Mag 151

CHELSEA FC T H E

O F F I C I A L

C H E L S E A

F O O T B A L L

C L U B

Pedro on why the Blues are equipped for success

HAPPY AT WORK

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M A G A Z I N E

CONTENTS

ISSUE 151 // MARCH 2017

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20 FEBRUARY

A GREAT DAY FOR

CHELSEA It is a remarkable fact that three famous Blues frontmen – Jimmy Greaves, David Speedie and Peter Osgood – were born on the same day of the year. After Ossie’s exploits were featured in last month’s issue, we now take a closer look at the careers of two players who share a special place in our history

DOMESTIC HONOURS Football League/ Premier League champions 1955, 2005, 2006, 2010, 2015 Division Two champions 1984, 1989 FA Cup winners 1970, 1997, 2000, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2012

PIC OF THE MONTH

moment

04 February

MAGICIAN AT WORK One photograph simply does not do justice to Eden Hazard’s sensational solo effort which helped clinch a 3-1 win over Arsenal, so we’ve expanded our Picture of the Month slightly. The Belgian has already got one Goal of the Season trophy in his cabinet and another one could well be heading his way after he showed remarkable balance and poise to dance his way through the Gunners’ rearguard.

Pictures: Darren Walsh

Football League Cup winners 1965, 1998, 2005, 2007, 2015 FA Charity/ Community Shield winners 1955, 2000, 2005, 2009

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Full Members’ Cup winners 1986, 1990

EUROPEAN HONOURS UEFA Champions League winners 2012

07 Blues News 12 Pedro 20 Month Ahead 22 Photo Album 30 The Month That Was 32 Drawing On Experience: Ray Lewington 40 A Great Day for Chelsea 48 Paulo Ferreira 50 Match Action 54 Moment of the Month 56 Month In Numbers 59 Academy 64 Ladies 69 Chelsea Foundation 72 The Curran brothers 76 We Were There 80 Message Board 81 Trophy Trivia 82 King’s Road Boutique MESSAGE BOARD

Where fans show the Chelsea colours, wherever they may be

UEFA Europa League winners 2013

Chelsea won our first League Cup for 33 years when we defeated Middlesbrough in March 1998. How much can you remember about that squad?

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HILDA MUSHA ARABELLA BAKKER Arabella Bakker came to Stamford Bridge earlier this season to see her first-ever Chelsea match and loved every minute. She chose a good day to start, as she witnessed our 2-1 London derby victory over Tottenham Hotspur in November. The 10-year-old especially enjoyed Pedro’s equalising goal against Spurs, as the Spaniard wears the same number as she has on her own shirt, and even loved meeting all her dad’s friends in the pub before the match.

European Cup Winners’ Cup winners 1971, 1998

LILY-GRACE BRIGHT Life has been hard for Tom Munt, who has been a Chelsea supporter since 1946, but left to celebrate our wins alone after being horrified to see his son and two grandsons become Tottenham season ticket holders, and another grandson turn out to be a Liverpool fan. But finally, Tom has some company in the family thanks to great granddaughter Lily-Grace Bright, although it is Chelsea Ladies who have mainly caught her attention so far. The five-year-old is an especially big fan of her namesake in the Ladies team, our 2016 Players’ Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year Millie Bright.

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This photo shows the newest addition to the Chelsea-supporting Musha family, little Hilda, who was born on 5 April last year and instantly introduced to the Blues. She can’t wait to attend her first match at Stamford Bridge alongside her dad David, who is a season ticket holder in the Matthew Harding Stand lower, and her two brothers Roman and Tanny.

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HERE TO HELP

The following telephone numbers and email addresses are here to assist supporters.

General enquiries enquiries@chelseafc.com 0371 811 1955 International +44(0) 20 7386 9373 (Mon-Fri, 8.30am-6pm) 03 numbers are charged at the same rate as local and national rate calls

You can tell from this photo just how much little Alfie Chapman enjoys cheering on the Blues! He likes nothing more than showing his support in his Chelsea kit and especially loves his Stamford the Lion.

Lifelong Chelsea supporter Mick O’Neil passed away in October from a short and sudden illness at the age of 52. Growing up in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, in the Seventies, most of his friends supported Leeds United, but Mick’s passion was always for their big rivals the Blues. After moving to Ladbroke Grove in London, he became a season ticket holder in the Matthew Harding Stand lower and regularly attended games at Stamford Bridge with his friends Corrado, Tony and Aaron. Mick is remembered fondly by family, friends and fellow dog walkers in Notting Hill.

Forever Blue.

3 Tore Andre Flo finished with

exactly 50 goals for Chelsea. How many overseas players have also reached that milestone for the Blues?

Send your details and a picture to: Message Board, Chelsea Football Club, Matchday Programme, Third Floor, Stamford Bridge, London, SW6 1HS

@

Or email them to: cfc.programme@trinitymirror.com

7 Which full-back occupied the No25 shirt for Chelsea prior to Gianfranco Zola’s arrival at the club?

8 After leaving the Blues in 1999, which club did Eddie Newton sign for?

4 Kevin Hitchcock’s testimonial match took place soon after this League Cup final. Which of his former sides provided the opposition?

9 Mark Hughes grew up

supporting Chelsea. Which long-throw specialist was his favourite player?

5 Dan Petrescu’s coaching career has taken him to which five countries?

10 Under how many of his former Blues team-mates

0-5 EXTRA TRAINING SESSION REQUIRED! WANT TO APPEAR ON THE MESSAGE BOARD?

6 Having famously scored after 42 seconds of the 1997 FA Cup final, in which minute did Roberto Di Matteo net in this League Cup final?

6-10 STILL ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT

has Steve Clarke worked as an assistant manager?

11 Frank Leboeuf appeared

in four major cup finals for Chelsea. How many goals did we concede in those matches?

12 Graeme Le Saux was one of three players to be voted into a PFA Premier League Team of the Year during the 1990s while representing Chelsea.

Who were the other two?

13 Ed de Goey set club records for most appearances (59) and clean sheets (27) during a single season, in 1999/2000. Which two players surpassed them?

11-13 EXCELLENT CHELSEA KNOWLEDGE

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Chelsea Magazine produced by Editorial 020 7958 2168 Subscriptions 0845 241 6210 Email cfc.magazine@trinitymirror.com MAGAZINE EDITOR David Antill FEATURES EDITOR Dominic Bliss DEPUTY EDITOR Richard Godden STAFF WRITER James Sugrue SUB-EDITOR Harri Aston DESIGNERS Glen Hind and Ben Renshaw STATISTICIAN Paul Dutton PHOTOGRAPHY Darren Walsh, Getty Images, Hugh Hastings, Chelsea FC Archive, Mirrorpix, PA Images and Mark Sandom PRINTED BY William Gibbons DISTRIBUTED BY Comag THANKS TO Emma Wilkinson, John Barrett, Andy Jones,Ryan Brown and Daniel Wittenberg © Trinity Mirror Sport Media. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced by any means without the written permission of the Copyright owners. Although every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this publication, the publishers cannot accept responsibility for errors or omissions. In the interest of independence and impartiality, many features in this publication have been written by third-party experts. It should be noted that any opinions expressed therein are the views of the writers themselves and not necessarily those of Chelsea FC. Terms and conditions for all competitions appearing in this magazine are available on request.

Customer feedback including complaints customer.services@chelseafc.com Supporter Liaison Officer slo@chelseafc.com

MICK O’NEIL

ALFIE CHAPMAN

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1. Southampton 2. Stoke City 3. Eight 4. Nottingham Forest 5.Romania, Poland, Russia, Qatar and China 6. 107th 7. Terry Phelan 8. Birmingham City 9. Ian Hutchinson 10. Three (Ruud Gullit – Newcastle, Gianfranco Zola – West Ham, Roberto Di Matteo – Aston Villa) 11. Zero 12. Andy Townsend and Ruud Gullit 13. Frank Lampard and Petr Cech

UEFA Super Cup winners 1998

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TEST YOUR CHELSEA KNOWLEDGE...

1 At which club was Dennis Wise a trainee before being released and joining Wimbledon?

We may have suffered a defeat when Liverpool came to Stamford Bridge earlier this season, but David Chester still left with a smile on his face all the way home. While walking past the Megastore at our stadium he noticed out of the corner of his eye none other than his favourite diminutive Italian – club legend Gianfranco Zola. Needless to say, he took the opportunity to grab a photograph with the former Blues forward, although it might not have gone down quite so well with David’s girlfriend, as Zola has now replaced her as the background image on his phone!

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2 Frank Sinclair recently became assistant Under-23s manager at which club, linking up with one of his former team-mates from this team?

DAVID CHESTER

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Chelsea FC’s Global Charity Partner

FOUNDATION

Chelsea FC’s anti-discrimination campaign

Chelsea FC is a supporter of...

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"We all get on very well and that has built our confidence.

Spending time together and having a good friendship has converted into a good relationship on the pitch" Read our Pedro interview on page 12

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Principal Partner

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BLUES NEWS

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@chelseafc

China to host Blues friendly against Gunners Chelsea will play Arsenal in a London derby with a difference at China’s national stadium on 22 July.

We will visit Asia this summer to prepare for the 2017/18 season, including our first match against the Gunners to take place outside the British Isles at Beijing’s Bird’s Nest stadium, which opened for the 2008 Olympic Games and has a capacity of 80,000.

It will be our first visit to mainland China since 2008, when we won matches in Guangzhou and Macau, although we have since lifted the Premier League Asia Trophy in Hong Kong in 2011.

We last faced Arsenal outside London in the 2007 League Cup final in Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium, when Theo Walcott’s opener was cancelled out by a Didier Drogba brace to win the game for the Blues.

Antonio Conte said: “I have seen already the passion our supporters have for Chelsea here in England and last summer in America, and I believe our fans in China will show the same intensity when we are in Beijing.”

Chelsea Chairman Bruce Buck added: “We’re thrilled to be announcing this match in China against one of our biggest London rivals. It will be an important step in helping Antonio and his staff ready the team for next season, and we hope it will provide some reward for our Chinese fans who show huge commitment all year round to support Chelsea.”

The match will be screened live on www.chelseafc.com and Chelsea TV, with ticket news to follow soon.

RETURN VISIT TO AUSTRALIA CONFIRMED FOR NEXT YEAR Chelsea Football Club will return to Australia in 2018 when we play at the brand new Perth Stadium.

The Blues will meet A-League team Perth Glory ahead of the 2018/19 season, with plans for a public training session at the stadium ahead of the match.

We last travelled Down Under in 2015 when we beat Sydney FC 1-0 in front of 83,598 fans – a record crowd for a football match at the ANZ Stadium – just days after lifting the Premier League trophy.

Following that game on the east coast, we will now visit Western Australia’s Perth Stadium, a state-of-the-art 65,000-seater venue scheduled to open early next year.

NEWS IN

BRIEF

“This is a very exciting opportunity for Chelsea to play in front of some of our most passionate supporters,” said Chelsea Chairman Bruce Buck.

“We were delighted with the reception we received in Sydney when we visited in 2015, and now we can look forward to the same in Western Australia.

“We anticipate an excellent match against Perth Glory in what promises to be a fantastic new venue for the city.”

Final details of the match will be announced in due course, so look out for more updates at www.chelseafc.com in the coming weeks.

The following players have moved on loan until the end of the season: Fikayo Tomori (right) has joined Brighton & Hove Albion, while Academy players Mukhtar Ali and Miro Muheim have signed for Dutch side Vitesse Arnhem and Swiss club FC Zurich respectively.

WOLVERHAMPTON TRIP IN FA CUP FIFTH ROUND Chelsea have been drawn to play Wolverhampton Wanderers away in the FA Cup fifth round.

We will travel to Molineux to take on Wolves in the last 16 on Saturday 18 February, with kick-off at 5.30pm. Our first match against the Black Country side since September 2012 is being shown live on BT Sport 2.

We secured our progress to this stage with a 4-0 win over Brentford. Wolves have twice beaten Premier League opposition in the competition this season, knocking out Stoke City and Liverpool.

Patrick Bamford has joined Middlesbrough and Dion Conroy has signed for Swindon Town, both on permanent deals. We thank Patrick and Dion for their service and wish them well in their future careers.

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A LONG DISTANCE RELATIONSHIP THAT WORKS. Together since 1978 and still going strong. Delta is more committed than ever to the UK, now offering up to 40 flights* daily to the USA.

DELTA.COM

*Schedule as at summer 2017. Some flights are operated by our partner, Virgin Atlantic. © 2017 Delta Air Lines, Inc.

BLUES NEWS

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@chelseafc

Branislav Ivanovic celebrates his goal against Napoli in 2012 and, below, with the Europa League trophy we won the following year

Farewell to Ivanovic, a true Chelsea legend Branislav Ivanovic has joined Zenit St Petersburg following a wonderful nineyear Chelsea career, during which time he became an integral member of the side and scored many important goals as we won eight major trophies.

Ivanovic will be best remembered for his last-gasp header which clinched the Europa League trophy in 2013, but his overall contribution during the club’s most successful years cannot be understated and he departs as a true Chelsea legend.

The 32-year-old ends his time at the club having won two Premier League titles, one Champions League, one Europa League, three FA Cups and one League Cup since joining from Lokomotiv Moscow in 2008.

He is also one of only five foreign players – along with Didier Drogba, John Mikel Obi, Petr Cech and Gianfranco Zola – to reach the 300-game landmark for the Blues.

His 2011/12 campaign will live long in the memory as we were crowned kings of Europe after beating Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena. Though Ivanovic missed the Champions League final itself through suspension, the part he played in helping us get there will never be forgotten by the Chelsea faithful, including his decisive extratime strike against Napoli in the last 16 and heroic defending across the two legs of the semi-final with Barcelona.

That was in addition to helping us to victory in the 2012 FA Cup final while covering at centre-back, with Gary Cahill and David Luiz both missing through injury.

After making his Chelsea debut in a League Cup win at Portsmouth in 2008 it did not take long for the Blues supporters to warm to him, as his two near-identical headers in front of a stunned Kop helped us to a crucial 3-1 Champions League win at Anfield. He ended the following campaign with Premier League and FA Cup winners’ medals, as well as a place in the PFA Team of the Season.

Ivanovic was outstanding during the title-winning campaign of 2014/15 and played all but a few minutes of the 38 games. The Blues boasted the best defensive record in the league and he was one of six Chelsea players named in the Team of the Season. He also booked our place in the League Cup final with a thumping extra-time header against Liverpool.

He ended his Chelsea career in style, smashing in a goal against Brentford in his final game. In total, he found the net 34 times in his 377 Chelsea appearances.

Highly valued by both team-mates and supporters, Ivanovic will undoubtedly go down as one of the Chelsea greats.

• You can see some of the best images from Ivanovic’s time with Chelsea in Photo Album from page 22 09

BLUES NEWS

Lampard brings an end to illustrious career Chelsea legend Frank Lampard has announced his retirement from football.

The former Blues midfielder spent 13 years at Stamford Bridge after joining from West Ham United in 2001 and played a huge role in helping us lift 11 major trophies – the Champions League, Europa League, four FA Cups, two League Cups and three Premier League titles.

He left Chelsea as our highest scorer of all time, netting 211 goals in 648 matches in all competitions, with 83 of those appearances coming as captain, including the victorious Champions League and Europa League finals in 2012 and 2013.

After making the decision to hang up his boots, Lampard said: “I will never forget the opportunity Chelsea gave me and the success we managed to achieve together. It is impossible to give thanks individually to all the people that helped and supported me in my 13 years playing there. All I can say is, from the day I signed until now and going forward, I’m eternally grateful for everything and to everyone.

“Chelsea fans gave myself and my team-mates such incredible support.

Their passion and hunger drove me on personally to give my best year after year. I couldn’t have done it without them.”

SHARE YOUR MEMORIES Fans are being asked to share their favourite memories of supporting the Blues, with the best responses becoming part of the club’s membership offering for next season.

Every fan has their own special moment that stands out in their mind, whether it comes from Munich in 2012, Wembley in 1997, Stamford Bridge in 1955 or something completely personal such as a first away trip or meeting a hero, and we want to hear them all.

To take part and help shape the 2017/18 memberships, just share your personal memory at www.chelseafc.com.

