The Athletic's Liam Twomey, Dom Fifield and Simon Johnson join Matt Davies-Adams to pick the bones out of Chelsea's shock home defeat to West Ham. They also reveal their blues team of the decade Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
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Hello and welcome to Straight Outta Cobham, an almost brand new podcast from the Athletic. Each week we'll focus on everything Chelsea FC related as the Athletic's team of experts pour over the latest blues news. You can get this podcast and many more, including David Ornstein and Mark Chapman's brand new show, which will delve deep into football's biggest stories by subscribing now@theathletic.com on this week's pod, we'll be poring over what went wrong against West Ham this past weekend, assessing Chelsea's Champions League chances following the draw against Valencia on Matchday five, looking ahead to John Terry's return to Stamford Bridge with Aston Villa and debating the Chelsea team of the decade as chosen by one of our panel. I'm Matt Davis Adams, a podcaster and a commentator for, among others, Chelsea tv.
I'm joined by a panel of journalists who know plenty about what goes on inside and outside the corridors of power at Cobham and Stamford Bridge. Joining me today. Last week he was on a Spanish sojourn, this week he's getting ready for a villa. It's Simon Johnson. Also here. He's spent the last few weeks writing about Jose Mourinho, so he's ready to talk about some positive stuff. Might have to wait another week or so for that, though. Hello, Don Fifield.
Hello. How are you doing?
Very well, thank you. And last but not least, his Chelsea team of the decade will be the subject of much debate later in today's show. Braced to defend his selection policy as if he were Claudio Raniere in his Tinkerman days is the one and only Liam Toomey.
There's absolutely nothing to debate.
Okay, we'll see. Right then, shall we crack on with the difficult second episode? Let's do it. I'm afraid we got to start today by talking about the West Ham game this past weekend. So Frank Lampard wasn't thrilled with his team's performance in both boxes in Europe. That was an even bigger issue back in the Premier League as the Blues endured a coupon busting defeat to the Hammers. This one will really have stuck in the craw of Lampard, as anyone who read Simon and Liam's joint piece on his West Ham woes will understand. Liam, you were there. Was this the the worst performance of the season from Chelsea?
I think it was the worst attacking performance, particularly the second half. I actually looking back over the highlights, Chelsea created some pretty good dangerous moments in the first half. I thought Christian Pulisic in particular was very, very good continuing on from his recent form. But Olivier Giroud wasn't really able to do anything beyond making a few decoy runs to create space for Pulisic. He wasn't involved in the game at all. I wrote a piece about him afterwards. He touched the ball 21 times, which was the fewest of any Chelsea starter in any game this season. And then obviously in the second half, Lampard's decision to take him off and go with a false 9 rather than bringing on Mishy Batshuai actually contributed to the problems Chelsea were having in the final third and they barely created anything. It was quite comfortable for West Ham in the end.
Dom Liam's mentioned Olivier Giroud there he and Pedro picked to start this game, somewhat surprisingly. Do you think maybe we've seen them start again for Chelsea for the last time?
Well, look, a lot of that will depend upon the how injuries affect Chelsea's options in the in the coming weeks. Obviously the schedule is cluttered for the rest of this month. I suppose a certain rustiness is understandable. It's been such a long time since either of them started a game.
He.
Was obviously reliant upon the experience kicking in. Giroud sounds as if he was isolated. I mean, Liam, was there any service to him of any note?
Well, I think most of it was geared around getting the wingers into good positions. I mean, you often saw Pedro making that run from out to. In which he's traditionally been so good at. He was actually quite bright, I thought, in the first 10, 15 minutes and then faded really badly and. And Pulisic was trying to do the same from the other side, and it just felt like Giroud was almost a false nine from the start. Giroud.
Giroud didn't have a great season in the Premier League last season either.
Two goals.
