Is Rafa turning it around?

Rafa Benitez's arrival at the Bridge wasn't really a popular ones for the fans and frosty receptions welcomed him on match days.It didn't help that Chelsea failed to win in the first three matches in charge and the failure to win the Club World Cup again didn't help his reputation. Benitez himself told the media that he needs wins to please the fans. But since arriving back from the Club World Cup, we have been seeing a revival for the Blues and especially in Torres. After placing 5 in the net against Leeds in the Capital One cup, Chelsea's best performance in the season came against Aston Villa, where the Blues romped home 8-0, with 7 different scorers. A 1-0 victory over Norwich followed, but then Norwich beat United and Arsenal this season and are no pushovers.With one game in hand, Chelsea are now 4 points behind City and 11 points behind leaders United, whose never say die attitude again brought them back from the jaws of defeat against Newcastle. 11 points is a big gap to overhaul, but its only reached the half way stage in the premier league. Even last season,City had a lead of 10 points at the half way stage, only to lose the lead going into the final weeks and then regaining it by the end.So Chelsea's pursuit of the premier league isn't exactly over though its going to be really tough. The current form looks good and if we can get a victory against Everton on Sunday, it will be a massive boost to the credentials. Everton hasn't been a happy hunting place for the Blues recently as the last 3 visits have presented defeats. With Everton also in good form, this could really be a match that could lift the Londoners if a win can be achieved.

Rafa's arrival was also meant to revive Torres and if stats are to be taken into consideration, Rafa has managed to get Torres scoring as he has scored 7 in his last 6 outings.Only van Persei with 16 goals in all competitions has more goals than Torres if you consider the players from the Premier League. Even now, its early to say Torres is back as he needs to prove this against better sides and Everton will be an opportunity for this.

Rafa's master stroke so far has been the deployment of David Luiz in the midfield role.He first deployed the Brazilian in the position in the Club World Cup and Luiz has thrived in the role, whether it is winning tackles or in passing the ball quickly to the attacking trio and Torres. Luiz in the pivot role is something the fans had been crying out for long and Rafa's decision could have actually found the best position for the Brazilian, whose is without question a wonderful talent.

Rafa has also managed to use the squad better as the likes of Marin and Piazon have finally made their debuts for Chelsea.Even academy player Nathan Ake played the final few minutes against Norwich.The first team hasn't really changed much from the earlier regime, only that more players are being used.

So Rafa's Chelsea is winning,Torres is scoring and deployment of Luiz in the DM position was a master stroke.Its still early to say that Rafa has turned it around and will be a good bet to take the position on a permanent basis, but the signs are looking good. The lack of depth in the striker's role is something that needs to be sorted out in the January transfer window. Falcao may not arrive after all, but the likes of Andre Schrulle, Negredo and Demba Ba are some of the names that have been rumored as potential targets by the Blues. Personally, I would prefer Demba Ba, as the Senegalese has a proven record in the premier league and will be available if Chelsea trigger his release clause of 7.5 million,not exactly an amount that Roman would even think twice over. With Sturridge seemingly on his way to Liverpool, its important that Chelsea add a proven goal scorer in January.Who knows, if United or City drop points and Chelsea continue its revival, the premier league might not be an impossible objective and with the Capital One Cup,FA and the Europa League, the season could yet prove to be a great one, like last season.

Chelsea 3 Monterrey 1 - Blues through to Club World Cup finals

Chelsea are through to the finals of the Club World Cup after they overcame North & Central American champions Monterrey in the semi finals. Goals from Mata and Torres followed by an own goal gave the Blues a 3-0 lead before the Mexicans pulled one back in injury time.
Chelsea will meet Brazilian side Corinthians in the finals on Sunday.

Torres' revival under Rafa Benitez continues as the Spaniard has now scored 5 goals in his last three matches, without doubt his best spell at the club so far. The goals have however come against easy opposition like Nordjaelland,Sutherland and now Monterrey. The confidence is surely building up, but unless he performs against better opposition, it wouldn't be possible to say that 'he is back'.

Rafa Benitez also experimented with David Luiz as the defensive midfielder alongside Mikel. With Romeu injured and Mikel suspended for 2 more matches in the league, the options in the center of the midfield are very limited with only Ramires and Lampard available to play in the position.With Lampard just coming back from injury, we could see Luiz or Oscar playing in the role alongside Ramires in the next couple of weeks. With Ramires also suspended for the game against Leeds, Lampard remains the only CM available for us against Leeds.so definitely Luiz or Oscar will fill the other spot.It was anyway a good move by Rafa to experiment Luiz in the role,especially with the shortage of options at present.

Monterrey wasn't really expected to give a tough fight to the Blues, but the Brazilian team Corinthians will be no push overs and on Sunday, we could visit a much tougher game.

Blues back to winning ways in the League

Yesterday saw the first premier league win for Rafa Benitez as Chelsea boss. After tasting success against FC Nordjaelland in the Champions League, the first premier league win came after Rafa started with 2 draws and a loss. The exit from the Champions league is a huge disappointment and Chelsea now has become the first champions to not make it into the knock out stage. The draw at home against Juventus, in the first match of the campaign certainly hurt us.

The EPL match against Sunderland saw us returning back to winning games and if Rafa has been brought into to find the lost goal scoring boots of Fernando Torres, it certainly seems to be working. 2 goals against Norjaelland was followed by 2 goals against Sunderland, of which one was a penalty. That Torres wanted to take the penalty shows that the confidence is certainly returning. 4 goals in 2 games is without doubt the best performance from Torres till date in the Blue shirt, but I wouldn't go on and say that he is back. FC Nordjaelland and Sunderland are not really tough opposition and unless Torres finds the back of the net regularly in big matches, the 50 million price tag will still seem like money poorly spent.

Now lets say Torres keeps on scoring during the Rafa Benitez regime. Where does that leave Roman Abramovich in the pursuit of Pep Guardiola? While Benitez might be able to lift the side back to winning ways, Chelsea are never going to play the tika-taka style with Benitez at the helm. Even yesterday, Chelsea were comfortably leading 3-0 when Bertrand came in for Moses. Now that was a very negative move. With the side playing well, it would have been better to go for more goals rather than resorting to the negative ploy of playing a defensive minded Bertrand. Not that it made a difference though as Bertrand played yet another game which showed that he is no where near Cole. If reports are to be believed, Cole will be allowed to go in January or at the end of the season and I certainly don't think that Bertrand is an able replacement. Yes he is a good enough left back,but certainly not in the category of a Cole or Baines.Trying out Patrick van Aanholt wouldn't be a bad option either. The problem with Di Matteo was that he didn't rotate the squad enough and at the end of his regime, Chelsea had used only 19 players in the EPL, the lowest in the league. Rafa Benitez was saying about the importance of rotation, and using Bertrand in place of Moses might have been a case of player rotation, but again why not play Marin? Ok this is not my first post saying that Chelsea haven't used Marin properly, but I certainly feel that he hasn't done much wrong in the warm up matches or in the few minutes he has got on the pitch. Eden Hazard has been playing in almost all the matches and it is high time that he gets a rest. The Belgian will face a burnout if started in every match, and with Marin's natural position being left back, starting Marin in place of Hazard wouldn't be a bad idea. All the substitution proved was that Rafa is not the way forward for Chelsea if Roman wants us to play the Barcelona way. If Dailymail is to be believed, Guardiola may not even join Chelsea with Jurgen Klopp being lined up as an alternative.

Soon after the match, the Blues traveled to Japan for the Club World Cup, where the Blues will play on the 13th in the semi finals and on 16th in the finals if they qualify.