NEWS IN

BRIEF 10

Frank Lampard with the Champions League trophy in 2012

CHECK OUT THE CLUB’S NEW HOTEL BOOKING PARTNER Chelsea Football Club is delighted to announce HotelTonight as our new official hotel booking partner.

HotelTonight is the leading mobile app for last-minute rooms and offers availability in more than 1,700 cities worldwide, making it remarkably easy to book deals from your phone. The relationship sees HotelTonight become our first mobile app partner.

The partnership will allow Chelsea fans to turn a fantastic result on the pitch into a great weekend off it. The HotelTonight Gianfranco Zola app features GeoRates, allowing greater on stage discounts for customers in certain locations

In a football first, Snapchat and Chelsea FC have teamed up to launch a new lens which lets our supporters paint their faces Blue and head a Chelsea football in real time, with Cesc Fábregas (right) among the first to give it a go.

such as airports, train stations and at Stamford Bridge.

You can download the HotelTonight app on iOS and Android devices.

Two of our Premier League matches in March have been moved due to live broadcast on Sky Sports. We now face West Ham away at 8pm on Monday 6 March and host Watford at Stamford Bridge at 8pm on Monday 13 March, subject to involvement in the FA Cup sixth round.

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@chelseafc

Ladies open campaign with visit to Manchester The competition runs until the summer, when the Blues conclude with back-to-back away games, against Bristol City on Wednesday 31 May and Birmingham City on Saturday 3 June.

Chelsea Ladies season tickets for the Spring Series are on sale now at www.chelseafc.com/tickets priced just £15 for adults and £7.50 for concessions.

The season tickets give supporters entry to all four home fixtures in the Spring Series, as well as any home matches in the Women’s FA Cup fifth and sixth rounds, which take place in March.

The fixtures for the FA Women’s Super League Spring Series have been announced, with Chelsea Ladies’ campaign beginning with an away trip to Manchester City.

Last season’s top two will come face to face on Sunday 23 April. Our first home game in the one-off league, which sees each top-flight club playing each other once, takes place a week later when we host Yeovil Town at Wheatsheaf Park on Sunday 30 April.

Our other home matches in the competition all fall in one month, as we host Notts County on Sunday 7 May, Arsenal on Wednesday 17 May and Liverpool on Sunday 28 May.

• You can find more on Chelsea Ladies and a full fixture list starting on page 64

CHELSEA’S LINK-UP WITH DEODORANT BRAND A SURE THING Chelsea Football Club is delighted to announce Sure as our new official personal care partner – and Eden Hazard will become an ambassador for the UK’s number one deodorant brand.

Sure products will feature in the Chelsea changing room from now on, both on matchdays at Stamford Bridge and at our Cobham training ground.

As part of their commitment to Premier League football, Sure recently launched the Goal Pressure Index, analysing a player’s performance at key moments in a game. As the season progresses, Sure will be creating regular content on its football-dedicated Twitter channel, with fans gaining the opportunity to win tickets to matches at Stamford Bridge.

BLUES STAR HONOURED FOR SENSATIONAL FORM Diego Costa (pictured) has been honoured in the EA Sports Fantasy Premier League Half-Time awards.

With an impressive 14 goals and five assists before the New Year, Diego Costa received the award for the player who had seen his value increase the most since the start of the season.

Shortly after being named as the winner of the award, Diego Costa took to the pitch at Stamford Bridge to complete his century of matches with the Blues, marking the occasion by opening the scoring in our 2-0 victory over Hull City.

Bertrand Traore (right) and Christian Atsu were both named in the Team of the Tournament at the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations. Traore helped Burkina Faso finish third, beating Atsu’s Ghana in the play-off.

Chelsea Under-18s will play away from home against Leicester City in the quarter-finals of the FA Youth Cup, with all matches to be completed by Saturday 25 February.

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PRACTICE Words | Dominic Bliss Pictures | Darren Walsh

PEDRO MAKES

One of the most dedicated professionals in the game, PEDRO has been in splendid form for the Blues. As he targets his first silverware in English football, he tells us how his hard work on the training ground is paying off

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Pedro

THIS IS THE BEST MOMENT FOR ME AT THIS CLUB, AND ALSO THE BEST MOMENT FOR THE WHOLE TEAM SINCE I’VE BEEN HERE

I

t is the week of our momentous league games against Liverpool and Arsenal, and Pedro has arrived early ahead of an afternoon training session at Cobham. He has a few things he wants to do before he goes out into the grey, late-January outdoors and onto one of the four pitches which precisely replicate the playing surface at Stamford Bridge, but he has put aside some time to speak to Chelsea magazine ahead of his pre-training routine.

The 29-year-old is upbeat as he takes a seat with us in a quiet corner on the ground floor of the main first-team building, between the players’ entrance and the dressing room. He is fresh off the back of scoring four goals in January, a month in which he also proved himself to be as effective at wing-back as he is in his usual role just behind the striker, and he believes 14

he is in his best form since moving to Chelsea in the summer of 2015.

All in all, then, Pedro is in a good place at the moment, but all this hasn’t happened by chance. The Canarian forward is one of the most dedicated professionals in the game – he manages to combine hard work, humility and flair in one lethal package, and all of it is underpinned by enormous talent. You don’t win 22 major trophies at the top level of world football without having something special and right now he is flourishing as he targets his first silverware in English football.

“This is the best moment for me at this club, and also the best moment for the whole team since I’ve been here,” he tells us.

“Always, in training, it is about hard work, especially with this coach, when we have to work on many aspects we will need during the games. We are running more, working hard on different situations that will come up and also working on shooting. So we are doing all these things in training, but the

most important thing is that everybody is putting in the hard work. We are working together for the same things and it’s easier to focus in the games when you are playing with confidence.”

The day-to-day grind may not sound like the most glamorous aspect of Premier League football, but the players obviously find it satisfying when they can see tangible results. There are few things more rewarding than seeing something the whole squad have worked at on the training ground come off on a matchday, and Antonio Conte’s relentless attitude towards winning keeps driving him and his players forward. In fact, it’s clear Pedro shares that mentality.

“It’s not difficult to motivate myself every day,” he says, “and my motivation is always the same. The main objective is to win the title and you cannot do this without starting each game compact and focused, so doing this is what motivates me. I’ve always been the same, since I was a kid. When we start a game, I’m very concentrated on my work and on helping the team.”

The effort Pedro puts into every match is easy to see. He never seems to stop running and when it comes to pressing from the front, he is a great example. He puts opposition defenders under pressure and chases lost causes so hard he often ends up proving them not to be lost causes after all.

But the excitement comes when he is on the ball. Yes, he is purposeful in possession too, but it’s the lightning turns, the sudden bursts of acceleration and the quick, tricksy feet that get us off our seats week after week. In other words, he is a coach’s dream, but also a spectator’s, and he plays with a smile on his face, too.

Slotting home our second goal against Brentford in the FA Cup fourth round

“Yes, it’s true, and I’m very happy here,” he says, breaking out into the very smile he is discussing.

“It’s a good situation when you are top of the league and progressing in the FA Cup. We are on the right path.

“Last year was a difficult one for me, for the club, for the team, but this year is different. With this coach, all the team is focused on the fight for the title, with more confidence for every game, and this is good.

It’s a completely different season.

“Every day, I’m more comfortable with the team, with my team-mates, with the club and I have a good relationship with the supporters. All is good for me here and I’m very happy with the situation.”

Part of his contentment is down to his improved grasp of the specific demands of English football and the way in which he has adapted his game and his mentality to deal with them.

“I understand the Premier League more now,” he says. “It’s very different compared to Spain but now I’m in my second year here and I understand the football.

It’s quicker, more intense and more competitive.

“For me, it’s different now I have adapted.

I have to run a lot, play harder and I’m very quick, which helps me in the games here in England. There are more crosses into the box, and everything happens very quickly, which is good for the players and the spectators.

“Spain is different,” he continues. “It’s more tactical, it’s more about passing the ball and developing something. Here it’s quicker when you attack, and everything is different.

You have to change mentally and it’s difficult to adapt at first, but I have changed, I have done that now.

“Then, when you go back to play for the national team, you really feel this difference, 15

Pedro

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Celebrating the first of his two goals against Peterborough

you can see an improvement from the physical side. Spanish football is more about technique, about the touch of the ball and the way you play, but here in England you can add pace and power to your game.

“It’s a good moment for me now. I feel really good on the pitch, I’m scoring goals, and I’m connecting well with my teammates.”

Pedro’s goalscoring form has notably improved recently. At the beginning of February he had eight goals to his name, half of which were scored since the turn of the new year. There was never any question about his composure in front of goal, but he seems to be getting into the opposition penalty area more often in his slightly more central role in the 3-4-3 or 3-4-2-1 favoured

by Conte.

“I always think about how I can score a goal and help my team, so when I have a chance I try to score, I try to help my team – this is my job,” he says.

I’M PLAYING A LOT MORE ON THE INSIDE NOW THAN I WAS LAST SEASON. I AM GETTING ON THE BALL AND RECEI V I NG PASSES MORE CENTRALLY, AND GETTING IN MORE GOALSCORING POSITIONS AS WELL

“It’s true, I’m playing a lot more on the inside now than I was last season. I am getting on the ball and receiving passes more centrally, and getting in more goalscoring positions as well – obviously my team-mates are helping me to do this.”

That answer, while not untrue, is a typically humble one. It is not only his teammates’ vision, but his own clever movement that is helping the Spain international find the spaces where he can do the most damage. Much of his best work is done off the ball, phantom runs which allow him to ghost in unnoticed as one of our other attacking players make their way into the penalty area. How many times have you seen Pedro, unmarked, offering the square pass to Diego Costa, Eden Hazard or Willian this season?

“This movement comes from training,” he explains. “We work every day to improve our movement in these situations in the game. So now, when the team is in good 17

Pedro

Receiving a congratulatory hug from head coach Antonio Conte after our home win against Bournemouth

HE’S A VERY GOOD COACH, WITH A GOOD IDEA OF FOOTBALL AND GOOD CHARACTER ALSO. THIS HELPS ME BECAUSE I WORK ON MORE SITUATIONS, MORE MOVEMENT

form and our confidence is high, it’s easier to get your movement right in dangerous situations. I have more confidence with every game and I’m very comfortable with my team-mates on the pitch.”

He is also very comfortable working with Conte, whose thorough training methods appear to be bringing the best out of Pedro. Asked to pinpoint what makes our head coach so effective, he highlights the meticulousness of each session.

“He’s a very good coach, with a good idea of football and good character also. This helps me because I work on more situations, more movement. He tells me in training, ‘For this moment, be here... be there’, and it helps me a lot.

“We train hard, both tactically and physically, but we do a lot of ball work as well – we work on bringing the ball out. I think that’s enabling us to get better and also work better as a team.

“He’s very detailed in training and it’s important for the team to be focused because we are competing for the Premier

League and also the FA Cup. Both of these competitions are very important for us.”

As he speaks to us, Pedro’s team-mates gradually arrive at the training ground and as they walk past, each one starts to grin or laugh as they see him already changed and doing an interview. There are a few playful shouts – “Oh my word!” – and mock interruptions, and all of them reach out to Pedro to offer a handshake or a fist bump.

On several occasions this season, the players have been out together with the coaching and backroom staff and there is a feeling of closeness between them all.

“I think away from the pitch we have a good relationship as well. We all get on very well and that has built our confidence.

Spending time together and having a good friendship has converted into a good relationship on the pitch. It’s good for the team, for the armour of the group. This is a very good time for the team.”

And with that he was up and off to join his mates on the training pitch, putting in the hard yards, and enjoying every second of it.

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MONTH AHEAD FIXTURES & RESULTS 2016/17

ON THE PITCH

August Mon 15 West Ham United

H 2-1

Sat 20 Watford

A 2-1

Tue 23 Bristol Rovers (EFLC second round)

H 3-2

Sat 27 Burnley

H 3-0

September Sun 11 Swansea City

A 2-2

Fri 16

H 1-2

Liverpool

Tue 20 Leicester City (EFLC third round)

A 4-2*

Sat 24 Arsenal

A 0-3

October Sat 1

Hull City

Sat 15 Leicester City Sun 23 Manchester United

A 2-0 H 3-0

18 FEBRUARY

WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS (A) – FA CUP Chelsea last met Wolves in an FA Cup tie in 1994, when Gavin Peacock’s goal secured a 1-0 win on our way to reaching the final for the first time in 24 years.

Wherever They May Be begins at 4.30pm and our reporters will be at Molineux, bringing you all the latest news from within the Blues camp as we look to secure a place in the FA Cup quarter-finals.

H 4-0

Wed 26 West Ham United (EFLC4)

A

Sun 30 Southampton

A 2-0

1-2

November Sat 5

Everton

H

5-0

Sun 20 Middlesbrough

A 1-0

Sat 26 Tottenham Hotspur

H 2-1

December Sat 3

Manchester City

A 3-1

Sun 11 West Bromwich Albion

H 1-0

Wed 14 Sunderland

A 1-0

Sat 17 Crystal Palace

A 1-0

Mon 26 Bournemouth

H 3-0

Sat 31 Stoke City

H

4-2

January Wed 4 Tottenham Hotspur

A 0-2

Sun 8

H 4-1

Peterborough United (FAC third round)

Sat 14 Leicester City

A 3-0

Sun 22 Hull City

H 2-0

Sat 28 Brentford (FAC fourth round)

H 4-0

Tue 31 Liverpool Arsenal

H 3-1

Sun 12 Burnley (1.30pm) Sky

A

Sat 18 Wolves (FAC fifth round, 5.30pm) BT

A -

Sat 25 Swansea City

H

-

-

A

-

March Mon 6 West Ham United (8pm) Sky 10-13

FAC quarter-final

FEBRUARY

Join Jason Cundy and Ben Andrews, who will be reporting live from the gantry from 2pm in Pre-Match At The Bridge. We will also have exclusive interviews with Antonio Conte and the players after the game.

A 1-1

February Sat 4

25

- -

Mon 13 Watford (8pm) Sky

H

-

Sat 18 Stoke City

A

-

SWANSEA CITY (H) – PREMIER LEAGUE The Welsh club have not won a league match at Stamford Bridge since November 1925.

That was their first visit to west London for a game against the Blues.

6 MARCH

WEST HAM UNITED (A) – PREMIER LEAGUE This will be our first Premier League visit to the London Stadium. Our record at their previous home, Upton Park, in league matches saw us win 15 matches, with eight draws and 24 defeats.

In the days leading up to the match, we’ll look back on some classic encounters against the Hammers. Then, tune in from 7pm on the night of the game itself. After the build-up, we’ll have live commentary and reaction after the final whistle.

April Sat 1

Crystal Palace

H

-

Wed 5 Manchester City (7.45pm)

H

-

Sat 8

A

-

Sat 15 Manchester United

A

-

Sat 22 Southampton

H

-

22/23

N -

Bournemouth

FAC semi-final

Sat 29 Everton

A

-

H

-

Sat 13 West Bromwich Albion

A

-

Sun 21 Sunderland

H

-

Sat 27 FAC final

N

-

May Sat 6

Middlesbrough

Fixtures correct at time of going to press and are subject to change. All games kick off at 3pm unless stated.

N - Wembley Stadium. EFLC - English Football League Cup. FAC - FA Cup. *After extra-time.

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13

WATFORD (H) – PREMIER LEAGUE This Monday night match will be rearranged should the Blues defeat Wolves to secure our progress in the FA Cup.

MARCH

As with all our first-team fixtures, a full re-run of the Hornets match will be available to Chelsea TV subscribers, with a variety of highlights packages online for Fan Club members.

chelseafc.com

@chelseafc

OFF THE PITCH

After performing all over North America and Europe, Ali Azimi and his band The Need are back in their home town to play the final show of the Ezzat Ziad tour in one of London’s hottest venues.

What’s more, we’ll have some amazing guest musicians joining the bill – and the after-party will run until 2am at UTB! Friday 24 February is the date for your diary.

Then, on Sunday 5 March, one of the world’s greatest American jazz trumpeters crosses the pond to play a rare UK date. Wayne Bergeron takes centre stage at UTB for a special concert, accompanied by The Craig Wild Big Band, comprising some of the UK’s top jazz musicians.