Yeah, there you go. The bulk of his goals, virtually all of them, came then in the Europa League run, didn't they? He looks like a player whose powers are fading at that level, certainly if you're counting him amongst the elite clubs. And given that he and Pedro are now entering the last six, seven months of their contracts, yeah, you'd see them leaving in January, maybe, if the transfer ban is reduced to that single window. And if not, I suppose they could become useful cameo squad players for the rest of the season. But to be honest, Batshuayi is that if Abraham is fit. Batshuayi is that in the striking department? So where does Giroud fit in? It's just really whether he's prepared to sit it out for the remainder of the season before he gets a move in the summer.
Really disappointing cameo at Man City last week. Maybe that was one of the reasons why he didn't start. But Frank Lampard's not the first Chelsea manager not to seem to want to start him and view him as an impact sub. Have you got a theory as to why that is, Simon?
Yes, because he's an enigma. You never know what you're going to get from him. It was quite interesting, actually, because he had a loan spell at Valencia and they booed him when he came on endearing. He only scored one goal there. He's just a guy that he's. You can't depend on him because you just don't know what you're going to get next. He can be. He can go from the sublime to the ridiculous in the same game. He actually averages, even though he's played very little for Chelsea, because I did a piece about him about two months ago around. Just around the Ajax game, the first one, which, of course he scored the winner, he actually averages a goal around every 90 minutes, which is brilliant. It's what you want from A striker. But the problem is just when you sort of think, oh, he's showing signs of improvement, which I think he has funny enough, under Lampard, I think some of his elements of his all round game has improved.
But then when he really needed to step up, which was Manchester City away, he either fell over or was offside or just, just looked completely out of place. And I think it was a damning indictment that Lampard didn't bring him on on Saturday. I think it was, it was the wrong decision. I think if anything, Chelsea played into West Ham's hands by turning, by going to the false nine. But I just think that was quite a damning diamond that he didn't come on. And you know, clearly whenever the transfer ban is lifted, another striker will be top of their priorities.
The reality is with Batshuai, that there will be takers for him. I've watched him obviously in quite detail in the second half of last season after that Valencia loan, which didn't work out, but at palace, absolutely, when he was basically made integral, he was their first choice striker for a large proportion of the game, not all of them, but a large proportion of the games there on that line. And he flourished. He looks as if he accepted the responsibility and actually brought out more from his game. It must be very difficult for a player to just be getting cameos off the bench and then, okay, so you then get slightly more time and you expect to go and do it against the league champions at the Etihad Stadium. I think that's. I think it's brutal, that existence. And look, he has decided that he wants to stay at Chelsea. We certainly did for the first half of the season.
And the implication is he wants to stay there for the entire year and prove his quality. It doesn't look if he's going to get that opportunity there, but I think there's a player there and take any club outside that top five, he would become a cult hero overnight.
I actually like Michy, but he just drives me up the wall, as I think he drives his managers up the wall when he does, when he performs like he did at City and even against Valencia in midweek. But he just comes alive sometimes in the penalty area and he does look like he'll get you goals if he gets the service.
Look at the Ajax game. He missed an absolute sitter, didn't he? And you think, oh, here we go again. And then he goes and scores. He gets himself in those positions.
There is a talent there.
The thing is as well is that he doesn't Offer enough outside the box. He's an instinctive finisher, but the consensus among all the people that managed him over the years that he plays on instinct. He's quite slow to take in new tactical concepts and he. He arrived at Chelsea as more of a second striker from France and he hasn't really adapted his game to lead the line in a time when most clubs, particularly most top clubs, are playing one up front. He's bulked up, but he doesn't really know how to play with his back to goal and link play. If you could actually combine Giroud's skill set with Batshuai's skill set, you'd have a really good starting striker for a top club. But unfortunately they've both got weaknesses it's quite difficult to overlook.
So for the first time then, or certainly the first time in a while, Frank Lampard's team selection coming in for some criticism. Andrew Turner's been in touch via Twitter. If want to do the same, just tweet me att DavisAdams Andrew asks, Does it reflect well on a coaching team when the side plays significantly worse and looks even more lost after they make subs and changes? The two big negatives of the season have been our defense and our inability to make effective subs, and both are getting worse, I guess. Liam, with the defense aspect, you have to add the caveat that the best defender at the club has played 45 minutes this season and if and when Tony Rudiger comes back to full fitness, you would expect things to improve from that aspect.
