The lads celebrate our seemingly annual trip to Wembley as Chelsea put a spanner in the Potter’s wheel. A thorough and professional job is done on Stoke and their aerial bombardment repelled. We are particularly delighted that John Terry silenced the Stoke boo boys – all together now: “John Terry, knocked you out!!”

Lots of candidates for Man of the Match as Dr Martin and Chris try to nominate the whole team, as well as popular nay surreal choices for Guinness and Celery moments and Chant of the Match. All will be revealed!

Jez Walters from CFC Net is our special guest, and he takes the time honoured “60 Second Fan” challenge. We sing his favourite Chelsea song in “We’re out to show the world the way to sing!” – a very fitting one on FA Cup days to boot! Jez also tells us how the CFC Net web site got started, why it’s important to remain independent from the Club and the vital service it provides to supporters old and new from far and wide, closer to SW6.

Ross get’s to debut his Goal of the Month section with the contenders being Drogba’s free-kick v Hull, his second against The Arse, and his goal against Wolves, plus Ballack and Kalou’s goals against Cardiff. Tough call but we announce the winner.

All this plus the irreverent and irrepressible Dr Martin in another session of “Dear Mart”; Chidge with the best posts of the week in “You’re on CFFC”. And last but by no means least ChelTel mentioning ‘catharsis’ at least 7 times!!

CLICK TO LISTEN

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1. Blues draw Villa in Wembley Showdown
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The Blues overcame Stoke City 2-0 at Stamford Bridge in the previous round thanks to goals from Frank Lampard and John Terry, whilst Villa came from 2-0 down to triumph over the conquerors of Liverpool and Burnley; Reading.

The Royals took a 2-0 half-time lead thanks to a Simon Church brace but Ashley Young and a John Carew hat-trick ensured a stunning turn-around for the Midlands side.

Chelsea’s path to the final was more straightforward and the club’s fans will have their talismanic English duo to thanks for goals in each half in a relatively comfortable encounter with Stoke.

In the other semi final, Avram Grant’s Portsmouth – who progress after a stunning quickfire brace from on-loan French star Frederic Piquionne – will play the victors of the Fulham-Tottenham match, which will go to a replay to be played at White Hart Lane.

The draw means there is potential for an all-London final, but Carlo Ancelotti’s side have no doubt drawn the toughest possible team left in the draw.

Chelsea’s last encounter with Villa saw them lose 2-1 at Villa Park despite taking an early lead, but the match will be an interesting replay of the upcoming Premier League showdown between the two sides at Stamford Bridge in March.

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Having surrendered their lead at the top of the Premier League thanks to wins for Arsenal and Manchester United yesterday afternoon, Chelsea have added another Wembley date to their fixture list pile-up thanks to goals from Frank Lampard and under-fire captain John Terry.

The Blues – having lost their last two games – were in clinical mood and another efficient-if-unspectacular victory for Carlo Ancelotti’s side sets up a semi final occasion with Martin O’Neill’s in-form Aston Villa in mid-April.

They took the lead ten minutes before half-time when Terry teed up Lampard on the edge of the box, and it was roles reversed after the interval when Terry headed home his third goal of the season from his England colleague’s corner.

The margin of victory might have been greater, but Ancelotti will be pleased with the performance of his team after their humiliating thumping at the hands of Manchester City the previous weekend, during which the hosts lost their superb 37-game unbeaten run at Stamford Bridge.

However Chelsea were not in charitable mood, and Stoke were outclassed and outplayed by their hosts, who looked as comfortable as ever – including their skipper and stand-in goalkeeper. Whilst allegations of Terry’s private life have been spread across the news, Henrique Hilario, the understudy to the crocked Petr Cech, has suffered scrutiny for an unconvincing display against City.

But an excellent late save from Ricardo Fuller to preserve a confidence-aiding clean sheet will do the Portuguese goalkeeper – who earned his first international cap in midweek – a world of good.

The match was always likely to be a match-up of Chelsea’s guile and Stoke’s brute strength and physicality, but the Blues demonstrated a second string to their bow with a dominating defensive performance – although they nearly fell behind with less than six minutes on the clock.

