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Chelsea FC – Cesc Fabregas Makes a Triumphant Premier League Return
It couldn’t have been a better performance from Chelsea as they opened their Premier League title bid looking very convincing in what could have been a tricky road match. Cesc Fabregas, above everyone else, looked like the perfect signing, feeling quite comfortable being at the center of everything once again after three seasons of not quite understanding what his role is.
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Chelsea FC – Andre Schurrle Can’t Make Up For a Soft Team
One of the interesting things about the makeup of this Chelsea team in comparison to the one Jose Mourinho had during his first tenure at the club is physicality. There’s plenty of talent in the modern version – Andre Schurrle, Eden Hazard, Juan Manuel Mata and others. However, too many of those he had a few years ago have grown weaker and slower during that time, while other new faces are simply too soft for his own vision of how this team should look like.
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Chelsea vs Schalke – Andre Schurrle & Willian Shouldn’t Return to the Bench
It seems that every week is a new lesson for Jose Mourinho about the idiosyncrasies of his team. This week’s lesson? Andre Schurrle should always start, and Willian is finally start to look like a player who cost as much as he did, with the two of them being the driving force behind Chelsea beating Schalke 3-0.
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Chelsea FC – Eden Hazard the Only Attacking Midfielder That Worked
There’s nothing new about Jose Mourinho loving to use massive rotations in his lineup. There is a hierarchy in his attacking midfield unit that gives preference to Eden Hazard and Oscar, but the rest keeps changing according to his mood and opponent. Despite probably being the best manager in the league, he makes mistakes as well, and maybe too many of them so far, when making his choices for the first XI.
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Chelsea FC – Fernando Torres Finally Starts His Season
A striker doesn’t truly begin his season before he scores his first league goal, and it took Fernando Torres more than two months to get his. Luckily, it turned out to be a 90th minute winner in the biggest match of the season so far for Chelsea.
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Chelsea FC – Eden Hazard No Longer Special
When Eden Hazard first arrived at Chelsea from France, he was considered as the best U-21 talent in European football. Over a year later and after playing for three different managers, it seems the Belgian wonderkid is not exactly the player he should have turned out to be, instead being suffocated too much by tactical instructions and limitations.
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Chelsea FC – Juan Mata Makes Everything Easier
If Jose Mourinho needed any more convincing about the importance of Juan Mata, his performance in the Champions League made sure no doubts were left. Andre Schurrle was excellent on the wing and Ramires was unstoppable through the middle, but it was the Spanish star who made most of the difference as Chelsea got back to their winning ways.
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The Never Ending List of German Attacking Midfielders
The revolution that German football has undergone over the last seven or eight years hasn’t been demonstrated with titles for the national team (yet), but the success of Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League, relying on German players and not just a horde of foreigners, is due to the immense pool of talent, especially in attacking midfield positions, the country currently has to offer.
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Chelsea FC – Eden Hazard Can’t Play With So Many Changes Around Him
There’s too much change, shifting and rotating in the Chelsea lineup early on in the season, as Eden Hazard seems to be the only attacking player with an unmovable stake in the first XI, as it seems Jose Mourinho has a squad that’s a bit too big for his own good at the moment, not making the right decisions with it as well.
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Chelsea FC – Eden Hazard Shines Amid Tactical Brutality
There’s now doubt Chelsea, with or without Jose Mourinho are a very talented side with Eden Hazard looking like the best of the bench when he’s free to use his creativity and skill, but it’s quite easy to shine when most of the tactical approach of your team is to deliberately hurt opponents at every opportunity and hope to get away with it.