The Man in The Shed

The Man in The Shed 30th April – Trepidation So as I sat down to prepare myself for Manchester United versus Chelsea on SKY I was counting my blessings that nobody else seemed to be taking the race to finish in the top 4 seriously. West Ham had kindly ended Tottenham’s unbeaten start in their new stadium and Arsenal had capitulated away from home again (although note for later, Leicester are looking rather good).   I did quite like the tweet from Sevilla : So we just needed a good result against United – who’d lost 7 of their last 9 games; but then we’d lost all of our away games to top 6 so far (aggregate 1-13). Good news on team selection with both Rüdiger and Kanté back in the starting eleven although a midfield of Kanté, Jorginho and Kovacic didn’t excite. Still, we did have a recognised centre forward in Higuain alongside Hazard. United always seem to pick all of the ex-Chelsea guys whenever we play them so Mata, Matic and Lukaku lined up for the reds. ...

The Man in The Shed 23 rd April – Anti-football It was back at the Bridge on an Easter Monday evening. With engineering works on the trains and the thought of returning to work the next day you had to have some sympathy for Burnley fans. They would be setting off for home at ten o’clock with at least a four hour journey. It was nice to hear that their club had been offering subsidised tickets and travel – spot on ! I’d had to walk to the ground from Earls Court but that might have helped counter-balance the excess of chocolate consumed in the last few days. It wasn’t all bad news of course. We’d just had a Bank Holiday weekend in April with sun and 20+ degree warmth. I was sitting in the Shed without a coat or jumper. The team news was positive with our three Academy graduates (Christensen, Loftus-Cheek and Hudson-Odoi) all in the starting eleven alongside Hazard and Higuain. Rüdiger and Alonso presumably given a little longer to overcome injuries. The home ...

The Man in The Shed 20 th April – A game of two halves It was very disappointing to hear about a flare thrown by Liverpool fans into the Chelsea section. On the day that Anfield remembered Hillsborough and the late Tommy Smith you would have expected better. Political correctness meant that nothing negative could be reported about Liverpool until the following day. One wonders whether the negative news would have been supressed had a Chelsea fan been seriously injured ! Disappointed that I wasn’t able to make the Europa League game – sometimes family is more important. Nevertheless, the trusty laptop was fired up and running (on a more reliable Wi-Fi this time) as the game kicked off. Without Alonso and Rüdiger (both injured) the defence pretty much picked itself. Even Cahill made the bench ! Barkley was the only Englishman on the pitch and Pedro and Hazard lined up alongside our Europa Hitman Giroud. The much loved Kovacic was playing the “Jorginho” role. Well we ...

The Man in The Shed 16 th April – Slip up You can understand how English teams struggle on the European stage when they’re having to play every 3 days. Whilst Porto and Slavia Prague are hardly two of the real heavyweights of the game it wasn’t going to help Chelsea or Liverpool having to battle it out half way between important two legged quarter finals. The game certainly wasn’t going to be easy. On top of having to take on one of the top two teams in the league we were having to cope with the added emotions of the Hillsborough anniversary and the sad death of Liverpool legend Tommy Smith. Yet again we were starting with Loftus-Cheek and Hudson-Odoi ! As much as it pains me to say so I reckon the manager was right when he said the two young Englishmen weren’t   ready earlier in the season. They both seem to understand now their defensive duties when we don’t have the ball. Unsurprisingly the first minutes of the game were all Liverpool. Driven on by a f...

The Man in The Shed 12 th April – Czech, mate So another Thursday night and another away Europa League match for The Blues. As I settled down to the preamble that precedes every live game I wondered what the researchers would come up with tonight. Well, the Chelsea link between the teams this time was fairly tenuous – one of the army of players that stepped through the revolving doors of the Cobham training ground was doing quite well for Slavia Prague. One Miroslav Stoch, a Slovakian and veteran of five games (no goals) for The Blues ten years ago. It seemed he’d developed quite well and was playing in the top club in the Czech league - recent conquerors of the Europa league’s equivalent of Real Madrid, Sevilla (five UEFA cup / Europa league titles). It was being painted as a tough tie. With the games coming thick and fast there was plenty of squad rotation; plus the added bonus of Liverpool away on Sunday ! We welcomed back Pedro, Willian, Giroud, Kovacic, Barkley, A...

The Man in The Shed 9 th April – Garden of Eden I was glad to be back in The Shed – my second home. Although West Ham (or is that Stratford United) have never been a top 6 opponent there is always that edge to the games with them. For those of a certain age (who remember football existed before the Premier League) things were very different years ago. West Ham were one of those teams with a band of tough away fans who saw the main purpose of attending opponents’ grounds as a challenge of seeing if they could attack the main home end and “take it over”. Stealthily entering the home end with scarves hidden they would slowly move in on their target before attacking the home fans to take their prize. I’ve witnessed it and it wasn’t pretty. So, the history gave the game a much needed edge. The away support filled the full half of the Shed End and the home fans were in good voice. Game on. Much to my delight – and most others – the two young Englishmen, Loftus-Cheek and Hudo...

The Man in The Shed 4th April  – Youth at last It was time to play our game in hand. A chance to push for that top four finish. With Tottenham’s very timely implosion over the last few weeks and United’s demise at Wolves the previous night there was now a position where four were chasing two spots. Added to this the distraction of an F A Cup semi-final for Brighton in a few days’ time then surely lady luck was looking our way at a good time. The team sheet was showing seven changes from Sunday. The huge news was that not only was young Hudson-Odoi finally starting a game but Loftus-Cheek had joined him. With Christensen starting alongside David Luiz there were three youth products in the team. Add Emerson in for Alonso, Giroud for Higuain and the return of Kanté and Hazard. There was optimism in this team ! Sadly I was not to be anywhere near the ground on the night. By the time the game had been rearranged I was already booked to be out of town. Judging by the numb...

The Man in The Shed 31 st March – Lucky or what ! So the two week wait was over. The players had all returned from International duty without serious damage and the manager’s message was all about who was tired and who wasn’t. So it wasn’t a great surprise to see Hazard and Kanté warming the bench after playing most of the two games for their countries. There seemed little to get excited about in a first half which the TV commentator described as “laboured”.   Other than a Pedro shot just over the bar and a Willian free kick just wide the football served up was hardly great. Those Chelsea players on the pitch might not have been deemed tired but they were not doing much to “cement their places”. And then the second half was like Everton away all over again. We go a goal behind (to a great strike to be fair) within minutes. You’d be hard pushed not to argue that all half time breaks at away grounds should mean keeping the players out on the pitch for ten minutes as ...