Solid win, the FA Cup is a good tournament to try and win

wellsy1498: I'm sorry, I just can't sit back and let Arsenal beat us. Yet another season with Arsenal not winning a trophy; and people say that FM isn't a realistic game hey!

Neal: I am definitely more bothered that we win the FA Cup rather than the dull Capital One Cup. I am confident we can win it but only times will tell.

Chelsea has today announced the signing of Radamel Falcao. This transfer appears to be in response to the recent departures of both Fernando Torres and Demba Ba. Falcao is the second striker to arrive at Stamford Bridge this season with Abel Hernandez signing on earlier in the January transfer window.

Reportedly the transfer has seen Chelsea pay C. Atletico Madrid SAD £10 million initially with over a further £25 million to be paid over the next 24 months. In terms of personal terms Chelsea are supposedly paying the substantial amount of £150k a week to Falcao with a great number of bonuses on offer. It appears Chelsea have been able to pay a great amount in terms of Falcao’s contract as they managed to acquire him for a relatively low fee for the in-demand player. Falcao had not expressed any desire to leave Spain but with both Chelsea and Arsenal having shown interest and assurances of Champions League football this season, and more than likely next season too, he couldn’t resist the chance to move.

Falcao, who does struggle with English, did speak to Chelsea TV through the means of an interpreter. He shared his sheer delight at signing for Chelsea as they are a club that have performed really well so far this season. He is also excited to have the opportunity to play in the Champions League with him hoping to take part in the upcoming knockout tie against FC Bayern Munchen. He has confirmed that there was interest from Arsene Wenger and Arsenal but they did not seem to want to commit to trying to sign him so soon as Chelsea came in for him his mind was made up.

Dennis Wise has commented on the signing by explaining that he has huge admiration for Falcao and cannot wait to see him in a Chelsea shirt. When asked about how he would choose between the inform Robert Lewandowski, Abel Hernandez and the new addition Radamel Falcao he suggested that it is always good to have healthy competition at a club and that is what Chelsea now have.

Nice signing. He has never played well for me at all ever!

I would've exchanged Torres plus cash would've been great!

Should be a good signing, however Chelsea is the place where strikers decide there going to be crap now.

wellsy 1498: I am really hoping that he comes good. He will have to play well if he is to replace Lewandowski as the main striker, which will be very hard to do.

Pauker: I don't ever seem to have any luck with player exchanges. When Torres returns he will be swiftly moved on...I hope!

Jozef: I am hoping that he doesn't do a Torres and go backwards and just become useless!

Many pundits have been curious as to whether Chelsea would be able to continue their amazing run of form in the Premier League. Am lot of them have been left shocked at just how good Chelsea have been with them failing to lose a single game all season; Chelsea have beaten every team that have come their way.

The beginning of the month begun with an interesting challenge against Liverpool, however, Chelsea simply outclassed them all over the pitch. Robert Lewandowski appears to be enjoying his football at the moment with him showing off his true potential against the Merseyside club by helping himself to a brace. The only unfortunate aspect of the match involved Juan Mata being injured late on; the injury is not serious with him only being expected to be out for a matter of days.

January will have been one of the most challenging months that Chelsea saw ahead of them at the beginning of the season. Nevertheless, Chelsea went on to dominate the rest of the month despite a few close calls against Arsenal and Manchester City at the end of the month. Dennis Wise has taken the time to praise the Chelsea defence which only conceded one goal against teams that boast a lot of attacking potential. He singled out the partnership of David Luiz and Gary Cahill as one of the big factors in Chelsea’s ability to focus on the attacking side of the game. He explained that the rest of the team knew that they could concentrate on getting the goals as they have a solid back four to fall back on.

Dennis Wise was asked if he felt his team could emulate their North London rivals Arsenal and become the next “Invincibles”. He refused to discuss the team’s chances and explained that despite being clear at the top of the league, he wouldn’t comment on the team’s chances of winning the league title at this point.

Great update

2013-08-14 22:30#128105 wellsy1498 : Great update

Why thank you for your detailed comment

Dennis Wise has hit out at the Reading defence, particularly Alex Pearce after a crunching tackle in the first half of their recent meeting which has seen Falcao ruled out for up to 5 weeks. He described the challenge as “ridiculous” and he couldn’t believe that the player had not been shown even a yellow card. Unfortunately for Wise his harsh words and criticism of the referee may bring charges against him by the FA who have recently taken a tough stance against manager’s who speak out against referees.

