mourinho's pragmatic style of football, which Real Madrid's Jorge Valdano compared to "shit hanging on a stick", and that there were disagreements about team selection.

"If Roman Abramovich helped me out in training we would be bottom of the league," Mourinho quipped, "and if I had to work in his world of big business, we would be bankrupt." But when it came down to it, Stamford Bridge was not big enough for the both of them.

So he moved to Inter Milan in 2008, winning the Italian championship and, more remarkably, the Uefa Champions League last year, beating Barcelona, the world's best team, along the way. That extraordinary deed persuaded Real Madrid, a club that's had more coaches than Warren Beatty has had girlfriends, to offer Mourinho a contract worth more than €10m a season.

By most criteria, he's been a great success. Under his leadership, Madrid have built a magnificent winning record and he's taken them to the semi-finals of the Champions League for the first time in years. The problem is that there is only one criterion of success at Madrid and that's doing better than Barcelona. In this – despite a recent Spanish Cup victory – Mourinho has so far failed. Barcelona are set to win the Spanish league and knock Madrid out of the Champions League.

There is no shame in that failure because the current Barcelona have a strong claim to be the greatest in history. But if there's one person more intolerant of defeat than the Madrid board, it is Mourinho himself. He is the ultimate bad loser. He makes Arsène Wenger, whom he once denounced as a "voyeur", and his friend Alex Ferguson seem like a pair of Corinthian gentleman when it comes to accepting a loss.

The loss he now faces, however, is that of his job. If he's sacked, it's rumoured that he'll replace Ferguson at United, where the board has a record of indulging managerial outbursts. Mourinhohas spoken about moving to the States. But then he's talked about moving everywhere. It's what he does, talk and move, talk and move. So far it's been a winning formula. And while it may not lead to captivating football, the talking, moving Mourinho is never less than enthralling.

José Mourinho's need to be a confrontationalist could taint his credentials as a possible future Manchester United manager

Last week this column may have given the impression that José Mourinho was some kind of football genius who had worked out how to beat Barcelona. Apologies.

A couple of weeks ago it was also suggested that the series of games between the two Spanish giants would knock spots off anything the Premier League could produce in terms of atmosphere, excitement and exhilarating football. I am not going to apologise again because even after Wednesday I don't think this assertion was all that wide of the mark, though clearly I should also have made it clear that Spain leads the European field in cheating, diving, sneaky fouling and blatantly attempting to trick, confuse or otherwise control the referee.

It is generally recognised now that most of the world's best players are in Spain – including the Bernabéu matchwinner, Lionel Messi, who has a legitimate claim to be regarded among the game's all-time greats – yet watching what ought to have been a showpiece Champions League semi‑final it was easy to understand why much of the world prefers the Premier League's brand of entertainment. It would be wrong to champion the Premier League's technical merits ahead of those found in Spain or Italy, and just as misleading to argue English football is quicker or more exciting when those adjectives can all too often be exchanged for brainless or error-strewn.

But without wishing to sound too much like Alan Hansen, English football does try to stay on its feet. It mostly takes place within the framework of the rules, so while cheating is not unknown – save the green ink, anyone planning to object that players such as Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney dive in the area just as shamelessly as their foreign counterparts – viewers are more or less guaranteed a game of football and not a playground squabble. Sir Alex Ferguson, who has been known to use a stopwatch even when watching televised matches, reckons the latest Clásico short-changed the public by around half an hour because so little football was actually played.

That was the cream of Spanish football, too. Matches featuring lesser La Liga teams tend to be just as heavy on the histrionics and cynical fouls but without the redeeming brilliance of performers such as Messi or Xavi. I heard someone the other day describe Spanish football as unwatchable, which is possibly going a bit far. A lot of it is hard to watch from an English perspective, that is all. Spanish audiences do not seem to mind, or even to notice, all the rolling about on the floor and whining to the referee. It does not spoil the game for them, it simply irritates English sensibilities.

