Chelsea FC - A Year in Review

For Chelsea Football Club, 2012 is a year without par. After more than 100 years as a football club, the squad of 2011/2012 had their best ever result and triumphed in the European Champions League final after defeating Bayern Munich on penalties in the Bavarian capital. What an achievement! On route to the final we defeated arguably the best team in the world, Barcelona, with Fernando Torres scoring an amazing goal in the final minutes in Spain to send our fans into raptures.

The Final

In the final, we played without our inspirational captain, went a goal down with ten minutes to go, equalised, saved a penalty, missed a penalty kick, yet triumphed against a German team on penalties on their home soil in one of the most entertaining Finals of all time. On route, Didier Drogba cemented his legend status at the club with his last kick in a Chelsea shirt before leaving to the far east. This game will live in Chelsea folklore for the rest of our illustrious history. Ah yes, history. Who can say now we don’t have any? Step forward the European Champions.

The FA Cup

With that amazing result, fans can allow themselves to forget the FA Cup triumph which was Roberto Di Matteo’s first trophy as a manager. Who would have though Chelsea could win the cup after their disastrous campaign under young Andre Villas-Boas? What a match it was, as Chelsea dominated Liverpool and Drogba again showed his love for Wembley before Andy Carroll came off the bench to make the game very difficult for us. Luckily for Chelsea, the Liverpool charge was too little too late and we won the trophy, which seems to almost belong to Chelsea since the Roman era.

New Signings

Oscar. Hazard. Moses. Azpilicueta. Four names that will be on everyone’s lips for years to come. Chelsea have bought very well and these players have integrated well straight into the first team. Unfortunately the odd one out is Marko Marin. The player joined from Bremen and has had limited game time due to reccurring injuries which may see the player loaned out to Leverkusen to get some much-needed game time. I’d personally prefer him to have a 2-3 month loan and return for the latter stages of the Europa League.

Roman the Barbarian

Love him or loathe him, Roman’s here to stay. Here’s the year that was on our illustrious owner, Mr Abramovich.

1) Sacks AVB after about 8 months in charge. Interesting decision.2) Then he brings in Di Matteo. Good decision.3) He signs Di Matteo as the permanent manager. Great decision.4) He bank rolls the expensive transfers of Oscar and Hazard showing that his passion for the club has not waned. Brilliant decision.5) He sacks Di Matteo after a calamitous 3-0 result against Juventus as the club limps out of the Champions League. Terrible decision.6) He hires Benitez. Horrible decision. Or will it prove to be the right one? In either case the Di Matteo decision was an incorrect one. He should of at least had until the end of the season.

What next?

We are out of the Champions league, yes. However we are in the Europa league and are making a serious run at the Premier League title. We are also in the semi-final of the League Cup, a trophy we should realistically easily walk away with. How many Arsenal fans can say that about a trophy this season or in the last few?

Chelsea are the in-form team in the league, and winning away at Everton was the best result of the season, especially for an under fire manager who is loathed by almost every fan. If Man United can’t shore up their leaky defence, we will have a serious chance of winning the league title as City continue to slip up. Chelsea certainly make following them interesting for their fans one way or the other.

I, along with many of my peers, were angered by the decision to drop Di Matteo, seemingly with the club about to sign Pep as the manager. Well Pep didn’t come, nor should he want to under a trigger happy owner, and now we have Benitez. We all weren’t happy, but here we are. We have to get on with it. We still have a club to support and although they didn’t win three of their 7 available trophy’s this season, Chelsea is still challenging on four other fronts.

Success will come, be patient, and keep supporting your team and the Chiefs.