JustChelsea.com

Real Madrid and Jose Mourinho have agreed to part company by mutual consent. Real president Florentino Perez made the announcement this evening at a press conference to hordes of completely unsurprised journalists in Madrid. Contrary to reports that he would be officially sacked, Perez has confirmed that the split was a mutual decision.
“We’ve decided to bring our relationship to an end, nobody’s been sacked, it’s a mutual agreement” .....Read more...

West Bromwich Albion boss Steve Clarke is confident of capturing Romelu Lukaku on a second season-long loan.

Lukaku has been in stand-out form for West Brom this season, finding the back of the net 13 times so far this campaign, and has recently come into interest from Swansea City, who are rumoured to be looking into his temporary capture for the whole of next season.

On the Welsh side’s interest, Clarke said: ‘I don’t there is anything in it – it’s idle gossip. I would be very surprised if he ended up there.’ .....Read more...

After Chelsea beat Middlesborough in midweek, and Rafa Benitez launched into his tirade about the Chelsea fans’ continuing protests about his management, the media turned up at Stamford Bridge yesterday like vultures hoping for a corpse to feed on, but you could sense their disappointment, especially as the soccer betting was predicting that the Spaniard would be sacked!

There were still some banners, and it is clear that the fans will never warm to the ex-Liverpool manager, but his words do seem to have had a calming effect on the Blues’ faithful. .....Read more...

It is fair to say that Chelsea have been missing Didier Drogba this season. Fernando Torres has been better for the Blues this year, scoring 15 goals in all competitions so far, and Demba Ba has added some physical presence up front since signing from Newcastle in January, but has only scored once in his six league games so far. There is a player on Chelsea’s books who has the strength and pace to replace Drogba, and he has scored 12 league goals this season. The problem is that 19-year old Romelu Lukaku has been scoring them for West Brom. .....Read more...

It was the worst possible result for Chelsea against Manchester City yesterday, as it put Roberto Mancini’s men seven points ahead in second place. The worry now for Chelsea is that Arsenal are just two points behind in fifth place, while Tottenham are just one point behind and play their game in hand away to West Ham tonight. If Spurs win tonight they will feel like they have won the jackpot at an online casino and move into Third Place. .....Read more...

Rafa Benitez has all but confirmed Romelu Lukaku will stay at the Hawthorns until the end of the season.

Romelu Lukaku has been in fine form for West Brom, scoring 5 goals in his 12 Premier League appearances this season, most of which he started on the bench. That is one more goal than Torres has scored in his 15 Premier League starts this season.

Despite the lack of goals at Stamford Bridge, interim chief Benitez believes the 19-year-old will be better served by staying at the Hawthorns, with regular first-team football imperative to his continued development. .....Read more...

Romelu Lukaku arrived at Chelsea last summer with a big reputation as a prolific goalscorer with Anderlecht at just 18 years of age, but since his arrival for a massive £18 million he has languished in the reserves.

With Drogba, Torres, Anelka and Stuuridge at the club last season, Lukaku was hardly going to get many chances and really he should have been left with Anderlecht for another season or perhaps should have been sent out on loan to another Premier League club, like Sturridge had been during the previous season. .....Read more...

After his fantastic loan period at Bolton at the end of last season, Daniel Sturridge is certainly in demand this summer. Stoke City made a (useless) £6m bid for the 21 year-old hitman and Newcastle have been linked as well, but I would have thought that a return to Bolton would have been the best bet for Sturridge next season.

But now it is being revealed that the West Brom boss Roy Hodgson has also made an approach for the youngster. The previous Baggies boss Roberto Di Matteo tried to take Sturridge to the Hawthorns in January but lost out to Bolton, and now Hodgson has decided to follow in his footsteps. .....Read more...

Arsenal have been on a high so far this season and were looking like serious contenders for the title. They had a big chance to close the gap on Chelsea to just one point with an easy home game against West Bromwich Albion, but they somehow found themselves three goals down against the newly promoted Baggies before they decided to start playing!

Congrats to Chelsea old-boy Roberto Di Matteo for making West Brom into a credible Premier League side, and he was understandably happy after the game.

“We got a hammering at Chelsea and it wasn’t a pretty week after that, but we’ve learned,” said Di Matteo. .....Read more...

Roy Hodgson has had a difficult start to his Liverpool career with just one point from games against Arsenal and Man City. He was expected to make amends against newly-promoted West Bromwich Albion and with Fernando Torres back in the team it should have been easy for the Reds.

Robert Di Matteo was quite pleased with his team, despite losing to a Torres blaster. “Big disappointment. I thought we put in a very good performance today and kept them very quiet.” he said.

“We were very organised and they needed a piece of quality from Torres to score a goal. .....Read more...