Mamady Sidibe headed over from Robert Huth’s flick, before having a second effort blocked by Alex, who replaced the rested Ricardo Carvalho. But it was Dean Whitehead who came closest for Stoke, forcing a brilliant clearance off the line by John Mikel Obi after smashing a loose ball towards goal.

Nicolas Anelka, arguably Chelsea’s best player on the day, was enjoying freedom out wide due to Stoke’s narrow midfield, and it was he who had the most presentable of Chelsea’s early chances; the first forcing a good save from Thomas Sorensen.

He should have scored moments later when pouncing on a Whitehead mistake, but flashed a shot well wide with his left boot. However, the opening goal would come from Chelsea’s next attack.

Florent Malouda’s corner caused all sorts of problems in the Stoke box, allowing Terry to feed the ball to Lampard who lashed home beyond the despairing dive of Sorensen thanks to the slightest of deflections off of Stoke’s captain Faye.

But Lampard’s 16th of the season could not have been better-timed, and the goal was deserved from Chelsea’s point of view with the hosts clearly the more creative side.

It could have been 2-0 before the whistle was blown for the interval but Didier Drogba’s volley from Paulo Ferreira’s smart cross from the left was stupendously saved by Sorenson at his near post to keep his side in the tie. Branislav Ivanovic had a shot deflected wide as Chelsea continued to press.

And it was little surprise when they doubled their advantage twenty minutes into the second half. Andy Wilkinson made two brilliant blocks to deny first Nicolas Anelka from close range after an excellent Chelsea counter-attack, but heading Alex’s rocket header over his own crossbar.

However the Stoke defender was less fortunate when Terry’s header flicked off his chest and beyond his own goalkeeper – and how did the Chelsea captain celebrate; showing his armband to the euphoric Chelsea supporters behind the goal.

It was little more than Chelsea deserved and the Blues seemed to grow in confidence following the game-clinching goal.

Stoke were having to come out of their shell leaving space to be exploited by Chelsea’s forwards, and only a better touch from Kalou might have increased the score before he was blocked at source by Sorenson, who was enjoying a fine game between the posts for the Potters.

Anelka had a shot smartly blocked before Lampard’s long-range effort brought a top-drawer save from the Dane to order to preserve a crumb of credibility to the scoreline.

But in truth, Tony Pulis’ side were well and truly beaten, and a last-minute save from Hilario following a decent effort from Ricardo Carvalho confirmed the victory as Chelsea celebrated reaching their 19th FA Cup semi-final – and a Wembley date with Aston Villa.

___________________________________________________________________

Chelsea: Hilario; Ivanovic, Alex, Terry ©, Ferreira; Lampard, Mikel, Malouda; Anelka, Kalou; Drogba

Stoke: Sorensen; Wilkinson, Faye, Huth ©, Collins; Delap, Whelan (Pugh), Whitehead, Tuncay (Lawrence); Sidibe (Kitson), Fuller

The TalkChelsea.net Man of the Match was Chelsea’s number 39, NICOLAS ANELKA

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The 4-2 loss to Manchester City at Stamford Bridge was a heavy defeat and Carlo will have seen many on field mistakes he will want to forget. A straight red to Belletti and 2 yellows to Ballack will mean they are both suspended for the game against Stoke City who have been on fire recently until their 3-1 loss to Arsenal.

The same fixture in the league at the start of the season saw Chelsea snatch a late winner with Malouda tapping in the winner in injury time to extend Ancelotti’s winning run. Drogba also scored in that game to draw Chelsea level. Chelsea will play at home once again and will hope that they can get their home form back on track.