Well, Cesare Pilicueta might have something to say about being the best defender at the club, but centre back? Yeah, certainly Rudiger is not only the most reliable, but he's also the most experienced and the strongest personality, the one who could maybe fit most seamlessly into that organising role that Chelsea seem to lack. I've heard a common criticism of Christensen in particular is that he seems to be a very quiet character, very technically sound, very calm defender, but occasionally maybe not quite loud enough. And it's, yeah, it's difficult when you're constantly mixing and matching combinations. It's difficult to have that success. So much defensive success is collective rather than individual in terms of chemistry. And there's also, you know, a systemic balance with Kante coming in and out of the team. It's quite difficult to balance attack and defence when the team are trying to play so expansively under Lampard.
When Jorginho is your deepest midfielder, there are inherent trade offs in that and they're still trying to find that and I don't necessarily see them finding it this season with this personnel. It might be something that they have to do some work in the transfer.
Market to find in terms of that. On a similar note, Ajit Dabas writes how can Lampards solve the side's defensive woes without reinforcements? Are there any players being linked to the club if the ban is is lifted for January? It's funny cuz you've heard a kind of few names being banded about in other positions but not really defenders, which seems like the area that needs the most improvement.
Well, Chilw keeps getting mentioned, doesn't he? And Nathan a as a. You know, because Chelsea potentially have this buyback option on him. But I think they'll struggle to get anybody in of that nature in January and I think. I think Leicester City will resist that come the summer as well. There's no reason for them. I mean they could be Champions League qualified the way they're going at the moment. I think it is the defensive thing. You're right. Rudiger is the key, I think bringing him back in. They've. They've got young center halves. I mean we were. Kurt Zuma was not deemed good enough last season to be in Chelsea's back line and now he's almost become a mainstay because of Rudiger's absence. Tomori is learning all the time and you know, he's. The progress he's made has been phenomenal and he's got into the England setup. He's made his England debut this year on the back of an excellent season at Derby.
There's a lot of potential there, but he is going to make mistakes and the last few weeks, as we mentioned last week, he has. His passing in particular has been a bit awry. It's gone a bit awry and that'll happen with a kid. Christensen's actually almost the most disappointing really because he under Conte was. Was key for a while he looked as if he was going to have a long run in the. In the team and okay, injuries have played their part this season as well, but he's not maybe developed quite as rapidly as Chelsea might have liked and I think that is possibly a concern.
Well, he's not become like a dominating defender, has he? I mean the problem is that Chelsea have a lot of good individual personnel and a lot of really promising guys with potentially quite high ceilings. But in order to upgrade that, you may be talking about like a van Dijk Koulibaly bracket of defender. First of all, there aren't many of them around. And second of all, you're gonna have to pay upwards almost £100 million to be able to get them. So it's a tricky one. Maybe there will be collective improvement as they grow together individually and together in terms of experience, but in terms of huge gains, it might be something that happens beyond this season.
I think you also have to bear in mind it's not just the center halves. It's like you go back to the City game, where did the two goals come from? They came from Jorginho and Kovacic, both giving the ball away. We saw similar sort of things in Valencia where they're giving the ball away, they're caught upfield and suddenly players have got free rein to run at the back four. They're very isolated, so it's too simplistic to sort of just point at the center halfs and say, I think it's a team issue. And Frank is still working on trying to get them well organised. And you've got to bear in mind that Frank, with a rather inexperienced backroom staff as well, they're all learning at the same time, and yet they've got a busy fixture list where they haven't got much time to work on things in training.
So I think we should all bear in mind that many of the problems we sort of forecast for this Chelsea side because they hadn't been able to sign players, etc. Etc. It kind of got forgotten about a little bit because they were doing so well, but now perhaps it's coming home to roost. I just think that was a really tough week for them, man. City away, Valencia way. And I just thought they looked very, very leggy at home to West Ham and home form as well is a problem in itself which they've yet to solve.
