Those seeking an early season tan may not be disappointed. Although today is overcast and wet, tomorrow will be a glorious spring day with temperatures rising as high as 16 degrees and sun shining throughout. A brisk north easterly wind will blow at 15 mph and, and here take note, the UV index will be 3.

If you are planning on lying, shirtless, in a drunken stupor outside an Irish pub all afternoon, please think of some sunscreen.

Anyone staying on for a few days after the game will enjoy even warmer temperatures. Be back in time for the Bolton game on Saturday as there could be showers at the weekend in Naples.

16 degrees is still not hot and so a light jacket or jumper would be wise.

Naples is not Milan, nor Bologna. It is not one of the world’s great fashion cities like Paris, New York or London. It is, however, more stylish than Liverpool. Make an effort.

Indeed a comparison between Naples and Liverpool could be interesting. Naples certainly has history. It was founded in 900 BC as a Greek colony. This makes it older than Rome itself. Liverpool, for all of its claim to history, was only founded in 1207. A parvenu.

While Liverpool became prosperous trading in slaves in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Naples was active in that trade around 2000 years earlier.

Even today, Liverpool prides itself on its lawlessness and corruption but cannot hold a candle to the lawlessness and corruption of Naples. The Camorra knock Liverpool’s scallies into the shade.

Italy, like England is divided into North and South. Unlike England, it is the North that is civilised and affluent. The South, centered around Naples is impoverished and backwards, like Liverpool but possibly even more so. See the film Gomorrah (2008) for an understanding of quite how lawless, backwards, corrupt and poor it is.  For those of you who wondered whether it was possible to see urban deprivation worse than that seen in the post code L4, be prepared for a shock. Naples, at its worst, is even worse than Sunderland.

All that history, however, does bring with it some glory that is retained. Although the most bombed of Italian cities in the second world war, many examples of classical and renaissance beauty remain. It is also just a short drive from Pompeii, the wonderfully preserved Roman City.  Indeed, it was from Naples that Pliny the Younger set sail to observe to eruption of Vesuvius and, in so doing, came to  early and unpleasant demise.

Naples is also the birthplace of the pizza. Enjoy a real pizza and never eat the pseudo America rubbish they serve in London again.

Remember, you are Chelsea and Chelsea is style.

(All of Driver’s weather reports here)

Should Chelsea beat Birmingham City in our FA Cup fifth round replay, we will play Leicester City at home in the sixth round.

Sixth round ties will be played the weekend of 17/18 March. Our replay at Birmingham is on Tuesday 6 March.

The full quarter-final draw is:

Liverpool v Stoke
Chelsea or Birmingham v Leicester
Stevenage or Spurs v Bolton
Everton v Sunderland

Andre Villas Boas made four changes to the team that were beaten by Everton last weekend, Ryan Bertrand, Gary Cahill, John Obi Mikel and Ramires coming in with captain John Terry still sidelined.

The game started sluggishly as we struggled to penetrate Birmingham’s five-man midfield. The Championship side were also dealt an early blow as captain Stephen Carr was forced off after just 12 minutes with injury, Jonathan Spector replacing him.

We fell behind after 20 minutes as Keith Fahey’s corner from the left was flicked on and the ball found Murphy unmarked at the far post and he shot the ball home from six yards out.

Moments later and we were given the chance to draw level. Ramires carried the ball into the penalty area and surged past Wade Elliott who could only bring him down, Martin Atkinson pointing to the spot.

Juan Mata stepped up confidently but saw his effort tipped on to the post by Doyle, sprawling down to his right.

We dominated in the search for an equaliser; David Luiz set off on a run and was halted by Jordon Mutch who was booked. Luiz then hit a dipping free-kick from 30 yards that needed tipping over by Doyle.

Sturridge then latched onto a Fernando Torres knock-down and fired over before Mikel put a long-range volley just wide.

Juan Mata’s header was the last of our first half chances as we went in for the break behind with much of Stamford Bridge making their displeasure known.

Andre Villas Boas changed his side for the second period, introducing Didier Drogba in place of Torres and  he looked to get into the thick of the action immediately just failing to latch on to a Raul Meireles chipped pass.