Chelsea will once again be without Michael Essien, Jose Bosingwa and Ashley Cole as they are all long term absentees. Zhirkov is doubtful and Ballack and Belletti are suspended. With the international break Ricardo Carvalho has returned with an injury which might leave him out of the game.
Stoke City will be missing a more important player in the form of Ryan Shawcross who was recently called up to the England squad just hours after his horrid tackle on Aaron Ramsey. They will also be missing Matthew Etherington who has been in sizzling form for Stoke with 8 assists this campaign. Other than that they miss no major players!
However, Stoke City are also one of the most unfair teams in the English First Division with Abdoulaye Faye heading the standings for number of red cards this season with 2! They are also not far behind in the yellow cards with 2 of their players holding 7 yellow cards each.
Carlo Ancelotti will have available Didier Drogba and Nicholas Anelka his top scorers. However, Anelka has been facing a barren spell recently and Ancelotti needs to work out how to get the Frenchman scoring once again.

Expected Line Up
Turnbull
Ivanovic
Alex
Terry
Ferreria
Joe Cole
Mikel
Lampard
Anelka
Malouda
Drogba

I am not convinced that Hilario is worth being at the club and I think Ross Turbull is better and put in some decent performances for Middlesbrough last season in the league. Ancelotti will not be taking his chances will know that the FA Cup is a good chance for silverware this season and will go all guns blazing. I feel that he needs to find a way to allow Anelka to move into a striking position so that he and Drogba can share the load so that sometimes Drogba is a lone striker and sometimes he is partnering up. Sturridge will not start as this is the first premier league opposition we face in the tournament. Joe Cole will start on the right of the midfield and will make runs down the wings and cut into the defense and make sure he is creates a havoc. Malouda is just exceeding expectations and has been flourishing in his new role. I think Matic could start because Mikel hasn’t shown the recent form I think and is too slow so it is necessary that he proves himself to Ancelotti.

On Field Battle
For the first time I think the match will be between Stoke City’s Rory Delap and the Chelsea defense. I honestly feel that the defense will always be under threat from this man’s long throws and will need to figure out a way to deal with his set pieces, keeping in mind that 14 of Stokes last goals from set-pieces came from Delap’s long throws. John Terry will need to command his men and then get on the counter attack to beat Stoke City.

Prediction
Chelsea will go in with a bang and keep should tear up a Stoke without their rock, Ryan Shawcross. It will still be a tough game with players like Ricardo Fuller who are exceptional in working with little space. Stoke set pieces are to be regarded with danger and dealing with them will be difficult. But with players like Malouda great on the wings Chelsea will be able to beat them on the counter attack fairly easily. Also, this will be the best time for Didier Drogba to start scoring again after not scoring for 2 consecutive games. The Ivorian could also be boosted by the appointment of Guus Hiddink as Ivory Coast coach, ironically on a temporary basis. I hope Chelsea will be able to get around this tough Stoke side who has won 8 times this season but have given other teams a stern test.

Chelsea 3-1 Stoke City
Drogba Fuller
Lampard
Drogba

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1. Chelsea v Man City – Preview
2. Stoke City – Opposition Views
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How long have you supported Stoke?
I’ve been going to Stoke since ‘89, when the big fences came down after Hillsborough. That along with a slight lull in the violence around that time made watching Stoke safe enough. I was 9 at that time.

Expectations for Stoke for the remainder of the Season?
Well, we’re probably about six points away from ensuring Prem football again for next season, so i’m pretty happy with the way things have panned out. I’m not greedy, I’m pretty realistic as to what we can hope to achieve, any improvement on last seasons 12th place would be enough to keep me happy, but the FA Cup and Europa football for next season would be nice!!

Which Stoke players should we look out for?
That’s a tricky one, I suppose i’d have to say Ricardo Fuller on his day. The last couple of matches in the cup have been fantastic for us, Tony Pulis is not known for taking too many chances in the league, opting to play it safe especially away from home, so the cup’s been a joy, with certain players putting in some big performances. I think the match against Arsenal in the 4th round was about as good as i’ve seen us this season, second half we really tore them apart, then against Man City the other week second half and throughout ET we were by far the better side. Thing is, we don’t really have any one player who’s outshining all the rest, I have my favourites but they’re hardly the flare players you’d be used to down the Bridge! Ryan Shawcross is quality, but you’re not gonna be seeing him unfortunately! (think Fabio missed a trick not giving him a run out with JT on Wednesday, reckon his pace coupled with terry’s experience could well be a winning formula. We all know Rio’s shagged, and in my opinion Matty Upson’s too slow and no better centre half than Ryan) Watch Delap simply for the throw, although he did bag one at yours last season, also Tuncay’s lively but can run round like a headless Chicken sometimes! bit lightweight too.