English football may not be all that English, because an enormous amount of the skill on show in the Premier League has been imported, but it is eminently watchable and for mostly the right reasons. It may be safest not to make any greater claim for the Premier League product than that, but let's risk a few jeers and postulate that inveterate divers such as Didier Drogba and Cristiano Ronaldo became better footballers on account of time spent in England. That is not to say they were not great players already, or would not have succeeded anywhere else, but there was something uplifting about them being encouraged to discover that they could be even more devastating by staying upright and playing the game than seeking to simulate and play the referee.

It would be foolish to imagine anyone has been morally converted, professionals naturally adapt to prevailing conditions wherever they play, yet it is pleasant to think that in at least one corner of the world's football field a stand will always be taken against big girl's blousery.

England may take a stand against José Mourinho, too, especially in his anticipated incarnation as next Manchester United manager. The present United manager is combative enough, but Mourinho actually makes him look subtle. It is one thing to install a confrontationalist at a club like Chelsea, who at the time had ground to make up on the other big teams and had no reputation to protect other than a joke one as serial under-achievers, but put Mourinho in charge of United and people who value the club's traditions and good name would immediately start to feel uncomfortable. He would end up on trial all the time for being undeserving of the honour of representing a club that has a history of producing its own powerful legends, a process that has actually been happening for most of the season with Real Madrid and is now being accelerated.

Mourinho's ability is beyond question, but he seems to need to be an outsider, a sniper, a grudge bearer with something to kick against. It is asking for trouble to make such a figure a part of the establishment, and trouble is what Mourinho is in at present. After the events of the last few days there can be no certainty that the coach's upward trajectory will continue in Madrid, and if Mourinho cannot manage an honourable discharge from the Bernabéu he is unlikely to be made a present of the keys of Old Trafford.

Heroes and villains 1, Greed and avarice 0

By the time I finished reading Premier Leech (Marshall Cavendish, £7.99), I felt grubby and in need of a wash, and I trust Neil Humphreys, its author, will take that as a compliment.

Humphreys' story of greed, sleaze and corruption barely counts as football literature, or even fiction, given that most of the events described have already happened, almost every character is all too recognisable from real life and what gives the dialogue its authentic tone is a cliche count that is off the scale by the first few pages. Yet you cannot attempt to parody Premier League mores without having a stab at being preposterous and believable at the same time, and Humphreys gamely eschews realism to give it a good shot.

While admiring the bravado, I could not quite fall in with the premise that modern players are cheating an audience they have come to despise, and the game deserves better. If the book has a flaw, it is that by the end one simply doesn't care what happens to a cast of unsavoury characters engaged in tawdry activities. Real football is much more seductive than that,: it offers genuine heroes as well as undoubted villains, ability to outweigh avarice, and fresh surprises in addition to familiar outcomes. That's why, in spite of everything, people continue to like it.

Two questionable decisions have handed Chelsea a 2-1 win over Tottenham this evening to keep their title chances very much alive.

Spurs hit the front thanks to a scorcher from Sandro in the 19th minute but their lead was pegged back when Frank Lampard’s speculative shot on the stroke of half-time escaped the grasp of goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes and trickled over the line.

However, upon viewing the replay, it was quite clear that the entire ball had not got over the line but the linesman called it a goal to give the home side some hope.

Chelsea did look much more likely for the remainder of the game but they did need more luck to get the win when Salomon Kalou was off-side late in the piece when he poked home.

Chelsea probably should have had a penalty just before the 70-minute mark when Spurs defender Younes Kaboul clattered into the back of Florent Malouda but nonetheless, the three points will stand for Carlo Ancelotti’s men.

The win has put the Blues within three points of Premiership favourites Manchester United, who meet third-placed Arsenal at the Emirates tomorrow, whilst the loss made Tottenham’s chances of finishing in the top four extremely difficult as they sit four points behind Manchester City who have played a game less and meet bottom-of-the-table West Ham United at home tomorrow.

Chelsea: 2 (Frank Lampard 45’, Salomon Kalou 88’)
Tottenham Hotspur: 1 (Sandro 19’)

Venue: Stamford Bridge, London
Crowd: 41,681
Referee: Andre Marriner
Yellow cards: CHE - Branislav Ivanovic 38’, Didier Drogba 49’, John Terry 70’
TOT - Roman Pavlyuchenko 57’

It was a fairly tame beginning to the match until Didier Drogba sparked some life into proceedings with a brilliant free-kick attempt from long range which dipped and swerved but was finger-tipped onto the crossbar by Spurs keeper Heurelho Gomes.

