The Chaos-Knight Journal

 "The journal of one who is walking in the Realm of Men, yet always facing towards the Realm of Heaven and Glory
  Of a Knight who follows the path of what is true, living in the hope of a salvation by grace alone and not by works
  Living not by fear of men, but by fear of God, setting his sights not on the earth, but on the things which are above"
 

Another quick update from the English Premier League.

Manchester United finally lost their 100% win record for this season after drawing 1-1 with Manchester City. They were lucky not to concede another goal in the final minutes and lose 1-2, thanks to a save from their new goalkeeper Edwin Van Der Sar.

On another part of the table, now Arsenal have recorded two losses. After being beaten 0-1 by Chelsea (read the post about Drogba’s lucky clincher below), yesterday they were beaten again 1-2 by Middlesbrough. It looks like Thierry Henry’s injury become a great toll for them, and considering that they haven’t managed to find a replacement for Patrick Vieira whom they sold to Juventus, Arsenal is now in great trouble.

Chelsea remains top of the table after a 2-0 win against Sunderland. They held on to their 100% win record for this season, 5 wins in 5 games, along with Charlton Athletics who stood before them in the table, booking a 100% win record themselves, but only 4 wins in 4 games. We’ll see if one of them will drop this record next week.

This season proved to be very interesting so far for both EPL and Serie A.

Another twist of the UEFA Champions League 2005/2006 appeared yesterday when Chelsea and Liverpool are both drawn into Group G of the tournament. Since there is no country protection for Liverpool, it was inevitable that Liverpool would meet another English team, but to meet Chelsea again at such an early stage is the most interesting outcome it can be. The other smaller twist came from Group D, where Manchester United meet Villareal. It would be a perfect stage for Diego Forlan to make his revenge against Manchester United, the club who sold him and deemed him useless before he moved to Villareal and gained success there.

On the English Premier League, Chelsea’s 4-0 win against West Brom brought them to top of the league right now, with a perfect 9 points to date and 6 goals difference (6-0) to boot. Arsenal made a comeback after their loss to Chelsea with a 4-1 hammering against Fulham. Coincidentally, both of Arsenal’s and Chelsea’s main man, Thierry Henry and Frank Lampard respectively, scored two goals each in those matches. Right now Henry’s leading the top scorer ranks with three goals from three matches.

The UEFA Champions League group stage will start on September 13, so don’t miss it.

Chelsea 1 - 0 Arsenal (Drogba Winner - 73′)

This was one of those matches where luck was the most important factor on the pitch. A match that could change the course of the entire season, like last season, when Drogba beat Manchester United on their first home game and buried them so that they could never come back to the title challenge. This season, there is a very big chance that Arsenal will drop to the third and Manchester United will rise to second, especially considering that while Arsenal have sold Vieira and bought no classed player, United have bought Edwin Van Der Sar and Park Ji-Sung, who have both played with great form for United. And to think that this kind of match had been won by luck, maybe it is kinda cruel…

But as Soccernet stated it, the goal did not come from luck only but also due to Arsenal’s lack of concentration, especially Senderos, making the same mistakes against Drogba as he did in Arsenal 1-2 loss to Chelsea in the Community Shield. The luck factor played when Drogba evaded Senderos, ran towards Lehmann, and the free-kick pass from Lampard hit his shin (he failed to control the ball, actually) to go slowly and helplessly towards goal. It was a very lucky goal, not even a lucky shot because it was not a shot, it was a deflection off his shin. This lack of discipline and concentration showed up again in the last minutes of the game, again by Senderos, whose missed back-pass almost granted Drogba his second goal, if it was not for his indecision who only managed to put the ball straight into Lehmann. Surely Arsenal would miss Vieira as captain now… there is clearly no more discipline in the Arsenal team play since he left (btw, Juventus lost 0-1 to Inter).

Now we will just have to wait and see how will Chelsea fare against Manchester United… As for the end of Matchday #2, there are currently 4 teams with 2 wins: Tottenham, Charlton, Manchester United and Chelsea. It will be interesting to see who among the four will be the first to fall on Matchday #3. Or will they be able to survive the next fixture? Arsenal have currently fell into 9th position after today’s loss against Chelsea, so let’s see if they will be able to bounce back, or be doomed like Manchester United last season.

The first match for Chelsea on the English Premier League (EPL) 2005/2006 has been very interesting. Among the top three, Chelsea was the one to play last, with Arsenal and Manchester United winning their matches 2-0. As the EPL 2004/2005 Champions, they must prove that they are still strong enough, or maybe even stronger, to regain the title this season. But who knows what awaited them on the JJB Stadium of Wigan Athletics. Wigan is one of the three promoted teams, so people tend to look down on them, because most of the promoted teams from the previous seasons got relegated back to the lower division right after they got promoted. But Chelsea should have known that this season is going to be different, with another of the promoted teams, West Ham United, beating Charlton 3-1 the previous day.

Chelsea’s defense was very lacking in this match, and in the first half, Wigan got a lot of good chances. But the scoreline remained 0-0 until the end of the first half. For the second half, Jose Mourinho swapped Wright-Phillips for Robben, Joe Cole for Gudjohnsen and later Crespo for Duff. A good decision, because Robben was badly underperfoming in this match. Still the scoreline remained 0-0 until the 90th minutes, and it was during the 3 minutes of injury time that the match clicks into gear. Countering Chelsea’s free kick which hit the wall, Wigan got two very good chances in the 92th minute which should have left them winning 2-0 against Chelsea, if it were not for Johannson’s bad finishing. Those chances went into waste and they were not even shots on goal. Chelsea then quickly countered, and in the last minute, Crespo unleashed a fiery kick with his left foot from the right outside the penalty area. GOAL! 1-0 for Chelsea, 3 points for them, and heartbreak for Wigan.

Although they won, like Mourinho said, Chelsea didn’t deserve it actually as they was badly underperforming. Credits should be given to Wigan too though. They are a good team, they got great teamwork, and if only they can work on their finishing, I believe they can finish in the middle section of the table this season. For Chelsea, if they keep playing like this, surely they won’t be champions this season. I hope that Michael Essien from Lyon, who have just been signed with a 38 million euros price tag, can make this team better in the midfield department. The last note should be given to Crespo, I hope he can score more goals and have a successful season at Chelsea. His first season with Chelsea was a nightmare, but his last season with AC Milan was a super success (even two goals in the Champions League final). Jose Mourinho’s decision to bring him back from Italy was right. Let’s hope that this first goal won’t be the last, but a sign of wha tmore will come from him.