Your favourite Chelsea player?
Of this Chelsea side I’d probably go with JT, he’s geting some real bad press at the minute, but he’s been a top centre half for long enough now. If he’s feeling unloved round your way I’d love to see him turning out for us! not that i’ve got many complaints with Robert Huth. As i’ve already said though, reckon he and Shawcross could be a solid pairing for England. Ha, the press would have a field day with that one! Of course we both share a love and respect for Alan Hudson and Mark Stein.

Chelsea’s chances of winning the title?
It would be nice.. I think we probably did you no favours losing to the Arsenal last weekend, there really wasn’t much we could do once we were down to ten men. Think you’re lookin’ at a three horse race with yourselves, Arsenal and Man Utd fighting it out. Out of the three it’s anyone’s guess yet, but i’m no fan of Utd and Wenger and Fabregas aren’t in the good books round our way just now! I’d like to see you turn things round in Europe too.

Your prediction for our upcoming FA Cup game?
Honest?? I think you’ll be too strong for us. I hate to say that as we’ve played well in the cup and we probably owe you one, on the backing of our last couple of meets in the league! But we’re a very different proposition playing away from home than we are at Stoke. if we were at the Brit then perhaps we could squeeze through, but it’s a big ask at yours. Think both sides are suffering some shitty press at the minute, i’m not sure how that’s gonna effect us yet but it’s told already for you boys in one or two games, it might not be the classic FA Cup tie we’re all hoping for but fingers crossed eh? I’ll be happy if we finish with 11 players on the pitch for a change!! Watch those long throws lads, and good look with the rest of the season. (that is bar our two games!)

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1. Man City – Opposition Views
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3. Chelsea v Stoke – Preview

Starting with the youth team. The month started with a tricky game at home to Arsenal, and Arsenal side that has been riding high in the academy league all season and doing very well for themselves on the back of winning the FA Youth cup last season, the game ended with a surprise scoreline for Chelsea at this level 0 – 0. There were plenty of chances for both teams and Sam Walker produced some good saves while at the other end Josh McEachran missed a good chance to win the game for Chelsea, however a 0 – 0 draw is a respectable result Highlights. Next up was Charlton Athletic who Chelsea dispatched earlier in the season in the Youth Cup, a good game was played out here and Chelsea would feel they should have won having had the better chances. However a Danny Philliskirk brace who dropped down to get some game time was only good enough to earn a 2 – 2 draw away from home. A pleasing sight in this game though was the return to the starting line up of Rohan Ince who has been out for the whole season with injury Highlights.

Following on from the Charlton game came the much anticipated FA Youth cup quarter final tie against Watford, a Watford team who had knocked out Liverpool in the previous round. What we saw was a Chelsea team really coming together and playing well together to totally dominate Watford and to play them off the park in a 4 – 0 victory with goals coming from Kaby Djalo, Jeffrey Bruma, Marko Mitrovic and Josh McEachran, Chelsea have progressed to earn a 2 legged Semi final tie against Blackburn Rovers Highlights. The last 2 games of the month saw us win out over Norwich City away from home 2 – 1 with a very nice goal from Bobby Devyne and an own goal at the end to win it for us Highlights. And a hard fought 1 – 0 victory over Fulham, a game that was technically an away game but played at Cobham due to the weather conditions.

A couple of other notes finally on the Youth team, Aldi Haxhia has left the club with immediate effect after failing to impress for the last couple of seasons and Chelsea seem to have made their first signing for next season in the form of Swedish midfielder Amin Affane, which is a name we hope to see plenty of come next season.

