Lukaku should be back at Chelsea in January

West Brom currently sit above Chelsea in the EPL table with an impressive forward line to choose from.While first choice striker Shane Long has been brilliant, Romelu Lukaku has proved that he is a more than able to succeed in the premier league with 4 goals and an assist. The stats are really impressive considering that the young Belgian has started from the bench most of the times. While his parent club Chelsea are struggling with their strikers Torres and Sturridge have disappointed. The decision to loan out Lukaku is proving to be an unwise one already. Abramovich might want Torres to succeed, but his performances in front of the goal is really testing the patience of supporters who have always stood by him. While there is a slim chance that Rafa might be able to get back some of the form in Torres, there is every chance that he will not be as lethal as in his Liverpool days. Also, with Sturridge wanting out in January, the clause to get Lukaku back in January should be used by the Blues. The other option is to bring Falcao to Chelsea, but that would again mean spending a load of money. But when we have a youngster doing so well for another club in the premier league, why bring Falcao in? Even if Falcao is in, that would mean more or less that Torres will move in the opposite direction, leaving us again with a single striker. Lukaku has gained valuable experience playing for the Baggies and has proved his worth. Even with a main striker,Torres or Falcao in the squad, there has to be someone who can make an impact from the bench, like Hernandez does for Man United or super sub Dzeko does it for Man City. It all depends on how the manager succeeds in giving playing time to the fringe players,something that RDM didn't do very well. Chelsea have used only 19 players in the EPL till date, which is the lowest in the league. If Man United and City who both have 4 strikers to choose from can rotate their players, why can't Chelsea do the same thing. It brings out the best in the players starting,since they won't be taking their places for granted. Also, it would give some rest to the players. Torres began impressively this season, but has started in almost every game, which would have obviously tired the Spaniard. Isn't that enough reasons to suggest that Lukaku should be back at Chelsea in January?

Lukaku's stats so far at West Brom

Starts : 3*
Substitute appearances : 8*
Goals: 4
Assists : 1

* Lukaku wasn't eligible to play against Chelsea. 11 appearances off a possible 12 for the Baggies

** 3 of his 4 goals have come in winning causes
** Torres has the same number of goals and he has started in all matches

Frosty reception for Rafa as Chelsea and Manchester City play out a draw

The Rafa Benitez era at the Bridge began with the new manager being booed by large sections of the home crowd and support pouring in for Robbie Di Matteo. Rafa has been an unpopular figure for the Stamford Bridge faithful ever since his Liverpool days and for almost the first half, the crowd never got behind the team.All the action was restricted to the crowd as on the pitch,Chelsea and Manchester City were far from impressive as a tame draw was played out. There weren't any clear cut chances for both teams and if Rafa is to win over the fans,he will need the team to win a few matches convincingly. This one did little good to enhance his reputation with the crowd.

Torres was back in the side with the trio of Hazard,Mata and Oscar behind him. Ivanovic was preferred over Cahill at center back with Luiz along side him.The same 4-2-3-1 system was employed but the creative spark which has gone missing for the past few games was again missing as no clear cut chances were created. The result leaves Chelsea in 4th position behind West Brom and City in 2nd position.

Manager Watch:

It would have been really tough for Rafa to hear the chants of 'Rafa Out' in his very first game in charge, but it wasn't unexpected. When you replace a fan favorite with someone who the fans don't want at all, it would have been a surprise if a good reception was given to Rafa. No changes to the system nor the personnel were made by the new manager as the same 4-2-3-1 formation was employed.But the free flowing football was missing,meaning that more emphasis was laid on the defensive side of the game.But with the fans against him, the only way to turn around things is to get wins and I felt that enough wasn't done to win the game.It was City who looked like scoring for most parts of the game.

Substitutions: Benitez made two substitutions in the game. Moses coming in for Hazard and then Romeu for Mikel. While the first one made sense to put fresh legs on the pitch,the second substitution just confirmed the fact that Benitez was happy with a point. It simply didn't make sense for me that Romeu came in for Mikel. If Chelsea were looking to win the game, then another attacker should have been on the pitch. Again the unlucky Marin was to miss out. A 4-1-4-1 formation would have given more of an opportunity to score,with Marin,Oscar,Mata and Moses behind Torres, or even push one of the mid fielders to partner Torres upfront with a 4-1-3-2 formation. Di Matteo was also a bit reluctant to change the formations and watching the first game with Benitez in charge, I fear the same is going to be repeated.

Not a good outing for the new manager in terms of the reception and the substitutions made but a positive from the match would be the clean sheet especially against City who has arguably the best forward line in the premier league.