After ten minutes there was another attacking swap as Mikel was replaced with with Salomon Kalou.

Mata fired an effort wide before we finally levelled the scores, Ivanovic picked out a cross from the right and Sturridge was there to meet the ball with a firm header that nestled in the corner of the net.

We were now playing with improved confidence and beginning to dominate with Mata again at the heart of things, firing a dangerous ball across Birmingham’s six-yard line before Meireles hit a deflected effort just over the bar.

Jordon Mutch hit a long-range free-kick that Cech saved comfortably before we made our final change, Frank Lampard sent on in place of Mata.

Ivanovic tumbled in the Birmingham area but no penalty was awarded before Redmond spurned a good chance at Cech’s goal. Late on and Frank Lampard hit a free-kick into the wall but we were unable to find a winner.

It leaves us with a replay away to Birmingham City on the 6th March, but in the meantime our next challenge is on Tuesday in the Champions League away to Napoli.

Gill Reeves – CSG disabled rep.

Stats from the BBC website:

Chelsea

• 01 Cech
• 02 Ivanovic
• 04 David Luiz – Booked
• 24 Cahill – Booked
• 34 Bertrand
• 07 Ramires
• 12 Mikel (Kalou – 57′ )
• 16 Meireles
• 09 Torres (Drogba – 46′ )
• 10 Mata (Lampard – 83′ )
• 23 Sturridge

Substitutes

• 40 Hilario
• 17 Bosingwa
• 05 Essien
• 08 Lampard
• 15 Malouda
• 11 Drogba
• 21 Kalou

Birmingham City

• 13 Doyle
• 02 Carr (Spector – 12′ )
• 03 Murphy
• 05 Pablo
• 24 Davies
• 12 Mutch – Booked
• 14 Gomis
• 15 Elliott (Burke – 83′ )
• 18 Fahey
• 22 Redmond
• 17 Rooney (Jervis – 71′ )

Substitutes

• 26 Butland
• 04 Caldwell
• 23 Spector
• 07 Burke
• 35 Reilly
• 25 Asante
• 36 Jervis

Ref: Atkinson

Att: 36,870

(You can see all the FSF Newsletters here)

When the man in charge is deemed a complete idiot….. well we had plenty of those here as well. Last being Scolari, who I did think prior was a good choice (shows my depth of football management) but that apart, he was clear not only had he lost the plot when found out how to beat his winning formula, he had no plan B and everyone at the club became concerned, then the players were at the height of their abilities and did not want to throw away the opportunity of success, so the axe fell.

However what about Grant? (No this is not a personal attack on the man it’s just an example) His credentials for the job were…. None! Other than being a good old mate of the Governor, maybe a side issue of getting rid of the man already here who had fallen out with said governor. However Grant had no qualifications to be a manager, let alone a manager of Chelsea’s undoubted world class standing at the time. If we had had some one credible I’m sure we would not have come up short that season. Where was the player power then when it was also obviously needed? And if it appeared it was very weak.

Now this time the circumstances are different, in AVB we do have a manager, with recent club success, and was part of TSO’s group. For sure it’s not gone well this season and we are playing some really dreadful stuff, we either leak like a sieve or are as toothless as a 40 year old tiger with dentures. However it’s clear that the players we have or some of them do not like and agree with what is going on. Yes it is very different now, we are not challenging for the top spot and anyone who thinks we can win the CL, really does need stronger medication. Arsenal got mangled by a fair Milan, not a good Milan, but a fair Milan. I really don’t fancy our chances against Napoli either, but rather that and get completely dismembered by a team like Barcelona.

I suspect many of the players who don’t believe are the ones who are at the twilight of their careers, and of whom this season have also failed to live up to their previous amazingly high standards. Sorry but old father time catches up with everyone eventually. I’d also agree that AVB has not been the most convincing either, he does not carry the weight of authority well, and some of his game changing substitutions change things for the worse. Many of our performances have been really ugly, and to lose 6 games already takes us back to 2000. In short we are a mess and its not going to get any better in the short term, we did little to re-address the issue last summer when we should have made more changes, and in this last transfer window (the second hand market stall option) we did nothing much either.