Falcao is said to be devastated by the news a sprained ankle is going to keep him out for such a long period of time. Falcao had shown a lot of promise in the game but it was brought an abrupt halt. It is unfortunate news for Chelsea as the Champions League starts again next week with a tough clash against FC Bayern Munchen. Falcao has thanked the club’s fans for their messages of support and has assured fans he will come back ready to score the goals and perform to the best of his ability.

The last time that these two clubs met was in the 2012 Champions League final. The match has gone in Chelsea’s history with them winning the game thanks to a Didier Drogba penalty. The match will also be remembered as the last game of Roberto Di Matteo’s reign as Chelsea manager. Dennis Wise headed into the game hoping that his fate would be the same. Why should it? Wise has guided Chelsea to only a single defeat all season, which was a penalty loss in the Capital One Cup against their close rivals, Tottenham Hotspur. Wise expressed the club’s confidence that they could get one over the German club.

Unfortunately for Chelsea the match did not start very well as Mario Gomez struck in the third minute to send the fans into raptures. The rest of the match will not go down in history of one of the most exciting games in the Champions League history. The only other incident of note was Robert Lewandowski striking the ball into the goal in the 51st minute. The rest of the match dwindled out with nothing else for the pundits to discuss. However, Chelsea will have been pleased to have grabbed an away goal to take with them back to Stamford Bridge. This will mean they will go into the return leg as favourites to progress to the quarter final stage.

Dennis Wise speaking to Chelsea TV:

I have to admit right now that we went into this game and totally underestimated Brighton and had expected to have come away with a more comfortable win. I have to praise their efforts and they really took the game to us and we were quite lucky to have come away with the win. We really didn’t deserve it.

Yes we had sixteen shots with five of them being on target, however, none of them were clear cut chances. Our finishing simply has to be better in the future as we should be putting, with no disrespect to Brighton, the lower teams away with more confidence.

If I was to single out a player from our side who stood out it would have to be John Terry who grabbed our only goal and he did deserve his man of the match award. This has been a testing season for John with him having been dropped as the club’s captain and then retiring from international football shortly after. He could easily have packed up the game but instead he has wanted to show that he is still capable of playing at the highest level, which he definitely has done. In the seventeen times he has appeared in a Chelsea shirt this season he has put in 100% and has outshone many a great player.

What I can assure fans of is that we will not head into the next round against Derby County expecting to win but instead prepare a bit more thoroughly.

With no disrespect aimed at any of the club’s that Chelsea faced this month but the only test that they faced was the matches against FC Bayern and surprisingly Brighton and Hove Albion. Chelsea is breezing through this Premier League season with many teams appearing to be heading into the game expecting to lose. This has been evident in the fact that Fulham were the only side to score against Chelsea.

Unfortunately for Chelsea their scoring prowess seemed to calm down this month with them struggling to put their chances away; this is despite having the prolific Lewandowski up front and the creativity of Hazard and Mata. Radamel Falcao is still expected to be out for several more games which is unfortunate for Chelsea as they could do with another player bringing in a fresh approach to the side.

Chelsea headed into this game as favourite as a result of grabbing themselves an away goal in the first leg at the Allianz Arena. This is despite the recently signed Radamel Falcao being injured for the second time this season. According the physio staff Falcao will be out for another two weeks with a hamstring injury so was officially ruled out of this game. The Chelsea fans lay their hopes of progressing to the quarter final stage of the competition on the impressive Robert Lewandowski who had recorded six goals in eight European games.

However, it came down to the striking talent of the Chelsea centre back, Gary Cahill to help them win the game. His two goals either side of half time helped Chelsea secure the win. A late goal from the German side added to the tension in the stadium, however a tactical decision by Wise to change to a more defensive formation appeared to help Chelsea see out the game. Even more unfortunate for FC Bayern their chances were further hampered by the injuries to Arjen Robben and Mario Mandzukic who were two players tipped to stand out in the game.

Dennis Wise spoke to the gathered media after the game and suggested that they were confident of getting the result. He praised the team’s efforts and singled out man of the match Gary Cahill for his commanding presence at the back and in his attacking play. He suggested that Cahill had a very bright future ahead of him and that he is showing the potential of being the captain of Chelsea.

The draw was made for the quarter final stage of competition with Chelsea being drawn against Club Brugge who shocked the footballing world by knocking out the current German champions, Borussia Dortmund.