Immediately after, Michael Essien tried his luck from way outside the area but Gomes was up to the task after the sighter and managed a comfortable save as Chelsea made their intentions clear.

GOAL In the 19th minute, Tottenham’s Rafael van der Vaart creatively flicked a ball into the path of defensive midfielder Sandro who produced a piece of magic when he hit a dripping volley from the best part of 25 yards which Petr Cech got a finger to but could not divert it away from the back of the net. It put the visitors a goal ahead but for some reason manager Harry Redknapp was not all too pleased with the Brazilian who he clearly wants to remain in a defensive position rather than venture forward.

Four minutes after the goal, the Blues were close to being level when Essien headed goalward from close range but Gomes was able to parry it over the bar before Fernando Torres should have done much better from the ensuing corner when the ball fell to him unmarked at the back post.

Not a lot was happening in the way of goalscoring chances as the half progressed with both sides trying to find a way through but in saying that, it was a good match to watch between the London rivals.

GOAL Right on the stroke of half-time, Frank Lampard tried his luck from 30 yards with Gomes making a now customary error with the ball somehow slipping through his grip and trickling through his legs. As it went goalward, the Brazilian scrambled to keep it out and appeared to have flicked it back to safety but the linesman paid the goal much to the dismay of the Spurs fans and players to make it 1-1 just prior to the half-time whistle.

Eight minutes into the second half, Drogba got hold of a shot from long range which tested Gomes to the full as the Blues striker tried to get his side up and about again but the mid-stages of the second 45 minutes were much like that of the first with neither side creating much in the way of out-and-out chances.

Drogba again took a free-kick from a long distance and the dipping shot caused problems for Gomes, who was down on confidence after his earlier error. The deflection from the Brazilian’s gloves fell for substitute Ramires but it came at him at such a pace that he could do little more than knock it over the crossbar.

Chelsea were unlucky not to get a penalty with just over 20 minutes to go when Younes Kaboul felled Florent Malouda in the area as he bore down on goal but referee Andre Marriner waved away the protests as the chants from the Blues fans against the match official rang around Stamford Bridge.

The home side were looking the more likely to score with plenty of forward forays as Spurs found it hard to get clear in their final third.

GOAL That goal came with just over a minute to go in regular time when they basically barged their way through for the winner when Lampard slipped a ball through for substitute Nicolas Anelka who glanced it on for Drogba. The Ivorian striker turned his marker in the area before getting a mediocre shot off but fortunately it fell into the path of Salomon Kalou, who had been brought on just after the hour-mark, and he did the rest with a simple finish from the top of the six-yard box and the goal stood despite calls for off-side.

That was enough for Chelsea to hold onto all three points and keep their title hopes alive with league leaders Manchester United heading to Arsenal tomorrow.

Starting Line-Ups

Chelsea
Petr Cech (gk) – Branislav Ivanovic, John Terry, David Luiz, Ashley Cole – John Obi Mikel, Frank Lampard, Michael Essien (Ramires 57’), Florent Malouda (Anelka 73’) – Didier Drogba, Fernando Torres (Kalou 63’)

Subs - Ross Turnbull (gk), Ramires (57’), Samolon Kalou (63’), Nicolas Anelka (73’), Yossi Benayoun, Yuri Zhirkov, Alex

Tottenham
Heurelho Gomes (gk) – Younes Kaboul, William Gallas, Michael Dawson, Vedran Corluka (Pienaar 79’) – Luka Modric, Sandro, Gareth Bale, Aaron Lennon – Rafael van der Vaart (Jenas 85’), Roman Pavlyuchenko (Defoe 58’)

Subs - Carlo Cudicini (gk), Jermain Defoe (58’), Steven Pienaar (79’), Jermaine Jenas (85’), Peter Crouch, Sebastien Bassong, Danny Rose

 

Click here for the No1 coverage of all the gossip and transfer news around Chelsea.

