Chelsea 4 Portsmouth 0

Luiz Felipe Scolari’s reign as the Chelsea boss has started in an impressive fashion as the Blues defeated FA Cup holders Portsmouth 4-0 in their 2008-09 Premiership opener at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.
The Brazilian’s side looked well organised with new signings Deco and Jose Bosingwa fitting in effortlessly and going on to have a successful debut in the English top-flight.
Joe Cole and Nicolas Anelka scored in the 13th and 26th minute respectively as the west-Londoners dominated the proceedings right from the start. Frank Lampard scored from a penalty kick at the stroke of the half time. Deco completed the scoreline with a fantastic strike in the last stages of the game.
Michael Ballack picked out Joe Cole with a superb through ball and the England international timing his run to perfection, put a low finish from the right side of the penalty area to beat David James.
Anelka outjumped Glen Johnson at the goalmouth to head home the second after Bosingwa made a fine cross from right that was kept in by Deco coming in from the opposite flank.
The Blues suffered a blow as Germany captain Ballack seemingly picked up a knock to be replaced by Florent Malouda in 38th minute.
Pompey threatened briefly, but Petr Cech had no major problems in thwarting Niko Kranjcar and new-signing Peter Crouch.
The home side increased their lead to 3-0 when Lampard scored from the spot after Sylvain Distin was deemed to have intentionally handled the ball in the penalty area.
In the second half, France ace Anelka blazed over on two occasions in quick succession, while Joe Cole, after breaking into space in the rival territory, placed his grounder touch wide of the goal.
Pompey enjoyed a brief period putting some pressure on their rivals around the hour mark, but the attempts from Crouch and Kranjcar failed to get past the strong Blues defence. Carvalho and Ashley Cole were particularly impressive in their tackles.
There was a brief glimpse of what the Crouch and Jermain Defoe partnership was all about when a long ball was headed on by the former for the latter to pounce upon with his pacy movement. However, Defoe’s prod was not on target.
Portuguese international Deco, who joined from Barcelona, completed his fine debut with a sweetly-taken long-range shot that James could only parry into the net in the closing stages of the game.

Mutu Ordered To Pay Chelsea £13.68m

The Blues last night said it was 'an important decision for football' after FIFA ordered Adrian Mutu to pay the club £13.68million in compensation after being tested positive for cocaine while at Chelsea.
Mutu, 29, failed a drug test in 2004 and was banned for seven months before moving to Juventus and Fiorentina after getting sacked.
Mutu's lawyer, Cristian Sarbu, claimed earlier in this year that his client was told to pay £9.6million by FIFA and that the Romanian striker would be contesting the ruling.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport had ordered FIFA to make a ruling and the case was referred to the Dispute Resolution Chamber of the world governing body.
'Chelsea can confirm that it has received the decision from FIFA's Dispute Resolution Chamber (DRC) on the claim made against Adrian Mutu,' read a statement from Chelsea.
'Chelsea is delighted with the DRC's decision to award the club £13.68million in compensation.'
Mutu was signed in 2003 soon after Roman Abramovich's became owner of the club and had a promising start at Stamford Bridge before a loss of form. After his dismissal, Chelsea began proceedings to claim damages from the player, who was signed from Parma.
Their statement added: 'This is an important decision for football. Not only did the DRC make us a very significant monetary award, the decision also recognised the damaging effect incidents involving drugs has on football and the responsibilities we all have in this area.
'Chelsea will now be following the process laid out in the DRC's decision to claim the money from Mutu.'

Frank Signs For Another 5 Years

Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard has finally ended speculation about his future by signing a new five-year contract.
The England star had been linked with a move away from Stamford Bridge for more than a year as negotiations over a new deal continued without a successful conclusion.
However, the 30-year-old has committed himself effectively for the remainder of his top-level career by signing a new five-year deal today.

I, like most Blues fans, am well pleased.

Chelsea To Up Robinho Bid?

The possible transfer of Robinho to Chelsea still persists with reports appearing that Chelsea will now up their original bid to just under £25M. Real Madrid are rumoured to want around 40M euros which makes the new Chelsea bid 10M euros short but it's doubtful that we’ll go that high.
The deadline for the Champions League players squads is midnight on 31st August, 2 ½ weeks away. That leaves plenty of time for more twists and turns although as time goes on Real Madrid risk holding on to a player who says he doesn’t want to stay and sees his future "to become the best player in the world” at Chelsea.
Robinho is making quite a show of discontent with a general lack of enthusiasm for training, Spanish media reports claim.
Real Madrid President Ramon Calderon painted himself into a corner by saying he was prepared to involve Robinho as a make-weight in the proposed Ronaldo deal causing the young Brazilian to be totally miffed.
With the Ronaldo deal off for at least a year Calderon left himself in an embarrassing position with one of his star players.
Furthermore, with regards to the Ronaldo deal, Calderon made a great show of professing how wrong it is to prevent a player from leaving who wants to go, comparing the situation to slavery, a controversial comment which was embarassingly backed up by his mate Sepp Blatter.
It was thought that he couldn't have caused more of a furore.
But he then authorised Robinho a new deal which only significantly increased his salary after the first two years within a five year deal, when its quite obvious they will have to sell him next summer anyway to help raise the money for Ronaldo, so he'd never actually get the increase.

12,000 At Open Day

Chelsea held their annual 'Open Day' yesterday when supporters are allowed access to see the first team squad training on the hallowed Stamford Bridge turf. The event was open to anybody, so it was no surprise that a record crowd of approximately 12,000 turned up. In fact the club seemed to be caught by surprise.
Originally, only been the West Stand Lower Tier was to be opened with the Shed lower on standby in case numbers exceeded expectations.
Eventually, with crowds queuing as far back as Fulham Broadway tube station, the East Lower Tier and the Matthew Harding Lower were also opened. Indeed, my son and I sat in the East Lower for the first time since ceased to house the Family Section and made a contrast to our usual seats in the West Stand Lower.
Deco and Luiz Felipe Scolari received a great reception.
Didier Drogba and Michael Essien were both missing through injury and Salomon Kalou is on Olympic Games duty.
Chelsea deserve a round of applause for continuing with this event which allows the local children to catch a glimpse of their heroes.