Chelsea Blip-O-Meter reading: 7.0
71+/-0 = 71 points
There remains one game left of our easy run, from which to date we have extracted: two draws, two scrappy wins and a classic Chelsea collapse at Villa Park. That’s eight points from what ought to have been fifteen. From the run of fixtures that probably went a fair way to costing Ancelotti his job, Villas-Boas has extracted one solitary additional point.
Hardly anything to write home about.
The Torres Question remains unanswered (although it has become apparent, despite the AVB rhetoric, that we been hawking him around the traps for 20mill – no takers). It is a sorry state when I (a mature ball-watching, accident-prone, right-back with the concentration span of a slug on anti-depressants – in the classic Chelsea mode) have scored more goals this Australian summer (one, to be precise) than our GBP50million spearhead. Perhaps that was partly because I played the whole 90 minutes. And partly because, when the ball came my way I just hit it and hoped (my normal finishing method) rather than trying any fancy finishing techniques.
As the table below demonstrates, The highest number of points finishing fifth this century is 67 and the lowest number of points earning fourth place is 60, therefore 68 points should equate to fourth place and UCL football, albeit with a potentially tricky UCL qualifier next season.
Eight of our remaining sixteen fixtures contain opportunities to gain points (21 in total) on the corresponding matches last season. That should counteract the fact that we are likely to drop points in several fixtures the way we are playing at the moment. Plus, of course, the fact that Arsenal and Liverpool are being very generous – although this may change.
I wouldn’t want everything hanging on our trip to Anfield the way we are playing.
Premier League Top Fives 2001/02 – 2010/11
1 87, 83, 90, 95, 91, 89, 87, 90, 86, 80
2 80, 78, 79, 83, 83, 83, 85, 86, 85, 71
3 77, 69, 75, 77, 82, 68, 83, 83, 75, 71
4 71, 67, 60, 61, 67, 68, 76, 72, 70, 68
5 66, 64, 56, 58, 65, 60, 65, 63, 67, 62
Posted by Steve Symmons
| Match | Available | 11/12 | GF | GA | GD | 10/11 | GF | GA | GD | Par | PtsYTD | GFYTD | GAYTD | GDYTD |
| Stoke (a) | 2 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1-1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | = | = | -1 | -1 | = |
| WBA (h) | 2-1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 6-0 | 7 | 1 | 6 | = | = | -5 | = | -5 | |
| Norwich (Blackpool) (h) | 3-1 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 4-0 | 11 | 1 | 10 | = | = | -6 | +1 | -7 | |
| Sunderland (a) | 2-1 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 4-2 | 15 | 3 | 12 | = | = | -8 | = | -8 | |
| Man Utd (a) | 3 | 1-3 | 8 | 6 | 2 | 1-2 | 16 | 5 | 11 | = | = | -8 | +1 | -9 |
| Swansea (West Ham) (h) | 4-1 | 12 | 7 | 5 | 3-0 | 19 | 5 | 14 | = | = | -7 | +2 | -9 | |
| Bolton (a) | 5-1 | 17 | 8 | 9 | 4-0 | 23 | 5 | 18 | = | = | -6 | +3 | -9 | |
| Everton (h) | 2 | 3-1 | 20 | 9 | 11 | 1-1 | 24 | 6 | 18 | +2 | +2 | -4 | +3 | -7 |
| QPR (Birmingham) (a) | 3 | 0-1 | 20 | 10 | 10 | 0-1 | 24 | 7 | 17 | = | +2 | -4 | +3 | -7 |
| Arsenal (h) | 3-5 | 23 | 15 | 8 | 2-0 | 26 | 7 | 19 | -3 | -1 | -3 | +8 | -11 | |
| Blackburn (a) | 1-0 | 24 | 15 | 9 | 2-1 | 28 | 8 | 20 | = | -1 | -4 | +7 | -11 | |
| Liverpool (h) | 3 | 1-2 | 25 | 17 | 8 | 0-1 | 28 | 9 | 19 | = | -1 | -3 | +8 | -11 |
| Wolves (h) | 3-0 | 28 | 17 | 11 | 2-0 | 30 | 9 | 21 | = | -1 | -2 | +8 | -10 | |
| Newcastle (a) | 2 | 3-0 | 31 | 17 | 14 | 1-1 | 31 | 10 | 21 | +2 | +1 | = | +7 | -7 |
| ManCity (h) | 2-1 | 33 | 18 | 15 | 2-0 | 33 | 10 | 23 | = | +1 | = | +8 | -8 | |
| Wigan (a) | 1-1 | 34 | 19 | 15 | 6-0 | 39 | 10 | 29 | -2 | -1 | -5 | +9 | -14 | |
| Tottenham (a) | 2 | 1-1 | 35 | 20 | 15 | 1-1 | 40 | 11 | 29 | = | -1 | -5 | +9 | -14 |
| Fulham (h) | 1-1 | 36 | 21 | 15 | 1-0 | 41 | 11 | 30 | -2 | -3 | -5 | +10 | -15 | |
| Aston Villa (h) # | 2 | 1-3 | 37 | 24 | 13 | 3-3 | 44 | 14 | 30 | -1 | -4 | -7 | +10 | -17 |
| Wolves (a) | 3 | 2-1 | 39 | 25 | 14 | 0-1 | 44 | 15 | 29 | +3 | -1 | -5 | +10 | -15 |
| Sunderland (h) | 3 | 1-0 | 40 | 25 | 15 | 0-3 | 44 | 18 | 26 | +3 | +2 | -4 | +7 | -11 |
| Norwich (Blackpool) (a) | 0-0 | 40 | 25 | 15 | 3-1 | 47 | 19 | 28 | -2 | = | -7 | +6 | -13 | |
| Swansea (West Ham) (a) | 3-1 | 50 | 20 | 30 | ||||||||||
| Man Utd (h) | 2-1 | 52 | 21 | 31 | ||||||||||
| Everton (a)# | 3 | 0-1 | 52 | 22 | 30 | |||||||||
| Bolton (h) | 1-0 | 53 | 22 | 31 | ||||||||||
| WBA (a) | 3 | 1-3 | 54 | 25 | 33 | |||||||||
| Stoke (h) | 2-0 | 56 | 25 | 35 | ||||||||||
| ManCity (a) | 3 | 0-1 | 56 | 26 | 34 | |||||||||
| Tottenham (h) | 2-1 | 58 | 27 | 35 | ||||||||||
| Aston Villa (a) | 2 | 0-0 | 58 | 27 | 35 | |||||||||
| Wigan (h) | 1-0 | 59 | 27 | 36 | ||||||||||
| Fulham (a) | 2 | 0-0 | 59 | 27 | 36 | |||||||||
| Newcastle (h) | 2 | 2-2 | 61 | 29 | 36 | |||||||||
| Arsenal (a) | 3 | 1-3 | 62 | 32 | 34 | |||||||||
| QPR (Birmingham) (h) | 3-1 | 65 | 33 | 36 | ||||||||||
| Liverpool (a) | 3 | 0-2 | 65 | 35 | 34 | |||||||||
| Blackburn (h) | 2-0 | 67 | 35 | 36 |