So what do we do?…… Change and bring in another saviour, and hope that will be enough to get us out of the mess we are in? Then we really do need wholesale changes during the summer, and maybe yet another manager! so it could be another start again like 2003/04 but this time with financial restraints, that is even if we can still qualify for the CL, even the Europa league looks unlikely at the moment. Or do we suck it and see if AVB can turn the ship round. Its like choosing to jump from an aeroplane without a parachute at either 5,000ft or 10,000ft either option does not look at all attractive. However the longer the uncertainty is around the longer the problem will go on…… For once the Governor must speak and either fire the gun, or lock it away in the draw and throw away the key.

I’m resigning myself to a couple of years of Chelsea being in the wilderness and a complete revamp of the team, with many popular high wage earners departing and more unproven potential arriving, we are safe from the drop and that considered try and pull together, if the payers who are now complaining and texting TSO get their fingers out, stop whinging and follow instructions, then maybe we have half a chance of saving our season.

We are not even good enough to win the FA Cup!

Player power, more often than not it’s a bad thing….. With the very rare exception, and this is not that time.

Posted by Voltaire

So we get such a hullabaloo about a non-handshake, so much posturing and farcical actions even childlike acting up at the end of the game by Evra.

Contrary to popular views I am rather a social old creature, manner and etiquette are very important to me, and they have to be I live in a foreign country, where manners are expected and where culture is very different from many western values. To get on you must respect local culture and have some basic manners.

However forgive me just a moment, taking away the fact that I hardly ever shake hands with any locals as its not their custom, its generally only done with other westerners, but its not deemed essential these days as introductions, it is just politeness, at the end of a meeting or conversation then over here is more important, but still not essential, however with that said I will always offer my hand to someone I like or respect.

I looked at the farce of the Suarez-Evra no hand shake in the European context, For Suarez he clearly still has issues, actually its okay to have them, its okay not to like someone. There are plenty of people I don’t like, in fact there are teams I don’t like, and even countries I don’t like, so to shake an individuals hand is a personal matter of choice. To refuse is only a snub, (its not the end of the world) and we’ve seen that with Sarkozy (French President with Cameron) and even a group of Russian diplomats with Obama….so Suarez refused, he did not make a fuss, he just refused.

Evra (and Ferdinand) made the fuss, and I see it as Evra needed the public recognition more than Suarez (Body language tells its own tale).

Ok Suarez if he mislead his club then that is an issue for them to take with him, the ridiculous behaviour of Evra and lesser so Ferdinand was just a complete actions of idiots, more so the post match celebrations, worthy of several FA charges and even incitement to cause trouble.

I have seen and heard of people being charged with less obvious behaviour.

The FA in their desperation have done nothing but sweep the issue under the carpet, but woe betide any other player or team that steps out of line the punishment will be severe.

Surely not favouritism again?

As per Red Nose, signs of Alzheimer’s emerge as in his eager comments to chastise both Liverpool and Suarez, he clearly forgot about Cantona!

Posted by Voltaire

The days are now noticeably longer as well, as we are just over a month from the equinox.

While the temperature will be warmer, we will see some unsettled weather coming in on west south westerly winds. Rain will come and go over the next few days and, sadly, Saturday looks likely to be damp. Rain will spread in the afternoon and the winds will be strong, up to 25 mph. Highs of 10 degrees and a UV factor of 1. No need for sunscreen.

The subject of sunscreen requires an urgent plea……

If you must go skiing, please wear sunscreen.

There is nothing so woeful as people wandering around in winter with goggle eyes showing off the fact that they have managed to fly off to the slopes when everyone else has been in England giving their loyal and full support to their team.

We are not interested in your skiing holiday, we don’t care if you do black or red runs and, we are not concerned if your missus has been getting her après ski from some swarthy Latin ski instructor.

Wear sunscreen and save yourself the embarrassment.

Better still, only travel to the Alps in the summer, out of the football season.