 

Click here for the No1 coverage of all the gossip and transfer news around Tottenham.

Chelsea's title defence had always felt tinged with desperation, an optimistic pursuit from what was once deemed a hopeless position, but now it feels fuelled with conviction. A late win against bitter rivals here has moved the holders to within three points of Manchester United at the top, with a trip to the leaders to come next Sunday. Sir Alex Ferguson had left 15 minutes before the final whistle; he may just have heard the raucous confirmation of Salomon Kalou's winner as he got to his car.

It even feels as if fortune is favouring Chelsea now. Their equaliser, pilfered on the stroke of half-time, was laced with controversy. Tottenham Hotspur – and television replays – were insistent that Frank Lampard's attempt had not crept entirely over the line after Heurelho Gomes's horrible handling error. That the goal was given deflated Spurs, with their own pursuit of the top four now looking desperate. For Chelsea, there is belief where previously there was only vague hope.

So fine were the margins for both these sides that the sense had always been something would have to give here. The momentum had apparently all been Chelsea's, their surge in the league over recent weeks, with seven wins in eight unbeaten league matches leading up to this derby, having thrust them within sight of United at the top. Yet, given the game of catch-up in which they were embroiled, any minor slip, any hint of hesitancy or loss of concentration was always going to jettison their chances. By the interval, the home players were wondering if they had benefited from precisely that.

Tottenham, their pursuit of fourth place having stalled in recent weeks, had established an unlikely lead early on and could sense the half-time whistle was near when Lampard shot optimistically from distance. The ball may have swerved in flight, but it was still collectible only for Gomes, a goalkeeper prone to the odd high-profile aberration amid the eye-catching saves, to allow it to slip through his grasp as he crouched to gather. The ball bobbled back, dribbling towards the line before he could paw it away with his right hand. Spurs were momentarily stunned, perhaps as much by the mistake as the resultant controversy, but the linesman Mike Cairns was already edging back towards the halfway line – far from convincingly – with the goal duly given.

Realisation left the visitors apoplectic, their protests waved away by Andre Marriner, with the home support delivering a mocking chorus of Gomes's name. Replays suggested the officials may indeed have erred favourably on Chelsea's side, with the post blocking some views and the re-runs filmed from above suggesting Gomes had just recovered to ensure the ball was not completely over the line. Yet Spurs departed aggrieved, the balance of the game redressed and their early lead wrecked.

That had been eked out against the run of play. Carlo Ancelotti had incorporated Fernando Torres and Didier Drogba into his favoured adaptation of 4-3-3, buoyed by the Spaniard's first goal for the club the previous Saturday, and there had been enough energetic zip to Chelsea's front trio in the opening exchanges. Drogba had lashed a 35-yard free-kick on to the bar, via Gomes's fingertips. Spurs, their backline makeshift and apparently vulnerable, appeared there for the taking. Yet Chelsea's concentration had wavered. Gareth Bale's throw-in was flicked on by Rafael van der Vaart for Sandro, evading Torres, to collect and strike a blistering half-volley that ripped through Petr Cech's attempt to save.

That was the 22-year-old's first goal for Tottenham following his £6.5m move from Internacional – he has never been prolific, even if those he had scored in Brazil had invariably been spectacular – with his reaction instinctively to charge over to Harry Redknapp in the technical area in celebration. There he was greeted not with praise but a stinging rebuke, the Spurs manager unimpressed that his defensive midfielder had meandered so far into enemy territory. Free spirits are not permitted in that role. Sandro was overworked thereafter, shielding the rejigged backline as best he could, even if Michael Essien and Torres might have clawed Chelsea level before Lampard did.

There was a spikiness to the contest thereafter, Spurs content to hit on the break while the hosts summoned what energy and intent they could to conjure a winner. Torres's withdrawal just after the hour-mark suggested Ancelotti had been ill-advised to change a winning side, even if Kalou's first touch as his replacement was to slice high and wide after Gomes, panic stricken, had failed to deal with Drogba's free‑kick. Yet the substitute would have his moment.