Last, but by no means least, Atari Teenage Riot come to town on Thursday 16 March. According to NME, they are a band that sounded the way you always wanted The Prodigy to sound. They reformed in 2010 as electrifying as ever, so don’t miss your chance to see them in all their glory.

Visit www.underthebridge.co.uk for more information about all of our upcoming gigs and to book your tickets now.

BLUES BIRTHDAYS

NATHAN AKE 18.2.95 (22)

ALSO ON Ahead of the game against Arsenal, Chelsea TV caught up with Cesc Fàbregas to discuss the art of providing assists for his team-mates.

Cesc Fàbregas – Pass Master is available for Fan Club members to watch in the video-on-demand section at chelseafc.com. It features our Spanish midfielder discussing his qualities on the ball and why being able to supply crucial passes has always been such an integral part of his game.

Fàbregas has played in a number of different positions during his time at Chelsea, Barcelona and Arsenal, but regardless of whether he’s been operating as a deep-lying midfielder, just behind the striker or even slightly wider, his ability to pick a pass and create goalscoring opportunities has always remained.

In the show, Fàbregas explains why he takes so much pleasure from providing assists.

“When you look at statistics, for example, you see a midfielder that plays in my position and you say he has 95 per cent accuracy, he didn’t lose the ball, you

know stuff like that,” he explains. “I will always lose more balls because I take a lot of risks. I like to play final balls, I see the striker on the move and I take the chance.

I could play a simple pass just five yards away from me and keep the ball and play it simple, but that’s not who I am.

“I always like to feed the striker to create chances and to score goals.”

Also, keep an eye out for news of our FA Youth Cup quarter-final against Leicester. Our live coverage of the 4-0 fifth-round win over Sheffield Wednesday was broadcast free on chelseafc.com, and we will be showing the next fixture live as well, with a date still to be confirmed at the time of going to press.

Chelsea TV is available on chelseafc.com with a Fan Club membership. Go to chelseafc.com/join16 for more information on how you can watch Chelsea TV online. You can also watch on television. To join via Sky, call 08442 410 201 or visit www.sky.com/chelseatv.

21

PHOTO ALBUM

22

Days of glory With the Blues saying goodbye to Branislav Ivanovic, John Mikel Obi and Oscar last month, we look back at images of some of the trio’s best moments in a Chelsea shirt...

SITTING PRETTY AFTER EUROPA TRIUMPH Branislav Ivanovic sits on top of the crossbar in front of the Chelsea fans at the Amsterdam ArenA to lead the celebrations after his header won us the 2013 Europa League final against Benfica.

23

PHOTO ALBUM

HATS OFF TO CUP WINNERS 24

Ivanovic lifts the FA Cup on the pitch at Wembley Stadium after helping us win the 2012 final against Liverpool, a match which saw the Serbian put in an excellent performance while filling in at centre-back due to injuries to Gary Cahill and David Luiz.

HEADING FOR VICTORY

Benfica’s hearts are broken in the 2013 Europa League final as Ivanovic leaps highest to send a precise looping header into the far corner of the goal and secure victory for Chelsea deep into injury time.

BETTERING BARCELONA

Ivanovic celebrates with goalscorer Fernando Torres on the Nou Camp pitch at the final whistle of our 2012 Champions League semi-final second leg, after securing a battling victory against Barcelona over two legs.

25

PHOTO ALBUM

TITLE SEALED WITH A KISS

SECOND TO NONE 26

John Terry shows his appreciation for defensive colleague Ivanovic as they celebrate with the Premier League trophy at Stamford Bridge after sealing the 2010 title with victory over Wigan.

Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina is rooted to the spot as he watches the second of Ivanovic’s headed goals fly towards the net in the 2008/09 Champions League semi-final first leg at Anfield.

WINNING FEELING

John Mikel Obi celebrates on the pitch with his team-mates after helping us beat Manchester United 1-0 in the 2007 FA Cup final, the same season the Nigerian won the first of his two Chelsea Young Player of the Year awards.

PLEASED AS PUNCH

Mikel and Salomon Kalou enjoy the occasion on the open-top bus during the victory parade through west London the day after our 2012 Champions League final win over Bayern Munich.

27

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SWEET STRIKE

Oscar makes an impact on his full debut for Chelsea against Juventus in the 2012/13 Champions League group stage, curling in a spectacular effort after his immaculate control had left Italy legend Andrea Pirlo stranded, to score the first of two goals that day, which also won him the first of two Chelsea Goal of the Season awards.

HAT-TRICK HERO

Diego Costa hands the match ball to Oscar at the end of our 5-1 FA Cup fourth-round win over MK Dons last season, which saw our No8 score his first and only hat-trick for Chelsea.

29

MARCH

15 MARCH

1 MARCH

Chelsea mourned the loss of one of our favourite sons as Peter Osgood passed away at the age of 59 after suffering a heart attack. Known as the King of Stamford Bridge, Ossie was a key member of the much-loved team of the Seventies, scoring in every round of the FA Cup as we lifted the trophy for the first time in 1970. He scored 150 goals in total for the Blues and his captain, Ron Harris, paid tribute by describing him as the club’s greatest player.

Eddie McCreadie was a surprise choice of centre-forward to replace the injured Barry Bridges for the first leg of our League Cup final against Leicester, but the Scotsman ran virtually the length of the pitch to score a superb winning goal in a 3-2 victory for the Blues.

Peter Bonetti’s heroics in the second leg ensured it finished 0-0 to earn the club only our second major trophy.

10 MARCH

Happy birthday to us! On the evening of 10 March 1905, in an upstairs room at the Rising Sun pub, Chelsea Football Club was formed. Among the founding directors were millionaire owner Henry Augustus Mears, his brother Joseph, their brother-in-law Henry Boyer, publican Alfred Janes and his nephew Edwin, who ran the Rising Sun. Scotland international Jacky Robertson was hired as the club’s player-manager. In collaboration with co-founder Fred Parker, who also engineered Chelsea’s admission to Football League Division Two, Robertson constructed a squad including larger-than-life Willie Foulke.

18 MARCH

The Chelsea squad and staff in 1905

30

Ian ‘Chico’ Hamilton (pictured) made an instant impression on his Blues debut as he scored a header to cancel out a goal by the great Jimmy Greaves in a 1-1 draw with Tottenham Hotspur. It was a recordsetting effort by the striker, who remains the club’s youngest goalscorer at the age of 16 years, four months and 18 days. He made only four further appearances for the club before leaving for Southend United.

20 MARCH

Tragedy struck the Blues as our former winger Peter Houseman died in a car crash, along with his wife and two friends, at the age of 31.

Although he was playing for Oxford United at the time of his death, ‘Nobby’ had played his part in Chelsea’s 1970 FA Cup triumph by scoring six goals on our way to glory, including a strike in the final.

23 MARCH

Wembley cup-final hat-tricks are like gold dust, but David Speedie became the first man to bag one since Geoff Hurst in the 1966 World Cup final as Chelsea won an epic Full Members Cup final against Manchester City. Colin Lee was also on target twice in a 5-4 victory and Colin Pates became the first Blues captain to lift a trophy at the home of English football.

Goalscorers Colin Lee and David Speedie after the match

27 MARCH

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink celebrated his 32nd birthday in the best possible fashion – although it almost turned out to be a pretty miserable day for the Dutchman. Selected among the substitutes for our game against Wolves, he came off the bench with the Blues trailing but promptly became the first Chelsea player to score a hat-trick as a substitute. His 13-minute treble also ensured he was only the third foreign player to reach 100 goals in the Premier League.

29 MARCH

In a repeat of the 1997 FA Cup final, Chelsea triumphed 2-0 over Middlesbrough to lift the League Cup for the first time in 33 years.

The Blues were made to work hard for our victory over the secondtier side, who held us to a 0-0 draw in normal time, but then Frank Sinclair popped up with a header in the extra period and Roberto Di Matteo cemented his status as a man for the big occasion with another cup-final goal to clinch the trophy for the Blues.

31

32

Drawing on

EXPERIENCE

Special bond Words | Richard Godden

Former Chelsea midfielder and England assistant RAY LEWINGTON opens up on his lucky break, the lifelong friendships with his old team-mates, a strange managerial departure and the day Danny Blanchflower broke his heart

W

hat have you been up to since leaving your job as England’s assistant manager last summer?

Nothing! We were so flat after the Euros we consciously decided to have a couple of months off and see what happens after that.

I’ve quite enjoyed my time doing nothing and seeing my boys, Craig and Dean, play.

I’ve largely missed their careers. I’ve been so fortunate that from the age of 16 to 60 I’ve only had three months out of work, which was after I was sacked at Watford. So, I think I probably needed a rest.

Was the England job the most high-pressure situation of your life?

By a mile. You don’t realise until you get in there. It’s not just a local club or even a big club – this is a nation and everyone from north to south is involved. When England play, there are no other games; the sole attention is on England. The build-up to a tournament is absolutely immense. We feel it, and obviously the players feel it. There’s nothing comparable.

I recently interviewed your old mate Jock Finnieston and he said he’d just been to visit you.

We went out for dinner. We see each other at the veteran games and things like that, but

we were trying to work out the last time we went out with our other halves. We think it was about 20 years! For me, more than Finno and people like that, because I’ve been employed in football and it takes over, you never really get too much time to see the guys.

But you’ve still got this lifelong bond with them.

The team I grew up with is special.

Footballers very rarely have other footballers as close friends; acquaintances, yes, but rarely do you get a group of players like ours.

We played together in the mid-Seventies and Clive Walker, Tommy Langley, Gary Chivers, Finnieston, both Wilkins brothers, Garry Stanley, all these people are still together and in contact with each other. Sadly we lost Davie Stride and Britts (Ian Britton) recently.

We’ve got this vets team and at least twice a year we have games where we meet up, although I don’t play, I just watch. It’s fantastic.

Tommy Langley is also my son Dean’s agent, so I get to see Tom a little bit more than the others! It’s a special group. I don’t know of any others like us, maybe the Man United lot with Gary Neville, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and the rest of the Class of ’92. They all grew up and came through together. That bonds you and it’s special going through all those fantastic times with the guys you were with in the youth team.

That stays with you.

33

Drawing on EXPERIENCE

Running out onto the pitch for our match away at Aston Villa in 1978

FACTFILE RAY LEWINGTON BORN LAMBETH DATE OF BIRTH 07.09.56 CHELSEA CAREER 1974-79 CHELSEA APPS, GOALS 92 APPS, 4 GOALS Training at POSITION MIDFIELDER Harlington in 1985 How proud a moment was it for you to pull on the Chelsea shirt for the first team when you made your debut against Notts County at Meadow Lane?

I was incredibly proud. Apart from Ray Wilkins, who was obviously going to go on and have a career, when we were apprentices and young pros we all felt, deep down, the Chelsea side was so brilliant it looked an impossible task for us to break in. I never thought I’d get a Chelsea debut, I couldn’t see myself getting in front of Hollins, Kember and Hudson. It just looked impossible. I thought I would have a fantastic upbringing at the club, but I wouldn’t actually play for them.

Even though the circumstances were slightly sad, with the senior players being sold off because of the debts, I got my chance and I was so proud to do so.

You must have been one of the few people happy that the club decided to build the East Stand!

(Laughs) Yeah! To be honest, I don’t think I’d have got my chance otherwise. The early-Seventies team wasn’t old, they were mostly in their mid-twenties, and as long as they wanted to stay with Chelsea and the club still wanted them, they were going to 34

be there for the next five or six years, which was a barrier for us. But the circumstances went for us. The fact they were all sold within a very short space of time and the club was relegated meant we were given our chance.

You mentioned Wilkins before and his obvious talent. He played arguably his best football at Chelsea – did you play a part in that, seeing as you were his partner in midfield?

As Eddie McCreadie very honestly said to me: “Listen. Just to make sure you know what you’ve got to do, you get the ball and you give it to someone who can play. And that’s Ray Wilkins!” That gives you an idea of what my game was about.

I joined on the same day as Ray when we were both 10 years old. From a very early age, he was an outstanding footballer; he was a naturally gifted two-footer, his range of passing was magnificent.

In an era when no one really went too far away from 4-4-2, when we all got in McCreadie thought, “What’s the best way I can play this?” The boys who played wide, Britton and Stanley, weren’t natural wingers, so we played what is now termed as the diamond. I sat, the two boys either side of me were just in front, but narrow, and Ray played behind Kenny Swain and Steve Finnieston.

Ray had never shown his goalscoring ability before, but that year he must have been close to top scorer and some of them were absolutely spectacular. He had a nice little position behind the forwards, which made him difficult to pick up, and he could hit a ball with both feet.

It did him the world of good and showcased him as a true international class player, which I always knew he would be.

But he was so underrated throughout his career, apart from with Chelsea supporters.

The 1976/77 promotion season must have been such an exciting time for you all.

It was. When you think about it, the year before, most of us had been playing reserveteam football together and two years before that we’d been in the youth team. Suddenly we were on the big stage in Chelsea’s first team – but we were together and we fed off each other. It certainly made it easier for me, playing with people I’d played with over the years. Although the level was higher, you were still playing with the same people and you thought, “If they’re doing it, why can’t I do it?” It was a great spirit. All of us were just so glad we got the opportunity, and we ran on adrenaline.

We had some really good players in that team, it was an exciting year and I

Ray Lewington

don’t think anyone gave us a chance for promotion. People thought, “Finish midtable, keep the thing steady for a while.”

No one was looking at promotion.

Eddie was known for being a little bit ‘out there’ when he was a player. Was that the case as a manager, too?

Not so much. We all knew Ed and we’d seen some of his tackles! When he became a manager I think the thoughtful side in him came out. British managers were aggressive at the time; they would shout, they’d ball you out. Eddie wasn’t like that. He spoke forcefully, but I think he spoke well – he didn’t dress anything up, as you can tell from the previous story about what he told me about my game! It was good because it channelled your mind towards one thing rather than trying to do everything. You

WHEN EDDIE BECAME MANAGER THE THOUGHTFUL SIDE IN HIM CAME OUT Eddie McCreadie in the Stamford Bridge dugout in 1975

35

Ray Lewington Ken Shellito kept Chelsea in the First Division in 1977/78 before leaving the club part way through the following campaign

want it to be simple as a footballer. You always knew where you were with him. It was just a shame it didn’t last that long.

What was the story behind his exit? There have been so many stories, although the most popular seems to be a falling out over a company car.

We just didn’t know. I remember Micky Droy phoning all the players and telling us there was a problem and Eddie was going.

We all wanted to do something, so Mick went in, possibly with Ray Wilkins, and said: “On behalf of the players, I’m telling you we want Eddie to stay.” I think the board were also saying that, “but at the moment Eddie doesn’t want to stay”. We didn’t know what the problem was. It was so sad. Manager and team had bonded, as had the crowd and Eddie. There were good vibes around the place. We were going up to the top division, which was always going to be tough, but it would have made it easier if we had Ed there. We lost momentum a little bit.

Ken Shellito replaced Eddie as manager, which must have been a thankless task...

Yeah. He’d been our youth-team manager and then suddenly he was managing us in the first team.

KEN CAME IN AND DID WHAT HE FELT WAS BEST Were the board looking at continuity or just the cheapest option?

I think a bit of both, to be honest.

Surprisingly, Ken’s first thing was to bring back some of the senior players and drop some of those who played the previous season. And he brought Ossie back to the club. Undoubtedly, he was thinking this group of young, naive players are going to find this division hard. And I can understand that, he was 100 per cent right – we would have found it hard. From his point of view, he was injecting a bit of experience, but from our point of view, we lost a bit of that

momentum we’d built up. We lost the energy the group had, even though as players we probably came up a little bit short of top-flight standard. Certainly, I don’t consider myself to have been a topflight player, I was just a bit short of that.

But I’d have liked the chance to do it among the ones I’d played so well with the previous year.

Ken came in and did what he felt was best, and I’ve been a manager myself – unless you win every game, you’re always wrong at some point. I’m not blaming him for one moment. He did what he thought was best, and sadly it didn’t involve some of us.

