Chelsea stars falling down one after another gives Ancelotti something to think about
After a quiet post season a lot is happening at Chelsea at the moment. There were no press conferences being made by them, no statements about their plans and rumours about their secretive signings but as the start of the new season approaches there is a loud buzzing noise coming from Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea are reading the lines of “All is well that ends well” trying to find a loop hole as they certainly do not seem to be having a perfect start to the next season in spite of the fact that their last season went down perfectly according to plan and they won the Premier League title.
First of all they are now panicking a bit about their line up and the players they have chosen for this season. Earlier in the season they gave no indication about which players they were going to sign except the hyped up case of Liverpool star Spanish striker Fernando Torres.
Though the signing has not taken place yet and it seems that the Chelsea manger Carlo Ancelotti might have lost interest in him rumours have it that he is waiting patiently for the big move that may cost them around 50 million pounds. On the other hand another player has been signed in from Liverpool and that is Yossi Benayoun for 5 million pounds, which also happens to be the only major signing of Chelsea in the post season if not the only signing.
The Chelsea board and manager rebuked the idea of giving Michael Ballack, Juliano Belletti and Joe Cole a renewal on their contract which would have left them wishing that they had more depth in their squad after they were humiliated against Ajax 3-1 though they were playing a lot of youngsters in their team.
The Blues will be facing a crisis in the start of their season though they play with mediocre teams in the beginning. They have a couple of star players injured including their best goal keeper and striker Petr Cech and Didier Drogba along with a couple of other players. Ancelotti must be thinking of what will happen if he plays his second line up against the English teams.
Petr Cech has strained his calf and will be out for at least the 3 weeks along with Drogba who is undergoing an operation making him also unavailable for 3 weeks and the other players have similar stories with thigh and groin injuries. However the new entry in the injured list is that of their defender Alex.
Chelsea’s medical team along with officials from the club have confirmed that the star player will be out of action for the next month because of a thigh injury. He will join Yossi Benayoun on the bench who has picked up a groin injury in a training session.
The 28 year old Brazilian centre back has been with Chelsea since 2004 but has played for PSV for 3 years. For Chelsea the defender has had 67 appearances in which he scored 5 goals.
The Chelsea coach Carlo Ancelotti prior to the match against Ajax stated, “There are no more coming that didn't play against Crystal Palace, so Yossi Benayoun is out and Alex has a problem in his thigh but with the other players it is the same squad”. He stated this after his club defeated Crystal Palace 1-0.
The match against Ajax gave nightmares to the manager who saw Ross Turnbull, the substitute goal keeper, make one mistake after another and his inexperienced attack unable to capitalise on the chances they got.
After the match the Italian manager must have gone back home thinking that defending the Premier League title this season will definitely be a task not as easy as he had anticipated. He, earlier in the season, had stated that even if he were given the present team he had no doubt that Chelsea will be successful in defending their title.
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