A blog of two halves

A place in the sun

Chelsea have been allocated the sunny side of Wembley for the FA Cup final on royal wedding day, 19 May.

25 April 2018
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Chelsea face another encounter with the Once-special One on 19 May. PICTURE: GETTY IMAGES

Chelsea have been allocated the sunny side of Wembley for the FA Cup final on royal wedding day, 19 May; the reward for beating Southampton in last weekend's semi.

Fans will bask in the late afternoon warmth on the east side of the stadium, leaving Man U supporters in the shade.

Another encounter with the Once-special One, and the added joy of VAR technology, create an alluring package.

But it's back to basics this weekend with a tricky away trip to Swansea as the Blues try to maintain pressure on stuttering Spurs for the last Champions League spot.

The next generation – Chelsea's U18s – are playing a two-leg FA Youth Cup final against Arsenal... but will it lead to any graduations to the first team squad?

Chelsea fans watched the PFA Player of the Year awards through narrowed eyes. They don't need reminding that 21-year-old striker Mo Salah was swapped for misfit Juan Cuadrado in 2015; part of a hopeless retention policy which has also seen Romelu Lukaku and Kevin de Bruyne slip through the club's fingers.

Marcos Alonso did make the stage at the Grosvenor House awards... but only because he was at a loose end during a three-game suspension, and seemed the right fit to give Fran Kirby of Chelsea Ladies her deserved award as Women Players' Player of the Year. The trophy was as big as her!

The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and unless specifically stated are not necessarily those of Hammersmith & Fulham Council.

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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