Now then, Liam, as part of the Athletics Team of the Decade series, you picked your best Chelsea XI from 2010 to the current day. First of all, I want to know, how long did you spend agonizing over it? Who was the most difficult player to choose or difficult position to choose? And how did you settle on 433 as your formation?
I spent quite a long time agonizing over it, but not to the point of asking anyone else.
Yeah, where was my call?
I settled on the opposite of the wisdom of crowds. It was just the wisdom of me. And I did a fair deep dive into the stats because I didn't trust just your memories of what players had done and achieved. And the formation kind of picked itself. Once I decided which players were Absolute locks and which positions. I had big decisions to make. I thought Courtois and Cech would have been a more difficult decision than it ended up being, because once I looked at the stats, Cech got significantly more clean sheets than Courtois and he actually made Arsenal's team of the decade as well. I don't know if you saw. That was really interesting. So that was quite an easy one. In the end, Mata was probably the most controversial one in the attacking positions, Although I also went for Drogba over Costa, which I know annoyed Dom, didn't annoy me.
Didn't annoy me, but it was an issue. I mean, it's something to discuss.
Yeah. I mean, do you want me to justify the most controversial ones now or.
Tell you what, we'll go through the team and there's some that we've flagged up. So we've got Petr Cek in goal. I think we all agree with that. Back four, Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry and Az Pilicueta. Midfield three Lampard, Fabregas and Kante, with Mata and Hazard either side of Didier Drogba up front. So if we pick a couple of them. I wanted to start with Branislav Ivanovic because you did this big interview with him last week. I totally forgotten how long it took him to make his debut and also didn't realise what a big part Andrey Shevchenko played in the fact that he stuck around and stuck at it.
Yeah, I mean, the kind of first act of his Chelsea career is absolutely crazy. Eight months he had to wait to make his debut, partly due to injury and partly because, in his words, he came into a Chelsea squad that was a really strong machine, marching towards the Champions League Final. And eventually, when he gets his chance, he's at right back, not at centre back, and that kind of conditions everything that happens from there. But he was thinking about leaving, maybe going on loan because opportunities were that difficult to come by. And Shevchenko became a close friend to him early on because he didn't know English, so he was kind of his personal chaperone around Cobham. He said that the other senior players showed an interest in him, but it was Shevchenko who was next to him and talking to him, and Abramovich gave him a sort of personal pep talk and convinced him to stay and wait for his chance as well.
And it worked out best for everyone because he undoubtedly became a Chelsea legend, albeit probably one of the more underrated ones of the last 10 years. I was quite personally happy for him. The Europa League final that he got that moment because it was the kind of signature moment that his Chelsea career probably deserved, particularly after missing the Champions League final as well. And when you look at how durable he was, you know, everyone talks about John Terry playing every minute of the 201415 title season. That was an amazing achievement. But Ivanovic did as well. He was kind of Azpilicueta before Azpilicueta. And I think part of the reason why I ended up with Azpilicueta at left back was because I felt I needed to get Ivanovic in and they both needed to be in.
He was a bit of a figure of fun when he first arrived. I mean, certainly amongst the media who hadn't seen very much of him. And it was a time of quite a lot of cynicism towards Chelsea's incoming transfer business with the succession of sort of weird free transfer signings and Ben Ayeem and Steve Sidwell and people like that. And this here was Ivanovic joining and sitting in the reserves for a long period. But in fact he was nicknamed Bram Flake by a couple of members of the press pack at the time. But my word, didn't he prove his quality over time.
Yeah, I was at Anfield for when he really announced his arrival in the Champions League with those two goals and he basically walked straight onto the team bus ignoring the entire mix zone and had to be sort of dragged back rugby tackled almost by Chelsea tv. The one channel, the one sort of interview that he gave was Chelsea tv. But even they had to sort of physically sort of drag him back to do the interview which showed that even on a night like that where he, I mean what a great introduction to Chelsea and his impact at Chelsea. But he clearly was sort of kind of like wasn't ready almost to be in the spotlight. But yeah, he went on to become a real legend for the club. And yeah, I think most people will always remember that header that just drifting into the top corner in the Amsterdam arena.
