I am off the pace this week! A good read!

Pat Nevin: No doubt

With Chelsea involved in the weekend’s big game and a big name making the headlines, former Blues star Pat Nevin looks back on events in Manchester in this week’s column…

First and foremost let me say how proud I am of the Chelsea fans who travelled up to Manchester and reacted so respectfully towards Frank Lampard.

The game and society often sounds reactionary and mean-spirited these days, but the applause for Frank before he came on, after the game and even when he scored was the reaction of true sportsmen and sportswomen. It was the very best of real lovers of not only sport but excellence in sport. I am acutely aware of how Frank was feeling, having scored against my beloved Chelsea when I moved to Everton. Worse still I rounded Dave Beasant and put it in at the Shed End, boy was that a rush of mixed emotions.

There were very limited celebrations from yours truly back then but it wasn’t an affectation. It would have been unthinkable to jump around punching the air in front of fans who had been so kind and so supportive of me. On top of that there is a respect for the club as an entity and all they have done for you when it is close to your heart. I was ‘only’ at Chelsea for five seasons, winning Player of the Year twice, which pales towards insignificance when you look at Frank’s input. He was never going to go kissing the City badge and thumbing his nose at our boys and we were always going to respect him.

I have not been over all the social media sites and maybe there has been the odd negative comment out there, but I am delighted that in front of the eyes of the world, the Chelsea fans under severe pressure to be thoroughly miffed were brilliant, not that I expected anything else where Frank Lampard was concerned. Now just a personal word from me to Frank, don’t bother doing it to us again, there’s a good lad!

When the dust settled there was of course no doubt that it was a better result for us than it was for Manchester City. The points gap is maintained and one of our hardest fixtures of the season, on paper anyway, has been successfully navigated with no damage done.

For a long time I really felt it was going to be a 0-0 draw, but even so I thought it was an enthralling game. City were up for it right from the start but for all their possession and corner kicks they had precious few chances, two shots on target I believe. Clearly once again Jose’s tactics were working a treat. As a number of people suggested afterwards, if you consider this game like you would an away Champions League tie, then it was expertly dealt with for the most part by our lads, but then we have a lot more experience in that area than Man City.

A few suggested that Chelsea were too defensive, but a salutary warning was provided earlier in the day showing exactly what can happen when you go gung-ho away from home. Manchester United shipped five against a team who have just been promoted, and there is no doubt that there was an accusation of arrant naiveté there. This is something that is rarely if ever aimed at Jose Mourinho or his teams. There are times to be expansive and times to be sensible, clearly with the recent results in Manchester against City, the boss knows when to let loose.

Man City v Chelsea

One thing that did strike me as strange was that when City employed some pretty rough house tactics in the first half, very few commentators seemed to mention it. If Chelsea players had been ramming through the back of their opponents the way Kompany, Zabaleta, Mangala, Fernandinho and even David Silva did on occasion, then you can bet your bottom dollar there would have been comments aplenty. When Zabaleta did get sent off for coming through the back of Diego Costa after wiping out Eden Hazard in the first half, he looked surprised, Why? In the end it wasn’t an easy game to referee and the man in the middle did okay in the circumstances trying to keep the game flowing, even if he did err slightly on the laissez-faire side of things.

It was a tough 90 minutes so some of the lads will doubtless get a chance to rest their weary legs on Wednesday when we face Bolton in the Capital One Cup competition. It is one we want to win of course, it has a special place in Jose’s heart in that it was his first at the Blues, but other players need a chance. Some of the fringe players and even some youngsters need to get first team action because it is absolutely certain that at some time later on in the season when injuries, suspension and tiredness kick in, there will be big important ties when they will be asked to step up to the plate. To do this it would be handy to have as much first team experience to call upon first, even if it is ‘only’ the third domestic competition.

Last week was a tricky little question for the quiz, could you name any Chelsea players who have won the League and FA Cup double in the same season, but have not done so for Chelsea? So I reckon Ashley Cole doesn’t count because he has won the double with us as well as Arsenal. Some obviously correct answers included Cesc of course, Manu Petit, Mark Hughes, George Graham, then Bobby Smith and Les Allen at Spurs in 1961, and Paul Parker was another great shout. But then a few answers came in such as Hazard (in France) and Ramires at Benfica and suddenly there were tons of correct answers, too many to list to be honest. I really meant the English double but I think these last answers should get accepted nonetheless because it wasn’t specified that I meant England. Then of course there was Kate Chapman and Gilly Flaherty who did the double in the women’s game apparently. Very good and very lateral thinking there. So plenty of right answers to choose from but only one can get the prize in the random draw. So this time it is Mike Donovan.

This week’s quiz question comes not from me for a change but from the massed ranks of the web team, so blame them because it is a cracker. In a week were Frank scored against us, can you tell me who was the first former Chelsea player to score against us in the Premier League era? That is of course post the 1992 change, just to be clear.

Answers as ever to me at [email protected] and the winner chosen randomly will get a season review DVD signed by one of the players. I am not convinced there will be as many correct answers as usual and if there are they will be gutted.

- Chelsea TV's 'Analyse That Pat' feature from last week's Champions League match can be viewed below by Fan Club Plus members, with a new Analyse That Pat available later this week.

