Monday 5 November
Manchester City could be in trouble for manipulating the Financial fair Play rules. Uefa cut City a really sweet deal after they’d blown the FFP rules out of the water back in 2014 but now it seems they cheated more clearly than we already knew. They set up a shell company to pay the players image rights, removing £30m from the balance sheet, with their owner funding the shell company to the tune of £11m a year.
As Chelsea have been forced to sell on plenty of talented players to balance the books and meet our obligations under FFP we are not far short of a strip the titles campaign.
Wednesday 7 November
IF Elfsborg U19 0:3 Chelsea U19
Charlie Brown’s early strike looked to be the difference between the two sides until a late penalty from Billy Gilmour and a very late third, again from Brown, means we have a healthy lead to take into next week’s second leg. Elfsborg’s single tactic was to sit deep behind the ball and they’ll have to be more adventurous if they are to progress.
Fodas filhos de Puta; the FA are to appeal their independent panel’s decision not to charge Jose Mourinho when he clearly swore into the camera after his side had beaten Newcastle from two goals down last month.
The panel’s expert in Portuguese translation said that Jose’s phrase wasn’t considered offensive or inappropriate in colloquial Portuguese and that any English viewer would have to understand the language to be offended. In rebuttal of the panel’s findings the FA’s considered legal opinion is: “Umm, Miss, he said a rude word”.
Thursday 8 November
BATE Borisov 0:1 Chelsea
Olivier Giroud has suffered weird times recently. As striker for the World Champions he didn’t manage a shot on target over the summer. At Chelsea he has helped the interlinking of the attacking three without scoring himself.
Tonight he scored the only goal as redemption for all that effort as he darted onto Emerson’s cross to head home at the near post.
BATE caused more problems for us than they had at the Bridge but a combination of poor finishing, solid defending and the post and bar kept them out.
A freezing night saw our fourth win in a row and qualification from Gorup L. One more point and we have won the group.
Friday 9 November
The women have drawn PSG in the Champions League and as the draw also pairs up the semi-final teams guess who await if we beat the French… yes, Wolfsburg (or Lyon). Emma Hayes will be stoic about the depressing possible meeting with the German side that have, so far, been her personal nemesis.
Saturday 10 November
Newcastle United U18 0:3 Chelsea
Premier League cup duty and the holders march on with goals from Tino Anjorin, Jon Russell and Jack Wakely. In truth we were rarely threatened.
It was John Terry and Tammy Abraham against Frank Lampard, Jody Morris and Mason Mount at Pride Park but it was the visitors who took the points 0-3 with Abraham on the score sheet with his fifth of the campaign.
Sunday 11 November
Chelsea 0:0 Everton
A really frustrating afternoon as the minute’s silence carried over into a very quiet first-half.
We were better in the second-half and should have had a couple of penalties as Morata was hauled to the ground – one was ignored the other was flagged, incorrectly, as offside.
The referee’s incompetence should have been evident to all when he booked Antonio Rüdiger for being head butted and failed to send off Bernard who threw the Glasgow kiss.
Match of the Day made much of Jorginho’s tackle on Gylfi Sigurdsson but the Icelander played on for the next 50-minutes unaffected so the protective boot and scan look like they are excuses for missing the Iceland get together.