Rafa Benitez appointed manager till the end of the season

Chelsea's pursuit of Pep Guardiola was due to fail as the former Barcelona manager refused to come out of his sabbatical before the end of the season. Former Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez has been appointed as the interim manager. Here are my thoughts on the appointment.

Benitez's appointment is seen as a short term solution by the Chelsea hierarchy until Pep comes out of his sabbatical. Having seen the history of Roman's impatience with manager, will Pep be ready to come after all? After all he will need time to implement a free flowing style and Roman's impatience won't help him achieve the success in short term.Now what happens if Benitez wins the Premier League this season? Won't Chelsea be forced to keep him as a good will gesture? Another dilemma for Chelsea would be that Pep will have a lot of offers other than Chelsea, with probably Manchester City or even Man United interested. Sir Alex Fergusson might be retiring in a year or 2 and if SAF decides to go at the end of this season, I see no reason why Pep wouldn't be interested in take up the job. Both the Manchester clubs will provide much more security to his job.

Another problem with Benitez's appointment is that he is almost hated by Chelsea fans.Chelsea fans are not happy with RDM's sacking and on top of it, the hierarchy appoint a person whom Chelsea fans hate. Rafa has to win over the fans and keep winning matches as well. So a lot of pressure is already there on Rafa as he takes the reigns at Stamford Bridge.

Benitez got the boot from Inter Milan, 6 months after taking charge. The same Inter won the treble the previous season with Mourinho at the helm. He wasn't able to land a job for another 2 years after the sacking from Inter. So is he really the right man for the job?

In spite of all this negativity surrounding the appointment of Rafa, there are some qualities in Rafa, that could really inspire the team. He was able to win two La Liga titles with Valencia before winning the Champions league with Liverpool. There is no doubt that he is a successful manager. Another positive about him is that he is the manager under whom Torres thrived. It does makes one wonder whether the appointment is to fire Torres. Personally, I don't really think that Torres will reach that same heights but the plans to revive Torres starts with Rafa's appointment.Another quality that Rafa brings in his no nonsense attitude, which would help in managing the egos within the team.

Will Rafa be able to revive the team low on confidence? Only time will tell and all I can say is "Good luck Rafa". That doesn't mean that I am impressed by the appointment, but lets see what happens at the end of season before being judgmental.

RDM loses his job after loss at Turin leaves Chelsea on the brink of CL exit

6 months after he led Chelsea to its greatest night at Munich, Roberto Di Matteo was sacked by Chelsea after a string of bad results. The loss to Juventus at Turin has left Chelsea facing an exit from the Champions league in the league stage itself, a fact that was too much for Roman to ignore and acted by axing the popular manager.

This is a really shocking decision (rather another shocking decision). True that the results over the past few matches were disappointing but that doesn't mean that the manager has to be sacked,especially since RDM won the Champions league and FA cup as the interim manager last season. Add to the fact that he was a wonderful player for Chelsea, RDM has a legendary image at Chelsea and this decision would have alienated so many fans.

Pep Guardiola has long been sought after by Roman and is favorite to replace RDM. Whether he will come out of his sabbatical is still a major roadblock for Chelsea. Rafa Benitez is another candidate for the job.

So sorry for Di Matteo. Led the team to its greatest night and still didn't keep his job. While I accept that Chelsea would have been nothing without Roman, he cannot continue axing managers after a string of bad results. What happens if Pep comes in and loses 5 matches - he too will be fired. So will he even take a job that is so insecure? Disappointed by the decision.

November blues continue as Chelsea as slump continues at West Brom

Over the past few years, the month of November has been a very bad month for Chelsea as the team some how seem to lose the momentum and this season also has proved so far that the curse of November is still there. A 2-1 loss to West Brom meant that Chelsea are now 4 league games without a win. With Man United losing to Norwich later in the day, it was also an opportunity missed to close the gap. As it stands, the Blues are now 4 points behind new league leaders Manchester City and 3 points behind United.

Di Matteo decided to bench key players for the game as many of them were on duty for their country during mid week. Oscar,Ramires,Mata and Ivanovic were absent from the starting line up. RDM's rotation has been really poor and the Blues have used only 19 players in the league, the least in the Premier League. With the talent at his disposal, Di Matteo should be using more of his players to prevent the key players from burning out. With Mata and Oscar benched, RDM started with Moses,Hazard and Sturridge behing Torres. Again for some reasons, Marin was again left on the bench. Hazard has normally played on the left side for Chelsea and with Marin's preferred position being the left, one would have thought that the Belgian could also be given a break and play Marin in the position. The Belgian was however one of the brighter players on the pitch and scored Chelsea's lone goal by heading in Azpilicueta's cross. Torres was again anonymous.With Sturridge moving to the center when Torres was taken off,Chelsea carved out some chances for scoring. Sturridge did his chances no harm as he forced the keeper into a couple of good saves. But the "selfish" nature in him was again evident as he chose to shoot instead of passing to a better placed team mate.