The game had entered its final 90 seconds when Lampard, Nicolas Anelka and Drogba combined as Spurs back-pedalled with the Ivorian's shot squirting across the area. Kalou, in space in the six-yard box, had time to collect and steer in a winner. The goal prompted a minor pitch invasion, the final whistle greeted soon afterwards with riotous delight. United beware at Old Trafford on Sunday; Chelsea's pursuit is gathering pace.

THE FANS' PLAYER RATINGS AND VERDICT

TONY GLOVER, OleOle.com/blogs/Chelsea blogs This was a fantastic result. There is no sweeter feeling than beating Spurs and it's even funnier that one of the goals didn't cross the line and the other was offside. Hilarious. Everyone played well today but for me Mikel was the best player on the pitch. Now we are right up there with United and might even nick the title.

The fan's player ratings Cech 7; Ivanovic 8, David Luiz 8, Terry 8, Cole 8; Essien 6 (Ramires 57 7), Mikel 9, Lampard 7; Drogba 8, Torres 8 (Kalou 62 7), Malouda 6 (Anelka 73 7)

DAVE MASON, Observer reader Two terrible decisions against us. I don't understand what system was in place to award that ball over the line. But what the hell was Gomes doing for the goal? I've lost all patience with him. One win in 11 games, that's the sort of form we had when we brought Redknapp in as manager.

The fan's player ratings Gomes 3; Kaboul 6, Gallas 8, Dawson 7, Corluka 6 (Pienaar 78 n/a); Lennon 1, Sandro 9, Modric 6, Bale 3; Van der Vaart 6 (Jenas 85 n/a); Pavlyuchenko 6 (Defoe 58 6)

To take part in the Fans' Verdict, email sport@observer.co.uk

Chelsea have gone second on the table thanks to a 3-1 victory over Birmingham City at Stamford Bridge tonight.

The Londoners were in control for much of the 90 minutes, especially after Florent Malouda put them ahead in the third minute and when Salomon Kalou made it 2-0 after 26, it was almost already lights out for the visitors.

Malouda’s second just after the hour-mark gave the home side the points although they did have a late scare when Matt Derbyshire won a penalty and Seb Larsson put it away to make it 3-1 in the 77th minute.

But Carlo Ancelotti’s men did enough in the end to replace Arsenal in second on the table because of goal difference and they are now six points behind title favourites Manchester United thanks to their fifth win in their last six league outings.

Birmingham’s season is still in the balance after the defeat as they sit just five points clear of the drop zone in 14th position.

Chelsea: 3 (Florent Malouda 3’/62’, Salomon Kalou 26’)
Birmingham City: 1 (Sebastian Larsson (p) 77’)

Venue: Stamford Bridge, London
Crowd: 40,848
Referee: Michael Jones
Yellow cards: CHE - nil
BC - Stuart Parnaby 49’

GOAL Things started perfectly for the home side when Paolo Ferreira sent an enticing ball in from the right for Didier Drogba who provided a deadly flick-on for Florent Malouda who was the recipient and fired home from close range in just the third minute.

Frank Lampard came close for Chelsea in the 12th minute with an attempt from just outside the box that just missed the top right corner about eight minutes prior to his teammate Petr Cech making a vital save when Birmingham’s Cameron Jerome unleashed a powerful drive which the Czech international managed to turn around the post.

Drogba tried his luck with a dipping, swerving shot in the 24th minute before the Blues went two ahead thanks to a piece of Kalou brilliance.
GOAL The Ivory Coast international received a short pass from national teammate Drogba outside the area before making a arced run across the top of the box, beating off some would-be tacklers in the process, and curling a shot between the right-hand post and Ben Foster to make it 2-0.

The 36th minute saw Foster get his left hand to a Drogba attempt after the big striker received a long ball from the Chelsea defence which split two Birmingham defenders but his first-time shot from 20 yards was dealt with by the visiting keeper.

Birmingham kept taking it up to the home side but Chelsea were clearly on top with their forward advances looking much more dangerous as half-time approached.

Chelsea continued on their merry way in the second half and just over 15 minutes in they were 3-0 up when Malouda struck again.
GOAL Debutant Ryan Bertran, who had earlier replaced Ashley Cole, was the supplier with a lovely cross from the left flank for Malouda who headed home in the 62nd minute to essentially wrap up proceedings.

