👋Good morning Blues. The season got off to a low-key start but that hasn’t stopped the news cycle so dive into the first of two news roundups for the week.
Before starting, thank you to all subscribers who have now made it a 1,000 strong community at View from the Bridge.
It’s been going for a little over two months now and the growth and support have been amazing.
If you’re new here, I’m Tom Coley, a senior football writer for football.london and a Chelsea nut.
I’m chronically online, scouring the news for Chelsea stories, so I’ve taken it upon myself to do the hard yards and compile it all into one place for you.
Coming in twice a week, I’ll have all the latest Chelsea news and analysis right to your inbox.
Now, let’s get on into the good stuff.
📰 Headlines
The biggest (mostly non-transfer) Chelsea news.
🔵The Premier League season got underway with a 0-0 home draw to Crystal Palace on Sunday - Highlights.
Speaking afterwards, Enzo Maresca believed his side deserved to win (Bobby Vincent, football.london):
⮑“We create enough chances between the first-half and second-half. Apart from the free-kick where the goal was disallowed, I don't think we concede chances.”
🔵Tosin Adarabioyo missed the game with an injury - Peter Rutzler, The Times.
Maresca did not give much away around the issue, saying:
“He had a physical problem, we don't know for how long. Wes [Fofana] was on the bench, but he was just on the bench to be with us. The plan was not to get any minutes.”
🔵Eberechi Eze had a free-kick goal ruled out in the first half with the incident dividing opinion.
It was the first time in six years that referees had turned to a law stating that the attacking team had to be at least one metre away from the defending wall of three or more players - Tom Morgan, The Telegraph.
🗣Let us know what you thought of the game, Chelsea’s performance, and the VAR decision in the comments below!
Last result: Chelsea 0-0 Crystal Palace - Premier League. Stamford Bridge.
Next fixture: West Ham (Premier League) - Friday, August 22nd. London Stadium. 8pm.
💸Transfer talk
Cutting to the chase with the gossip you actually need to know, rather than sheer speculation.
🚨Bayern Munich have had a loan offer for Christopher Nkunku rejected - Kaveh Solhekol, Sky Sports.
CFC want £43million for the attacker and are only interested in a sale at this point.
Nkunku feels the same and talks are continuing between the clubs - contrary to other reports - with different structures being discussed - Ben Jacobs.
Deals for Alejandro Garnacho and Xavi Simons will not be completed unless at least two first team players leave.
🚨Simons played in RB Leipzig’s first competitive game of the season on Saturday as he scored and assisted in a 4-2 German Cup win over SV Sandhausen - Me, football.london.
Leipzig sporting director Marcel Schafer said (Naveen Ullal, Sports Witness):
“A transfer will only happen if it makes sporting and financial sense. If that’s not the case, Xavi will be an RB Leipzig player next year as well."
🚨Napoli are showing an interest in Nicolas Jackson - Simon Phillips, Si Phillips Talks Chelsea.
Aston Villa are also linked with the striker but face financial restrictions - Matt Law, The Telegraph.
Juventus and Milan continue to be in the conversation and Renato Veiga is on Villarreal’s radar.
🚨Despite Tosin’s injury worries and Maresca’s public demands for a new centre-back, the club are still not planning to buy in the remaining weeks of the summer window - Dom Smith, London Evening Standard.
🚨Borussia Dortmund’s loan with an obligation to buy bid for Carney Chukwuemeka has been rejected - Nizaar Kinsella, BBC Sport.
Chelsea once more only want to sell the player outright with a valuation gap of nearly £20million.
They would accept lower than his £40million release clause with sizeable add-ons and sell-on fees.
🚨However, Chelsea will be open to loans for Raheem Sterling in order to find him a move away from Stamford Bridge - Matt Law, The Telegraph.
Fulham have shown interest and the player would like to remain in the PL but specifically London.
⚽Cobham to Kingsmeadow
Catching up with the women’s and academy sides.
💪Calum McFarlane’s Under-21s/Development squad got their season off to the perfect start against Manchester City in the first Premier League 2 match of the season at Kingsmeadow on Monday night.
Shumaira ’Shim’ Mheuka (17) captained the side and scored a hat-trick to see off last year’s league winners. Watch the goals via That Chelsea Spot.