37

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Ray Lewington

YOU’D PREFER TO HAVE A MANAGER WHO IS HONEST WITH YOU In conversation with Roy Hodgson during an England training session at Euro 2016

Ken didn’t last long, but his successor, Danny Blanchflower, was the man who brought your Chelsea career to an end.

Danny came in and he was a very honest bloke. He said he was going to assess the situation before he let us know what he thought. And he was true to his word, but it meant there were six of us he decided he wanted to sell so he could bring in some new faces. I was one of them.

As a player, you’d prefer to have a manager who is honest with you rather than keep dragging you along and pretending you’re in his plans when in fact you’re not.

He called us into his office and told us – it broke our hearts. We’d been through all that and suddenly we’re told it’s not there for us anymore. But it’s the best way.

I just wanted to play football. He said: “You’re not quite in my plans, my idea of the team doesn’t include a player of your style.” He dressed it up quite nicely; Danny was a nice bloke, really nice, and I had no complaints with him. He was just a manager doing what he had to do, and he did it in a really nice way, without fuss.

Basically, that was me finished and I went off to Vancouver.

Going full circle with your story to finish off – I always assumed you’d first started working with Roy Hodgson when he took over at Fulham, but that wasn’t the case, was it?

I’d started helping with the coaching of our schoolboys when I was 17 or 18, which gave me a great background. All coaches will tell you that players learn so much more when they become coaches and they actually become better technically. But it’s usually too late – they learn too late in their career.

So it actually helped my game when I was helping these kids, and I started taking my coaching badges when I was an apprentice.

The first time I met Roy was when I did these badges – he was one of the assessors.

And he passed me!

39

40

ds or W d ar ich |R en dd Go

20 FEBRUARY

A GREAT DAY FOR

CHELSEA It is a remarkable fact that three famous Blues frontmen – Jimmy Greaves, David Speedie and Peter Osgood – were born on the same day of the year. After Ossie’s exploits were featured in last month’s issue, we now take a closer look at the careers of two players who share a special place in our history

41

20 FEBRUARY

Jimmy Greaves in action on his debut, against Tottenham at White Hart Lane

If you have a child who was born on 20 February, get them in a pair of football boots and a Chelsea kit, and stick them in the penalty box, for it was on this day that three of the club’s most beloved centreforwards were born: Jimmy Greaves, Peter Osgood and David Speedie.

The late, great Ossie would have been 70 this month, but as he was written about at length in the previous issue of Chelsea magazine, to celebrate his tally of 150 goals for our 150th edition, our focus this month is on two strikers of contrasting style; one blessed with a golden touch in front of goal, the other a grafter who made the absolute maximum of the talent at his disposal.

Greaves, you may already have guessed, was the goalscorer extraordinaire. With 366 top-flight goals from a career which ended prematurely at the age of 31, he remains the all-time leading scorer across Europe’s big five leagues, although that may change by the time you read this, with Cristiano Ronaldo on the verge of surpassing him.

“My idea of heaven would be to score goals all night, having spent all day scoring goals,” Greaves would later write in his autobiography Greavsie. “I don’t know why, but I found it easy – it came naturally to me.

“I never felt tension, nerves, any sort of pressure and I never lacked confidence.

42

Greaves, with the ball at his feet, showed his talent from a young age

“I’d been scoring goals regularly since I was a boy and I had it in my head that it was something I had been born to do.

“When I scored, I’d just sigh softly to myself, as if all my cares had been lifted from me. Inside I felt a deep contentment, not just about that particular goal, more from the knowledge that I could still do it. That I still had the gift. Contentment at the fact that nothing had changed, that life was still going on the same, with me scoring goals.”

It was clear we had a future superstar on our hands from as young as the age of 16, when Greaves lit up our junior side with an astonishing tally of 114 goals in the 1955/56 season, having been spotted playing for Dagenham Boys two years earlier by scout Jimmy Thompson, arguably one of the most important men at Chelsea Football Club in the 1950s and ‘60s when you consider the number of exciting prospects he helped bring to Stamford Bridge.

We almost lost Greaves to The Times newspaper after his dad had lined him up a job as a compositor, but Thompson, as was his wont, simply would not take no for an answer. Without his persistence, we might never have seen this devastating frontman in a blue shirt.

Like another great Chelsea goalscorer, Bobby Tambling, Greaves believes a youth

spent honing his skills with a tennis ball stood him in good stead when the time came to play with a proper leather football.

After all, the sweet spot on a tennis ball was far smaller. And in manager Ted Drake, Greaves had a kindred goalscoring spirit. The man who led Chelsea to our first top-flight championship had previously forged a career for himself as a prolific striker, once scoring seven goals in a single game for Arsenal.

Greaves was given his big break in the first team at the age of 17, netting on his debut at White Hart Lane – making a good first impression was a familiar occurrence throughout his career, as he always marked his maiden appearance for a club with a goal.

His first season yielded 22 goals, including four in an incredible match against Portsmouth on Christmas Day 1957. It was the type of “Christmas Cracker” headline writers dream of, when Greaves netted four times in a remarkable 7-4 victory.

Among the 27,000 supporters in attendance at the Bridge that day was Match of the Day commentator John Motson, who remarked: “It was the first time I went to Stamford Bridge and, as we left the ground, my father said I’ll never see another 17-year-old play as well as that again.”

It was one of a club-record 13 hat-tricks Greavsie scored for the Blues on his way to finishing with 132 goals from only 169 appearances, including 100 in the league before the age of 21. That form should have been enough to prompt another charge for the title, which had been won for the first time just a few years earlier in 1955, but even 41 strikes from the striker in his final season at the club could only take us as high as 12th place.

“I won’t say he was like a machine, because that makes him sound boring,” Tambling wrote in his autobiography Goals in Life. “But I’ve never seen someone that reliable.

“He was what I’d call a natural goalscorer – where others react, we anticipate. The difference is split seconds, but that’s all it takes. I put myself in that category, Frank Lampard’s certainly in there and Kerry Dixon is another. But Jimmy was the best of the bunch.”

So good, in fact, that AC Milan agreed a pre-contractual deal to sign him. Chelsea were to receive a fee of £80,000 for their prolific marksman, who would earn more than five times the £20 per week which was the limit of what a footballer could earn in England at the time. Then along came Jimmy Hill, the chairman of the PFA who led the successful campaign to abolish the maximum wage, prompting a change of heart from Greaves.

Greaves is carried on the shoulders of fans at the end of his final match for Chelsea

I’D BEEN SCORING GOALS REGULARLY SINCE I WAS A BOY AND I HAD IT IN MY HEAD THAT IT WAS SOMETHING I HAD BEEN BORN TO DO Jimmy Greaves But club secretary John Battersby made him honour his deal with the Serie A club, and he was made captain ahead of his final game, against Nottingham Forest. Whoever was writing his script should have gone on to enjoy a lengthy career in Hollywood.

“It could not have ended better in a fairytale,” Greaves said after scoring all four of our goals in a 4-3 victory. “When the crowd chaired me off the pitch and the players lined up to applaud me, I was deeply touched.”

Although Greaves’ finale surpassed that of your typical fairytale, he actually concluded his spell as a Blue with a suspension after refusing to travel to Israel for a match in the immediate aftermath of the season.

Chairman Joe Mears wasted little time sticking the boot in.

“He said he felt we were not a good enough club for him,” he said. “He agreed to stay with us on the understanding we would sell him to Italy when their ban on

Wearing AC Milan colours in 1961

43

20 FEBRUARY

David Speedie celebrates with our fans after we win the Second Division title in style by beating Leeds United 5-0 in 1984 44

‘FIERY’ WOULD PERHAPS HAVE BEEN A MORE APPROPRIATE SURNAME FOR A PLAYER WHO WOULD NEVER SHY AWAY FROM CONFRONTATION ON THE PITCH

Speedie congratulates Pat Nevin on his Player of the Year award in 1984, with Chairman Ken Bates and strike partner Kerry Dixon also pictured

foreign players was lifted. In return he said he would pull out everything he could for us until he went. This seems a strange way of doing it.”

The same report also claimed Chelsea had lined up Ian St John from Motherwell to replace Greaves, although he instead signed for Liverpool. The two men would later join forces as Saint and Greavsie, entertaining the nation’s football supporters for many a year. As the man himself would have put it, “It’s a funny old game.”

While it would be churlish to suggest Greaves the player could do it all on his own, the team was reliant on him rather than the other way round – give the ball to Greavsie and watch him conjure up some magic. It was a completely different story as far as Speedie was concerned, for he is rarely mentioned by Blues fans without reference to his partner in crime, Kerry Dixon, who was the other half of one of the most devastating strike pairings in the club’s history.

‘Fiery’ would perhaps have been a more appropriate surname for a player who would never shy away from confrontation on the pitch. The son of a coal miner, a career he also briefly embarked upon himself, the Scottish-born centre-forward was raised in Yorkshire and began his playing days with

an inauspicious stint at Barnsley before moving to Darlington in Division Four.

At the time, in the early Eighties, Chelsea were led by John Neal, a former Middlesbrough manager with extensive links to the North-East, and his assistant, Ian McNeill, had a happy knack for spotting a rough diamond for his gaffer to polish up. In Speedie, he certainly found that.

While Greaves was a happy-go-lucky character in the dressing room, the Yorkshireman was confrontational and aggressive. With the club battling relegation, he even went so far as to tell a newspaper reporter that some of his team-mates would love to see the manager receive his marching orders.

Such characters didn’t survive the subsequent culling of bad eggs and extensive overhaul of the playing squad after the Blues narrowly avoided the drop.

The signing of Dixon initially nudged Speedie into the reserves, but a post-match scrap with the blond frontman prompted a knocking together of heads by Neal – and so began the start of a beautiful relationship.

“He was the lazy git and I did all the running,” joked Speedie, who suffered with asthma. “Kerry used to conserve his energy to do his work in the final third, whereas I was more of a fetcher-carrier, if you like.

John Neal signed Speedie in 1982

45

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20 FEBRUARY

Speedie celebrates scoring his second goal in the Full Members Cup final against Manchester City in 1986. Below left, with the match ball after the game

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING AT ANY FOOTBALL CLUB IS THE SUPPORTERS. IN THE FIVE YEARS I WAS THERE I GAVE THEM BLOOD, SWEAT AND TEARS David Speedie

Kerry was the finisher, but it takes all sorts to make a team tick. It was the best partnership in the Second Division that season, and the top flight after that.”

The duo turned the tables on received wisdom as the taller Dixon regularly benefited from the flick-ons of his 5ft 6in partner to fire the Blues out of the Second Division. Speedie certainly proved that size didn’t matter.

“I imagine it fooled defenders,” he once said of his diminutive frame. “When we drew 1-1 with Arsenal at Highbury in our first game back in the First Division, Tony Adams said, ‘How the hell do you jump that high?’ It stands out above a lot of things that he couldn’t believe I was beating him in the air all the time.”

Throw Pat Nevin into the mix, for he was the creator-in-chief at Chelsea in the mid-Eighties and also capable of banging in a few himself, and you had a prolific trio.

In 1983/84 the three men contributed 61 goals between them; the following season, in the top flight, Speedie and Dixon alone netted 52, which is as many as Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Eidur Gudjohnsen netted in 2001/02. For his part, Speedie was honoured by the club’s supporters as their Player of the Year.

Speedie and Greaves may not share too many traits, but they do have one thing in common – both men know how it feels to score a hat-trick at Wembley Stadium. The latter achieved it twice for England – and his six trebles overall remain a record for the Three Lions – while Speedo’s came in the Full Members Cup final of 1986.

Typical of the man, he wasn’t interested in waxing lyrical about his own achievement, which came in a 5-4 thriller against Manchester City, focusing instead on what it meant to those who paid their hard-earned money to watch him play.

“It was great for the Chelsea fans,” he said. “The most important thing at any football club is the supporters because without them coming week in, week out, you haven’t got a football club.

Obviously they deserved something and we gave them it. In the five years I was there I gave them blood, sweat and tears.”

Like Greaves, he left before his time; no lucrative lira on offer, just the culmination of a series of bust-ups over the years which eventually resulted in him joining Coventry City. But Chelsea fans wouldn’t have wanted him any other way.

47

CLUB AMBASSADOR PAULO FERREIRA

Returning loanees show our young talents what’s possible if you keep working hard This past month I have been busy visiting players as part of my role as a technical coach to our loan players.

For us as a department, we are really happy to see the contribution being made

by Victor Moses and Nathaniel Chalobah, who have both returned after loan spells to become part of the first-team squad, and now we have welcomed back Nathan Ake after he performed so well for Bournemouth in the first half of the season.

We know it’s hard to become a first-team player at Chelsea, but you need to keep pushing, work hard and do as well as you can. It’s important for them to play as much as they can and to believe that if they do well they will have a chance to come back to Chelsea, just like it happened with Vic, Nathan and Nathaniel.

I think it’s good for the loan players to see some team-mates returning to the first-team squad because they’ve been doing well on loan and the club, especially the manager, thinks it’s the right time to come back. Us guys working behind them do our best to keep pushing and supporting them to make sure they do well.

There is a lot of travel involved in my job, but I won’t have to go as far as China, which is where my good friend Ricardo Carvalho has gone. Riccy has signed for Shanghai SIPG, the same club Oscar has joined and Andre Villas-Boas is managing.

He knows Andre really well from Porto and Chelsea.

I’m happy for Riccy, he’s a great guy and we have a good relationship. Even at 38 he’s in great shape, he looks after himself. As a centre-back, the way he plays and how he reads the game, it won’t be a problem for him to play on. I’m happy he’s still going.

I’d like to finish my column by reminding you all it was 11 years ago this month that I scored my first Chelsea goal, which was against Colchester in the FA Cup. I’d love to say it was the first of many, but I only managed one more in the remainder of my time at the club!

48

Paulo Ferreira’s goal against Colchester in the FA Cup fifth round in 2006

Of course, it’s really nice to score, but it wasn’t the most important thing for me.

As a defender, I was always someone who played for the team and scoring goals was more for the attacking players. But it’s nice if you have a chance to score, I won’t deny this. I spent two years at Porto before Chelsea and didn’t score any.

It was a good feeling for me, but I would have loved to celebrate the goal in a different way. We were losing 1-0 and my goal was the equaliser, so the first thing I did was get back quickly so we could start looking for the second goal. If it was a goal which put us in the lead, for sure I would have celebrated in a better way! But my first instinct was just to look for the ball and go for the second goal. I’m a professional, always!

My other goal was at Blackburn in the League Cup and it came in the last minute of extra time. We had a free-kick and normally I would just stay at the back, but I don’t know why I suddenly had this feeling; I just said to myself, “Paulo, go!” I took the risk, it was maybe the last time I did this, and I managed to score the equaliser which meant we went to penalties. And then we lost!

MATCH ACTION CHELSEA Alonso 13, Hazard 53, Fàbregas 85

3-1

ARSENAL Giroud 90+1

STAMFORD BRIDGE

04.02.17, 12.30PM

FIRST-TEAM HEAD COACH

MANAGER

Antonio Conte

Arsene Wenger

CHELSEA

ARSENAL

13 Thibaut Courtois

33 Petr Cech

28 Cesar Azpilicueta

24 Hector Bellerin

30 David Luiz

20 Shkodran Mustafi

24 Gary Cahill (c)

6 Laurent Koscielny (c)

15 Victor Moses

18 Nacho Monreal

7 N'Golo Kanté

15 Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain

21 Nemanja Matic

34 Francis Coquelin

3 Marcos Alonso

17 Alex Iwobi

11 Pedro

14 Theo Walcott

10 Eden Hazard

7 Alexis Sanchez

19 Diego Costa

11 Mesut Ozil

22 Willian

83

5 Gabriel

17

4 Cesc Fàbregas

83

12 Olivier Giroud

64

5 Kurt Zouma

87

23 Danny Welbeck

69

UNUSED SUBS

UNUSED SUBS

Asmir Begovic, John Terry, Nathaniel Chalobah, Michy Batshuayi

David Ospina, Kieran Gibbs, Jeff Reine-Adelaide, Ainsley Maitland-Niles

(3-4-2-1)

13 30

28 7

15

24 21

11

3 10

19

5842C 42

50

POSSESSION %

58

Chelsea won our 11th home game on the bounce to send Arsenal away from west London pointless for the fifth consecutive season.