Onto the reserve side now and it was a month to forget rather than to savour for Steve Holland and his men. The first hurdle we were to face was Aston Villa a side that continues to dominate the reserve league. Chelsea did fight very hard and were better than villa for the most part but could in the end fell to a 3 – 1 defeat Highlights. Next up was Arsenal, and again a game where changes were made to the team and we fought well and probably outplayed Arsenal, but again a game where we just could not take our chances and a game Fabio Borini will want to forget quickly after he missed chance after chance to win the game for us Highlights. Last But not least was West Ham away, the game was not as good as what had previously been seen but the fight was there but again we could just not put away our chances and ended up losing 2 – 1 even after West Ham were down to 10 for some bizarre violent conduct from the West Ham team Highlights.

Finally to round up this monthly review for February is a note of the appearances in the first team for the month. Firstly we saw Fabio Borini get another run out for the first team against Cardiff, even though it was only for about 5 minutes it is all good experience for the young man. Then we saw against Wolves Jeffrey Bruma come on for over half an hour to replace the injured Yuri Zhirkov, Bruma played at right back and unfamiliar position to him but he did a very good job and showed his ability. So for this month a very good run out for Bruma and a few minutes for Borini. Plus a regular showing of youth on the bench now, with Bruma, Matic, Kakuta and Borini all showing regularly for the Chelsea first team bench.

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The boys feel somewhat cheated after the Nightmare at Stamford Bridge as Chelsea’s poor schoolboy performance and a mugging by Man City’s Tevez and Bellamy (Baaaaahhh)!

Much moaning on the FanCast this week as the CFFC crew dissects a bad day at HQ. Mike Dean, no width, no pace, schoolboy defending and no energy are the key villains other than Tevez and Bellamy. At least the loyal supporters who stayed to the bitter end did their bit as the team gave it a go in the last 15 minutes with a 3:1:4 formation!

Tough calls for Man of the Match and Guinness moments – even Mike Dean gets an ironic nomination, but a rip roaring Eng-er-land gets the nod in Chant of the Match, and the (Proper) Chels support gets the Celery moment for their defiant singing in the face of the Wayne Bridge boo boys and early leavers.

And on a similar theme, a terrace favourite featuring a certain vegetable better known as a tickling stick is sung to cheer us all up in “We’re out to show the World the way to sing!” We also look back at a more honourable defeat in Milan last Wednesday but have a hilarious ‘Tale from Milano’ from Paul and Ross (Paulo Rossi collectively!) to enjoy.

All this plus Dr Martin giving us some much needed therapy in Dear Mart answering questions on smallest Chelsea players, Malouda’s role as left back and inevitably, do we care about Wayne Bridge? Finally, in “You’re on CFFC”, Chidge has some unintelligible and hilarious posts from somewhere in the Far East, San Diego. Arizona, Australia and Hastings!

The Chelsea Football FanCast: The Referee’s a ******!

CLICK TO LISTEN

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The Argentine scored a stoppage time equaliser at the end of the first half for Roberto Mancini’s side after a catalogue of errors from the hosts, only moments after Frank Lampard had given the Blues the lead.

But City started the second period with menace and it was little surprise when Craig Bellamy gave them the lead thanks to a fine run and finish beyond Henrique Hilario.

Substitute Juliano Belletti then hauled down Gareth Barry inside the penalty area to give City the opportunity to increase the lead. Tevez effortlessly dispatched beyond Hilario whilst Belletti was given a straight red card.

And the Brazilian was soon followed down the tunnel by Michael Ballack, who picked up a second yellow card for an aggressive tackle on City’s diminutive Argentine, but Bellamy put the icing on the cake with City’s fourth goal after ex-Chelsea man Shaun Wright-Phillips had been played in by Tevez.

Lampard pulled a late consolation back for Chelsea for his fifteenth goal of the campaign after Barry had brought down Nicolas Anelka inside the area – but that was scant reward for a Chelsea side whose lead at the top of the table is reduced to a mere point, with a visit to Old Trafford looming ever closer.

There will be serious questions asked of Chelsea after another below-par performance and more lacklustre defending. Under-fire captain John Terry was again partly at fault for allowing Tevez to roll home the equaliser, but besides perhaps goalscorer Lampard and the faultless endeavour of Nicolas Anelka, no Chelsea player can seek to take positives from the match.