Edited September 25, 201411 yr by Zola

Pat Nevin: Staying sprightly

In his column this week, former Chelsea star player Pat Nevin discusses the demands of a busy fixture list and hails the form of a Brazilian…

One of the arguments that you happily do not hear that much these days is the old, ‘Those professional players get paid fortunes so they should be able to play at their peak for 90 minutes three times a week, ever week for the entire season.’ Some education has underlined the inherent dangers of asking the body to do too much too often.

As we consider the starting line-up that might trot out in Lisbon tonight, we know that one or two might just be asked to warm the bench and be ready to come on if needed. Yes it is a vital game, but when was the last Premier League or Champions League game that wasn’t vital? Squad management is one of the most changed aspects of the modern game compared to the way it was a decade or two ago. Consider Jose’s reaction as soon as the game was safe against Aston Villa the other day, instead of celebrating the goal he was making the change to get Diego Costa off immediately.

When clubs do not manage this part of the game well it leads to niggling injuries becoming chronic ones very quickly. Of course there is a chance we will have periods this season when the squad looks more threadbare than any of us would wish, but a quick look around at other clubs tells you that whether it is squad management or just having an imbalanced squad, mistakes have been made.

It takes a while to learn how to do this well and it helps if you get lucky with injuries, but a mistake by the management or medical team that costs you an important player for a period of time is much worse than any single error, be it a keeper dropping the ball at the striker’s feet or a clumsy centre-half upending an opponent in the box.

So tonight the team is chosen with at least some consideration of Arsenal coming to the Bridge at the weekend. With both Liverpool and Manchester United having stuttering starts to the season and Spurs looking a distance off being real contenders, the weekend is a chance to put a nine-point gap between us and them - a massive statement, even this early in the season. A win tonight against Sporting would put us in an excellent position in the Champions League too after they slipped up against Maribor in the first group-stage game.

One player in the midst of all this who really doesn’t want a rest right now is Oscar. A couple of goals in his last two games and arguably man-of-the-match performances in both. The confidence levels are through the roof, just look at the back flicks and skills he is producing right now on the back of his outstanding special awareness.

Oscar

There is something more which is harder to put your finger on, but the best way I can describe it is very simple, he has a new spring in his step. He may have had a few injuries at various points last season, but I suspect it was just tiredness due to far too many games over a long period of games. By a long period I mean years, including too many for Brazil, particularly in the Confederations Cup and Olympics, when a young man of his tender years should have been given some breaks.

What I am struggling to understand is why he is so strong and sprightly right now, after all there was the rigour and the psychological trauma of the World Cup in his own country. Maybe now that it is gone, a pressure has been released but it seems unlikely, because the problem looked so specifically physical. In the end it matters little because he looks to be back at his very best, in fact maybe even better because he looks more filled out without being exactly ‘bulked up’.

The good thing is that if he does have a little dip this season we do not have to flog him mercilessly onwards; there is Schurrle, Hazard, Willian, Salah, Fabregas and, whisper it, Mikel who apparently plays very well in that position for his national team, all ready to stand in. For this reason we may not see the burn out later on and that would be great news for not only Chelsea and Brazil, but for football as a whole because he is an incredible talent and a joy to watch.

It is another great week to look forward to then and after that there is the international break, which of course is no break at all for most of our players. Let us hope that the national sides are not reckless with the use of some of our lads…are you listening Spain? Diego Costa has to be managed!

Last week’s quiz question was meant to be tricky, I wanted to know who was the first former Chelsea player to score against us in the Premier League era? There were some good guesses and there was the suggestion that an own-goal by Frank Sinclair in January 1993 should count, but he wasn’t at that time a former player. The correct answer was my old friend Graeme Le Saux playing for Blackburn Rovers in December 1993.

There were quite a few correct answers though far less than I normally get. There can only be one winner and this week it is Alexandre Kononchuk from Zaporozhye in Ukraine. Well done.

So in that the web team got you thinking hard, I asked them for another thought and boy have they come up with a doozy. Can you guess which current Chelsea first team squad member, and there is only one I am assured, who has played at the New Meadow ground, new home to our next Capital One Cup opponents, Shrewsbury Town? Answers as ever to that question to me at [email protected] and the randomly chosen winner will receive a DVD review of last season signed by a player.

Pat Nevin: Euro-vision

With club football taking a back seat for a fortnight, columnist and former Chelsea and Scotland player Pat Nevin considers changes on the international scene…

I was worried that I was getting old and that maybe I was becoming a bit of a curmudgeon. It hit home the other day as I mused about the current European Championship qualifying campaign. With the number of international teams who will qualify increasing dramatically to 24, I thought, ‘Here we go, even more games and more demands on already overworked players.’

What’s more, there is the vexed question of ‘nothing games’, were tiny countries or states get to line up against the very best in what is little more than a turkey shoot, a chance for strikers to artificially increase their goal ratios.

England smash five past San Marino, Belgium thump Andorra for six and newbies Gibraltar are summarily dismissed for seven by both the Poles and the Irish. Where does this really help anyone going forward? Surely it is time to dump the minnows into a qualifying league of their own and let only the best of the worst join the big boys who have enough travelling, enough games and too much time away from their clubs already?

