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TIME TO UNITE
The Chelsea manager Rafa Benitez has suggested that it is time that the fans and the media started moving on from the past and into the future. He has suggested that the club will be focusing on new players rather than the old legends, which has suggested that the likes of Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole will definitely leave the club at the end of the season. The two players are out of contract at the end of this season and there has been no negotiations for both the players. Lampard is regarded as one of the club legends due to his 11 year spell at the club in which he has scored close to 200 goals.
The 34-year-old is cherished by the Chelsea fans, but Benitez reckons that it is time that the club moved on from the past. He has also paid tribute to the achievements of the players at the club during the last decade. Chelsea have come a long way since their first trophy – League cup – in 2005. Many of the players who were part of the team like Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole, John Terry, and Petr Cech have been the backbone of the team in the successes that have followed.
“It’s easy to talk about the legends and we have to have a lot of respect for them. What they have achieved at this club is fantastic, but we have to have new players — English or foreign, it doesn’t matter — and carry on winning games. Everyone knows the legends have been here and what they have achieved, but we have to see new players coming in. It’s part of life. I can see the club are changing things and thinking about being successful again,” said Benitez ahead of the League cup semi-final match against Swansea.
Chelsea FC – The Road to Munich
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MANCINI WARY OF CHELSEA
The Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini has said that he is extremely wary of a threat posed by Chelsea in the title race, despite the team struggling with a number of bad results in recent weeks. This has prompted to change the manager Roberto di Matteo, who has been replaced by Rafael Benitez. Despite the arrival of the former Liverpool man, the club has been unable to get back to winning ways after they have suffered draws against Manchester City and Fulham in the last two matches. The Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson recently suggested that it was a two horse title race between the two Manchester clubs.
However, Mancini believes that Chelsea should not be discounted from this title race because they have players who can make the difference. It has been six matches without a win in the league for Chelsea. They will be facing yet another London derby in the weekend against West Ham. Due to the fact that there are still 24 matches remaining in the league, it is very wrong to discount Chelsea as not a proposition in the title race. Mancini has pointed out to the number of points City made up for United in the last six matches of the season.
“I think Chelsea could be in it. We have another 24 games. It is too long to say. Last year in [the last] six games we recovered eight points. Teams like Tottenham and Arsenal can recover these points in the next 24 games but it is difficult to say this now. Everton started the season very well. They can finish in the Europa League but also they have the quality to finish fourth,” said Mancini ahead of the match with Everton, who were the last team to win at the Etihad stadium.
Chelsea FC vs Seattle Sounders: 2012 World Football Challenge – KICKTV Classics
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Cech: Di Matteo was right to rest Mata
It would be fair to say that Juan Mata was the best player on the park during Chelsea’s 4-2 win over Tottenham, with the Spaniard well and truly pulling the strings during the victory. Following his highly impressive performance, Petr Cech has lauded praise on the player and insisted that Roberto Di Matteo’s decision to rest him for two weeks has paid dividends.
Mata was the star of the show on Saturday, with the Blues coming back from being 2-1 down to completely outclass Spurs and strengthen their hold at the top of the Premier League. As well as scoring twice, the former Valencia midfielder was a constant thorn in the side of Andre Villas-Boas’ side, with the club’s former manager even lavishing praise on the player he brought to Stamford Bridge just over twelve months ago.
Following on from the classy performance, goalkeeper Cech has praised all his teammates. He told talkSPORT that the team did fantastically well to win their first game at White Hart Lane in years, while also complimented Di Matteo’s approach in relation to Mata, “It was a great reaction from 2-1 down. We haven’t won here for a long time and then you think here we go again but it was not the case, we knew how to get back into the game and in the end we scored some great goals. It was important to give him [Mata] a break. You can’t play two seasons in a row and the Euros. You can see he benefited from that, he’s still got the hunger to play. It’s great to see him playing like that.”
The win over Spurs means that the Blues retain their place at the top of the division, with 2nd place Manchester United still four points behind following the opening eight games.