The Blues went ahead in the first half through Marcos Alonso, who showed unbelievable desire to beat Hector Bellerin to the loose ball and head home from close range after Diego Costa’s header had come back off the crossbar.

Thibaut Courtois played his part with a fine save to deny Gabriel, but the moment of the match came after the half-time break courtesy of the twinkle-toed Eden Hazard. The Belgian danced his way through the Arsenal defence, showing remarkable balance throughout before sending his shot past Petr Cech.

Cesc Fàbregas came off the bench to lob the ball over the Czech keeper, whose misplaced pass gifted him possession, for our third of the afternoon. Although Olivier Giroud headed a stoppage-time goal for the Gunners, it was little more than a consolation on a miserable afternoon for Arsene Wenger’s side.

Referee: Martin Atkinson

Attendance: 41,490

6 5 4 10 14

SHOTS ON TARGET SHOTS OFF TARGET OFFSIDES CORNERS FOULS

5 2 3 13 8

(4-3-3)

33 20

24

6 34

15

18 17

14

11 7

3763C 10

INTERCEPTIONS

17

chelseafc.com

LIVERPOOL Wijnaldum 57

1-1

@chelseafc

CHELSEA David Luiz 25

ANFIELD

31.01.17, 8PM David Luiz marked his 100th Premier League appearance with his first goal since returning to the Blues, though a late penalty miss by Diego Costa meant we had to settle for a draw on a night when our nearest challengers also dropped points.

With a 10-point advantage over the Reds going into the game, Chelsea were content to soak up pressure and hit the home side on the counter-attack. The tactic worked a treat midway through the first half when Eden Hazard drew a foul from Adam Lallana and David Luiz stepped up to strike a stunning quick free-kick in off the post. Liverpool protested, but it was clear referee Mark Clattenburg had blown his whistle.

Although the equaliser came early in the second period from the head of Georginio Wijnaldum, the Blues had a chance to win it late on when Diego Costa surged forward and was tripped by Joel Matip in the box. The Chelsea No19 stepped up to take the penalty himself, but a fine save by Simon Mignolet, low to his right, ensured it finished honours even.

MANAGER

Jurgen Klopp

LIVERPOOL 22 Simon Mignolet 2 Nathaniel Clyne 32 Joel Matip 6 Dejan Lovren 7 James Milner 5 Georginio Wijnaldum 14 Jordan Henderson (c) 23 Emre Can 20 Adam Lallana 10 Philippe Coutinho 11 Roberto Firmino 19 Sadio Mane

75

27 Divock Origi

89

UNUSED SUBS Loris Karius, Ragnar Klavan, Alberto Moreno, Lucas, Daniel Sturridge

Referee: Mark Clattenburg

CHELSEA

4-0

CHELSEA 1 Asmir Begovic 5 Kurt Zouma 26 John Terry (c) 28 Cesar Azpilicueta 11 Pedro 4 Cesc Fàbregas 29 Nathaniel Chalobah 6 Nathan Ake 22 Willian 14 Ruben Loftus-Cheek 23 Michy Batshuayi 2 Branislav Ivanovic

63

16 Kenedy

70

19 Diego Costa

75

UNUSED SUBS Eduardo, Nemanja Matic, Victor Moses, Eden Hazard

Goal

Own goal

Booked

CHELSEA 13 Thibaut Courtois 28 Cesar Azpilicueta 30 David Luiz 24 Gary Cahill (c) 15 Victor Moses 7 N'Golo Kanté 21 Nemanja Matic 3 Marcos Alonso 22 Willian 10 Eden Hazard 19 Diego Costa 11 Pedro

71

4 Cesc Fàbregas

83

23 Michy Batshuayi

90+3

UNUSED SUBS Asmir Begovic, Branislav Ivanovic, Kurt Zouma, Nathaniel Chalobah

BRENTFORD

FOURTH ROUND Antonio Conte

Antonio Conte

Attendance: 53,157

Willian 14, Pedro 21, Ivanovic 69, Batshuayi 81 (pen)

FIRST-TEAM HEAD COACH

FIRST-TEAM HEAD COACH

STAMFORD BRIDGE, 28.01.17, 3PM Chelsea progressed into the fifth round of the FA Cup and took the west London bragging rights with a comfortable victory over Brentford.

The result rarely looked in doubt from the midway point of the first half, with the Blues leading 2-0 following a dominant start to proceedings. In a side which married youth and experience, our early goals came from two senior pros.

Our opener arrived from the right boot of Willian, who drove in his seventh goal direct from a free-kick since the start of last season, and the Brazilian was involved as we doubled our lead six minutes later. However, it was the pass of Michy Batshuayi which created a chance at goal for Pedro, who tucked home a shot at the near post.

Although Brentford improved after the break, the third goal proved to be crucial and it went Chelsea’s way. Substitute Branislav Ivanovic was the scorer, turning in Pedro’s pass, and the scoring was completed by Batshuayi in the final 10 minutes when he converted a penalty.

Referee: Michael Oliver

Straight red card

Sent-off for two bookings

HEAD COACH Dean Smith

BRENTFORD 1 Daniel Bentley 14 John Egan 6 Harlee Dean (c) 5 Andreas Bjelland 2 Maxime Colin 15 Ryan Woods 10 Josh McEachran 8 Nico Yennaris 29 Yoann Barbet 19 Romaine Sawyers 21 Lasse Vibe

Attendance: 41,042

First sub

Second sub

Third sub

9 Scott Hogan

64

23 Jota

64

17 Konstantin Kerschbaumer

77

ShayUNUSED Given, PhilSUBS Bardsley, Ramadan Sobhi, Glenn Whelan, Jack Bonham, Tom Field, Wilfried BonyHofmann Josh Clarke, Philipp

51

MATCH ACTION CHELSEA Diego Costa 45+7, Cahill 81

2-0

HULL CITY

STAMFORD BRIDGE

22.01.17, 4.30PM

FIRST-TEAM HEAD COACH

HEAD COACH

CHELSEA

HULL CITY

Antonio Conte

Marco Silva

13 Thibaut Courtois

16 Eldin Jakupovic

28 Cesar Azpilicueta

5 Harry Maguire

30 David Luiz

21 Michael Dawson (c)

24 Gary Cahill (c)

6 Curtis Davies

15 Victor Moses

14 Omar Elabdellaoui

7 N'Golo Kanté

8 Tom Huddlestone

21 Nemanja Matic

25 Ryan Mason

3 Marcos Alonso

3 Andrew Robertson

11 Pedro

40 Evandro

10 Eden Hazard

11 Samuel Clucas

19 Diego Costa

9 Abel Hernandez

4 Cesc Fàbregas

70

7 David Meyler

21

22 Willian

71

24 Oumar Niasse

59

23 Michy Batshuayi

86

20 Adama Diomande

74

UNUSED SUBS

UNUSED SUBS

Asmir Begovic, Kurt Zouma, Nathan Ake, Nathaniel Chalobah

David Marshall, Josh Tymon, Shaun Maloney, Jarrod Bowen

(3-4-2-1)

13 30

28 7

15

24 21

11

3 10

19

4753C 53

52

POSSESSION %

47

Late goals in either half helped the Blues move eight points clear at the top of the Premier League table on a weekend when the majority of the chasing pack dropped points.

Diego Costa returned to the starting line-up after missing the win at Leicester and within 10 seconds of kick-off he had fizzed a shot just wide of the target, but much of the first-half was a stop-start affair and it took until stoppage time for the deadlock to be broken.

The Blues’ No19 was the scorer, taking his tally for the season to 15 with a crisp, low finish after Victor Moses had surged down the right and delivered a pin-point pass across the penalty area.

Hull’s second-half performance ensured the victory was far from a foregone conclusion, but the visitors were largely restricted to shots from distance, which Thibaut Courtois confidently dealt with.

The clincher finally came in the final 10 minutes as Cesc Fàbregas’s free-kick was headed home by Gary Cahill, and we closed out the game with our 13th Premier League clean sheet of the season.

Referee: Neil Swarbrick

Attendance: 41,605

5 1 1 9 12

SHOTS ON TARGET SHOTS OFF TARGET OFFSIDES CORNERS FOULS

4 4 1 7 10

(3-4-2-1)

16 21

5 8

14

6 25

40

3 11

9

3070C 75

179

COMPLETED PASSES IN ATTACKING THIRD

chelseafc.com

0-3

LEICESTER CITY

@chelseafc

CHELSEA Alonso 6, 51, Pedro 71

KING POWER STADIUM

14.01.17, 5.30PM

MANAGER

FIRST-TEAM HEAD COACH

LEICESTER CITY

CHELSEA

Claudio Ranieri

Antonio Conte

1 Kasper Schmeichel

13 Thibaut Courtois

5 Wes Morgan (c)

28 Cesar Azpilicueta

6 Robert Huth

30 David Luiz

28 Christian Fuchs

24 Gary Cahill (c)

11 Marc Albrighton

15 Victor Moses

4 Danny Drinkwater

7 N'Golo Kanté

25 Onyinye Wilfred Ndidi

21 Nemanja Matic

24 Nampalys Mendy

3 Marcos Alonso

3 Benjamin Chilwell

22 Willian

9 Jamie Vardy

11 Pedro

7 Ahmed Musa

10 Eden Hazard

20 Shinji Okazaki

60

4 Cesc Fàbregas

78

22 Demarai Gray

71

23 Michy Batshuayi

84

17 Danny Simpson

76

14 Ruben Loftus-Cheek

84

UNUSED SUBS Ron-Robert Zieler, Marcin Wasilewski, Andy King, Bartosz Kapustka

(3-5-2)

1 6

5

11

25

4 9

28 24

3

7

6535C

Marcos Alonso became the third Chelsea defender to net a Premier League brace and Pedro scored his fourth goal in as many games to move the Blues seven points clear at the top of the table.

Having beaten Leicester City twice already this season, we made a perfect start at the King Power Stadium when Eden Hazard, playing as the striker in our 3-4-2-1 system, teed up Alonso to curl a tidy right-footed shot past Kasper Schmeichel after only six minutes.

The Foxes responded well and it required some resolute defending to keep them out for the remainder of the half, but another early goal after the interval proved crucial. Alonso was the scorer once again, this time on his favoured left foot and with the aid of a couple of deflections.

The Spaniard almost bagged a hat-trick with a sweet volley which flew inches wide and Gary Cahill was denied a goal of the season contender when his bicycle kick was blocked by Wes Morgan, but a third goal duly arrived with 20 minutes remaining.

Pedro set up Willian with a cheeky backheel and though the Brazilian’s shot was kept out, the Blues No11 was on hand to head into an empty net from the rebound.

Referee: Andre Marriner

2 5 2 3 8

35

POSSESSION %

Goal

Own goal

Booked

65

Straight red card

Attendance: 32,066

Sent-off for two bookings

First sub

SHOTS ON TARGET SHOTS OFF TARGET OFFSIDES CORNERS FOULS

Second sub

Third sub

3 2 1 5 9

UNUSED SUBS Asmir Begovic, Branislav Ivanovic, Kurt Zouma, Nathaniel Chalobah

(3-4-2-1)

13 30

28 7

15

24 21

22

3 11

10

7525C 7

TAKE-ONS

20

53

PIC OF THE MONTH

Pictures: Darren Walsh

moment

54

04 February

MAGICIAN AT WORK One photograph simply does not do justice to Eden Hazard’s sensational solo effort which helped clinch a 3-1 win over Arsenal, so we’ve expanded our Picture of the Month slightly. The Belgian has already got one Goal of the Season trophy in his cabinet and another one could well be heading his way after he showed remarkable balance and poise to dance his way through the Gunners’ rearguard.

55

MONTH NUMB3RS IN

Looking through the stats at play

Diego Costa made his 100th appearance for Chelsea against Hull and scored his 52nd goal.

After receiving the Manager of the Month award for December, Antonio Conte became the first person to win the honour three times in a row.

By preventing Hull City from scoring, we kept the 1,500th clean sheet in the club’s history.

Our win over Hull also saw us pass the 1,000 point mark at home in the Premier League era.

DRAWN 9

2016/17 5TH RD (NOT OUT)

2015/16

2014/15 4TH RD

2013/14

2012/13

2011/12

2010/11 4TH RD

5TH RD

QUARTER-FINAL

SEMI-FINAL

WINNERS 2009/10

WON 48 GAMES 56

WINNERS

WINNERS 2008/09

2007/08

QUARTER-FINAL

WINNERS 2006/07

5TH RD 2004/05

2005/06

5TH RD

We reached the FA Cup fifth round for the 20th time in our last 24 attempts.

2003/04

SEMI-FINAL

CHELSEA’S FA CUP RECORD IN THE ROMAN ABRAMOVICH ERA

LOST 8

David Luiz made his 100th Premier League appearance for the Blues at Liverpool, scoring the opening goal.

Four Chelsea players on loan were called up to play in the Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon: Christian Atsu and Baba Rahman (Ghana), Bertrand Traore (Burkina Faso) and Victorien Angban (Ivory Coast). Atsu and Traore reached the semi-final stage, while Baba withdrew early after suffering a knee injury.

Chelsea are unbeaten in five Premier League meetings at Anfield since our last defeat there in May 2012. We have won six and drawn four of our previous 14 away league games against Liverpool.

2 4

3 1

Chelsea have lost just one of our last 47 Premier League home games against newly promoted teams. That came last season against Bournemouth.

38+24+38I 50

GAMES

GHANA (1), BURKINA FASO (2), IVORY COAST (3) GABON (4)

WON 19 DRAWN 12

CHELSEA AND LIVERPOOL COMPLETED 50 PREMIER LEAGUE GAMES LAST MONTH.

LOST 19

GOALS FOR/AGAINST

62

Our victory against Arsenal made it 11 successive wins in all competitions at Stamford Bridge, one short of our all-time record.

* Stats correct up to 08.02.17

60

Pedro made his 50th Premier League appearance against the Gunners.

Chelsea reached a half-century of goals in the league this season in our win against Arsenal.

57

01151

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CHELSEAFC.COM/WAITLIST OR CALL 0371 811 1955

Jay Dasilva, left, has joined Charlton on loan until the end of the season

Words | Dominic Bliss

TAKING THE NEXT STEP

As several of our rising talents gain senior-level experience on loan elsewhere, development squad head coach Adi Viveash explains the reasoning behind the moves and how the other members of his group will look to progress in the second half of the season Among the Chelsea men to make temporary moves during the January transfer window were four players who had spent the first half of the campaign in Adi Viveash’s development squad. Jay Dasilva, Fankaty Dabo, Fikayo Tomori and Mukhtar Ali are all embarking on their first loan spells as the club and the players believe they are ready to take the next step in their progression into senior football.

Each of the four made different types of move and Viveash explained how he believes they will benefit from doing so.

“One aspect to look at is how we decide the right time at which a player should go out on loan,” he told us. “It isn’t directly linked to age, it is more about whether the club believes a player has reached the stage where they are ready to go and experience the next level of football.

“That could mean they are dominating at Under-23s level, which is one of the first signs they are ready, or it could mean that physically they are more imposing than other players at this age group. After that, it is about spotting the right opportunity and what type of club they go to on loan.

“Neil Bath, the club’s head of youth development and Michael Emenalo are the main people involved in that process, 59

ACADEMY

DEVELOPMENT SQUAD Date Opposition Res AUGUST Sun 14 Sunderland A 1-1 Mon 22 Liverpool H2 4-1 Sun 28 Manchester United A 1-1 SEPTEMBER Fri 9 Tottenham Hotspur H3 3-1 Tue 13 Swindon Town (EFLT Group C South) A 1-2 Mon 19 Reading A 1-2 Fri 23 Arsenal H3 1-2 OCTOBER Fri 14 Leicester City H2 0-0 Tue 18 Exeter City (EFLT Group C South) A 2-3 Mon 24 Derby County H2 2-2 Mon 31 Everton A 1-1 NOVEMBER Tue 8 Oxford United (EFLT Group C South) H3 1-1# Mon 21 Southampton H1 3-2 Sat 26 Manchester City A 2-2 Tue 29 Feyenoord (PLIC Group D) H2 2-1 DECEMBER Fri 9 Manchester United H2 3-1 Fri 16 Dinamo Zagreb (PLIC Group D) H2 0-1 Thu 22 Swansea City (PLIC Group D) H2 1-2 JANUARY Fri 6 Tottenham Hotspur A 2-2 Fri 13 Leicester City A 4-0 FEBRUARY Sun 5 Reading H2 2-0 Fri 17 Manchester City H2 MARCH Mon 6 Southampton (7pm) A Sun 12 Liverpool (1.05pm) A APRIL Fri 7 Sunderland H2 Mon 17 Arsenal (1pm) A Fri 21 Everton H2 MAY Fri 5 Derby County A All games kick off at 7.05pm unless stated.