So, a waterproof and wind proof jacket. Shoes that will withstand the wet, no need to wrap up like an Arctic explorer.

We are being visited by Brummies.

Odd little chaps who have a penchant for tank tops and mullets. Ghastly accents. Possibly even worse than the Scouse accent.

They will be very excited which is a pity as their voices sound truly unintelligible when they get excited.  Big game in a big city.  Not something they are used to these days.

Birmingham may have a Harvey Nicks (Leeds does so why shouldn’t they) but that is no longer a sign of sophistication. There seem to be Harvey Nicks wherever there is a Tesco Metro. Brummies are the antithesis of sophistication.

Jasper Carrot, Slade, Kevin Turvey and Ossie Osbourne. They are all Brummies and demonstrate that Brummies style is not to be mimicked.

Brummies are a sorry bunch. Although a larger city than Manchester, it has no pride or identity. Brummies, as a consequence, are a down at heel and chippy bunch.

Best avoided.

Remember, you are Chelsea and Chelsea is style.

(All of Driver’s weather reports here)

The manager took full responsibility for the loss, and immediately cancelled the players’ day off – demonstrating clearly where he felt the blame actually lay. The players were said to be “furious” – good, but I bet they didn’t even come close to how angry the majority of the fans were at having to watch such garbage. The papers are claiming the old favourite “player power” is doing for AVB just as it has done for a number of his predecessors – sorry, but I don’t buy that.

Can there really be any players given our current form, injury list, and taking into account age etc, that could hold the club to ransom? I think not. While we tenuously held onto that 4th spot and within touching distance of 3rd many Chelsea fans refused to really acknowledge how deep rooted the problems were which have been evident for weeks now. But to find ourselves outside of those sacred Champions League places and TEN points behind Spurs has bought many round to how serious this situation is.

What’s more depressing is acknowledging that to get ourselves out of this mess is really going to take some doing. We did not take advantage of the transfer window. Our one foray yielded a defender who the manger seems un-enthused with – what’s even more worrying is that rumour has it that his actual choice would have been Ryan Shawcross!! If that is really where our manager is pitching for players than we are in deeper trouble than even I imagined.

We keep hearing that Chelsea are now putting long term plans in place but what happens with the here and now? Look at the goalkeeping situation. Forget sentiment and let’s tell it how it is – Cech is probably having his worst season for us ever – there have been warnings – he has never been the same keeper since Hunt kicked him in the head. Yet we have failed to address this.

We have failed to provide a keeper at the club who will put him under any sort of pressure – and complacency has had a further detrimental effect on his form. He knows, just as we do, that an off form Cech is still better than Turnbull.

We’ve put most of our decent prospects out on loan – those that we’ve kept we never play, we continue to play out of form players or evidently exhausted players and the immediate succession planning looks non-existent. Add to this the fact that we have allowed good experienced squad players such as Alex and Anelka leave the club and you seriously begin to wonder whether this long term plan that we keep hearing so much about actually even exists.

Traditionally Arsenal are better in the second half of the season than the first and now that they have their noses ahead of us, I’d wager that the only way we are going to be playing Champions League football next year is if we win it (stop laughing out there!). And with the owners recent numerous visits to the training ground, it may be the only way that Villas Boas manages to keep his job too.

And if he does go – what then? Or rather who? When will Abramovich finally clock onto the fact that those advising him have only the their bank balances in mind and not the good of Chelsea Football Club

There is too much centred around individuals these days, be they players, owners, managers, agents etc and the team almost takes second place. Look at Rednapp’s trial last week – found innocent of any wrong-doing, but what was evident was that he had so much money coming into him from football that there were hundreds of thousands of pounds that he had simply lost track of in accounts he had forgotten – yet Portsmouth is going into administration…

I’ve wandered off a bit…but forgive me this indulgence as actually thinking about what is going on at my club these days fills me with dread and depression so any excuse for a meander away from the subject is always welcome, even if it is to discuss an equally depressing state of affairs elsewhere.

