Chelsea 14/15 Is Keeping The Blue Flag Flying High

The best team in the English Premier League at this moment should go to either Chelsea or Southampton. But I opt for Chelsea. No doubt. Their early success is no fluke and not down to good luck whatsoever. Southampton may benefit from good luck and there will be times this season where bad luck will be chasing after them. They will crumble and top 10 in EPL is my realistic final placing predicted for them. I know many will not agree with me on that. But Chelsea 14/15 is a result of proper combination of good and hungry players by Mourinho. They certainly have learn from last season’s shortcomings. Chelsea 14/15 is a typical Mourinho’s team. Aggresive, provocative, ruthless, hungry, and resilient. And if you saw the way they were hugging each other after every win this season, you know that they are in this together. They play for Mourinho. Like every other winning teams created by Mourinho before this. There is no arrogant superstar and there is never a one man team. 

Let us look into this Chelsea 14/15 briefly to see more clearly on why they are the early clear favorite to dominate England and Europe this season. In goal, Chelsea has two of the best shot stoppers in the game today. One is young and one is an experienced campaigner. Both are world class and the problem facing Mourinho in keeping both happy regularly playing is a good problem to have. He just have to convince Petr Cech to stay at Chelsea for at least this season and giving every opportunity for Thibaut Courtois to excell in keeping more and more clean sheet. In defense, Chelsea has the best defensive players in EPL. That may sound cliche and lazy but in truth, they really worth the praise. Branislav Ivanovic has came far from the barren spell he faced when he was signed by Chelsea almost 10 years ago. At that time, he failed to convince Mourinho to play him and he just stuck in the reserves. Changes of managers later, Ivanovic was becoming more and more important to the Chelsea defence. Until now. He is not just able to defend brilliantly but also have a knack of scoring goals. Either from headers or from the late surging runs into the opposition penalty box. He is a beast at right back. Now Mourinho cannot resist to use him in his first eleven everytime. Then there are Gary Cahill and John Terry. Both also love to score goals in addition to their great defensive partnership. Personally I never believe Cahill would be this good. He was just an ordinary young English defender back then. Coming through the ranks at Aston Villa, he was not the super-hyped wonderkid like Phil Jones. He was just doing his own business at Villa before moving to a more stable club which was Bolton Wanderers. Even at Bolton, Cahill had already shown his ability to defend fearlessly and scoring goals. The move to Chelsea brought him up to another level. He was groomed nicely by Terry. He is now the best defender in the England squad. This season, his composure under the opposition’s pressure was calm personified. He is similar to Gerard Pique in the way he is always comfortable with the ball on his feet. Never one who just clear the ball away to the flanks or into the oppostion half. And like Terry, he is as brave as a lion. Together with Terry, he shows leadership and no nonsense defending. A great centre back pairing. Then there is Cesar Azpilicueta. I know many would have tought Filipe Luis to dislodge ‘Azpi’ for the left back position. However Azpi shows that last season performance at left back was not down to the decline of Ashley Cole’s career. Azpi was just better than Cole. Mourinho knew it long before we all knew it. Don’t ever blame Mourinho after this, of not renewing Cole’s contract last summer. And now, Azpi is just better than Filipe Luis. Even tough a right footed player by nature, Azpi is well adapted to this left back position. His style of defending reminds me of Pablo Zabaleta. Not the greatest defender, not the strongest, not the bravest and far from being elegant. They are just an effective defender. They know how to defend and they read the game well. No need for hard tackling, they just intercept the ball from the oppositions and pass it to their teammates. Their interception rate must have been 90% and above in every game. 