Well over the past couple of weeks I have changed my mind, or at least I have started the process of changing my mind…a bit. A closer look at even Gibraltar and their thrashing by Poland hid a score line of only 1-0 at half-time, with a bit of good fortune that could easily have been 1-1 had the boys from the rock taken a very passable chance they had in the first half. It is very early days for the Gibraltarians and maybe the only way they are really going to improve and learn is to play regularly against the big beasts. Importantly, there is some evidence that this is actually happening.

Take a look at England’s last opponents, Estonia. Considered a relative minnow when they started out they now only lose by 1-0 against the might of England and that single goal came when they had gone down to 10 men. To let you know how much less impressive they used to be in the past, I even scored two against them in an international for Scotland and made another in one game!

Now I hear you say, ‘England aren’t really the power they once were’, but more evidence abounds.

Italy are another superpower of world football and they only just scraped by against Azerbaijan. It was 2-1 in Palermo last week, defender Chiellini pulling out all the stops to score a couple. Actually he got all three goals, scoring through his own net as well, but this is Italy at home we are talking about! What about the Dutch who had a fairly impressive World Cup under Van Gaal? It was 62 minutes into their qualifier at the Amsterdam Arena and the score read the Netherlands 0 Kazakhstan 1. It finished 3-1, but it was another unheralded step forward for developing football countries. There then followed Iceland beating the Dutch.

Maybe Albania’s 1-0 win in Portugal was a little less of a shock when you consider the slow demise of Ronaldo’s team over the last few years and little Moldova getting a point in Russia didn’t have the seismic reaction it would have had in the past. These are however more examples of the improvements by once ‘ignored’ nations. Those at the top of the football hierarchy should take note.

Maybe the trend is going even further up the food chain. Spain capitulated once more, this time 2-1 to Slovakia, further evidence of their decline from their fabulous highs of the last decade. Even the current World Champions Germany have had a sobering start to this campaign after their summer celebrations. The narrow 2-1 home win against Scotland should have been a wake-up call, but the slumber continued with 2-0 defeat to Poland in their second outing.

So are all the old certainties being turned on their heads? Maybe it is too early to say that, after all the last four in the World Cup in the summer were the usual suspects to some extent. Germany, Argentina, Brazil and the Netherlands being in the semis would have surprised no one before the tournament started, even if the likes of Chile, Mexico, USA and Colombia briefly looked as if they could redraw the geo-football map.

I suspect it hasn’t all changed as yet, but it is at least possible once again that a relative minnow could rise and have an effect at a major championship. Denmark did it way back in 1992 winning the Euros and South Korea got to the World Cup semi-final in 2002.

So instead of veering towards football snobbery from its old hierarchies, I am supporting the increased opportunities for the little nations afforded by the burgeoning numbers of Euro finalists.

Everything has been in the old guards favour until now, even the seeding system makes it much easier for the established nations to qualify. If you are a smaller nation with limited resources, specifically population numbers, you never get the chance of an easier group. It would annoy those who look at maximising the TV revenues at major finals, but what if Europe had a totally open draw for the qualifying groups leaving it all to chance? Instead of always ensuring the likes of England, Germany and Holland get a fairly smooth passage, they will actually have to earn the right to get to the big jamborees.

As a Scot I now see how hard it is if you fall into pots three or four in the draw, just because you have had a fallow period for upcoming players for a few years. This will always happen with smaller nations with limited numbers of players, unless you are Holland of course. An open draw would make the qualification more exciting and I would argue much fairer, isn’t that what sport is supposed to be about? It would also crucially give hope and a spur to smaller nations to strive for greater success. The increase in numbers for this year’s European Championship finals is certainly one step in the right direction and I think we are already seeing the benefits with a few bloody noses for those who have had their snouts in the air for too long.

As I write this from a hotel room in Warsaw before Scotland’s game against Poland you may think I have a vested interest in the future of my own country’s success. In my defence I would say - guilty as charged your honour - but it would also make sure others don’t get too cosy and comfortable with the status quo and that must be a good thing.

Which all has little to do with Chelsea, but then it is a week off and I can’t bring myself to major on the Ladies team just being pipped at the post for the league title, other than to congratulate them for what was a fine season until the final hurdle.

Last week’s question certainly provoked a range of answers. I wanted to know who was the first player to be transferred directly from Arsenal to Chelsea? Answers suggested included Ashley Cole, then progressed back in time to the likes of John Hollins and George Graham. It did however go all the way back to just beyond Allan Young, who signed in November 1961. In the summer of that year Tommy Docherty made the trip across the capital and even though he only made a handful of appearances for Chelsea, he was the first direct mover. Others suggested Sandy McFarlane, Bob Turnbull and Bill Dickson from many years before ‘The Doc’, but theirs were not direct routes to the Bridge. So as ever there is only one winner and this week it is Christian McDonnell from Northumberland.

This week to have a chance of being the lucky winner chosen at random from the correct answers to receive a DVD review of last season signed by one of the players, could you tell me which Chelsea player in the Premier League era played at senior international level for the smallest country in terms of population?’ below. Answers as ever to me at [email protected]

Good luck.

