The Man in The Shed

The Man in The Shed 12 th May – Whatever We were last on Match Of The Day – says it all. Higuain missed a sitter. It finished nil – nil. On the positive side the extra point meant we finished 3 rd above Spurs. Next up – the Europa League final (OK so there’s a friendly in the USA next week) ! © BBC

The Man in The Shed 10 th May – Not again Another home game, another absence – sadly. Instead of being parked in my usual seat in The Shed here I was at the home of the world marbles championships ( link ), a pub in Crawley, watching on the big screen. With a 7am flight to catch the day after the game I was staying close to Gatwick airport. So was this really Eden‘s last home game in blue ? Would his last ever game for Chelsea be in Baku ? The away support was again impressive. Plenty of flags and plenty of noise. No great surprises in our starting eleven although I was perhaps surprised to see the “old” short making a re-appearance. The officials were in a very fetching red. The game was pretty even in the first fifteen minutes although another good save from Kepa kept the scores level. We were at least working their keeper too. A Willian free kick was headed on by Luiz but cleared off the line. Close, but no cigar. Never mind it didn’t take long for our next ...

The Man in The Shed 7 th May – Goodbye Cahill Where did that season go ? It was time for the last home league game of a very inconsistent season. Well true to form, Tottenham had done us (yet another) favour by deciding to play half of their league game with 9 men and letting in a winning goal in injury time ! My hope was that Watford, mindful of an impending cup final, would roll over and let us grab what could be a significant three points. Our team selection showed no great surprises with Hazard and Higuain back in the starting line-up. https://youtu.be/SQcoadw0ZrA The kit for the 19-20 season was debuting today. There was a time not so long ago that a kit lasted more than one season. Recent developments now mean that Chelsea players switch kits before a season is over. How long before we get two new kits per season (we kind of get three already if you include second and third strips but you know what I mean). The social media feedback on the new kit would b...

The Man in The Shed 3 rd May – Atmosphere So after two evenings of Champions League football it was time for the main event ! It would be difficult to better Wednesday’s game in Spain. Whilst all Chelsea fans marvel at the exceptional skills of Hazard you really have to be in awe of the enduring brilliance of Lionel Messi.   Perhaps that’s how Hazard came to be on the bench – he asked Sarri for a rest so we couldn’t compare them. The other significant event leading up to the game was of course the new 2019-20 shirt launch. It certainly brought all Chelsea fans together – in apparent universal condemnation. I have to admit a soft spot for those Adidas kits in the recent past but accepted that (in the absence of increasing revenue via a larger ground) we couldn’t turn down the better offer from Nike. All this marketing BS about incorporating all 4 parts of the ground into the design – really ? I won’t be buying one – but don’t worry Nike – I’ve never bought a replica shi...

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 ...