Napoli 3-1 Chelsea: Chelsea's side of the story

The expressions tell you that the scoreline isn't in their favour

As the whistle sounded at the end of 90 + 4 minutes AVB must have been wondering as to how easy it was winning the Europa League and the Portuguese league with Porto 9 months ago. 6 draws and 2 losses in the last 11 premier league games, a replay against Championship side Birmingham in the FA cup, losing your captain for a couple of months, talks of Benitez being linked to Chelsea and AVB to Inter and now a 3-1 1st leg defeat to Napoli added the icing on a cake, a cake of problems for the Portuguese 'magician' whose side would have had to conceede the Champions league for yet another year if not for Mata's early goal at the San Paolo, a goal which could still count for nothing if Chelsea do not fasten their belts and get on the pitch with a winning attitude when Napoli travel to London.

AVB not starting with Lampard or Essien in what is considered one of the most hostile atmospheres in Europe seemed more criminal at the end of the game than at the beginning. Indeed , the cacophonous Napoli fans, swirling wind and driving rain gave the whole occasion an almost apocalyptic feel.

Napoli 3-1 Chelsea: Napoli's side of the story

In Naples, you can find a pizza named after Edinson Cavani. But if you happened to go there after their 3-1 victory over Chelsea in the Champions League, you will be able to find many more of the smallest things possible with Napoli colors on it, particularly Cavani, such as a cookie tin (in the pic above). That's what Napoli, the club, means to the people of Naples. Therefore it was hardly a surprise for Chelsea to find such an intimidating atmosphere in the San Paolo stadium on Tuesday night. A sold out (well, almost) crowd displaying banners, extraordinary choreography and crackers were a sight to behold, something which makes the Champions League so special.

It isn't difficult to predict Napoli's starting eleven for the big games, so was on Tuesday. Walter Mazzarri's 3-4-1-2 has come under a lot of criticism recently in Italy, not because it wasn't successful but for the fact that Napoli struggled to beat smaller teams in the league, or in other words, lack of a plan B. In fact, everybody in Italy seems to have noticed the success Napoli and Udinese had with the three men defence last season that at one point SerieA had eleven of the twenty teams lining up with a back three in a week.

QPR TRIP AND EUROPA LEAGUE DRAW

It’s a trip to London this weekend as we head to Loftus Road to face a QPR side that have been solid at home. They are a very English side in the sense that they have a strong discipline and work ethic about them; they are very sound at the back and attack from the flanks with good wingers. 

Jamie Mackie made a comment that they will get into our faces in the game, well I don't want to make much sense from what the lad says, you can get into our faces as much as you want but at the end of the day you need to get the ball into the net to end up with something to show on the table and I don't think that will happen after the kind of resilient form we have shown away from home. Those classic defensive displays in grinding out 1-0 victories have made for a very impressive away column reading and it has already crossed the mark of last year. Well you already know that after the kind of woeful way we played away from home last season on our travels.

REALLY, RED NEV??

I had been waiting all week if there would be a decent article this week from someone who really talks sense to come up with some sort of an convincing explanation about the demise of Manchester United in the UEFA Champions league. I had been waiting for a Gary Neville column or even some comments by Paul Scholes saying something that made sense about the demise, but out came nothing. These so called Red lads are Fergie worshipers and love their manager more than they do Manchester United, otherwise there would not have been a mum on their lips when the club crashed out of the UCL in midweek.

A SEASON DEFINING WEEK AHEAD

It was a decent performance away from home at Villa Park, a place that we had not won for the past two seasons. Well if you look at our woeful away form from last season than endless stats of these type will pop up and we will keep them away for some other day as of now.

Victory was thoroughly well deserved after a solid performance defensively, Carrick is looking like a decent player again as he knew he had the reliable Phil Jones by his side who did all of the running for him. It was his trademark performance as he sat back, made interceptions and dictated the flow of the play to his liking. With each passing week its now turning into some sort of a habit to praise Jones as the lad keeps surprising me time and time again. No one had expected  him to play the no.of games he has at this point of the season but with injuries to players at crucial junctures and his versatality has prevented Sir Alex from a selection headache. It was a well taken goal by the lad who finally opened his account in the against column for the club.