😯The Under-18s finished last in an eight-team tournament in the Netherlands - Chelsea Youth.
Hassan Sulaiman’s boys lost 3-2 to Monaco on Friday before beating Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors 2-0 on Saturday.
They were then defeated 2-0 by Atletico Madrid to come third place in the group, going on to lose 3-1 to Leipzig as well.
The U18s finished with a loss on penalties to Jeobuk after fighting back from 3-0 down to draw 3-3 in normal time.
👋Walter Nutter has left Chelsea to join Southampton - Alfie House, Daily Echo.
📲The academy has a new Instagram page as well, which is worth a follow for the latest content.
If it’s another season preview you are after, then Chelsea Youth has a second in-depth read in the space of a few days on the topic.
Here is a brief extract after Parth Gupta’s own take last week on what is set to follow from Friday:
“A return to the UEFA Youth League after two years away is undoubtedly the highlight of the games programme for the forthcoming campaign.
“While Chelsea are unlikely to be considered among the leading contenders in the same way they were between 2014 and 2020, when they won the competition twice and finished runners-up two further times, they carry a very young yet exceptionally talented squad into battle and the variety of opportunities to play overseas against top-class European competition will be incredibly valuable for their individual and collective development.”
🤝Sonia Bompastor’s women drew 1-1 in their pre-season friendly against Ajax on Sunday - Report.
Guru Reiten put CFCW ahead but a late goal cancelled it out to finish the six-day training camp in the Netherlands.
Afterwards, Bompastor said: “We played a good game. I think for the second friendly game in pre-season, it was a good performance. The result is not the most important thing at this stage of the season.
🎟Ticket information for the first away Women’s Super League game of the season has been released - Full details.
👀Inside SW6
A look at what has been going on at the club and a noticeboard for events and other tidbits.
😪RC Strasbourg ultras have once more protested against the BlueCo ownership despite being led into European football for the season - Will Pickworth, Daily Mail.
Ahead of their 1-0 win over Metz on Sunday they issued a strong statement against Clearlake Capital - Todd Boehly:
“The transfer window carried out so far proves to the point of absurdity that Racing is no longer a club that makes decisions in its own interest.
“On the contrary, we are witnessing a headlong rush where Chelsea is calling the shots to the detriment of our club's independence.”
📆On this day…
A look back in club history to something memorable.
💙In 2012, Eden Hazard made his Premier League debut and stood out in a 2-0 opening day away win against Wigan Athletic. The Belgian won a penalty for Frank Lampard to score and assisted Branislav Ivanovic for the first goal as well.
📆 2007 saw a 1-1 draw at Anfield with Fernando Torres scoring his first for Liverpool and the first of many against Chelsea. Lampard, again, popped up with the goal for Jose Mourinho.
📆 2001 was another 1-1 draw, this time at home to Newcastle United. Boudewijn Zenden scored.
📆 2000 was a more successful day, beating West Ham 4-2. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Gianfranco Zola, and Mario Santic (x2) scored.
📆 Ruud Gullit made his debut in 1995 during a 0-0 draw at home to Everton.
📆 In an underwhelming signing duo, both Cesare Casadei (2022) and Oriol Romeu were announced as Chelsea players on this day.
📆 Michael Essien redeems it on his unveiling (after a proper transfer saga) in 2005.
✅In 2018, Emma Hayes’ CFCW beat Brighton 3-1 in a Women’s League Cup tie at Kingsmeadow with goals from Drew Spence, Fran Kirby, and Beth England.
👏Supporters’ Trust
A noticeboard dedicated to you, the fans. This is your community area and your space, so please do get in touch to be featured.
🤬Chelsea issued a statement midway through the first half of the Palace game after fans were left in queues ahead of the match, unable to access their digital tickets.
“The club is aware there were some issues with the ticketing system for approximately 30 minutes, between 12.30pm and 1pm, before today’s Premier League match against Crystal Palace.
“We will do everything we can to ensure this does not happen again. We apologise to supporters who were affected by this and thank them for their patience. The issue was resolved, and all ticketed supporters were admitted to the stadium safely in time for kick-off.”