The lack of quality up front is really hurting Chelsea and with Torres again misfiring after the good start to the season ,the need to get a good striker in January will be the top priority. News reports suggest that Falcao will arrive in January. I don't really think the Chelsea need to go spent another 50 million on a striker and would prefer Lukaku brought back from his loan spell. 

Blues lose further ground on league leaders with draw against Liverpool

While the Blues began the season in absolutely wonderfully well, the last few games have been a different story with Chelsea struggling to notch up victories. While the match against Manchester United was lost in controversial circumstances, even in that match, the first two goals were conceded so easily. Last week the Blues allowed Swansea to draw level after taking the lead and it was the same story this week as well as Terry's opener was cancelled out by Luiz Suarez. This makes it 3 EPL games without a win and 2 points out of a possible 9 is not at all championship winning form.What will concern more for RDM is that Terry's comeback was cut short by an injury,which looks like will keep him out for some time.

Chelsea had enough chances to win the game and were guilty of not finishing well. There is obviously a lot of tired legs in the midfield, who have been laboring week and week out. While the depth of the squad is great, the rotation seems to be happening only in the defense. Moses has got some action, but the bulk of the matches have seen Mata,Hazard and Oscar line up. It would probably be a good thing to bring in Marin and Piazon for some of the matches to avoid a burnout for Hazard,Mata and Oscar.

The draw saw us lose further ground as United's and City's wins means that Chelsea are now in third position. Next up is West Brom away, which will again be another massive test. West Brom are currently fifth in the table.

Looking ahead to Chelsea vs Liverpool

Competition: EPL
Opponent: Liverpool
Venue: Stamford Bridge,Chelsea

After the mid week triumph against Shakthar Donetsk in the Champions league, Chelsea resume their battle for the EPL crown on Sunday with another tough match, this time against Liverpool. The current table position shows the Blues in second place while Liverpool are languishing in 12th, but that wouldn't mean that this will be an easy game. Liverpool have the habit of raising their game against the likes of Chelsea,Man United,Man City and Arsenal and are a dangerous opponent. The results may have gone against them, but with Suarez,Gerrand,Allen etc in the team, Liverpool are still a strong side. Also, Liverpool have been something of a thorn in the flesh for Chelsea as they have been one of the most successful clubs to have face Chelsea in the recent past. In the last four meetings at the Bridge, the Reds have amazingly won 3 of them, including a 2-1 win last season.

With Chelsea opting the expansive style, goals are something that the Blues are sure to offer these days.But a recent slump in form following the defeat against Man United and an away draw at Swansea saw the Blues losing the top spot in the EPL tables. With Man United winning against the Villans today, Chelsea are now 4 points behind the league leaders and thus this game becomes a must win to keep up with United.

John Terry might have been benched against Shakthar, but I expect him to be given the start against Liverpool, especially after a horror show by the center backs against Shakthar. Cahill would probably keep his place ahead of Luiz. Ashley Cole and Frank Lampard are still out injured. Bertrand will obviously start at left back against Liverpool. Bertrand was absolutely poor against Shakthar and will hope that he doesn't make such mistakes in this game especially against the pacy 17 year old Raheem Sterling.

Another key battle is for Torres. Torres had a legendary status at Liverpool before Chelsea prized him away but the Spaniard is yet to score against his old club in three meetings.He will be certainly hoping to add to his Chelsea tally of goals. Torres is still not to his best and needs a good game with a goal or two. The striker at the other end, Suarez has been in red hot form in EPL and has already scored 7 goals. The problem for Liverpool has been that none of the others have been contributing much goals. So stopping Suarez will be of primary importance for the Chelsea defense. Expect Terry to be closely marking Suarez.

The mid field trio of Mata,Hazard and Oscar will again start behind Torres. RDM has been saying about squad rotation and while he has rotated his defenders, he has been reluctant to rotate Mata,Hazard and Oscar. Marin is yet to get a game, while Moses has impressed recently with two goals in the last two matches. If Chelsea need width, then it would be good idea to bring on Moses and Marin as the game progresses.

Probable Team : Cech,Ivanovic,Cahill,Terry,Bertrand,Ramires,Mikel,Mata,Oscar,Hazard,Torres

This is another massively important game and a must win if Chelsea have to keep pace with United and City in the battle for the EPL crown.On paper, the Blues should easily brush aside Liverpool,but recent record for the Kop shows that they perform  really well against the Blues. This could be another match with end-to-end stuff and I am really looking forward to it. Only concern is about the referee, Howard Webb. Hopefully the referee and his assistants won't be in the news for all the wrong reasons after the game.