The Curious Case Of El Nino By Yash Haldankar

   On 31st January 2011, Chelsea signed a certain quintessential World Cup winning striker Fernando “El Nino” Torres for a sum of £50 million breaking the British Transfer record. The dynamic striker with blistering pace, sublime technique and an eye for spectacular had swapped Merseyside for West London. Torres was signed on a contract of five-and-half years to lead the club from the front to glory and beyond.

Signed by Ancelotti on Deadline Day

      Fast forward two-and-half years and what you get is mediocre overpaid striker with confidence issues. Or is it really? After arriving with much pompous fanfare, the Spaniard took his own time to setting into the Chelsea system by taking 903 minutes to find the back of the net for his first goal in 18 appearances. After the horrendous start to his Chelsea career, his first full campaign in a Chelsea shirt was expected to be better than his first six months. However the effervescent presence of Didier Drogba, an eccentric Sturridge and young Lukaku added to his misery. In 49 appearances he gave a return of 11 goals paving way for another mediocre season even with Chelsea winning the coveted Champions League and FA Cup.

Torres under the shadow of Drogba

      However with new season came new hopes. After a tantalizing display for his national side by winning the Golden Boot as Spain lifted the Euro 2012 cup. The stage was finally set for Torres to prime in Chelsea shirt with Didier Drogba heading to China in search of new pastures, Lukaku sent on a season long loan to West Bromwich Albion, Sturridge being sold to Liverpool and Demba Ba coming in the winter. Torres became the only viable option up front and he did not disappoint. Finally reaching the 20- goal mark in 64 appearances with 22 goals. For once he seemed to be the Fernando Torres he was.

After scoring the decisive against Barcelona

      With Torres it has been a never-ending saga of transfer speculation after mediocre performances since his arrival. Yet both club and player have been swift and vocal enough to drive down speculation regarding Torres being sold even after bids from Athletico Madrid, Arsenal and Barcelona being made. The player has shown commitment to honoring his contract with Chelsea.
      The favorable conditions are set to prevail as Lukaku, even after his spectacular loan spell is yet unproven in Chelsea system and Demba Ba’s inconsistency in finding the back of net since leaving the Toon’s adds to that. Making Torres Chelsea’s No.1 forward at this moment. Torres’ Vantage point is his confidence. On his day, he’s an established defender’s nightmare and often is quite too sublime against even the relegation zone clubs. It is this enervating factor that he has to fight. Which if prevailed upon he is sure to flourish.

Gaining his old prowess

      Throughout his career in a Blues shirt various factors from Didier Drogba’s spectacular form to the pressure of justifying his price tag, from Chelsea’s Managing conundrums to the style of play and philosophy not suiting to his game have been responsible for not realizing his true potential.
      However with the start of new season, Torres will be coming back to London with another Golden Boot won at Confederations Cup, Brazil but a new manager will be there to welcome the 50 million forward, none other than the Special One, Jose Mourinho. This ensures that for good or for bad-This Curious Case of El Nino will be solved with either Torres finding his scoring boots, which commanded the 50 million Chelsea paid to get him or Torres being shipped out with a huge loss. This is the season that will define the legacy of El Nino and brings an end to this curious case. Now as for how it ends, lets just wait and watch.

 (This article is taken from http://www.bbfwl.com/the-curious-case-of-el-nino/ all rights belong to the writer Yash Haldankar)


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Chelsea to adapt to Torres' style of play

Mourinho impressed with Torres' efforts in training

It looked as if Torres' career at Stamford Bridge may come to a halt when Chelsea bid for Wayne Rooney. Valencia are even keen on taking El-Nino back to Spain. Instead, Jose Mourinho has encouraged the Spaniard to stay and has been impressed by his work rate and efforts at the training pitch.

Mourinho said: “I don’t know if it’s confidence. I feel the guy is highly motivated, he works very hard. Some of the work we do with the team in terms of attack suits his qualities. So let’s see what happens. We’re here to support him."

Torres came off the bench in the 72nd minute against Inter Milan

 “Usually when he is clear he scores – but he’s missed. We know that this is Torres’ game.