H1 - Cobham Training Ground. H2 - Aldershot Town FC. H3 - Stamford Bridge. EFLT - English Football League Trophy.

PLIC - Premier League International Cup. #Won 13-12 on penalties after 90 minutes.

APPEARANCES 2016/17 T Chalobah 19, Mount 18+3, Ugbo 17+4, Collins 17, Sterling 16+3, J Dasilva 16, Tomori 15, Scott 12+1, Dabo 12, Quintero 11+4, Colley 11+3, Sammut 8+2, Wakefield 7+4, Ali 7+3, Christie-Davies 6+4, Solanke 6, Van Ginkel 6, Zouma 4, Maddox 3+8, Muheim 3+4, Clarke-Salter 3, Colkett 2+1, Aina 2, Baxter 2, Batshuayi 1, Beeney 1, Eduardo 1, Fàbregas 1, James 1, Kane 1, C Musonda 1, Terry 1, St Clair 0+3, Taylor-Crossdale 0+3, Grant 0+1, Uwakwe 0+1

GOALS 2016/17 Ugbo 7, Quintero 4, Sterling 4, Ali 3 (1 pen), Mount 3, own goals 3, Batshuayi 2, J Dasilva 2 (2 pens), Solanke 2, Tomori 2, Christie-Davies 1, Maddox 1, Scott 1, Van Ginkel 1, Wakefield 1

Celebrating one of our goals against Reading PREMIER LEAGUE 2 - DIVISION 1 Team 1 Everton

2 Man City

3 Liverpool

4 Chelsea

5 Arsenal

6 Sunderland

7 Southampton

8 Man Utd

9 Tottenham

10 Reading

11 Derby

12 Leicester Stats correct up to and including 06.02.17

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Pld W D L GD Pts 16 12 2 2 +25 38 16 9 5 2 +13 32 15 8 3 4 +11 27 15 6 7 2 +12 25 15 7 1 7 +2 22 16 5 6 5 -4 21 16 5 3 8 -7 18 16 4 5 7 -10 17 16 4 4 8 -7 16 16 4 3 9 -12 15 16 3 5 8 -10 14 15 3 4 8 -13 13

Fankaty Dabo shooting at goal for Swindon Town

and within the development squad we generally know when someone has reached the level where they are ready to move to the next stage.”

At 21, Dabo is the oldest of the four and captained the development squad in the first half of the campaign. He has now joined Swindon Town until the end of the season, along with two other Chelsea youngsters, Charlie Colkett and Islam Feruz, who were both on loan elsewhere in the opening months of the season. By the time of going to print, Dabo had already made four appearances for the Wiltshire club, scoring his first senior goal against their local rivals Oxford, albeit in a 2-1 defeat at the beginning of February.

“Fanky has gone to play in League One as a full-back, he has played right and left-back already and you can see why from looking at his strengths,” said Viveash.

“He is a very good one-v-one defender and physically imposing, and he has gone to a team that likes to play football, which will help to develop the other side of his game at senior level.”

Joining him in League One is Jay Dasilva, our three-time FA Youth Cup winner who is equally comfortable at leftback or on the left-wing. The 19-yearold has moved to The Valley for the

ONE ASPECT TO LOOK AT IS HOW WE DECIDE THE RIGHT TIME AT WHICH A PLAYER SHOULD GO OUT ON LOAN. IT ISN’T DIRECTLY LINKED TO AGE, IT IS MORE ABOUT WHETHER THE CLUB BELIEVES A PLAYER HAS REACHED THE STAGE WHERE THEY ARE READY TO GO AND EXPERIENCE THE NEXT LEVEL OF FOOTBALL Adi Viveash

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first loan spell, joining Lewis Baker, Matt Miazga and Nathan at Vitesse Arnhem of the Dutch Eredivisie.

“Vitesse are well-known to the club and Andy Myers is out there on the first-team coaching staff this season, so they will be familiar with one another having worked together in the Academy here,” Viveash told us.

“Mukhtar is at the stage where a foreign loan for a few months will give him a different kind of development and we can monitor him very closely. This opportunity has come when he probably didn’t expect it but he has the talent to go there and have a good experience.”

Viveash’s comments give a good idea of the different stages of development within his group, and he continued by pointing out how the rest of the squad will look to progress in the second half of the season as well.

“At this stage we start to look at the development squad as being three programmes within one group, due to the different stages at which the players are,” he added.

“The under-19s players who are not on loan elsewhere are now looking to work on the finer details of their game in the next four months, while the under18s players in our group are looking to complete their first 12 months within the development squad programme. Then we will be trying to bridge the gap for the boys that are hoping to come up to us from the youth team, so they are the programmes we will be working to in this key period between now and the end of the season.”

Fikayo Tomori in Premier League 2 action against Manchester United earlier this season

UNDER-18s Date Opposition Res AUGUST Sat 13 Fulham H1 3-2 Sat 20 Southampton A 2-3 Fri 26 Swansea City H1 5-0 SEPTEMBER Sat 10 Norwich City A 4-5 Sat 17 Arsenal H1 4-2 Sat 24 Aston Villa A 1-1 OCTOBER Sat 1 West Ham United H1 1-0 Sat 15 Reading H1 2-0 Sat 22 Tottenham Hotspur A 1-1 Sat 29 Leicester City H1 2-0 NOVEMBER Fri 4 Brighton & Hove Albion A 3-1 Sat 19 Southampton H1 4-1 Sat 26 Fulham A 2-0 DECEMBER Sat 3 Arsenal A 2-2 Sat 10 Norwich City H1 3-1 Tue 13 Cardiff City (FA Youth Cup 3) H2 5-0 JANUARY Thu 5 Swansea City A 5-0 Sat 14 Aston Villa H1 0-0 Wed 18 Birmingham City (FA Youth Cup 4) A 5-0 Sat 28 Tottenham Hotspur H1 3-2 FEBRUARY Wed 1 Sheffield Wednesday (FA Youth Cup 5) H2 4-0 Sat 4 Reading A 2-0 Sat 11 Leicester City (12noon) A Sat 18 Brighton & Hove Albion H1 Sat 25 West Ham United A MARCH Sat 11 Merit Group Round 1 - Sat 18 Merit Group Round 2 - APRIL Sat 1 Merit Group Round 3 - Sat 8 Merit Group Round 4 - Sat 22 Merit Group Round 5 - Sat 29 Merit Group Round 6 - MAY Sat 13 Merit Group Round 7 - TBC Leicester City (FA Youth Cup QF) A All home games kick-off at 11.05am and away games 11am unless stated.

H1 - Cobham Training Ground. H2 - Aldershot Town FC.

APPEARANCES 2016/17 McCormick 19, Taylor-Crossdale 17+4, Grant 17, C Dasilva 16+2, James 15+7, Guehi 15+1, Maddox 13, G McEachran 12+5, St Clair 12+5, Hudson-Odoi 12+2, Cumming 12, Gallagher 11+7, Uwakwe 11+4, Nartey 11+1, Colley 8, Thompson 7, Castillo 6+9, C Brown 5+10, Mount 5, Sterling 5, Ugbo 5, T Chalobah 4, Bulka 2, Medley 1+1, Baxter 1, Panzo 0+3, Jameson 0+1

GOALS 2016/17 Taylor-Crossdale 15 (3 pens), C Brown 6, St Clair 6, Uwakwe 6, Mount 5, Ugbo 5 (1 pen), Hudson-Odoi 4, G McEachran 4, James 2, McCormick 2, own goals 2, T Chalobah 1, C Dasilva 1, Gallagher 1, Guehi 1, Maddox 1, Nartey 1

Martell Taylor-Crossdale

U18 PREMIER LEAGUE - SOUTH Team 1 Chelsea 2 Reading 3 West Ham 4 Arsenal 5 Fulham 6 Tottenham 7 Norwich 8 Aston Villa 9 Brighton 10 Southampton 11 Swansea 12 Leicester

Pld W D L GD Pts 19 13 4 2 +28 43 19 11 2 6 +7 35 19 10 4 5 +13 34 18 9 5 4 +16 32 19 7 5 7 +1 26 16 7 3 6 +12 24 18 7 3 8 +5 24 18 6 5 7 -11 23 17 4 6 7 -9 18 18 4 5 9 -16 17 16 2 5 9 -22 11 17 2 3 12 -24 9

Fixtures correct at time of going to press.

remainder of this season, making his first senior appearance in a south London derby against Millwall.

“Jay has gone to Charlton under a manager, in Karl Robinson, who has a reputation for playing good football and that obviously suits his game,” said Viveash. “He is a very exciting player, especially when he is going forward, whether he is playing as a winger or a wing-back, and I’m sure this move will help him develop his defending and dealing with crosses on the back post.”

Tomori has joined Brighton who, at the time of writing, sit second in the Championship. The England Under-20s defender made his first-team debut for Chelsea on the final day of last season at Stamford Bridge and has chosen to join a club with a Premier League promotion push ahead of them in the coming months.

“Fikayo has taken a different kind of route by going to Brighton at the top of the Championship,” Viveash explained.

“So the opportunities to get into the team will be harder to come by than they will be for the two boys in League One, but he may feel that he has gone there to work with a manager, in Chris Hughton, who has worked at the top level and achieved good things in the game.

“Maybe he will feel that getting minutes at a club in Brighton’s position will be an even better achievement, or that he will develop by training with players who are pushing for something so important. So it was a personal preference for Fikayo and the club have supported that because of the level of football that it is.”

Ali, meanwhile, has moved abroad for his

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Stats correct up to and including 04.02.17

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ACADEMY INTERVIEW

COLE DASILVA D.O.B. 11.05.99 BIRTHPLACE Luton POSITION Defender

The full-back on the season so far, competition for places, being part of a football family and training with a couple of Chelsea legends

It’s been a good season for the youth team and for you individually. How do you reflect on the way things have gone up to this point?

I feel it’s been a good season so far. We’re just starting the second half of the campaign, but the first half was successful. We are top of the league and we’ve won our first three FA Youth Cup games, so it’s been good.

We always have meetings with the coaches, whether it be Jody (Morris) or Adi (Viveash), just to reflect on how the last few months have gone and what we can do to improve going forward. At the start of the season I said I wanted to win the league, as it’s my last year in the youth team, and push on to try and win the elite section of the league as well. Winning the Youth Cup would also be a massive achievement.

You got your first Youth Cup goal in the fourth-round win over Birmingham and were in the squad that won it last year. Is there a different feel to those ties?

With it being a knockout competition, with night games, at bigger stadiums, there is a better atmosphere. When we have a Youth Cup game there’s just a massive buzz around the whole Academy and we’ve obviously won it for the last three years as well, so that adds to it. My brother Jay won it three years in a row, so if I can win it again it would be massive.

Jody Morris has spoken about the fact a strong Under-18s team is bolstered further for Youth Cup games by the inclusion of players from the development squad who are still eligible. How strong is the competition for places?

Every squad here is competitive, whether it’s for the Youth Cup or the league. You’re 62

always fighting for your place with top players. Every player has qualities the other players don’t have and everyone is capable of playing in whatever game we are approaching. So we are always competing for starting positions, but that’s how it is, that’s football, and you have to get used to it. We learn it early here, but it’s always going to be like that, throughout our careers.

Does it help to have Jody as your coach, given his experience of coming through the ranks here in his younger days?

Yes, I think that’s a big thing and it helps all of us. He’s been through the club, made his first-team debut and played a number of times for Chelsea before moving on.

He’s done a lot throughout his career, so to have him here to learn from is really good, and when he joins in training, he’s still got a bit!

In the next group up, you have Adi coaching, with all his experience as well...

I’m trying to push myself into his team at the moment and I’ve had a number of chats with him, talking about defensive positioning, and he has obviously been there and done that, so to learn from him has been really good for me.

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@chelseafc

Dasilva’s childhood hero Ashley Cole in action for Chelsea against Cardiff City in 2014

How much does all the work done off the field help you to develop?

Which players did you look up to as a kid?

A lot. We’re privileged to have the computers upstairs where we can watch clips of all our games. You come in on a Monday morning after a game, have a look back on your performance, reflect on it and work on the positives and negatives you can take from each match. It all helps you move forward.

For me, and for Jay as well, it was always Ashley Cole. In his prime he was one of the best left-backs in the world, if not the best, so watching him play always made me drive for more from myself.

Nowadays, I watch Marcelo at Real Madrid and people like Cesar Azpilicueta, because I don’t think there are many better than him for one-v-one defending.

Your older brother Jay is at the club as well, although he is currently on loan at Charlton, and your younger brother Rio used to be on the books here too. What was it like growing up in a football-mad household?

From when we could walk we were all out in the garden kicking a ball around, messing about, and to get where we have is almost a dream come true, but there is still a long way to go for us yet. I’m proud of what all three of us have achieved so far, though, and if we can keep pushing to take the next steps in our careers that would be massive.

You and Jay both play left-back, but you’re not all left-footed are you?

No, Rio’s right-footed, Jay’s left-footed and, although I’ve always played on the left, I’m predominantly right-footed, but my left foot

YOU COME IN ON A MONDAY MORNING AFTER A GAME, HAVE A LOOK BACK ON YOUR PERFORMANCE, REFLECT ON IT AND WORK ON THE POSITIVES AND NEGATIVES YOU CAN TAKE FROM EACH MATCH

has got stronger and stronger over the years.

I don’t know why I’ve ended up playing on the left, really. I’ve always been able to play in a variety of positions and when I was young, at Luton Town, they played me on the left and it went well. I just adapted to it and I can’t complain with how things have gone – maybe it’s given me a better chance in my career.

Ashley Cole and Joe Cole joined the youth team for training sessions before Christmas. What was that like?

It was weird because they are people I’ve watched since I was a kid, before I even played football properly, so it was massive to train with them. But you have so much respect for them that you almost don’t want to go in too hard on them at first, but it’s football isn’t it, so you obviously have to give it your best.

Throughout training and after sessions, they were giving all the boys advice, telling us to take every opportunity we can and give everything we’ve got, day in, day out.

Interview | Dominic Bliss 63

LADIES INTERVIEW

CRYSTAL DUNN D.O.B. 03.07.1992 BIRTHPLACE New York, USA POSITION Defender/midfielder/forward The US international aims to show her leadership qualities on and off the pitch after joining Chelsea Ladies from Washington Spirit. Speaking to us shortly after finalising her move to the Blues, she showed all the hallmarks of a superstar signing

Explain why you chose to sign for the Blues?

I really admire Chelsea right now because they’re dominating! The club has a great group of girls and on the men’s side Antonio Conte has it down. What is unique about the club is how close-knit the women’s and men’s teams are and I think that bodes well for us in the WSL. I feel like Chelsea have a large fanbase, so I’m excited about the games and to see all the supporters.

I don’t know much about London or England going into this, but when I came on my visit there was something that grabbed me. The whole family aspect of Chelsea – the unity, the family morale – is making it feel just like home. If this was going to be my new home for a while, I wanted to feel as comfortable as I possibly could.

Do you expect a culture shock when you swap the US league for the WSL after winning the Golden Boot and Most Valuable Player in three great seasons with Washington?

Although I think the awareness of women’s soccer in the US has become incredible, the English game has come so far. When our women’s national team plays England, they’re 1-0 games now, which wasn’t the case five or six years ago. I’m happy to be here while the teams are improving and awareness is growing because I get to feel that energy.

How hard was it to leave your home country behind?

The decision was really difficult because I’m going to miss my family. There were 64

obviously mixed emotions, leaving home and signing a contract when you’re going to be away from your loved ones for a long time. There’ll probably be some days where I cry and call home but I’m going to give it my all and I think my excitement is overpowering my nerves. I think this is something I have to do personally and for my career.