After the home side’s third goal, a bit of sting went out of the contest apart from whenever Bertrand got the ball as the Stamford Bridge faithful showed their appreciation for the 21-year old left-back.

However, Birmingham managed to claw one back with just over 10 minutes remaining when David Luiz brought down substitute Matt Derbyshire in the area.
GOA After some confusion, Swedish winger Sebastian Larsson stepped up to the spot and hammered the ball down the centre of the goal giving Cech no chance to make it 3-1.

Derbyshire had a good chance just under five minutes after the penalty but skewed his shot wide before Chelsea should have scored when opposing keeper Foster inexplicably picked up a backpass from Roger Johnson giving the home side a free-kick from about six yards.

But the ball was teed up for Drogba who put it over the crossbar from close range as the match petered right out at the end.

Starting Line-Ups

Chelsea
Petr Cech (gk) – Paolo Ferreira, David Luiz, John Terry, Ashley Cole (Bertrand 57’) – Michael Essien, John Obi Mikel, Frank Lampard – Salomon Kalou, Didier Drogba, Florent Malouda (Anelka 68’)

Subs - Ross Turnbull (gk), Ryan Bertrand (57’), Fernando Torres (67’), Nicolas Anelka (68’), Yossi Benayoun, Yuri Zhirkov, Branislav Ivanovic

Birmingham
Ben Foster (gk) – Stephen Carr, Roger Johnson, Liam Ridgewell, Stuart Parnaby (Davies 80’) – Sebastian Larsson, Craig Gardner, Barry Ferguson, Keith Fahey – Alexander Hleb (Bentley 70’), Cameron Jerome (Derbyshire 70’)

Subs - Colin Doyle (gk), David Bentley (70’), Matt Derbyshire (70’), Curtis Davies (80’), Lee Bowyer, Kevin Phillips, Jean Beausejour

 

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Click here for the No1 coverage of all the gossip and transfer news around Birmingham City.

Manchester United will not be quaking in their boots just yet but Chelsea, with little fanfare and virtually unnoticed, are creeping back into contention. The defending champions strolled to victory here, the ease at which they had brushed Birmingham City aside even reflected in passages of sloppiness after the interval that had Carlo Ancelotti pacing his technical area in frustration. Complacency cannot be tolerated but, privately, the Italian will be buoyed. Perhaps even optimistic.

This win, and Arsenal's inability to retain a two-goal lead at Tottenham Hotspur, meant the champions rose to second place having now claimed 19 points from the last 21 available. The implications of that sequence had rather been lost amid the desperate sense of deflation that abounded following their elimination from Europe, but confidence is seeping back into this side's league form. United have still to visit the Emirates and, a week later on 8 May, Chelsea travel to Old Trafford for what may yet be a decisive fixture. The management will still preach caution, insisting the defence was lost in a mid-season slump, but possibilities remain.

There was a refreshing verve to Chelsea's play for long periods that suggested they are a side who had accepted that their principal objective – the defence of their title – may just be beyond them. Recognising as much, as Ancelotti had done publicly on the eve of this fixture, has offered them an opportunity to revel in the freedom of their run-in, even if some targets remain. John Terry had used his programme notes to stress that "the minimum aim for us, at this stage, is third place". Yet with each performance this assured and rewarding, this squad will allow themselves to wonder if the unlikeliest of pursuits could yet allow them to overhaul those above.

This had been billed as an awkward occasion, thrusting the hosts against the Carling Cup winners who have their own lingering concerns at the other end of the table despite a recent flurry of positive results. Yet any thoughts Alex McLeish's side had entertained of containment, with tactics geared towards frustrating the London side, had been jettisoned in the rat-a-tat of the opening moments. By the interval this game felt as if it had long since been settled and Chelsea, purring at the ease of it all, were threatening a rout.

The lead stood at two goals by then, the advantage established so early as to render City's game plan obsolete. Terry's raking pass to the right had found Paulo Ferreira unmarked and granted so much time that he could recover from stepping on the ball to reposition his body and fling over a centre that prompted panic. Didier Drogba, a player reborn in recent weeks, leapt to flick on at the near post with Florent Malouda bursting ahead of Stephen Carr to score with relish.