Edited October 14, 201411 yr by Zola

Zola, thanks for posting these on here mate, always a good read.

Not an article, but Pat Nevin featured on Danny Baker's radio 5 show this morning. I've never listened to Danny Baker's show before but will probably give it a listen on iPlayer later.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04lpf5d

Pat Nevin: Staying on course

Football across three different competitions for Chelsea forms the basis for Pat Nevin’s discussion in the Blues legend’s column this week…

It was a quite spectacular weekend for football, with Real Madrid playing Barcelona, Manchester United hosting Chelsea and of course, the Edinburgh derby between Hibs and Hearts. Oh all right, maybe not everyone around Europe feels the same way about the Edinburgh derby as I do, but all three games were hugely entertaining in their own way.

For all the quality on show at the Bernabeu, Old Trafford bristled just as much. The tempo was arguably higher in the north-west of England than it was in central Spain. It was also however somewhat surprisingly less stressful than normal for me, but I suspect that was down to the fact that Man City slipped up against West Ham giving us a little breathing space at the top of the league.

Having said that, when Phil Dowd somehow managed to miss a blatant penalty when Ivanovic and JT were both wrestled to the ground after 35 minutes, I will freely admit to momentarily losing my composure with the official. I mean they don’t always see every foul in the box as there is so much going on, but the ball was going directly towards Brana and that is where the whistler’s eyes should have been. Rojo seemed to be trying to swap shirts with Didier Drogba even earlier in the match than Mario Balotelli did last week for Liverpool against Real Madrid.

It was certainly an end-to-end sort of affair, not at all like our last visit to Old Trafford soon after Jose had returned to the club. The biggest disappointment for the game as a spectacle was not having Rooney and Costa out there, but it was nonetheless a good advertisement for the game even if, in terms of pure quality, El Clasico maybe just had the edge. That is not to say that Chelsea couldn’t give Barca or Real Madrid a fright or indeed a defeat over a couple of legs. Maybe even more than the final result, my overview of the weekend is that we are not hugely far away from where we really want to be in a European sense as well as a domestic sense, and that is at the pinnacle.

Didier continues to live by those clichés that have followed him throughout his career, but in a good way. How many times has the phrase ‘big-game player’ been aimed at him over the years? I am beginning to think it is not simply pure chance that he scores in the biggest and most important moments. The vintage header for the goal was a dream; in fact it looked like a memory, of Munich and many more times before. I suspect the big man might need a few iced baths after that monumental 95-minute shift in Manchester, he certainly deserves a bit of recovery time.

One of the most notable things about the whole display was the way the team was so controlled and how well every single player knew exactly what their jobs were throughout. And to think that for all but 25 seconds we had it in the bag. I can’t ignore the decision to send Branislav off, yes a foul but a yellow card? Absolutely beyond me to be honest, but we have to live with it. I just remember a couple of decisions last season, particularly Willian being strangely and quite simply unfairly sent off at Aston Villa, having a monumentally negative effect on our chances of taking the title.

That is in the past now and you have to look forward, but looking back just a few days, the destruction of Maribor last week did raise a few eyebrows around the continent, even if they are not exactly one of Europe’s powerhouses. We seem to be cruising through the group stage now, but managing to do so while missing a few injured key players, resting a few others and even blooding a couple of youngsters along the way. A special mention here is due to Nathan Ake who had a superb influence on proceedings against the Slovenian champions when he came on.

He has played well every time he has been given a chance, but this was a big leap forward for me. His energy, power and reading of the game have all improved while the smooth technical ability has clearly always been there. He can play in a number of positions, but he looks an absolute natural in that deep midfield role. It may well be that he gets another chance tonight; certainly the maturity of his play will not have escaped the boss’s notice.

The talk of European football will now have to be put on one side while we deal with Shrewsbury Town in the Capital One Cup. I expect a whole raft of changes for this one and wouldn’t even attempt to guess the starting 11 right now, but I suspect whoever gets the nod will be giving it everything, particularly the likes of Ake, Zouma and Baker and Solanke. Whoever it is, we want to win it, because it is a major trophy and winning is an awfully nice habit to get in to.

Last week’s quiz didn’t fool many of you as I wanted to know which player had played the third most first team games in a Chelsea shirt. It was of course Frank Lampard with 648 appearances but as many of you also mentioned JT is hot on his heels. Only one winner as ever and this week the lucky contestant chosen by my glamorous assistant is Alexandre Kononchuk from Ukraine.

This week to have a chance of being the lucky winner of a season review DVD signing by one of the players, could you tell me who was the last team from the fourth tier of English football that Chelsea played in a cup competition and what was the score? Answers as ever to me at [email protected]

Good luck to you and to the team tonight.

While on the subject, does anyone feel that pat should be a pundit for sky? While we have to endure redknapp and souness, pat comes across great every time I've seen his (rare) appearances as a pundit on BBC MOTD. Also, we would have someone sticking for chelsea too :-)

Would love him on Sky. I still miss Ray Wilkins :(

My favorite part of the week (except matches) is when I have a new Pat article to read, absolutely love him and his writing!

