A blog of two halves

The case for the defence

A classy, experienced new defender is arriving at the Bridge.

1 September 2020
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Frank Lampard (pictured left) during the pre-season friendly against Brighton & Hove Albion. PICTURE: GETTY IMAGES

The arrival of a classy, experienced new defender at the Bridge is, says the club, 'something many Chelsea fans have been wanting for quite some time'.

Quite some time? They've been tearing their hair out for two years!

Enrolling Thiago Silva from PSG for a year, with the option of a second, may prove key to halting the Blues' defence's sieve-like quality, with 58 goals conceded in the league alone last season.

It still seems a minor miracle that Chelsea finished in the Champions League places after such generosity to opponents.

Hopefully drafting in a man who turns 36 in a couple of weeks, and who was the most expensive defender on the planet when Paris signed him eight years ago, will give his teammates some sorely needed confidence at the back.

Add to the mix the £50m left back Ben Chilwell, who Frank Lampard has been admiring all season, and overnight the back line looks sturdier.

The mystery is who will be between the sticks. Lamps simply doesn't rate Kepa, even as an expensive reserve keeper, and Willy Caballero, while still a reliable netminder, is almost as old as the manager.

If Kepa needs some inspiration to up his game, he need look no further than Chelsea Women's Ann-Katrin Berger, whose fine performance at the weekend helped the Blues lift the Women's Community Shield with a 2-0 win over arch-rivals Man City.

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

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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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