The Supporters’ Trust responded to the issues and are now appealing for feedback so that it can be shared with the club.
Waiting, a theme of this edition.
🙌The CST is also running collections for the Hammersmith and Fulham Foodbank ahead of home matches. For more details, check out their social media pages or sites for times and locations outside Stamford Bridge.
😁We Are the Shed are looking to have flags taken from the Shed End returned after preparing a colourful display prior to kick off.
Alongside the unveiling of the banners to celebrate being Champions of the World, they helped to create a good atmosphere for the players with yet another strong initiative.
🖥Talk from the terraces
This is the part where we show you what is being said about Chelsea by other fans, pundits, or analysts.
It was mostly disappointment from Chelsea after such an optimistic build-up.
🙄Gary Neville ruled them out of the title race when speaking afterwards on Sky Sports.
"When I look at Chelsea, they have good young players but you are not looking at Joao Pedro and Liam Delap in the same light as Arsenal, Liverpool’s or City’s front players,” he said
"They are good and I think they will have a good season but they are not ready. That’s not just because of Palace. They have drawn against a very good team.
"I think that top three are going to be fighting it out, one might drop away, I don’t know which one it will be."
😬 Meanwhile, Sam (AKA CFC Central) felt that a mixture of a reduced pre-season and Palace’s setup stifled Chelsea.
“Their last 11 games have seen them face Arsenal, Liverpool, City and Spurs away, an FA Cup semi-final against Villa, a FA Cup Final vs City and the Community Shield vs Liverpool,” he wrote for the London is Blue podcast.
“Just the 1 defeat. 2 titles. They also arrived in this game with six preseason games and a Community Shield tie to get up to speed. Chelsea had just the two. To say then that the season opener would be a guaranteed 3 points would be frankly, quite the insult to their London neighbours.”
Sam adds:
“Joao Pedro’s first test against a back 3 saw him endure his first rough game in a Chelsea shirt. Jamie Gittens, playing his first PL game, was given no room to turn on his afterburners for and endured a frustrating afternoon, before being subbed after 54 minutes.
“Cole Palmer was diligently followed by Chris Richards, with Palace’s compact 5-4-1 stamping out any creative ember before it lit a fire. It was only the 2nd time in 11 PL games he managed no shot on target. The result was a rusty frontline misfiring - of 19 shots, 16 of them blocked or off-target.”
🔍From an analytical perspective, Kieran Doyle-Davis is back with his number crunching of the match. You can check out the post-match live stream here as he takes a balanced approach following a set of exaggerated social media takes.
🎙Daniel Childs (AKA Son of Chelsea) felt that the subdued day might have started with ticketing failures and pinpointed the need to break down rigid defences.
🤨To finish off, both Kieran Gill (Daily Mail) and Liam Twomey (The Athletic) were looking at the centre-back play and use of Josh Acheampong, especially after Maresca made it clear he wanted a new defender.
“Watching Chelsea struggle to stitch together attacking sequences thereafter, you could not help thinking back to what was said during the pre-match press conference at Cobham on Friday,” wrote Gill.
Twomey added:
“Concerns about Chelsea’s ability to build their possession without Colwill — and perhaps also Tosin — for an extended period of time will not be eased by Sunday’s performance.
“Acheampong may not be a perfect solution to that particular problem position right now, and it is too early to say if he can develop into it. But he supplied further evidence here that he is ready to play in the Premier League this season, and do so regularly.”
💭View from the Bridge says
Our take on the latest Chelsea news.
Ah well, the season didn’t quite get off to the ideal start but Palace are a strong, well-organised, and intense team. This was never going to be easy.
There will now be a big week of noise around transfers both in and out. If there isn’t movement with sales then it could drag on.
Chelsea will need to kick back into gear quickly and the world will now be watching.
Edition number: 18
Total subscribers: 1,002
Rules are rules but were you expecting caceido shove guehi cause he literally pushed him to give way without that push it wouldn't have gotten into the net cheating tactics just like arsenal Conner kick
It was a good match, even taking the ball procession in mind. 70% to 30% shows that opposition team sat home packing the bus. As per the free kick, the rule was not made during the match , it has been in existence before that match. So applying the rule was the right thing to do.