My favorite part of the week (except matches) is when I have a new Pat article to read, absolutely love him and his writing!

Me also buddy!

Best part of this weeks article was his line about the Edinburgh derby. The man is Chelsea and Hibs through and through. It doesn't get any better than that.

Pat Nevin: Winning through

In his column this week, Chelsea legend Pat Nevin assesses the overcoming of QPR and looks ahead to consecutive away challenges…

Saturday’s game against QPR was always going to be a trickier affair than most people thought beforehand. Harry Redknapp was never going to be as expansive and open as he had been earlier in the season, it would have been football suicide. It was no surprise that he put out a fairly hard-working team that would dig in defensively as much as possible, hoping for success in the odd break forward. It almost worked too, but the quality and intelligence of our lads won through in the end.

The quality obviously came from the finish by Oscar and the ice-cool penalty taken by Eden Hazard, while the intelligence came from the latter when he won our penalty kick. I say intelligence because it wasn’t a dive, but it was a case of getting his body across the inrushing defender and taking the hit. I hate diving and never did in my career but I regularly did what Eden did because I knew if the defender was being too rash and too reckless when I had right of way because I was in front of him, the outcome would be a spot kick. This is what Eden did, it wasn’t a deliberate infringement but it was still definitely a penalty.

There will be games like this throughout the coming weeks and months, especially at Stamford Bridge, simply because teams are very aware of Chelsea’s strengths this season. It can sometimes lead to a different atmosphere, an understandably tense instead of a celebratory or encouraging vibe around the ground for parts of the game. Happily it didn’t pass on to the players who got the job done efficiently in the end.

It will be a totally different set of problems over in Slovenia as Maribor stand in the way of our early qualification from the group stage. I must say I was surprised at how naïve and disjointed they were in the first game, having given everyone else they had played a very tough time in their European campaign to date. I still expect this will be a less-than-straightforward task, simply because home advantage always makes a massive difference. The question that has always bothered me, even as a player is, why is this so clearly the case?

Among the usual reasons given are; playing at home gives a sense of familiarity and security, you also have the home fans urging you on to lift your spirits. You might even expect that the referee and his officials will be influenced to some degree by the intimidation in the stadium. This is not to denigrate the officials, it is just human nature to give the tight decisions to the side that are already on your back. Even so it is still the same 11 players against 11 and the pitch is roughly the same size and covered in grass. So what is going on?

Much of it is purely psychological, away from home most teams set up a little more defensively than the way they do at home, so before the referee even blows his whistle for the first time some ground has been conceded. There is also the intangible effect that the home crowd has on individual players. Even though I didn’t think I cared whether I was at home or away when I played, there was an extra lift if, when I got the ball, there was a rise in the decibel level as the fans expectation rose. It not only made me want to try things, it also gave a huge confidence boost. If they believed in me, then it was almost impossible not to believe in myself.

Chelsea fans have always been very special in that way, in five years playing at the Bridge I can honestly say I can’t recall the fans ever being negative towards me even when I was making mistakes or having a bad day when the flicks and tricks were not coming off. They simply urged me to have another go believing I would beat the man or make the telling pass next time. Chelsea fans have always been ultra-forgiving of skilful players, as long as they know the effort is being put in.

Pat Nevin

I wonder if the likes of Eden Hazard is fully aware of all that yet, I suspect he is. When things are looking bleak, he knows that we believe in him still and that it will only take one moment of his genius to make all the difference, just as it did on Saturday. This of course all sounds pretty obvious, but it doesn’t happen at every club for every player. There are those that are far less forgiving and quicker to turn to moaning instead of encouraging. As such for Eden there certainly is no place like home! I suspect that when the crowd are needed they will be there giving it everything.

The other particularly positive thing for Chelsea players is that we have, and have always had, a spectacularly big and vociferous away support. There have been countless times when we have travelled and either out-sung the home support or given them one huge run for their money. This might not happen at Maribor, but certainly at places like Anfield and Old Trafford it is and always has been noticeable and extremely helpful. In fact the only downside is that because of the desire for our fans to travel to wherever we may be, it means it is hellishly difficult to get tickets for these games. Can you tell I’m still struggling to acquire tickets for the upcoming trips to Sunderland and to Newcastle!

Talking of Liverpool we meet them at the weekend up at Anfield in the early kick-off and once more we will be trying to match them shout for shout from the stands. I wonder if they will be as vociferous as they usually are in the Kop. As I write this I am in Madrid to watch Brendan’s men taking on Real in what is a quite frightening game for the Reds after what happened to them in the reverse fixture at home. If it does go badly for them tonight then all the shouting and backing their famous home support might give them, could fail to lift the players’ spirit come Saturday. Our travelling fans will be in top voice no matter what, simply because they always are.

Last week I asked which was the last team (before Shrewsbury) from the fourth tier of English football that Chelsea faced in a competitive match? There were actually two such teams in the same month which flummoxed a few of you. In January 2007 we played three cup games, the first was against Macclesfield Town in the FA Cup and then there were two Carling Cup semi-finals against Wycombe Wanderers. So Wycombe was the right answer. Well done to those who got it right, but there can only be one winner and the randomly chosen chap this week is Ashley Manton from Canada.