He added that Chelsea will try to get the best out of El-Nino by adapting itself to his game.

"We want the team not to learn how to play with him, but to improve how to play with him. He is working hard in training, we are happy with him.”




Asked if he will try to remodel Torres' game to suit Chelsea's play, Mourinho said:
“Will I try to re-model his game? Not his game, his game is impossible to remodel.

"But we want to adapt the team and teach the team how to use his best qualities because his game is his game.
"He is what he is and he is very good with the qualities that he’s got. So we need to learn and support his game.”

Chelsea will now play AC Milan in another friendly in New York on Sunday night. Torres will want to score and further impress the boss Jose Mourinho.

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Chelsea vs Inter Milan match report.

   The red card for Hugo Campagnaro was the only blemish on an otherwise well contested match between Chelsea and Inter Milan in which the blues secured a 2-0 win thanks to goals from Oscar and Hazard.
 

Hugo Campagnaro's tackle on John terry which led to a red card.

Hugo Campagnaro went for the ball against Terry but badly mistimed his tackle and ended up making contact with the defender's ankle which left him on the floor writhing in pain. the referee Elfath had no hesitations in sending Campagnaro showing him a straight red-card before Hugo even turned around. Ashley Cole and Ricky Alvarez got into a tussle but it didn't get serious and soon Terry was brushing the dust off his kit and was able to complete the 90 minutes.

A small tussle that was sparked by Campagnaro's red card

 Earlier Oscar had given Chelsea the lead after Moses won the ball in midfield and made a darting run towards the Milan goal. After evading a few defenders, he laid the ball off for Oscar who checked inside and beautifully curled the ball home. Moments later Oscar had a chance to increase the lead after he was played in by hazard with a nicely weighted lob, but this time his finish wasn't so pretty as it sailed over the bar. On the other end, Petr Cech kept out a deflected Rodrigo Palacio's long range shot.


The match wasn't short of controversy either as Alvaro Pereira brought Moses down on the edge of the area, but referee Ismail Elfath awarded a penalty despite the initial contact happening outside the box. Eden Hazard though calmly slotted home sending keeper the wrong way.
 

Goals from Hazard and Oscar sealed a comfortable victory for the blues

This win gives the blues an important boost ahead of their new season as Jose Mourinho's side put up an impressive display against Inter Milan. Chelsea play its next match against AC Milan on August 4.


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Chelsea vs Inter Milan Preview and Predictions

Chelsea players train ahead of their game against Inter Milan

 Chelsea will go one on one against Inter Milan on Thursday at the Lucas Oil Stadium in the capital city of Hoosier State as it begins its campaign in the Guinness International Champions Cup. The tournament includes many star teams such as Real Madrid, Valencia, Everton and LA Galaxy. Both teams will want to do well tonight as they look to gather momentum heading into the all crucial next season.

 The blues, led by Jose Mourinho will head into the tournament having completed a 3 game Asian tour which all ended in victory. The blues showed impressive displays at the Asian tour where the youngsters were given a chance to show off their ability too. This game also marks a special occasion for Jose Mourinho as he leads Chelsea against a side which he managed to victory in the UEFA Champions League in 2009.

Chelsea squad at the airport

  The blues flew a 25 member squad to the states which include goalkeepers Petr Čech, Mark Schwarzer, Henrique Hilário and Jamal Blackman; and defenders César Azpilicueta, Branislav Ivanović, Ashley Cole, Gary Cahill, John Terry, Ryan Bertrand and David Luiz. The midfield will be occupied by the likes of John Obi Mikel, Michael Essien, Oscar, Ramires, Frank Lampard, Marco van Ginkel, Eden Hazard, Juan Mata, Victor Moses, André Schürrle and Kevin De Bruyne while Torres, Lukaku and Ba will lead the attack.


On the other hand, Inter's coach Walter Mazzarri is leading his own 25 member squad which includes  forwards Diego Milito and Rodrigo Palacio (12 goals in Serie A), defender and captain Javier Zanetti and goalkeeper Samir Handanovič.