With Petr Cech missing for a month due to a calf injury, stand-in goalkeeper Hilario was expected to grasp his opportunity between the posts with both hands, but an unconvincing, mistake-riddled performance will leave Carlo Ancelotti with a lingering seed of doubt planted in his mind.

And with Ballack and Belletti joining a list of unavailable players for the FA Cup clash with Stoke next weekend, the Italian’s options look increasingly thin.

Much of the pre-match talk was of Wayne Bridge’s feud with former team-mate John Terry over allegations of the latter’s private life, but few expected anything other than a Chelsea victory as the Blues sought to increase their lead at the top of the table.

City mustered just one effort on target during the opening exchanges, and that was an easy take for Hilario as he gathered a freekick from Adam Johnson without concern.

Chelsea were coming closer as the half drew on – Malouda drilled a thunderous long-range strike narrowly over the crossbar, Drogba wastefully headed over and Vincent Kompany almost sliced an attempted clearance beyond his own goalkeeper. Joe Cole had also seen an effort saved after cutting inside Johnson.

And it came as no surprise that Chelsea would eventually take the lead, and it was Cole’s ball into Frank Lampard that allowed the England star to score his fourteenth goal of the season.

But the unthinkable happened when Tevez – a peripheral figure all game so far – stole a march on Terry, rounded Carvalho before rolling the ball into the net. The Argentine had been on a leave of absence to be with his wife and prematurely-born daughter, but scored despite a limp finish that Hilario should have done better with.

And they could have gone in ahead at the break had Joleon Lescott converted a free header from just six yards out – Chelsea were living dangerously.

Lampard and Anelka both had chances to give Chelsea the lead again as the second half began, but as the Chelsea attack broke down, Mikel found himself isolated against Bellamy marauding down the left flank.

The Welshman did not disappoint with his finish; low and across the goalkeeper, but questions must be asked of Hilario, who simply should not have been beaten from such a tight angle.

Only a last-gasp clearance by Branislav Ivanovic prevented City from increasing the lead any further – and there were was indication that their relentless pressure would cease. Ancelotti’s side were becoming desperate and he responded with three quick fire substitutions.

The Chelsea manager’s decision was met with boos as Joe Cole was withdrawn. Having set up the earlier goal for Lampard, Cole was enjoying his best game for Chelsea for some time, and his replacement Daniel Sturridge instead only frustrated by making a number of wrong decisions when well-placed in the City half.

And another of Ancelotti’s substitutes – Belletti – lasted only fifteen minutes as he was dismissed for a foul on Barry inside the box. One lethally-dispatched penalty later, City had a healthy lead and Chelsea’s problems did not look like ending.

Ballack saw a second yellow and Bellamy slotted home a second to confirm a magnificent result for City – their first league double over Chelsea for over fifth years.

Lampard’s late consolation penalty came after a late surge by the nine remaining Chelsea players – Anelka had been foiled by a superb reflex stop by Given whilst Drogba had shot tamely wide on two occasions.

But Barry’s hack on Anelka gave Lampard the chance to add a speck of credibility to the scoreline, but it was a weak performance by a lacklustre Chelsea side that barely deserved the scant consolation the penalty would prove to be.

The Chelsea number 8 comfortably stroked the ball home to partly amend for his costly miss in the reverse fixture where Given had denied him the opportunity to score Chelsea’s second on that particular night, but the damage had been done.

Manchester United sit just one point behind Chelsea, and can go top next weekend due to the Blues being in cup action. The title is slowly slipping out of Ancelotti’s grasp.
___________________________________________________________________

Chelsea(:Hilario; Ivanovic, Carvalho (Kalou), Terry ©, Malouda; Ballack, Mikel (Belletti), Lampard; Anelka, J Cole (Sturridge); Drogba

Manchester City: Given ©; Zabaleta, Richards, Lescott, Bridge (Santa Cruz); Kompany, De Jong, Barry; Bellamy, Tevez (Sylvinho), Johnson (Wright-Phillips).

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