Today’s quiz question is; having played for both clubs, which player has the most combined appearances for Liverpool and Chelsea? Answers as ever to me at [email protected] and the lucky winner drawn from the correct answers will receive a Season Review DVD signed by one of the players.

Pat Nevin: Most wanted

With club football now on hold for a fortnight, columnist and Chelsea legend Pat Nevin focuses his full attention on another enjoyable outing at Anfield…

No team in the UK can feel quite as relaxed as Chelsea right now, even if you can never really be too contemplative this early in the season.

Maybe I use the term relaxed because it was so tense in the run-up to Saturday’s game at Anfield. Oddly enough I felt more laid back before the trips to the Etihad, Old Trafford and Goodison Park than I did before this one. That is strange because Brendan Rogers’s side aren’t necessarily as strong as either City, United or arguably even Everton, so why the pre-match tension that never really dissipated until the final whistle?

It could have been the build-up. With both teams travelling in Europe, the eyes of the media hadn’t left the clubs for a second during the week. I was at the Bernabeu watching Liverpool and they certainly fought well enough against a Real Madrid side that in fairness didn’t ever have to go through the gears. They did however look buoyed and it seemed, crucially, they had rested some key figures for our visit.

For all the chat about numbers, I think there were two players in particular that Brendan needed to perform on Saturday - Raheem Sterling and Steven Gerrard. The former would have a tough job breaking down our defence on his best form, which he isn’t in, but Gerrard is one of that select group of players who can control matches at the very top level. Even at his age he is the class act at Liverpool and he needed to be stopped, both managers were clearly aware of his importance. As such Brendan had him well rested and Jose needed to find a way of nullifying him.

On the day Jose, as he often does, out-thought his counterpart. Oscar was detailed to ensure that either Gerrard didn’t get on the ball or when he did, he had no time to get his head up and spray passes around the pitch. Some Kopites might have complained about the former England captain’s limited effect on the game, but Oscar for all his world-class attacking qualities is also world-class at closing down and tackling high up the field. It was a master class in doing the job of shutting down an opponent.

Oscar - Liverpool v Chelsea

With their skipper uninvolved, the power base of the tie was swayed in our direction. Talking of the power, I was pretty smug about my final words on Chelsea TV in the prelude to the game: ‘Our set pieces and corners could be vital in this contest.’

Well okay, it maybe it wasn’t that difficult to call with Ivanovic, Costa, JT, Cahill and Matic all hammering in against a much less physically powerful home side, so no one was really surprised that it was the shear physical prowess along with a greater desire that willed Gary Cahill’s goal over the line, just.

Even after the second goal by Diego Costa however, I still couldn’t really relax and I am sure that the vast majority of Chelsea fans watching felt the same. Maybe it was subliminal, it is after all November and we haven’t always cruised through this month over the past few seasons.

Another thought running through the darker recesses of our collective minds was the late goals lost at both City and United already this season. The most negative among us would have been thinking that the QPR win was less than sparkling, the Shrewsbury victory was a battle not a cruise, and the Maribor draw a reminder that nothing can be taken for granted. We needn’t have worried but plenty of us did. I suspect part of the real reason for the tension was simple, we really wanted to win this game, maybe even more than most others during the season. Not just because it gives us a good cushion over the rest, or that our biggest rivals have tricky fixtures to come, but basically we love beating Liverpool specifically, maybe more than anyone else in the Premier League.

There is no getting round it, and I believe the feeling is fairly mutual from the red side of Merseyside, our fans are desperate to get three points against them and it really gets to us when we do not. Even though I played for Chelsea and Everton I have never had a particular antipathy towards Liverpool. There is no hatred on my part, but even I would probably accept that I enjoyed those three points more than any other this season, in fact more than any other since the last time we beat them at Anfield.

Maybe it is just down to history and the way the two clubs have travelled in diametrically opposite directions over the past few decades. They were the Kings of Europe when we for a while could only claim to be the Kings of King’s Road. But now we regularly reach the latter stages of the Champions League and are recent winners, while their continental domination grows ever more distant. There have of course been the tussles in that Champions League and their young supporters remember Istanbul as we cherish Munich. The biggest difference is of course their inability to win the Premier League for a generation while we usurped Manchester United and now vie with City for the title.

It must be particularly painful of course for Liverpool fans when they expected to win the title last season only to be denied in a game against, of all people, us at their home. In the end I find myself not wanting to place too much feeling or importance on these games but somehow always being drawn into them more and more. Maybe it is the fact that in my job as a pundit, the landscape is totally dominated by former Liverpool players who understandably see the tie, to a greater or lesser extent depending on the pundit, through red-tinted spectacles. It can get a touch grating as many Chelsea fans have said before.

Hopefully. even if I openly want Chelsea to win, I am not myopic. For example I openly admit that they should have got a penalty in the second half when Gary Cahill ‘armed’ the ball. The difference between being supportive and being biased is often hard to spot, then again all of us like to think of ourselves as being objective, but it is often in the eye of the beholder and that eye isn’t always wide open to the opposition’s case. So in the interests of fairness let me say that Liverpool played quite well last week, just not as good as us…again.