You can’t put off these experiences. I’m 24 and I feel ready to try and make really large improvements to my performance.

It’s a grace period with the national team because there’s no World Cup or Olympics, so for me it’s the right moment to commit to a new club and take my game to another level.

Have you been playing football from a young age?

I come from a small town called Rockville Centre on Long Island,

New York, where everyone plays soccer. All the parents put their little four-year-olds into pickup soccer (a park game where anyone can join) and I had a lot of energy, so that’s what mine did for me. Since it was such a tiny place, everyone who I played with every single year went to high school with me, so it was just playing with your friends. We grew up with a love of the game.

It was your glittering college career that made you first pick in the 2014 National Women’s Soccer League draft in the States. Was your ambition always to turn professional?

I had a really great time at college and I enjoyed every moment of it, but

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@chelseaLFC LADIES Diego Costa scores in our 4-2 win over Stoke City at Stamford Bridge earlier this season

people will be surprised that I wasn’t super committed to playing professional soccer until I was in my second year. I just wanted to be the best player I could be and the rest fell into place. To be honest, though, I don’t know anything but soccer. It’s a life a lot of people don’t understand – some of my friends have a family and kids, and they don’t get why I’m just playing soccer. I have always enjoyed it and it has been an amazing journey so far.

You looked delighted to pick up the No19 shirt at Chelsea. Why is it so special to you?

I’m so excited to have that number!

I wore No5 in my first year of college but the No19 jersey came out of retirement when I was in my second year and Mia Hamm (the two-time Olympic gold medallist and World Cup-winning US striker), who had it

WHEN I CAME ON MY VISIT, THERE WAS SOMETHING THAT GRABBED ME. THE WHOLE FAMILY ASPECT OF CHELSEA – THE UNITY, THE FAMILY MORALE – IS MAKING IT FEEL JUST LIKE HOME

when she was playing at the University of North Carolina, asked me to wear it.

My first reaction was that I didn’t want to play badly and ruin the number! She said it would mean a lot, so I wore it for three years, won a ton of awards in it and eventually retired it again. I’m not one of those people who believes in luck, but Mia’s jersey is still very special to me.

I’m very happy it was made available at Chelsea – and Diego Costa is wearing 19 so this is a good number!

As you approach 50 caps for the US Women’s National Team, with 18 goals so far, have you found the secret to being part of the most successful female team of all time?

Being an American women’s soccer player is mostly about working hard.

We kill each other in training. We have a built-in mentality not to stop running until we’re literally dragging our body 65

LADIES INTERVIEW

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@chelseaLFC LADIES

Alongside Chelsea Ladies manager Emma Hayes during her official unveiling

on the ground, but we still pick our teammates up and support each other. I think that attitude embodies me as a player. I am very competitive in training but it’s about trying to make everybody better and not being overly aggressive around them.

What do you hope to bring to the dressing room at Chelsea?

I definitely think I’m a dressing-room leader, but I’m a good listener as well and that comes with leading. Some people think the leader needs to be the only one speaking, hyping everybody up in the huddle, but sometimes being a good leader and a good team-mate is about listening to the others. Hopefully my team-mates can learn something from me, but this is going to be a new experience for me and I’m excited to learn from them, too.

Will you be staking a claim to the speakers before matches?

I love music! I don’t want to go in and claim the speaker but I just want to let the girls 66

IT WOULD BE A DREAM TO PLAY IN THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE AND THAT’S SOMETHING I’D LOVE TO CROSS OFF. MOST IMPORTANTLY, I’M READY TO HELP OUT THE TEAM IN ANY WAY, SO I’M EXCITED TO SEE HOW I REACT AND JOIN FORCES WITH THESE GIRLS

know, if they need a DJ, I’m available at all times. I love all types of music, so I’m always the one who gravitates towards the boom box. I’m all about finding the right music to get everybody involved and ready for the game. I love Rihanna but I’m old school, too. I’ll listen to some Backstreet Boys randomly and people ask what I’m doing!

What hopes do you have for this season?

I want to set the bar high. Let’s go undefeated! It’s going to take work and it isn’t going to be easy because there are some really great teams in this league. I like us to take it game-by-game, day-byday. I love short-term goals because then your long-term goals are going to fall into place. It would be a dream to play in the Champions League and that’s something I’d love to cross off. Most importantly, I’m ready to help out the team in any way, so I’m excited to see how I react and join forces with these girls.

Interview | Daniel Wittenberg

LADIES

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@chelseaLFC LADIES

NEW DEALS ARE AGREED AHEAD OF BIG KICK-OFF

The players are hard at work in preparation for the new season

The FA WSL Spring Series is just around the corner and Chelsea Ladies have a number of tough tests on the horizon to prepare them for the challenges which lie ahead, but they will go into the new campaign with the boost of several players committing their future to the club.

While much of the focus during the winter break has been on new additions, with the Blues adding four outstanding signings to the playing squad, new contracts for several of our talented youngsters was another priority for the manager.

The longest extension was for Millie Bright, who was named England Women’s Young Player of the Year for 2016 at the end of a season in which she also won two awards for Chelsea. She has signed until May 2020.

Full-back Hannah Blundell’s extension is for a year less and goalkeeper Becky Spencer remains until 2018, while Jodie Brett, Millie Farrow and Fran Kitching all have new deals until the end of the Spring Series. The first two of that trio have been loaned to Bristol

City for the mini-campaign and manager Emma Hayes explained the importance of temporary transfers when it comes to making the step up to the senior squad.

“It’s incredibly difficult to come out of the Centre of Excellence and play for our first team, because the gap is getting bigger,” she said. “It’s vital our young players go on loan to develop and gain experience, especially the hardness they develop by being in different environments.

“We get a chance to see them shine in teams where there is a lot of expectation on them, because they come from Chelsea.

For those two, they’ve progressed really well, but they’re not ready for the first team yet.”

Pre-season preparations were disrupted by an international break at the end of January, which included a meeting between our England internationals and Hedvig Lindahl of Sweden. The match finished goalless with a welcome clean sheet for Bright on her first start for the Lionesses.

One of our winter signings, Erin Cuthbert,

also made a good impression as she scored a superb goal for Scotland against Denmark.

There will be further internationals in March as countries continue to plan for the European Championship, which takes place in the Netherlands this summer. England have never won the tournament but have twice finished as runners-up, in 1984 and 2009.

Before that, however, is a schedule of pre-season friendlies which should act as perfect preparation for both the Spring Series and the Champions League challenge which awaits us in the autumn.

Opposition comes in the form of Hyundai Steel Red Angels from Korea, top Scandinavian clubs Rosengard, Fortuna Hjorring (which takes place in Portugal during a warm-weather training camp), LSK Kvinner and Kristianstads, as well as a game in Manchester against last season’s WSL champions.

Words | Richard Godden 67

HOME KIT MASSIVE SAVINGS

BOYS AND YOUTHS SIZES

£15 OFF SHORT SLEEVE

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HALF TERM

OFFER VALID UNTIL 19/2/17

£5 OFF

SHORTS

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T&Cs 1. Massive savings off home replica kit 2. £15 off S/S home shirts kids and youths, £20 off L/S home shirts kids and youths, £5 off kids and youths home shorts, £5 off home socks. 3. Available in the Stamford Bridge megastore from 10 Feb to 19 Feb 2017. 4. All product subject to availability. 5. Offer not valid online.

FOUNDATION NEWS

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@chelseafc FOUNDATION

We mean business to help enterprising pupils The Chelsea Foundation hosted the launch of the Blues’ involvement in the Premier League Enterprise Programme at Stamford Bridge.

More than 60 pupils from four local secondary schools attended the day-long session to receive an introduction to the initiative, which is now in its third year and is supported and funded by the Premier League and Sport Relief.

The event included a special tour of the stadium focused on business studies, and the students were all linked with Chelsea staff members who volunteered to take on a mentoring role to offer advice, explain their position at the club and pass on the experience gained in their career.

“We are really pleased to be able to offer the Premier League Enterprise Programme to schools as it fits perfectly into our wider education work,” said Chelsea Foundation schools education manager Sam GaskinKemp. “By involving staff from the club in the project, we are hoping to provide some real context for students.”

Chelsea human resources training and recruitment manager Rebecca Nicholas, one of the mentors volunteering at the launch, added: “It was very nice to meet the students, they had some great participation and answered the questions well with some good points.

“I wish them well with the programme and look forward to hearing how they are doing.”

The Premier League Enterprise Programme will see those involved at Chelsea take part in 10 weekly sessions,

Dozens of students attended the session at Stamford Bridge

providing insight into how football clubs operate as a business and featuring activities focused on key areas including customer service, advertising, publicity and employment, while developing their literacy and numeracy skills.

“The session was very informative and the

staff were very engaging,” said Kevin Regan, a teacher at La Retraite Catholic School for Girls, which is among the participants in the scheme. “The sessions were stimulating and covered the significance of business, sport and the community. We look forward to the rest of the programme.”

Class acts reach next stage in schools competition John Keble Church of England Primary School and Sacred Heart Catholic School are a step closer to representing the Blues at the national finals of the Premier League Schools Tournament after emerging victorious during the Chelsea Foundation’s London competition.

In total, 34 London schools took part in the Premier League Schools Under-11s event at Southfields Academy, with John Keble Church of England Primary School winning the final 1-0 against Holy Ghost Catholic Primary School.

That event was followed by a girls-only Under-13s competition, with Sacred Heart Catholic School the victors. Both teams will now go on to face other schools in a regional final at our Cobham training ground, with

John Keble Church of England Primary School came out on top in the Under-11s event

the winners on the day set to represent Chelsea against rival schools from each Premier League club.

Chelsea Foundation Premier League school sports co-ordinator Matt Wilder said: “The standard of play was terrific and all the schools and players should be proud of their technical skills and commitment. This tournament helps us to build great relationships with our local schools. We can then offer teachers and pupils a broader educational programme covering topics such as literacy and numeracy.”

In total, more than 50 schools from London competed in the area qualifying tournament for a chance to represent Chelsea in the national finals, which will take place at a yetto-be-confirmed Premier League stadium in May. 69

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ONCE A BLUE, ALWAYS A BLUE

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ONE OF US THE CURRAN BROTHERS

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SAM CURRAN

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MESSAGE BOARD

WE WERE THERE! WE WERE THERE!

TOM CURRAN

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KING’S ROAD BOUTIQUE

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TOM AND SAM CURRAN The Surrey and England Lions cricketers open up on their support for the Blues, their thoughts on the season so far, being in the thick of the action and how sibling rivalry spurs them on

You grew up overseas – when did you start following Chelsea?

Tom Curran (TC): When we moved over from Zimbabwe about four or five years ago. Football isn’t as big in the southern hemisphere as it is here, but we always followed the game and there’s a couple of pictures of us wearing various shirts when we were kids! I came to my first Premier League game about four years ago at Stamford Bridge and from then on this place just felt like home.

Playing cricket for Surrey, who are based at the Oval, and being so close to Stamford Bridge, is obviously a contributing factor in allowing us to come along to games. Also, when we signed for Surrey, with Alec Stewart being a die-hard Chelsea fan, I think it was written in the contract!

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Sam, was it a case of you following in your big brother’s footsteps when it came to supporting the Blues?

Sam Curran (SC): No, I was a Chelsea fan before Tom! He likes some players from other teams, so he can’t really say he’s a true fan.

TC: I’m not sure about that!

SC: To be honest, I didn’t really watch football when I was in Zimbabwe, but when I came over here, a lot of my schoolmates were Chelsea fans. Some of their dads had season tickets, so I was lucky enough to come to a few games with them and that’s how I became a fan.

What was the first game you came to?

Chelsea fan and Surrey’s Director of Cricket Alec Stewart

SC: I came along with a mate when we beat Newcastle 3-0 in 2014 and Eden

ONE OF US

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Celebrating our Premier League triumph in 2015

Hazard scored a hat-trick. That was a great first match to come to and it’s a major part of the reason I’m such a big Hazard fan. He’s been my favourite player ever since that game. I think when you go to your first game, you’re looking out for the guy who scores goals and he got all three of ours.

TC: Hazard is class but I also love Diego Costa. I love the way he battles – he’s a real fighter, but in a good way.

Is there any element of your own sporting personalities echoed by your favourite Chelsea players?

TC: Maybe a bit, but Sam might say he’s more like Hazard than I am like Diego.

SC: I love flair players and in terms of cricket, I love being in the thick of the action and the same is true of Eden.

He’s always right at the centre of things, scoring goals and making key passes.

You’re both relatively new fans, but you’ve already seen us lift two pieces of silverware, during the 2014/15 season, and we’re well on course for more this term. What have you made of this campaign?

TC: It’s been unreal, especially after last season. To turn it around like we have is incredible and I love Antonio Conte. I went to watch Italy versus Spain in the Euros last summer and saw the passion he shows on the touchline then. He’s brought that to Chelsea and I think that’s a big part of why things have transformed.

EVERYBODY WATCHES FOOTBALL, SO TO HAVE THE BRAGGING RIGHTS THAT CHELSEA HAD WON THE LEAGUE WAS FANTASTIC What is your favourite moment from supporting Chelsea?

SC: It would have to be winning the Premier League in 2015. It was the first time I’d seen us crowned champions since I started supporting the club.

TC: Everybody watches football, so to have the bragging rights that Chelsea had won the league was fantastic. It was a privilege to be able to come to a few games around that time and see the vibe among Chelsea fans. It’s building again this year and hopefully we can finish things off and win the Premier League again.

Although last season was a disappointing one for us, I’ll always remember the game against Tottenham, when Hazard scored a worldie to seal the comeback and win the title for Leicester. I’m really good mates with the Lineker boys who are big Leicester fans. We watched it with them and I was delighted for them. I think everybody wanted Leicester to win it – what a story.

After the bad season we’d had, to have a contributing factor in such a great sporting tale was superb and possibly a good confidence-booster going into this season.

whenever we can. When matches are on TV in the evening, watching the football while having dinner in the bar is a fairly standard thing. We’re all involved in fantasy football, too, which is a good laugh.

You mentioned him at the start, but Surrey’s Director of Cricket Alec Stewart is a huge fan.

TC: Oh, yeah. He was excited for us when we said we were coming to Stamford Bridge for an interview. It’s always good to have the gaffer on our side if we’re ever having football arguments with any of the other boys in the changing room!

Have you played much football over the years?

TC: Well we play every morning in our warm-up.

SC: It can be just as competitive as the cricket sometimes as well!

TC: We play old’uns versus young’uns and there are some pretty exciting matches.

Are many of your team-mates Blues supporters?

You say old’uns – does Alec get involved in those games?

TC: There’s quite a spread, actually. A few Chelsea, a few Arsenal and a few United. We watch matches on TV together

SC: He’s the gaffer so he stays away from those things. We do have strict rules on what we can and can’t do. We’re not

73

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ONE OF US

two

played cricket so we have been holding cricket bats and chucking balls since we were about three or four. We have a middle brother, Ben, who also plays cricket so we’ve always been competitive and, with me being the youngest, I’ve always tried to be better than everybody else.

experts in playing football, so we can’t do anything silly like dive into tackles. We play three-touch, no sliding – that kind of football.

Chelsea have had some very famous brothers in their playing squads over the years. How much does sibling rivalry spur the two of you on?

TC: It’s massive. Playing the game from when we were young, that competitive nature, wanting to win and get one over each other is just in us. That started from playing garden cricket when we were kids and has always been there. Now, being team-mates, we still have a healthy competition and that’s a good thing for both the teams we are playing for and for our own progression.

SC: I think it’s definitely true. Our dad

You’re on tour with the England Lions in Sri Lanka during February and when you return the football season will be reaching a climax. Are you confident there is going to be at least one piece of silverware for us to celebrate?

Marcos Alonso jumps for joy after scoring against Arsenal

SC: I think so. The Liverpool and Arsenal games were massive and I really hope we can come along to at least a game or two when we’re back and celebrate being champions again.

my

CHELSEA FIVE-A-SIDE TEAM

MANAGERS

TOM AND SAM CURRAN SC: In goal it’s got to be Thibaut Courtois. He’s been the No1 since we’ve been supporters and he’s one of the best goalkeepers in the world.

