A blog of two halves

Blues are waiting for the men from St John

The games come thick and fast as Ferraris fight for space with ambulances in the players’ car park at Cobham.

23 October 2017
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A goal from Cesar Azpilicueta and a brace from Michy Batshuayi saved the day at Watford PICTURE: GETTY IMAGES

The games come thick and fast as Ferraris fight for space with ambulances in the players' car park at Cobham.

We saw it last season, and we appear to be witnessing it again this one. When it's backs-to-the-wall time, the Blues suddenly rouse themselves.

At 3-2 down to Roma at the Bridge, board members wrapped in their west stand blankets were mentally penning news of a managerial change. Then Eden Hazard salvaged a point.

At 2-1 down to Watford, three days later, the blankets rustled again as Tony Conte's future was once more on the line.

But a goal from Cesar Azpilicueta and a brace from Michy Batshuayi saved the day, and Conte went crowd-surfing rather than job-hunting.

Chelsea travel to Bournemouth this weekend. That Watford win propelled the Blues to fourth – although there are nine points between them and sure-to-be champions City.

Playing the Cherries is always odd. For a start, the stadium is so diddy it's almost non-league, with a capacity under 11,500.

Contrast that with the 80,000+ who packed into Wembley to watch Spurs defeat Liverpool at the weekend.

This time last year the Blues went on a run of form which effectively gave them the title.

But the pressure of playing three games a week has already produced more casualties in the squad than the whole of last season.

Pray the men from St John have bandages at the ready.

See all Tim's Chelsea FC blog articles

Tim Harrison

Tim is our Chelsea FC blogger.

He also writes our Shepherds Bush Cricket Club match reports during the football close season.

Tim has been writing Chelsea match reports since the late 1980s for newspapers and, more recently, websites.

When he first reported on the Blues, the press box was a metal cage suspended over the lip of the old west stand - and you reached it via a precarious walkway over the heads of the fans.

But he has been a Chelsea fan since his father took an excited seven-year-old to watch Chelsea v Manchester United in the mid 1960s... and covered his ears every time the chanting got too ripe.

In July 2005 he wrote The Rough Guide to Chelsea, published by Penguin, which sold 15,000 copies.

His favourite player of all time is Charlie Cooke, the mazy winger who lit up Chelsea's left wing in the 60s and 70s.

When he isn't watching the Blues, Tim acts, paints, writes and researches local history.

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