Last week’s quiz asked which player, having turned out for both teams, had played the most combined games for Chelsea and Liverpool! There were a few candidates; Glen Johnson, Fernando Torres, Joe Cole, David Speedie and Joey Jones among others. The man who beat them all is my old team-mate Nigel Sparkman who in two spells for us and one for the Reds amassed 330 appearances. A pretty good showing by Spackers. Also a good showing by the lucky winner who this week randomly drawn out is Phil Brewer from Mid Glamorgan.

This week’s question keeps the Chelsea/Liverpool theme going for a few more days. Who was the first player to be transferred directly between the two clubs, in either direction?

Answers as ever to me at [email protected] and the winner will receive a Season Review DVD signed by one of the players. Good luck to whatever national team you are supporting this week and safe journeys to the players too.

Love Pat

Great pundit and bloke

Yeah fantastic Sky should hire him

tony hateley?

I was watching Chelsea tv last night and saw again the Icons episode with Wee Pat, Franco and Lamps.  Got to say I would quite happily invite Pat over for dinner anytime to chew the cud with him, similar taste in music and love his views on football, got some really interesting things to say about the game.  It's a shame he spends his time as a pundit because I think he could do so much more for the game.

I wonder if he's free Christmas day, might drop him a line and ask.

I was watching Chelsea tv last night and saw again the Icons episode with Wee Pat, Franco and Lamps.  Got to say I would quite happily invite Pat over for dinner anytime to chew the cud with him, similar taste in music and love his views on football, got some really interesting things to say about the game.  It's a shame he spends his time as a pundit because I think he could do so much more for the game.

I wonder if he's free Christmas day, might drop him a line and ask.

I was thinking as I read your post "go for it"!  But maybe give him an alternative to Christmas day eh?

I think I will.

The worst that can happen is he'll say no.

 

 

 

 

 

and block your email address.

 

 

 

 

 

and take out extra security

 

 

 

 

 

and alert Chelsea not to let you into the ground.

I say it all the time, he comes across as the smartest footballer of all time. Next to him on Chelsea TV Jody Morris seems like a caveman barely stringing a sentence together.

The worst that can happen is he'll say no.

and block your email address.

and take out extra security

and alert Chelsea not to let you into the ground.

It'll make a nice change for a bloke to take that much interest in me, usually women and these things they call "injunctions" or something!

Pat Nevin: The pundit’s progress

With the break in Chelsea action continuing, Blues legend Pat Nevin takes the opportunity in this week’s column to take a look at the schedules involved in the football world…

In the middle of what is ostensibly a couple of weeks off, I hope you will indulge me just a little. For many players, especially at Chelsea, it isn’t time off at all; most are jetting off around the planet to represent their national teams. Those who aren’t travelling are usually to be found at the training ground during the day, topping up their fitness.

No, I’m not talking about the players this time, but the beleaguered jobbing pundit such as yours truly - boy I’m going to have to work hard to get some sympathy here! Before the break for internationals I had been a little busy, it started back on the 13th of October. I live in rural southern Scotland so wherever I work in football I have to travel, unless it happens to be a Berwick Rangers game and I have only been asked to cover them once in 15 years! Here is the diary:

13th Fly to Poland and broadcast a show from there for BBC Radios 4 and 5.

14th Co-commentate at the Poland v Scotland game in Warsaw. It was 2-2 and a superb match with 10,000 of Scotland’s Tartan Army making the trip. What a spectacle and what a noise.

15th Fly back home after early morning BBC and RTE Ireland radio broadcasts. Back in home by 9pm.

16th I am writing three different articles for a variety of organisations and I also write a speech for an upcoming charity event.

17th Drive to Manchester and back (400-mile round trip) for a BBC Radio 5 Live evening sports programme.

18th I fly to Dublin to do a live TV game for Setanta Ireland. It was Southampton 8-0 Sunderland, it was not as dull as I was half expecting it to be! I immediately followed this by doing their analysis programme of the day’s Premier League games.

19th Fly back to Scotland and a rare evening at home, with only Chelsea programme articles to write and analysis to build for tomorrow’s show.

20th Fly down to London early to do the Weekend Review show for Chelsea TV in the evening.

21st Still in London to do pre-match and post-match shows as well as Chelsea TV commentary for our 6-0 win against Maribor. The last two games I have covered totalled 14-0 for the home sides.

22nd Analysis programme in London for Chelsea TV and then across the city to do a show for BT, stopping en route to help in a documentary being made about Paul Canoville, our former winger.

23rd Fly straight over to Dublin from London for Setanta TV again, this time covering two live games - Everton and Spurs in the Europa League in a five-hour marathon broadcast.

24th Fly to Edinburgh in the morning and pop home to see the family for a few hours, then back up to Edinburgh to fly back again to London.

25th Up early to go to work on the Danny Baker radio show as his assistant while his usual sidekick, Lyndsay Hipgrave, is away. It is great fun doing a show with one of, if not the most brilliant broadcasters of his generation. Then fly back up to Scotland in the evening.

26th Two-hundred-mile round trip to build analysis and then appear on the BBC TV Scotland football highlights show, on Scottish football’s weekend highlights…obviously. Back home by 1am.