I’m taking my five year old niece to the Bridge this weekend for her first game – I feel a bit guilty to be honest as I may be condemning her to a lifetime of misery watching a team who will never again reach the heights we witnessed under The Special One. Still – it builds character and what’s the alternative? Her other auntie taking her to Spurs? Shudder – not on my watch!! Come on Chelsea!

(You can see all of Trizia’s articles here)

71-4 = 67 points

The Blip-O-Meter has officially gone into the Red Zone

A Brief Study of Aramaic Riddles for AVB

“Mene, mene, tekel, parsin,” would have been understood by an Aramaic speaker as meaning “A mina, a mina, a shekel and half-shekels.” (monetary weights of decreasing value)

However, like many proto-alphabets, early Aramaic did not have vowels.

So the consonants also could be read: “Counted, counted, weighed, divisions.”

The situation is vaguely parallel to Sixties’ gags about the drug “Lsd”, which listeners would automatically associate with Lysergic acid diethylamide (“Acid”), before the pre-decimal currency punchline came: “Pounds, shillings and pence” (The sterling symbol being a highly stylised “L” – Latin “Libre”).

So while Belshazzar puzzled at some grafitti regarding money, Daniel read a message heralding Babylon’s imminent demise.

Why might this be of use to André Villas-Boas?

Sorry André, but it looks like the writing is on the wall….

Posted by Steve Symmons

Gary Cahill was replaced by Branislav Ivanovic with Jose Bosingwa coming in at right-back. Frank Lampard made his return to central midfield as Florent Malouda dropped to the bench.

Given that Everton had beaten Manchester City in their last home game it was unsurprising they started full of confidence. We looked shaky defensively and paid the biggest price just five minutes in as Everton took the lead.

A coming together between Tim Cahill and Lampard saw the ball loop over our defence and into the path of Pienaar who controlled the ball on his chest and smashed it beyond Petr Cech.

It was no more than Everton deserved and they almost added to it just moments later as a Neville cross was met by the head of Stracqualursi, who nodded just wide of the post.

In the meantime we seemed rattled and unable to get into our stride.

It took 25 minutes for us to show any sort of fight. A chance for a Fernando Torres head at goal was brilliantly denied by Sylvain Distin before Daniel Sturridge saw his shot blocked at the edge of the box.

Frank Lampard had a shot wide from a similar distance and then Tim Howard’s flap at a cross from the right almost allowed Lampard in again.

A Torres header from close range was easily collected by Howard as the first half finished with Everton leading.

The pace did not appear to have slowed in the second half with both sides attacking.

A Pienaar-led break for Everton gave them a free-kick but a poor delivery from Baines couldn’t beat our wall however Stracqualursi’s twist and turn in the box moments later ended in a scrambled blocked shot from the Chelsea defense.

The Toffees landed the knockout blow with 15 minutes remaining on the clock. A run in off the right from Donovan found us backpedalling as his his weighted pass allowed Stracqualursi to smash beyond Cech, despite him getting a palm to the ball.

The game was up with that goal as we then provided very little trouble for Everton who kept the ball patiently in order to see out a deserved win.

In the meantime we drop to fifth place in the Premier League table behind Arsenal with an FA cup match against Birmingham next up at Stamford Bridge.

Gill Reeves – CSG disabled rep.

Everton

24 Howard
03 Baines
05 Heitinga
15 Distin
18 Neville
04 Gibson (Hibbert – 89′ )
17 Cahill
22 Pienaar (Drenthe – 74′ )
25 Fellaini
09 Donovan
11 Stracqualursi (Duffy – 90′ )

Substitutes

01 Mucha
02 Hibbert
34 Duffy
10 Drenthe
20 Barkley
19 Gueye
27 Vellios

Chelsea

01 Cech
02 Ivanovic
03 Cole (Bertrand – 77′ )
04 David Luiz
17 Bosingwa – Booked
05 Essien (Malouda – 69′ )
08 Lampard
16 Meireles – Booked
09 Torres – Booked
10 Mata (Lukaku – 77′ )
23 Sturridge

Substitutes

22 Turnbull
19 Ferreira
24 Cahill
34 Bertrand
12 Mikel
15 Malouda
18 Lukaku

Ref: Jones

Att: 33,924