The Man in The Shed

The Man in The Shed © GETTY 27th November – Must not lose Whilst most of the other English teams seemed to be making light of qualifying for the knockout stage of the Champions League it was proving somewhat more of a challenge for Chelsea after losing our opening game. Much of the pre match talk was about the need to avoid defeat in Valencia with the hope that the final game against Lille should be a certain home win. Of course playing for a draw is rarely a wise tactic and with our defensive frailties then realistically we needed to score a goal or two. It was perhaps surprising to see that Lampard had made changes to what had been a fairly stable back line. You could argue that James for Emerson was fairly safe but Tomori stepping down to the bench for Christensen was unexpected to my thinking. Mount remained on the bench with a cautious Kanté / Jorginho / Kovacic midfield yet again. Barkley had managed to flirt with the tabloids once more on a night out so did...

The Man in The Shed 23 rd November – Echoes of the past Whilst glad that the last international break for a while was over, facing City away brought back all of those dreadful memories from the painful mauling our team took last season. Although it is always frustrating at the Bridge when teams turn up to defend – you can understand why you would set up that way against a technically superior team. Sarri decided to take on City toe-to-toe and we came away six goals worse off. Just to add to their motivation City’s last game was a loss to Liverpool. The international break wasn’t all bad of course. Abraham and Mount both scored with Tomori making his debut. Giroud continues to play for France and score yet still doesn’t make our bench. On the downside Hudson-Odoi started for England but played more wayward passes in 45 minutes than in a season for Chelsea. So how would Lampard approach the game ? Add a bit more experience in the starting eleven ? No way, pretty mu...

The Man in The Shed 9 th November – VAR Early start on a Saturday and the winter weather was beginning to show its face. The hottest topic in the media continued to revolve around how the VAR system was seemly upsetting just about everyone – one way or another. Most of the old Pro’s seemed to be getting worked up over the inconsistency, the long periods awaiting answers and the failure of referees to utilise the pitch-side screens. I have to admit that I had watched the development of technology support in the NFL in the past and wondered whether football would follow the same path. NFL games ended up taking 4 hours instead of 3 and in the end they gave up on most of it and accepted that some human error was inevitable. For me the first question should always be “is there a clear error ?”. If that is not the case then VAR’s interest should stop. The referees at the games are being undermined. And all of us fans actually at the ground are now celebrating...

The Man in The Shed 5th November –  Insane Sitting in The Shed awaiting the game I wondered what kind of atmosphere we might get without Ajax fans (serving a ban). Would they have found a crafty way around this (as did a couple of hundred fans at a recent Spurs UCL game) ? It appeared not. Almost half of the designated away area seemed to be filling up with home support. Also, the ridiculous rule which normally forced us to keep several rows of home seats unsold to satisfy home/away support ratios seemed to have been binned too. No great surprises on the team sheet other than the absence of Kanté after Lampard said he was fit. Well the fun started early. Our first defending of an Ajax set-piece resulted in a goal – an own-goal (Abraham). That’s two already this season. Do these count against you in golden ball competitions ? It could have be a long night I said to myself. Before I’d even finished that mental sentence we’d been awarded a penalty. Chorus...

The Man in The Shed © Getty Images 2nd November –  VAR So another tea-time away fixture on a Saturday for the Blues. As Watford’s last home game before remembrance Sunday there was a minute’s silence which was well observed. Pulisic’s hat-trick had earned him a start ahead of Hudson-Odoi with the only other surprise being the return of Emerson for Alonso – always a positive for me in a back four. Somehow Watford, with pretty much an unchanged squad from last season, had managed to become relegation material. Perhaps losing the cup final 6-0 was more significant than anyone could have imagined. They were already on their second manager, never a good sign. Abraham seemed to have taken fashion tips from John Terry by wearing his socks like tights – never a great look in my eyes. Well we started brightly and very much in control so it was no great surprise when a fantastic through ball by Jorginho was met by Abraham who deftly looped the ball over the ...

The Man in The Shed © Robin Jones/Getty Images 30th October –  Hopes dashed My trip to the Bridge was rudely interrupted by illness; prompting my wife’s quick dash to London to hand over 2 tickets to an expectant fellow fan. Fortunately plan B was to wrap up in a blanket in front of the TV. So how serious would both managers take this game and how many youngsters would get to play ?  Well Lampard certainly stuck with the “real” youngsters as James, Guehi and Gilmour started. Only one real rookie appeared in red from the start. The other real current news was the sad illness of Gianluca Vialli – still fighting cancer (although this appeared to have only been in the public domain for a couple of weeks). Fans at the ground and on social media wishing the great man well. The game certainly started well with free flowing, fast passing football from the blues. United gradually edging back into it with a bit of bite in the challenges – although t...

The Man in The Shed © 90MiN 26th October –  An aerial bombardment It is never more relevant to say that every game throws up its own unique challenges when you consider playing Burnley away. Everything will be coming down on you from a height – whether it’s the northern weather or simply the aerial bombardment which is the core of the Burnley way. Following on from his impact as a substitute it was good to see Pulisic start. That aside, the team sheet was looking very familiar. Switching to the Burnley lads there was one name that always got me annoyed – Barnes. Ever since the game at the Bridge a few years ago when he ran his studs down the back of Matic’s achilles I’ve disliked this guy. Anyone who saw Matic lose it and get sent off knows how Barnes uses every facet of “professional” play to his advantage. Well the first thing in our favour was the weather – no rain and not much wind. So the home side had lost their “13 th man”. In a patchy first...