Robinho Tries To Force Real's Hand

Robinho is desperately trying to force Real Madrid to let him join Chelsea, says The Sun.
The Brazilian is a £25million Blues target but Madrid want to secure a deal for Cristiano Ronaldo before they let him leave.
Robinho, 24, said: “I don’t know where I am going to continue my career. The season is starting now and I have offers from other clubs — one of them is Chelsea. But nothing is certain. We’re in talks.”
Real refused to let him play in the Olympics.
He said “It’s very bad for me to have to watch Brazil’s Olympic team on TV.
“My will was to be with the rest of the group but Madrid did not allow me. I am very sad.”
Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon seems content to wait until the end of the window.
He seems confident of the deal going through even though Madrid are reluctant to sell as the Ronaldo saga drags on.
They have turned down Chelsea’s £18m bid and publicly insisted they will have to pay a £100m get-out clause.
But it is understood the Spaniards will let him go for around £25m althoughThe Blues may have to wait until August 31.

New 3rd Kit Revealed

Here is the new 3rd kit which will be available on 28th August.
It maks a return to the away kit of the 70's.
Personally, I would rather it was the 2nd kit and ditch that horrible black thing.

Untouchables

Chelsea midfielder Michael Ballack has been told he has no guaranteed first team place under manager Luiz Felipe Scolari.
The News of the World says the new Blues boss drew up a backbone of nine ‘untouchables' for his first Premier League campaign. They are keeper Petr Cech, defenders John Terry, Ricardo Carvalho, Ashley Cole and Jose Bosingwa, midfielders Michael Essien, Frank Lampard and Deco plus striker Didier Drogba.

AC Milan 0 Chelsea 5

Chelsea's coach, Luiz Felipe Scolari, believes that Nicolas Anelka finally showed he can be his side's lethal weapon following a four-goal rampage against AC Milan.
The clinical Frenchman scored two in each half as the Blues hammered the Italians 5-0in Moscow in the pre-season Railways Cup after Frank Lampard's early opener.
A strong Chelsea side, including Michael Ballack for the first time this summer, proved too good for a weakened Milan shorn of the likes of Kaka and Alexandre Pato.
But Scolari admitted it was the new-found ruthlessness and focus shown by Anelka that pleased him most just two weeks before the start of the Barclays Premier League season.
"This game was important for Anelka but more important for us - the fans, the coach and the other players who will have more confidence in him," claimed the Brazilian on www.chelseafc.com. "Today was good not because he scored four goals but because he played more free and with more quality than in other games.
"He was playing against a big club and to get four goals against Milan, for his confidence it is fantastic and Anelka today and in the last game played more inside the penalty area than before.That is where I asked him to play and where I need him, not right and left as before, because we have one striker and that is Anelka."
With Didier Drogba ever closer to returning to training after a knee injury, Scolari admits he has some tough decisions to make before meaningful action kicks off against Portsmouth on August 17.
"Maybe I will receive good news about Drogba and we have 12 days to train and maybe we will have something I don't expect," he said.
"I have quality, competitive players and they fight for places on the pitch. I have 22 here, five at home. I have a good team."

Lokomotiv Moscow 1 Chelsea 1 (5-4 penalties)

Chelsea dominated a game they deserved to win but they lost their fifth penalty shoot-out in succession.

In the first half Chelsea give a display that was a pleasure to watch.

Forty-five minutes of intricate passing, superb ball control, exquisite movement and a superb finish to give Chelsea a deserved half time lead.

On a pitch that was far better than the one played on in Malaysia, Luiz Felipe Scolari would have been a happy man at half time as he contemplated making some changes to give a few others some match practise.

With the game played at a faster pace than the bland affair between AC Milan and Sevilla that was witnessed earlier, it took Chelsea twenty-seven minutes to take advantage.

The goal came after Ferreira had freed Deco down the right and his cross into the box was chested, expertly, into the path of Michael Essien by Nicolas Anelka. Essien took aim and thundered an eighteen yard left foot shot past the keeper, Pelizzoli.

Other chances saw Essien fire over in the ninth minute after good work involving Deco and Anelka whilst Lampard fired narrowly over from the corner of the box whilst Deco volleyed wide in a repeat of that corner attempted in the Far East.

Locomotiv's best effort came when an audacious shot, from forty yards, by Glushakov, sailed just over Petr Cech`s bar.

If the second half performance were to match the first half performance then we`re in for an interesting season. Unfortunately, Locomotiv hadn`t read the script and in the end Chelsea were left to rue some great missed opportunities.

Locomotiv started the second half at a greater tempo and pushed higher up the pitch forcing a succession of corners. It took The Blues a while to address the issue but once they did they created some great chances. Ricardo Carvalho, advancing out of defence, delivered a great cross but Anelka couldn`t quite direct his header towards goal. Wright-Phillips then saw a shot deflected wide before wasting a golden chance to finish the game off by shooting wide when bearing down on goal from the right.

With six minutes left, Essien was harshly penalised twenty-four yards out and Kambalov lashed the free kick low and hard and in off the post. Both sides went for the winner but it was to be penalties in Moscow again.

When Cech saved the first it looked as if we were in with a chance but when the Russian side then showed clinical efficiency netting their next four, you just knew the efforts of Lampard, Deco, Wright-Phillips and Essien would be in vain.

This time those unfortunate enough to miss were Bridge and Shevchenko giving Locomotiv a final against Sevilla and Chelsea a meaningless fixture against AC Milan for third or fourth place.