Top 10 things that defined Chelsea's season

It was a season with ups & downs written all over it. From RDM’s sacking to Rafa’s appointment, they all feature in the article of the month.

Hazard’s Heroics

Hazard started off his Chelsea career on an excellent note, making an immediate impact. He won the man of the match award in his first four games itself, making him the only player in Premier League history to win four man of the match awards in a row. These awards came against Wigan, Reading, Newcastle & QPR (in chronological order) which also helped him win Premier League player of the month.

His presence took English football by storm. Clearly, there was something in him. Before the start of the season, 32 million was termed as ‘too much’ for an overrated player like Eden Hazard. But he proved everyone wrong, managing six assists & a goal in his first four games. His main traits are his exceptional dribbling skills, off the ball movement & excellent finishing.

Oscar versus Juventus

The highly rated Oscar hadn’t even make a single start so far in the season. He finally got a start when Chelsea played their first Champions League game of the season against Juventus. Even though the game ended 2-2, it was from that game onwards that the name MAZACAR (Mata, Hazard, Oscar) came into being. Two strikes from 30 yards made him a regular starter, one of which even won the Chelsea goal of the season.

Chelsea 2-3 Manchester United

Before this fateful game, Chelsea were cruising with an unbeaten start to the season winning all their games & drawing just against QPR. This was the ninth game of their Premier League campaign. Manchester United scored two early goals, putting Chelsea under pressure very early in the game. But it was Stamford Bridge, Mata scored an amazing free-kick, curling the ball into the top left corner & Ramires headed in the other. The game was back on.

Then, Mark Clattenburg sent off both Ivanovic & Torres. Both these incidents took place in 15 minutes & the Chelsea players were furious with Mark Clattenburg. Ivanovic was sent off for a rash challenge & rightly so. But Torres, he got a second yellow for a dive which wasn’t a dive at all. Chelsea’s horrific day on the field didn’t end there. Minutes after Torres’ sending off, Javier Hernandez scored an offside goal. Manchester United went on to win that game 2-3. Clattenburg was suspended for the time being & only got to officiate in his next game after more than a month, which he deemed as “the worst period of his career”.

RDM’s sacking

This was the reverse fixture of the season. It was Chelsea’s turn to travel to Turin. Things had changed a lot since Chelsea last played Juventus. Chelsea were win-less in four straight Premier League games, the latest being a 2-1 loss to West Brom at the Hawthorns, which was coincidentally AVB’s (Andre Villas Boas’) last game in charge at Chelsea too. For this game, RDM picked a weird 5-2-3 formation indicating things weren’t all right in the dressing room. Torres was dropped too.

This was the first game of he season he failed to start. Juventus ended up winning 3-0 & RDM was sacked the following day, leaving each & every Chelsea fan in shock. How could a manager who won Chelsea their first ever UCL (UEFA Champions League) be sacked? Roman Abramovich got a lot of stick from Chelsea fans after the sacking.

Rafa’s appointment

Everyone thought it would be the return of the special one. (Jose Mourinho). But it was mid-season & Jose couldn’t just leave at such short notice. Reports came in that Rafa Benitez had been flown in from Abu Dhabi & that evening itself Rafa was announced Chelsea’s new manager until the end of the season. Obviously, Rafa was a good manager, but Chelsea fans didn’t like his appointment one bit, considering the previous comments he had made against them, when he was the manager of Liverpool.

Rafa’s first game in charge of Chelsea was a home game against Manchester City, where he was booed as he made his way out of the tunnel. If these insults weren’t enough, endless posters were visible which all had similar words. ‘Rafa out’, ‘In RDM we trust’. It didn’t end there. Since RDM used to wear the #16 jersey during his time at Chelsea as a player, for every game since Rafa’s appointment there was a 16th minute applause around the stadium.

Chelsea 8-0 Aston Villa

23rd December 2012. One of the most memorable days of the season. Chelsea equalled the record of their biggest Premier League victory, the other record coming against Wigan on the final match day of the 2009-10 season. Not only that, Chelsea also ended up with seven different players scoring against Aston Villa. Torres opened the scoring in the 3rd minute. Luiz followed with a mind blowing free kick in the 29th minute. Another goal was scored by Oscar, which was his first in the Premier League. Torres’s goal in the game was his last for a long time as he faced another drought, which stretched to well over 1000 minutes on the field without scoring. His next Premier League goal came only against Everton on the final match day.

The ‘ball boy’ incident

Chelsea were already starting the 2nd leg with a 2-0 deficit in the semi final’s of the Capital One Cup. Two uncharacteristic back passes by Branislav Ivanovic saw Swansea score twice past Hillario. Coming back to the 2nd leg at Liberty Stadium, Swansea looked very organised at the back. It was 0-0 until the 75th minute. It was Swansea’s goal kick in the 76th minute, but where was the ball?

Oh there it was, but why was the ball boy holding on to the ball rather than not giving it to the goalkeeper (Tremmel). This angered Hazard, who was already frustrated with the scoreline. Being closest to the ball boy, he tried kicking the ball out of the ball boy’s grasp but ended up kicking up the ball boy as well. Usually ball boys aren’t supposed to be aged over 14, but since a ball boy had fallen sick at the last moment, another ball boy was called in as a substitute later identified as Charlie Morgan who was 17.

Clearly, at 17 he was old enough to know the situation and tried his best to run down the clock. It was a successful attempt as he managed to get Hazard sent off, who was banned for the next three games. Morgan decided not to press charges after Hazard apologised to him.

Lampard’s penalty miss

How often does this take place? That’s right, never! I can’t even remember the last time he missed & was shocked when Hart stopped that ball. No doubt it was a well taken penalty and Joe Hart did extremely well to get his hands on it, but still it was Frank Lampard. Even though we ended up losing the game 2-0 to City, what hurts more is that penalty save.

Lampard breaking the record

It was on 17th March that Lampard scored his 200th goal for Chelsea. It was just a matter of time before he would break Bobby Tambling’s record of all time top scorer of Chelsea which then stood at 202. What was more worrying then was his uncertain future at Chelsea. But then began Lampard’s drought. His form had clearly dipped. It was only on 28th April that Lampard finally got on the scoresheet again. It was a Premier League game against Swansea & Lampard was the super sub assisting a goal as well. Chelsea went on to win 2-0.

Just when the record looked out of sight, Lampard scored a brace at Villa Park on 11th May, again being instrumental in beating Villa 1-2 which also confirmed our Champions League qualification for next season.

Double European Champions

After 19/05/2012, this will be be the second best moment of my life, 15/05/2013, not because we only won the Europa League, but also ended up winning two of UEFA’s most prestigious competitions in successive seasons, something no club has ever achieved. Torres played a major part in this victory. Dribbling past three Benfica players & then going around the keeper to score the opener, what an unforgettable moment. Benfica later scored from the penalty spot to level it at 1-1. And just when it was looking like this final would go to extra time, Ivanovic came from nowhere to head the ball in, in the 92nd minute from a corner, giving Chelsea their deserved silverware.