Saturday 2 December
Chelsea 3:1 Newcastle United
After the early shock of falling behind we dominated this one so completely
the early concession felt like it was from a different match.
The ball dropped kindly for Dwight Gale to prod the Magpies into an early lead
but Eden Hazard scuffed a volley into the far corner for the equaliser before
Morata battered in a point-blank header for a half time lead.
Hazard notched a penalty in the second-half, our first in the league this term,
and we controlled the match from there.
There were a lot of positives from the game. Drinkwater looked to be near the
finished article and lends us even more strength in the middle and Victor
Moses looked back to his old self.
Chelsea 8:0 Yeovil Town
This one booked us a place in the Continental Tyres cup quarter-finals… the
goals came from: Crystal Dunn, two from Erin Cuthbert and Drew Spence,
Fran Kirby, Gemma Davidson and an own-goal.
Chelsea U18 2:1 Newcastle United U18
Charlie Brown scored a brace to take the academy through to the U18 Under-
18 Premier League cup quarter-final. Charlie now has 12 for the season but
the Geordies made us work for it with a late goal of their own.
Monday 4 December
Norwich City away in the third round in January. It took an age to emerge from
the hat as well, the penultimate tie drawn.
Having lost last year’s final to a goal that really was on side, there is no
question of it not having been a legitimate goal, the boys will want to go one
better.
Tuesday 5 December
Chelsea 1:1 Atletico Madrid
This was a missed opportunity, Madrid, needing a win, were unadventurous
and unimaginative but they were organised in defence.
The first-half was a turgid stalemate with both teams deflecting any real
danger but we had looked the more threatening until… ten minutes into the
second-half and Saul Niguel found himself unmarked and standing in front of
our net.
The equaliser took ages to arrive, we were brighter and more creative after
the goal but it wasn’t until Slavic deflected Eden Hazard’s shot into his own
net that we could start looking for a winner. Willian and Morata both had
chances but the draw means Roma top the group thanks to their superior
record against us.
The academy stormed into the last 16 with a thumping win. Ignoring their two
late consolation strikes we dominated throughout and goals from Harvey St.
Clair, Luke McCormick and two form Juan Castillo put us four up with a few
minutes to spare.
Both their late goals were well taken but we recovered our composure to see
out the match.
Wednesday 6 December
Chelsea 4:1 Tottenham Hotspur
Clair Rafferty celebrated a ten-year shift in a blue shirt with a win over Spurs
in the Continental Tyres cup. Hannah Blundell opened the scoring and Fran
Kirby made it two before the interval. Kirby could have had a hat-trick before
the break but did score again in the second before our visitor sparked into like
long enough to claw one back. Drew Spence restored our three goal lead
shortly after and we progress.
Milton Keynes 0:4 Chelsea U23
As we do in the Checkatrade with a crushingly dominant display as Michy
Batshuayi came in and scored a brace, Charly Musonda and Callum Hudson-
Odoi netting the others. This was the strongest squad we could put out in this
competition and Milton Keynes had made seven changes.
Thursday 7 December
A home tie with Liverpool is the women’s reward for progressing to the
Continental Tyres quarter-final. Emma Hayes said it was a tough draw but
was confident she had the right squad to beat the Reds.
Friday 8 December
A home draw in the Checkatrade as we plucked Portsmouth out of the hat.
Meanwhile the youngsters will play West Brom at home in the next round of
the FA Youth cup if we beat Scunthorpe next week.
Charly Musonda, who has impressed Conte enough to make him part of the
first-team set up, signed a new contract which will keep him at the club until
2022 – by which time we should all have flying cars and robot servants.
Sussex plod have had to admit they lied about finding knives and
knuckledusters on Crystal Palace fans after last weeks’ disturbances in
Brighton.
When confronted on the accusations plod first embellished the lie by saying
they found the weapons in the away end after the fans left and then came
clean and admitted they had concocted the whole story – in good faith. It was
incompetent toerag Ch Insp Simon Nelson who stood in front of the media last
week and lied about finding the offensive weapons in an effort to besmirch the
reputation of football fans after his force was guilty of kettling hundreds until
they missed kick-off.
Expect all the senior police involved to be promoted.
Saturday 9 December
West Ham United 1:0 Chelsea
Away from home at lunchtime after a midweek European night and, just as at
Palace, we looked jaded. Slow in thought and deed we laboured to create
chances after Marko Arnautovic had given the Hammers and early lead.
We had a couple of half chances and Morata fired wide late on when clean
through. Conte as good as surrendered the title chase after the match: “ If you
lose four games in 16 you’re not in the race”.
With the poor draw with Atletico in midweek, we suddenly look bereft of ideas
and misfiring.
Tottenham Hotspur U18 4:4 Chelsea U18
Captain Connor Gallagher scored a second-half hat-trick to earn us the draw
from 3-1 down at the break. The draw keeps us six-points clear in the
southern section. Diashawn Redan scored our other goal.
Sunday 10 December
With Manchester City beating our joint record of 13 wins on the bounce by
humbling United on their own pitch we have to say that they look the class of
the field this yea and perhaps Conte is right to concede already. The only
thing is that, Pep or no Pep, this is Manchester City we are talking about and
they have screwed up in spectacular fashion before now.
The women’s clash with City was snowed off, so we will have to wait for what
feels like the title decider.
Monday 11 December
Like a bad penny the draw for the round of 16 spat out Barcelona, again.
While it is suitable punishment for finishing second in the group, will be a
couple of really good games and give us a chance to test ourselves against
one of the continent’s finest, it is wearily familiar.
European draws obviously cannot be fixed. Except that they always manage
to match us against the same teams… if it isn’t Liverpool five years in a row
then it is Barcelona, after them we had three seasons playing PSG. We can
only guess who we will be matched against should we overcome Barca.
The rest of the English clubs got piteously easy ties: Porto v Liverpool, Sevilla
v Manchester United, Basel v Manchester City, Juventus v Tottenham
Hotspur.