27th Hurrah! A day off, except for writing etc.

28th Fly to London again for Chelsea TV and it is Shrewsbury v Chelsea. This includes the usual pre- and post-match shows. I then put together the clips for the next day’s analysis show until 11.30pm. I’ve been noting the analysis timings while co-commentating, the guys on the EVS machine and I edit it together.

29th Analysis programmes for Chelsea TV and then fly home.

Play

ANALYSE THAT, PAT: SHREWSBURY TOWN (A) COC 14/15

30th A day off, no really honestly, a real day off. But I have picked up an injury on my travels, just like the old days, and have to see the doctor who suggests an MRI scan on my back. When do I get time to do that? It will have to wait.

November

1st Fly to London at night to be ready for early next morning and the Danny Baker show again.

2nd Danny’s show and straight to Stamford Bridge for the Chelsea v QPR game, it is yet another win for the Blues before flying back to Scotland.

3rd Up in the morning to make my way to Madrid, travelling all day and arrive in time to broadcast that night on a BBC radio preview show for tomorrow’s game.

4th Real Madrid 1 Liverpool 0 at the Bernabeu for Radio 5 Live. Brendan Rogers resting half his team in preparation for Chelsea on Saturday morning and Real playing most of the game in third gear.

5th Fly from Madrid to London to cover the Maribor v Chelsea game with Gigi Salmon and Jody Morris for Chelsea TV. Then as ever prepare the next day’s analysis programme until midnight, even though I will admit to feeling just a little bit tired now.

6th Analysis programme from Stamford Bridge for Chelsea TV and then rush off to catch a flight to Dublin and two live games in a row again for Setanta TV in the Europa League. Delays mean that I have to dump the cab in the city centre traffic gridlock and run to the studio through lashing rain. I make it in with six minutes to spare, soaked and out of breath. Everton, one of my old teams, win again so I’m happy…oh and Spurs also managed to get their points.

7th Fly home to Scotland and my brother jokingly asks on the phone, ‘Why are you tired, you just swan about in television studios, football stadiums and hotels all day every day?’ It’s a fair point.

8th Two-hundred-mile round trip to do the BBC Scotland TV highlights programme again, and analyse a live Scottish game coming in. As usual get back home from that at about 1am.

9th Drive to Sunderland, another two-hundred-mile round trip to cover their home Premier League match against Everton which ends in a very entertaining 1-1 draw. Back home in time to study the Chelsea win at Liverpool and put together my analysis…a particularly impressive piece on Oscar I thought! But then someone comments, ‘self-praise is no praise.’ Some folk know how to keep my feet on the ground!

10th Except I am not on the ground as once again I fly off to London and back in a day to do the Chelsea TV analysis programme and squeeze in a business meeting as well. They ask if I have time to join them in a venture. Me, time? Maybe not.

After this little stint I am rather looking forward to the international break. I have to go to the Scotland v Ireland and Scotland v England matches for BBC Radio 5 Live, but they are in Glasgow and scarcely any trouble at all, especially as Scotland won the first of those games 1-0 against the Irish in the best atmosphere for a football game I have witnessed in ages. Celtic Park was bouncing.

So there it is, 13,000 miles travelled over 28 days, 23 flights, 14 different beds, countless games covered and of course I am not looking for sympathy really. It is a great if tiring job and I wouldn’t change it for anything. Different cities, countries, hotels, people and meeting old friends along the way, it is always interesting even if it is a logistical nightmare at times. After this hectic, (if not actually that unusual for me) schedule however, surely I must have learned something.

Well nothing is more obvious than the fact that the players do just as much travelling as I do and although they may get there in better style, all I have to do is watch, while they put in 90-odd minutes of hard graft for each and every game. They will do the same next month and the next and so on. So when people say to me players shouldn’t get tired I smile and think, just getting there is wearing enough, even if you’re not playing!

So on to last week’s quiz. Who was the first player to be transferred between Liverpool and Chelsea? Well it is a long time ago and it is Adolph (Alf) Hansen back in 1938, when he joined us for £7,500. I wonder why he changed his name to Alf in the late 1930s? Only a few managed to get this one (so well done Richard, Nigel, Paul, Aidan, Alec, Rahul, Barry, Seb, Margaret Mason, Daryl, Carolyn and Jon and Ashok, but as ever there can only be one winner, the lucky one is Katharine Bilbrough.

This week to have a chance of winning a Season Review DVD signing by one of the players, could you tell me which former Chelsea player has the most caps for Scotland?

Answers as ever to me at [email protected] I better rush, I am off to the Scotland v England game for the BBC. It never stops, but it is always fun.

He's been a busy bee, one of his much lesser interesting articles, but I guess it shows how hectic his schedule can be!

Edited November 18, 201411 yr by Zola

Pat Nevin: The pundit’s progress

He's been a busy bee, one of his much lesser interesting articles, but I guess it shows how hectic his schedule can be!

I think this is just an elaborate excuse as to why he can't meet up with Barn.

 could you tell me which former Chelsea player has the most caps for Scotland?

 

If this thread doesn't have a rant about how Charlie Cooke was unappreciated at the international level in the next five posts then there's something wrong with all of us...