Chelsea Blip-O-Meter Reading
Chelsea Blip-O-Meter reading: 0
64+8 = 72 points
Well, that’s six banana skins and one six-pointer successfully negotiated, with only the draw at Loftus Road as a minor blot to the record.
Commentators may remark about the gentleness of our early season schedule, but last season we managed to come a cropper on three of those banana skins and were skinned in the six-pointer.
Last season the Blip-O-Meter was bouncing around the red zone during most of those games. This year the needle recorded its highest reading of 6.0 at home against Norwich. But that lasted all of four minutes.
The result is a gain of eight points against last season’s equivalent fixtures, putting us on target for what must have been our first objective at the start of the season: a top four finish and with it Champions League qualification – the normal way.
Bearing in mind our need to integrate several key new players (while gently phasing out our reliance on several older ones) along with the wholesale change in our core tactics, that alone would have been quite an achievement. I was not expecting everything to gel until well into the season – at a point too late to have a realistic chance of winning the League.
As it is, matters could not have gone much better. Even Torres has been scoring goals (despite not looking remotely like his old self – I assume Di Matteo guaranteed Torres 10 games leading the line – regardless – to take pressure off him).
Our three half-forwards are buzzing around impressively and already seem to have acquired a good understanding. Some of the one-touch football has been like watching a ball pinging around a pinball table – almost impossible to defend against. The only criticism would be that we sometimes seem to play too narrow. However, now that we have a real right-back to balance our surfeit of left-sided talent, we may see less of that occurring.
Mata continues to impress.
Were the referees to have adjudicated our games correctly Hazard would have had another hatful of penalties to add to his collection.
But the Cullinan diamond in our crown must be Oscar.
Now, in itself, signing the Brazil No 10 is not exactly a glowing endorsement of our scouting network’s ability to unearth hidden gems (we could have picked up Hazard as a kid for peanuts), but when put together with the young players we currently have (or have on loan) and our cup winning youth side, we look like we could be looking at a very bright future.
The next few weeks will indicate whether we can realistically start aiming for another Premiership. This starts with a litmus test at White Hart Lane. For some Chelsea Traditionalists this is the game of the year (closely followed by the reverse fixture) – Now with the added chilli garnish of Villas-Boas now talking his gobbeldy-gook-game about Spurs. Like a short pendulum, the Brit media seem to have swung back to AVB adoration, while Chelsea appears to remain their whipping post.
Winning this one will prove particularly satisfying – and give us yet another couple of points we didn’t manage last season.
Tottenham (a) 2
Man Utd (h) 2
Swansea (a) 2
Liverpool (h) 3
WBA (a) (AVB Sacked) 3
Man City (h)
If we collect maximum (or near) points from that little cluster it will start to have a look of Mourinho’s first season.
Posted by Steve Symmons
CFC Match/Match Comparison 2011-12/2012-13: +8pts
| Match | PointsAvailable | 11/12 | GF | GA | GD | 10/11 | GF | GA | GD | Par ± | Pts±YTD | GF±YTD | GA±YTD | GD±YTD |
| Wigan (a) |
2 |
2-0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1-1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | +2 | +2 | +1 | -1 | +2 |
| Reading (Bolton) (h) | 4-2 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 3-0 | 4 | 1 | 3 | = | +2 | +2 | +1 | +1 | |
| *Newcastle (h) |
3 |
2-0 | 8 | 2 | 6 | 0-2 | 4 | 3 | 1 | +3 | +5 | +4 | -1 | +5 |
| QPR (a) |
3 |
0-0 | 8 | 2 | 6 | 0-1 | 4 | 4 | 0 | +1 | +6 | +4 | -2 | +6 |
| *Stoke (h) | 1-0 | 9 | 2 | 7 | 1-0 | 5 | 4 | 1 | = | +6 | +4 | -2 | +6 | |
| *Arsenal (a) |
2 |
2-1 | 11 | 3 | 8 | 0-0 | 5 | 4 | 1 | +2 | +8 | +6 | -1 | +7 |
| Norwich (h) | 4-1 | 15 | 4 | 11 | 3-1 | 8 | 5 | 3 | = | +8 | +7 | -1 | +8 | |
| Tottenham (a) |
2 |
1-1 | 9 | 6 | 3 | |||||||||
| Man Utd (h) |
2 |
3-3 | 12 | 9 | 3 | |||||||||
| Swansea (a) |
2 |
1-1 | 13 | 10 | 3 | |||||||||
| Liverpool (h) |
3 |
1-2 | 14 | 12 | 2 | |||||||||
| WBA (a) (AVB Sacked) |
3 |
0-1 | 14 | 13 | 1 | |||||||||
| Man City (h) | 2-1 | 16 | 14 | 2 | ||||||||||
| Fulham (h) |
2 |
1-1 | 17 | 15 | 2 | |||||||||
| West Ham (Wolves) (a) | 2-1 | 19 | 16 | 3 | ||||||||||
| Sunderland (a) | 2-1 | 21 | 17 | 4 | ||||||||||
| *Southampton (Blackburn) (h) | 2-1 | 23 | 18 | 5 | ||||||||||
| Aston Villa (h) |
3 |
1-3 | 24 | 21 | 3 | |||||||||
| Norwich (a) |
2 |
0-0 | 24 | 21 | 3 | |||||||||
| Everton (a) |
3 |
0-2 | 24 | 23 | 1 | |||||||||
| *QPR (h) | 6-1 | 30 | 24 | 6 | ||||||||||
| Stoke (a) |
2 |
0-0 | 30 | 24 | 6 | |||||||||
| Arsenal (h) |
3 |
3-5 | 33 | 29 | 4 | |||||||||
| Reading (Bolton) (a) | 5-1 | 38 | 30 | 8 | ||||||||||
| Newcastle (a) | 3-0 | 41 | 30 | 11 | ||||||||||
| *Wigan (h) | 2-1 | 43 | 31 | 12 | ||||||||||
| *Man City (a) |
3 |
1-2 | 44 | 33 | 11 | |||||||||
| WBA (h) | 2-1 | 46 | 34 | 12 | ||||||||||
| *Fulham (a) |
2 |
1-1 | 47 | 35 | 12 | |||||||||
| West Ham (Wolves)(h) | 3-0 | 50 | 35 | 15 | ||||||||||
| Southampton (Blackburn) (a) | 1-0 | 51 | 35 | 16 | ||||||||||
| Sunderland (h) | 1-0 | 52 | 35 | 17 | ||||||||||
| *Tottenham (h) |
2 |
0-0 | 52 | 35 | 17 | |||||||||
| *Liverpool (a) |
3 |
1-4 | 53 | 39 | 14 | |||||||||
| Swansea (h) | 4-1 | 57 | 40 | 17 | ||||||||||
| Man Utd (a) |
3 |
1-3 | 58 | 43 | 15 | |||||||||
| *Aston Villa (a) | 4-2 | 62 | 45 | 17 | ||||||||||
| Everton (h) | 3-1 | 65 | 46 | 19 | ||||||||||