He makes some fantastic saves. (ED: do you think he’d be any good at cricket?) SC: He’s too tall to be a wicket-keeper, but I reckon he’d be a pretty decent fast bowler.

TC: I’m a big fan of John Terry.

He’s not played so much this season because of the way the boys on the

Thibaut Courtois; John Terry, Frank Lampard; Eden Hazard; Didier Drogba

pitch have been performing, but he’s been an incredible captain over the years and he’s a great example to everybody else. In any sport, when you have somebody like that in a squad, it is brilliant.

SC: I follow him on Instagram and he’s always posting pictures of players who do well in the games. He’s very passionate about the club, which you’d expect from somebody who has been here as long as he has.

SC: I’m picking Eden Hazard for all the reasons I listed before – he’s just class.

TC: And Frank Lampard has to be in the team, because he was one of the greatest midfielders ever.

SC: We’ve got to get Didier Drogba in there. What a centre-forward and what he did in the Champions League final in Munich was incredible!

TC: I’d like to add Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, too, but I can’t choose him over Didier.

75

WE WERE THERE! WE WERE THERE! Each month we look at Chelsea’s history from a fan perspective.

In this issue, we relive the day in 1983 when the Blues realistically had to beat Bolton to save us from relegation to the third tier – and possible extinction

THE GREAT ESCAPE Two of Chelsea’s most crucial victories have taken place away at Bolton Wanderers. In recent times we clinched our first league title for 50 years at what was then known as the Reebok Stadium in April 2005.

Twenty-two years prior to that, we achieved a different kind of historic win at the Trotters’ old Burnden Park ground, when Clive Walker’s 72ndminute goal all but spared John Neal’s Blues from relegation to the third tier of English football for the first time in the club’s history.

Going into that penultimate game on 7 May 1983, we were fourth from bottom, a point above the relegation zone, having played two more matches than the team directly below us and without a win in 10. It was also an incredibly confusing season at the bottom of Division Two as, with two games to go, anyone up to

76

Cambridge United in 12th place could have been dragged down into the bottom three. That included Bolton and Middlesbrough, our last two opponents.

To make matters worse, our west London rivals Fulham and QPR were both battling for promotion at the other end of the table. The situation was dire.

Our precarious financial situation at the time meant that oblivion may well have lurked around the corner had that unthinkable relegation become a reality, but thankfully it didn’t come to that.

Walker’s strike clinched three vital points and we achieved a draw to get the point we needed from our final game at Stamford Bridge. The fans surged onto the pitch and a year later we were celebrating promotion back to the top flight.

We spoke to three supporters – as well as the goalscorer himself – who were lucky enough to be in Bolton on that pivotal day in Chelsea’s history...

BURNDEN PARK, BOLTON

BILL WHITTEMORE 1982/1983 was definitely a season to forget as a Chelsea fan. It started with promise and a Bryan ‘Pop’ Robson-led 1-0 win at Cambridge, with the Chelsea end packed to the rafters – there were even fans climbing up the floodlights for a better view that day. But it soon transcended into a disaster, with losses to the likes of Shrewsbury, Rotherham, Grimsby, Carlisle and Barnsley.

All of this was despite the fact we had players of the quality of Colin Pates, Micky Droy, Micky Fillery, David Speedie, Colin Lee, John Bumstead and Clive Walker.

Home crowds were falling, with just 6,903 coming against Bolton at home before Christmas and 6,982 against Blackburn in February, although 29,797 turned up for Fulham. Our away following remained robust and loyal but Stamford Bridge was becoming desolate.

We had just been battered 3-0 away at Burnley, fellow relegation contenders, that left us in the drop zone and things looked dire. I travelled up to Bolton with my mates on the Chelsea ‘special’ more in hope than expectation.

The weather was atrocious as we got to the ground so we decided to risk it and go in the covered home stand next to the away end. By the time the players came out to warm up you could see they were amazed at the away support, with around 3,500 Chelsea fans in full voice all through the game, and the usual songs of “Super Chelsea FC!” and the 20-minute rendition of “Chelsea, Chelsea, Chel-seeeea, Chelsea!” The torrential rain continued, with the fans on the terracing drenched but still in full voice.

The game itself was mainly forgettable, although I remember their keeper getting

a knock, and shortly afterwards Walker tried his luck from long range and it flew in. This led to pandemonium, and the Chelsea fans on the terracing were waving their soaked shirts above their heads as scarves.

I think Bolton had a late goal disallowed, but we hung on for the win that meant we just needed a point against Middlesbrough at home, where just under 20,000 turned up to see us stay up.

Clive Walker has legendary status for that Bolton goal alone (I have to confess

I was one of the idiots who left a Chelsea vs Bolton game at home in previous seasons when we were 3-0 down and Clive Walker inspired us to a 4-3 win in the last 20 minutes, but I am content with my memories of 1983!).

I never stopped smiling on the whole journey back, or indeed the whole weekend. It was a smile of absolute relief and I have absolutely no doubt it was the support from the 3,500plus Chelsea fans that made all the difference.

There was torrential rain throughout the match

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WE WERE THERE! WE WERE THERE!

LEN NODAROS It was the penultimate game of the season in 1982/83 and there were about seven or eight clubs within three or four points of each other at that crucial stage of the campaign. We were one place above the relegation zone and Crystal Palace, below us, had two games in hand. Even I could see things weren’t right and the papers started printing doom and gloom, saying it was the end of Chelsea.

Getting on the train that morning, it was funereal. Normally, when you get on the train or the coach to an away game it’s buzzing with all the fans looking forward to the game, but I remember quite clearly thinking, “I could be coming back tonight and Chelsea could be done.” It really felt that way. That journey up was tense. At that point we couldn’t win for love nor

IAN DOUBLEDAY I was one of almost 4,000 Chelsea supporters who travelled to Burnden Park for the most important game in

78

money and, to a point, I was fearing the worst, but deep down I always believed we could pull it off.

When we got to Bolton, we followed all the Chelsea fans to the pub, just to calm us down, and then we went to queue up at the ground. I remember all the terraced houses The players thank our fans at the end of the game around there, and I started humming the Coronation Street theme going to get relegated because the referee tune. didn’t see that!”

Inside we were seated, under cover, In the second half we were playing some so even though it was raining heavily, it good football on a bit of a sticky surface didn’t affect us fans, but I am very proud because of the rain that had come down. to be one of those 3,500 or so Chelsea It got to about 20 minutes from the end supporters who made that journey. There and Clive Walker whacked one in from the were only just over 8,500 in the ground edge of the box. It was a glorious goal, and altogether. not just for its importance. It flew in and we In the programme, the Bolton manager went mad, obviously.

John McGovern cranked the pressure up I can’t ever remember wanting to see the slightly by saying they had problems, but game out so much and at the final whistle not as big as Chelsea! He pointed out the boys came over to throw their shirts into we were still paying for the East Stand the crowd. I managed to take some photos I from nine years earlier and saying we had still have to this day (above). bought players that hadn’t worked out for I’ll always remember that ahead of the us. I was thinking, “Hang on, he’s getting last game against Middlesbrough, John the mind games in early. He’s learned from Neal said in his column he wanted to thank the Brian Clough school of psychology!” the fans and mentioned how the players As for the game, I remember Colin Lee who’d thrown their shirts to the crowd as a was brought down by the keeper and we token to us. He didn’t mention they actually were all screaming, but nothing was given. charged the players for doing that – they I was thinking, “Don’t tell me Chelsea are had to pay for their new shirts!

our history. The atmosphere made by our supporters was different gear but we were nervous and tense. I think there were around 10 minutes to go when Clive Walker, in our all-yellow kit, hit a brilliant strike just outside the box to give us a 1-0 victory.

Our section of the ground erupted before enduring what was, for me, one of the longest 10 minutes ever watching Chelsea. On the final whistle we celebrated like we had won the title and many of us went to Blackpool for the rest of the weekend to continue our celebrations. Great days.

That same season, me and my mates had a bit of a demo outside the East

Stand at the end of one game, after which we went to The Rising Sun where one of the directors invited us to meet Ken Bates, sit in the directors box and have lunch before our home game against Rotherham, which we drew 1-1. They may have been different times at the Bridge, but they were just as good and I have great memories supporting the team then.

The following season, the likes of Kerry Dixon, Pat Nevin, Nigel Spackman and Co came in, and the rest is history. If any younger supporters ask what our most important goal was, it was Walker’s at Bolton in 1983.

CLIVE WALKER I was only told I was playing while we were travelling up to Bolton on the bus, and I was told by Micky Droy, who was captain at the time. I hadn’t always been in the side that season, but Micky told me that John Neal had come to him saying he didn’t know what to do and wanted a chat with him about who was going to play. So, in my mind, Micky basically picked the side that day, and he put me in.

It was pouring with rain nearly all day, so we realised the weather conditions could play a part in the game, because you try and analyse everything that could go right and wrong. The main factor was to see the amount of fans that Chelsea had there. Of course, being the travelling team, they were in there before all the home fans so the stadium was sparse, but with a large Chelsea contingent in one corner. We appreciated the fans so much on that particular day because the weather was so bad as well.

It was goalless at half-time but the players were aware of the situation the club was in and knew this was an important game we had to win. Most of us had grown up together through the ranks so we were doing it for each other as well.

All I can remember about my winning goal was the ball coming over from the right-hand side. I was quite central, coming in from the left, but how I got into the position I was in, I don’t know – I haven’t got any television coverage of it, unfortunately. It bounced in a particular way that it sat up very nicely for me, and

NEXT MONTH

The celebrations after Clive Wal ker’s goal I caught it sweetly on the volley so it looped over the goalkeeper and into the bottom corner.

The fact the strike was from quite a way out and it was pouring with rain focused me on making good contact with the ball and, if you get the contact right, often you get the power and the accuracy along with it. That’s what happened in the 72nd minute that day and once we’d scored it was a question of keeping our lead. It wasn’t exactly hanging on because Bolton weren’t a particularly good side – they were in the relegation battle with us – but it

was two poor teams and it was about survival for both of us. Eventually they went down and we stayed up.

I was very pleased to be the person who did it on the day, but the realisation of the importance of the goal to the club overall came later. At the time, we were focused on staying up, and if you’ve been there for as long as I had been at Chelsea, it’s also for the love of the fans and the love of the club. I’m proud to have been a part of an important moment for the football club and proud to be remembered for it as well.

Next month we’ll be looking back on our first-ever European triumph: the 1971 Cup Winners’ Cup. Were you in Athens for either – or both – of the games in the final against Real Madrid?

If so email us at dominic.bliss@trinitymirror.com and let us know.

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MESSAGE BOARD

Where fans show the Chelsea colours, wherever they may be

HILDA MUSHA ARABELLA BAKKER Arabella Bakker came to Stamford Bridge earlier this season to see her first-ever Chelsea match and loved every minute. She chose a good day to start, as she witnessed our 2-1 London derby victory over Tottenham Hotspur in November. The 10-year-old especially enjoyed Pedro’s equalising goal against Spurs, as the Spaniard wears the same number as she has on her own shirt, and even loved meeting all her dad’s friends in the pub before the match.

LILY-GRACE BRIGHT Life has been hard for Tom Munt, who has been a Chelsea supporter since 1946, but left to celebrate our wins alone after being horrified to see his son and two grandsons become Tottenham season ticket holders, and another grandson turn out to be a Liverpool fan. But finally, Tom has some company in the family thanks to great granddaughter Lily-Grace Bright, although it is Chelsea Ladies who have mainly caught her attention so far. The five-year-old is an especially big fan of her namesake in the Ladies team, our 2016 Players’ Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year Millie Bright.

MICK O’NEIL

DAVID CHESTER We may have suffered a defeat when Liverpool came to Stamford Bridge earlier this season, but David Chester still left with a smile on his face all the way home. While walking past the Megastore at our stadium he noticed out of the corner of his eye none other than his favourite diminutive Italian – club legend Gianfranco Zola. Needless to say, he took the opportunity to grab a photograph with the former Blues forward, although it might not have gone down quite so well with David’s girlfriend, as Zola has now replaced her as the background image on his phone!

WANT TO APPEAR ON THE MESSAGE BOARD? 80

This photo shows the newest addition to the Chelsea-supporting Musha family, little Hilda, who was born on 5 April last year and instantly introduced to the Blues. She can’t wait to attend her first match at Stamford Bridge alongside her dad David, who is a season ticket holder in the Matthew Harding Stand lower, and her two brothers Roman and Tanny.

ALFIE CHAPMAN You can tell from this photo just how much little Alfie Chapman enjoys cheering on the Blues! He likes nothing more than showing his support in his Chelsea kit and especially loves his Stamford the Lion.

Lifelong Chelsea supporter Mick O’Neil passed away in October from a short and sudden illness at the age of 52. Growing up in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, in the Seventies, most of his friends supported Leeds United, but Mick’s passion was always for their big rivals the Blues. After moving to Ladbroke Grove in London, he became a season ticket holder in the Matthew Harding Stand lower and regularly attended games at Stamford Bridge with his friends Corrado, Tony and Aaron. Mick is remembered fondly by family, friends and fellow dog walkers in Notting Hill.

Forever Blue.

Send your details and a picture to: Message Board, Chelsea Football Club, Matchday Programme, Third Floor, Stamford Bridge, London, SW6 1HS

@

Or email them to: cfc.programme@trinitymirror.com

Chelsea won our first League Cup for 33 years when we defeated Middlesbrough in March 1998. How much can you remember about that squad?

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TEST YOUR CHELSEA KNOWLEDGE...

1 At which club was Dennis Wise a trainee before being released and joining Wimbledon?

2 Frank Sinclair recently became

assistant Under-23s manager at which club, linking up with one of his former team-mates from this team?

3 Tore Andre Flo finished with exactly 50 goals for Chelsea. How many overseas players have also reached that milestone for the Blues?

4 Kevin Hitchcock’s testimonial match took place soon after this League Cup final. Which of his former sides provided the opposition?

5 Dan Petrescu’s coaching career has taken him to which five countries?

0-5 EXTRA TRAINING SESSION REQUIRED!

6 Having famously scored after 42 seconds of the 1997 FA Cup final, in which minute did Roberto Di Matteo net in this League Cup final?

7 Which full-back occupied the No25 shirt for Chelsea prior to Gianfranco Zola’s arrival at the club?

8 After leaving the Blues in 1999, which club did Eddie Newton sign for?

9 Mark Hughes grew up supporting Chelsea. Which long-throw specialist was his favourite player?

10 Under how many of his former Blues team-mates

6-10 STILL ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT

has Steve Clarke worked as an assistant manager?

11 Frank Leboeuf appeared

in four major cup finals for Chelsea. How many goals did we concede in those matches?

12 Graeme Le Saux

was one of three players to be voted into a PFA Premier League Team of the Year during the 1990s while representing Chelsea.

Who were the other two?

13 Ed de Goey set club records for most appearances (59) and clean sheets (27) during a single season, in 1999/2000. Which two players surpassed them?

11-13 EXCELLENT CHELSEA KNOWLEDGE

1. Southampton 2. Stoke City 3. Eight 4. Nottingham Forest 5.Romania, Poland, Russia, Qatar and China 6. 107th 7. Terry Phelan 8. Birmingham City 9. Ian Hutchinson 10. Three (Ruud Gullit – Newcastle, Gianfranco Zola – West Ham, Roberto Di Matteo – Aston Villa) 11. Zero 12. Andy Townsend and Ruud Gullit 13. Frank Lampard and Petr Cech 81

’S KING D

ROAique Bout

Football’s – n finest fashio ux pas d fa and the od

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Roberto Di Matteo certainly had his work cut out to make sure his appearance at the civic reception honouring Chelsea’s 1997 FA Cup winners was as memorable as his goal at Wembley Stadium the day before, but he might have managed it. The Italian’s outrageous long-range drive which set us on our way to a 2-0 victory over Middlesbrough was, at the time, the quickest goal ever scored in a Wembley FA Cup final, coming after just 42 seconds. The tracksuit and club scarf worn here are all par for the course for a footballer at a club celebration, but the pastel pink baseball cap perched backwards on his head made sure he stood out from his team-mates.

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