LA Lakers basketball star Steve Nash practices with the Inter players during their training session

Chelsea deployed the 4-3-3 tactics to perfection against the weaker Asian teams but Inter will provide a much sterner test as they have plenty of quality in side. The Nerazzurris will look to win this game and avoid any injuries to gain the all important momentum heading into the Serie-A season. Similarly the blues will look to use its talented midfield to create chances and score an important victory for themselves.

The match starts at 1:00 GMT (Friday)/8:00 p.m. ET/5:00 p.m. PT and can be watched on Fox Soccer Channel, Fox Soccer 2Go, ESPN Deportes, ESPN3 (US); Chelsea TV (UK).

My prediction for the match is: Chelsea FC 2- Inter Milan 1

Frank Lampard makes Goal.com's top 50

Frank Lampard has been an integral part of the Chelsea team.

Frank Lampard has secured the 50th spot in the Goal.com's top 50 footballers of 2013. He is the only Englishman to feature in the list. The start of the season brought doubts over Lampard due to nagging injuries and mediocre displays. Speculations emerged that the veteran midfielder had finally lost his goal scoring touch and his increasing age was given a major spotlight.

Frank Lampard celebrating his 203rd record breaking goal against Aston Villa

However, he reemerged and fought his way back into the main team under the interim manager Rafael Benitez, and in his resurgence he provided the goals and leadership to guide the blues to a third place league finish and also to the UEFA Europa League titles. Moreover, he also became the highest goalscorer for Chelsea by scoring his 203rd goal and breaking Bobby Tamblings record of 202 goals for the club.


After recently signing a new deal with the blues, Lampard has now reunited with Jose Mourinho and you wont bet against him having an incredible season again.

Frank Lampard's stats and achievements (2013):

For CHELSEA:
GAMES: 50
GOALS: 17
ASSISTS: 8

For ENGLAND:
GAMES: 7
GOALS: 6
ASSISTS: 1

HONORS: EUROPA LEAGUE

Source: http://frankiefranklampard.blogspot.com/


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Mourinho urges Hazard to "Transform" his game under him next season.

Eden Hazard has been handed the challenge to be more effective in his attacking game next season by Jose Mourinho. Following his £32 million transfer from Ligue1 outfit Lille last May, Hazard has produced some eye-catching performances. Despite being out shined by his fellow midfield partner Juan Mata, Hazard has impressed in his debut season for the blues by providing 25 assists and scoring an impressive tally of 13 goals.

Juan Mata has constantly shined for the blues since his signing from Valencia in 2011

However, the "Special One" Jose Mourinho expects hazard to make more of an impact next season. He said, “I think that the kid has a lot of talent, as everybody knows. But he has to transform his great  talent into great numbers: how many goals, how many assists, how many  winning goals, how many goals in big matches. Football is about numbers in a very pragmatic way. I’m ready to help him and he must be ready, too.".

“He has to listen. I always say to these creative players that, if you have more than the others, you have to do more than the others. If you have this ability, you have to use this ability”, he added.

Mourinho had many creative players such as Arjen Robben, Florent Malouda and Damien Dufff and this time around he has likes of Mata, Hazard, Moses, Schurrle and Oscar. It will be interesting to see how he uses them to challenge for the major titles this coming season.

   Founded in 1905, Chelsea FC is one of the English clubs and plays in the Barclays Premier League. Tasting its first success in 1955 when it won the League Championships, it has evolved into a major European footballing giant. Stamford Bridge is the home stadium which has a capacity of 41,837.
Since 1997, the club has enjoyed major succes and has amassed 15 major trophies since then. Moreover, since Roman Abramovic took over the club in 2003, Chelsea has won 11 major trophies.
  The major achievements of the club include 4 League titles, 7 FA cups, 4 League Cups and 4 FA Community Shields, while in major European competitions they have won two UEFA Cup Winner's Cup, a UEFA Super Cup, the UEFA Europa League and the biggest of them all the UEFA Champions League in 2011. Chelsea are the only London club to win the UEFA Champions League and the only British club to have won all three main UEFA club competitions. Also it is also the first club to hold two major European titles (UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE and the EUROPA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE) simultaneously. In short, a historical club in the making.