We finish with this fantastic four defensive pairing, we now move to Nemanja Matic. The anchor man, the water carrier, the stopper, the ‘regista’, or whatever you want to call his job. He is just magnificient and again an effective player. I’m afraid that I will use the word effetive too many times here, but that just sum up it all about this Chelsea 14/15. Matic was once a Chelsea player in the era of Carlo Ancelotti as you all knew. It was a destiny for Chelsea to buy him back last season and it was not a case of regret for Chelsea. Had he didn’t make the move to Benfica, he may well now sit in the reserves or maybe on loan at England lower division club like Josh McEachran. He really succeed in improving himself at Benfica and he is now a giant in defensive midfield. Not for his more than 1.88 meter height, but for his dominant style of play. He is a true replacement of Claude Makelele, some might say. But for me, he is just his ownself. Makelele was an experienced player playing with big clubs before joining Chelsea. So he already knew the tricks. Matic is a new boy. His experience at Benfica was actually really short, but that don’t stop him from being as good as Makelele. Matic is a strong boy, mentally. Not many would have want to return to the club that made them look useless. And Matic really enjoy the challenge to prove he can be a great player at a great club. Kudos to him. Next, there is Cesc Fabregas. I have written about what things he contributes to Chelsea, that Frank Lampard didn’t before this. Try look at my previous article entitled ‘The Curious Case of Chelsea’s Strikers’. But just to sum it again, Fabregas is the link between the defend and attack for Chelsea. If Matic helps the defend, Fabregas helps the attack. With just one touch, Fabregas can open the game for Chelsea to attack and score goals. Arsenal’s unwillingness to take him back just benefit Chelsea. And most importantly Diego Costa. Had Fabregas didn’t make the move to Chelsea, I seriously think that Costa will just become a flop like Fernando Torres, Andriy Schevchenko, Samuel Eto’o and others. That shows the importance of Fabregas to this Chelsea 14/15. Fabregas is one of the best suppliers of the ball in the world and it was great business that Mourinho managed to snap him to solve his strikers’ crisis in front of goal. This can be proved by looking at the highest number of assists in Europe this season. It is by Fabregas, and long may it continues until the season’s ending. 

Next, there is Eden Hazard. The one-time wonderkid that all big clubs were after once upon a time. Back then he was like Marco Reus now. A wonderkid ready to move on to the next level. But he follow his heart which was Chelsea. And he made a great decision. I supposed Reus should follow his heart too, not money not glamor. That way he will be more inclined to succeed because he will be more comfortable with his mind. Hazard this season is just as dangerous as he was in the previous two seasons. Dribbling at full speed and shooting after cutting inside from the left are Hazard’s trademarks. However Mourinho managed to make Hazard do them more consistently, especially this season. Hazard is also willing to track back to help Azpi in defend now. My important advice to Hazard is, don’t try to be like Messi and Ronaldo. They are both out of this world. Hazard cannot score consistently like them every game. Let alone a hattrick in even a month or a year. Hazard should just be focusing to be part of this great Chelsea 14/15 side. Ok next there is Oscar. Another version of Kaka. He is not a typical Brazilian who is skillful on the ball, just like Kaka. But he has the technique in shooting the ball, in passing the ball, and being at the right place at the right time to score goals. Just like Kaka. If he keeps scoring goals like now, he will be going to achieve as much as Kaka had in his career. Then there is Willian, Andre Schurrle, Ramires, and Mohamed Salah. They are the players being rotated in the right side of the Chelsea’s attacking trio. They are those typical Mourinho players in the way they will tirelessly run into the opposition defence and also willing to tirelessly run to the back of their own half to help the defense. The things that Mourinho does not like in his players are making the game slower, inability to help the defence quickly and being too fancy at times. That is why he sold Juan Mata. Mata has that all unfortunately. Willian, Schurrle, Ramires, and Salah are willing runners for Mourinho. They make Mourinho’s counter attacking game bear fruits most of the times and many opposition teams were punished by the swiftness of their counter attacking game. 

The last jigsaw of this Chelsea 14/15 puzzle is Diego Costa. The man that gets the most praises this season for Chelsea’s good achievement. To be honest I was skeptical upon hearing Chelsea really wanted this guy and were ready to pour 32 million on him last summer. I never believe he is that good. I’m afraid he will be another Roberto Soldado. Clueless after leaving Spain for the English Premier League. But over the years, whoever stikers that succeeded at Atletico Madrid will also be a success elsewhere. Torres, Aguero, Forlan, Falcao, Hasselbaink and others, you name it. And Diego Costa proved that theory is right and he also proved to me that he is the real deal. He is another player who sums up the traits loved by Mourinho. Aggresive, provocative, fearless and very hungry to succeed. The fact that he was a late bloomer means he will want to win everything before he retires. He is a genuine character in EPL right now and he can learn more by having Didier Drogba as mentor everyday at Chelsea. Drogba was strong but more of a soft spoken character on the pitch while Costa is a no nonsense striker and loves a battle or a confrontation with the opposition defenders so much. However he still needs to strengthen his body because of the frequent injury issues he suffered. Other than that, he is a Chelsea and EPL scoring legend in the making. The other supporting casts in this Chelsea 14/15 are Loic Remy, Kurt Zouma, Nathan Ake, and John Obi Mikel. They are able deputies nonetheless. Whoever we support, lets just enjoy this Chelsea 14/15. Ignore the fact that they have made or will make our Monday Blues more blue this season by beating our favorite teams in EPL. They deserve their success and they deserve to wave their blue flag flying high. Ciao!