Wednesday 12 December
Tottenham Hotspur 0:5 Chelsea
The Continental Tyr … the women’s league cup group stage ended with a satisfactory thrashing of Spurs on their own patch. Deanna Cooper opened the scoring with her first goal for the Blues and Ali Riley then scored her first with a shot into the top corner. Caren Carney opened the second-half with her own goal and Beth England scored another brace.
The women have a mid-winter break now until January 6 when they face Everton at Kingsmeadow – tickets for that match are free.
Thursday 13 December
MOL Vidi 2:2 Chelsea
These training matches for the B-squad have been very positive so far as tonight free-kick goals from Willian and Olivier Giroud cancelled out a clumsy own-goal from Ethan Ampadu and a cracking second-half volley from Loic Nego. We topped the group in any case and apart from Alvaro Morata, who limped out, we didn’t stretch the squad.
So, we await the draw on Monday with some expectation. Rangers and AC Milan are out, Celtic through, all the English clubs in the Champions League snuck through so none drop into this draw. Inter, Napoli and Sevilla are all seeded, alongside Arsenal and ourselves.
Those in our travelling ranks who keep singing the anti-Semitic songs should pack it in. In the week we were shamed by the verbal assault on Raheem Sterling it was poor timing to get yourself caught on film with the y*d chants. Yes, we know, not much else rhymes with Real Madrid…
Captain for the night Cesc Fabregas summed it up: “There’s always insults; I’ve had so many of them over the years when you warm up, and even jokes. That’s fine for me.
“When we cross the line with racism, it’s too far, it shouldn’t be allowed. The people that did it got caught, they will be punished for it and they will be taught a big lesson in their lives. I hope this will help for many other reasons in life.”
Even the dedicated racist must eventually realise that they are sitting in a stadium covered by CCTV, surrounded by people with smart phones at a televised match for which they have given their name, address and credit card details. When you get caught and banned will it have been worth it?
Sunday 16 December
Brighton & Hove Albion 1:2 Chelsea
Eden Hazard was again a false 9 and made one and scored the other as dominated but again struggled to finish off mid-table opposition.
Brighton were good for their one goal but only threatened sporadically and we should have had them buried long before the nervous ending.
Pedro’s opener was fashioned by Hazard with a burst of speed and an intelligent square pass.
Willian intercepted an attempted pass and played Hazard in to speed away from the defence to slot confidently.