The ease with which the goal had been crafted unnerved Birmingham who wilted amid the onslaught. Chelsea were admittedly irresistible in passages, only occasionally exposed by Cameron Jerome's brawn or Sebastian Larsson's invention, to recall memories of their scintillating conclusion to last season. Salomon Kalou rasped in a second having veered smartly away from Roger Johnson and Stuart Parnaby. Ben Foster stood static and aghast as that attempt cannoned in from his post, but was smarter in denying Drogba, twice, and Frank Lampard further reward. Even so, the visitors had retired scorched at the interval, their tactics in tatters.

City, in lower mid-table but only five points clear of the cut-off, could not afford to be embarrassed. The damage inflicted might have been as significant psychologically as it was to their goal difference and theirs remains a tricky run-in, with daunting trips to Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle to come. Johnson's header wide from Larsson's corner hinted at a riposte, but that was born from the hosts' own sloppiness. The sense persisted that Chelsea would have to self-destruct to offer Birmingham any hope, a feeling confirmed when David Luiz needlessly tripped Matt Derbyshire 14 minutes from time for Larsson to score from the spot.

Yet, by then, Chelsea had long since appeared comfortable. Their lead had stretched to three for a while, the substitute Ryan Bertrand having conjured a wonderful cross barely five minutes into his first-team debut for the club for Malouda, unnoticed between centre-halves, to leap and nod in a 13th goal of the season. The visiting centre-halves had dawdled, softened up by Drogba's muscular presence.

There were flashes of the striker of last season who had plundered 37 goals and left defenders' reputations battered and bruised. His has been a timely return to form and fitness, with the introduction of Fernando Torres soon after the third adding to the visitors' concern.

Bastian Schweinsteiger

This is awful. ... First this guy begged to take a picture with me in a way that was both creepy and pitiful and now he's holding the camera so only his face is framed properly and the top of my head will get cut off. ... He'll probably post it on Facebook and write a stupid caption for it like, "Here I am with my pal Schweini. We're going out for a beer later lol." ... His jacket might be the ugliest thing I've ever seen. ... If he thinks I'm smiling for this then he's as dumb as his jacket...

Raymond Domenech

Hahahaha everyone sitting on the other side of me is going to think I'm picking my nose, but I'm not. ... This must be so embarrassing for them...

Fernando Torres

Not scoring is hard and tiring. ... I think I'll take a nap in my coat now. ... Dun-da-na! It's time for another adventure of Fernandooooo Gingerbread. Dun-da-na! ... "Please, Fernando Gingerbread, you must score a goal to stop the mean old Sir Strawberrynose from eating all the treasures!" ... "But I can't! Someone has cast a spell on me and now my powers are no more!" ... "You must use your magic face sprinkles and rainbow sugar, Fernando Gingerbread! Then you can score and stop Sir Strawberrynose!" ... "OK, I'll try." ... This concludes another adventure of Fernandoooooo Gingergrbread! Dun-da-na!...

Didier Drogba

It's time for the disgraces. ... First, everyone keeps talking about Fernando Torres not scoring instead of how I am scoring. That's a unsung f***ing disgrace. ... Then, everyone keeps writing us off in the league this season even though every team is terrible and no one deserves the title. That's a confusing f***ing disgrace. ... Then, Kalou said that Kitier Katba should have a Facebook page because people like him more than me even though he's fat and might have feline diabetes. That's an insulting f***ing disgrace. ... Then, there were those times those referees who probably make ice cream out of fecal matter cheated us out of the Champions League. That...that was a...

Photos: Reuters, Getty Images

Struggling Spaniard will start on the sidelines again with Didier Drogba preferred in attack as the Chelsea looks to secure a Champions League berth.

FOOTBALL - Harry Redknapp veut faire venir l’ancien Marseillais, en partance de Chelsea...

Sources report that Aston Villa's Ashley Young, Chelsea's Didier Drogba, and Manchester United veteran Ryan Giggs were spotted together in a Manchester coffee shop this morning, calmly discussing something or other, over skinny lattes. One source...