He's a bit, he's a bit more chatty now thankfully. But those were the things actually where he kind of gave the worst answers about were when I invited him to talk about his goals, his moments, because clearly a very team first guy and he was much better talking about his teammates and the great teams he was a part of rather than the things he's perhaps best remembered for.
Yeah, the other thing I think we all remember him for is Jose Mourinho saying his blood filled boot should be put in the club museum after he got the winner against Liverpool in the league cup semi final. The next pick I want to look at. Slightly controversial one for me in Cesc Fabregas. Was it mainly the performance in that 2015 title winning season that got him his place?
Mainly that. But I also thought that the performance actually in Conte's team two years later was really significant as well. Because even though he wasn't part of the regular starting 11 of that team, he still got more assists than anyone else in the entire squad. He got 12 assists despite starting only 13 games. And Conte would generally start with Nemanja Matic and n' Golo Kante and then bring Fabregas on once the game had opened up. And his vision could really be devastating. It was almost like a. A quarterback wide receiver chemistry with Diego Costa. The amount of passes he would just float over the top.
But clearly.
Most of the memories people associate with him are from that 14, 15 season. 18 assists. Incredible. And his presence at the base of that midfield fundamentally changed the character of that Chelsea team. What had been quite a pragmatic team the year before grinding out results suddenly played actually quite swashbuckling football for the first six months of that season anyway. And I just felt for being the creative hub of two title winning teams, it's a pretty significant achievement within the context of the decade. Two of the biggest things Chelsea had won.
I still think he's, you know, he had his deficiencies, particularly defensively, but in terms of passing the football, he's one of the best passing of football that Chelsea have seen and certainly in the modern era and they're still sort of trying to replace him. Jorginho is getting better at it, but there's no way he's in the class of Fabregas in terms of that sort of one pass over the top for the striker. Jorginho sort of getting there. But Fabregas success rate was far higher than Jorginho's.
Where do you think he'll be remembered more fondly, Dom? Arsenal or Chelsea?
Chelsea. I think there was bitterness the way it ended at Arsenal. I remember watching him play for Arsenal in a community shield. He's a 31 win over Manchester United. I think it was. It must have been after their. Must have been after the invincible season. I think pretty sure he was 16 at the time and he was just absolutely outstanding. He just thought this kid could do anything in the game. But he, you know, beyond that things faded at Arsenal. He's sort of more remembered for Pizzagate than anything else there, which is a bit unfair. But Celebi Obviously Barcelona provided him with an opportunity to get to gain more silverware. But when he came back to Chelsea, remember that summer we were in 2014, ahead of the World cup, we were in Miami with England and their sort of pre tournament thing and the news came through that Chelsea wanted him and about 10 minutes later they'd signed him. It was a real coup.
It was a proper, we're going to get this business done early. And that was that. And Costa, they were the two pieces of the jigsaw that changed the team that Jose Mourinho had famously said lacked balls the previous year to a team that was ready to win the title again. And whether they were playing in that expansive, as Liam says, in that expansive style. Up until the 53 loss at spurs on New Year's Day, wasn't it?
That's right.
Or subsequently when they went slightly stingier and sort of ground out results. He was the creative spark in both those styles and the quarterback who he could just put a thread through these passes and outstanding to watch and yeah, one of Chelsea's greats.
I think some people might have raised an eyebrow at the fact that you picked Juan Mata, Liam, two time Chelsea Player of the Year Champions League Europa League winner, man of the match in the 2012 FA cup final. So he was an automatic pick.
Yeah, I'm incredibly bullish on this one. You know, people raise an eyebrow because he's actually made far more appearances for Manchester United, even though his Manchester United injustice of Mata's Chelsea career or his career as a whole is that people don't remember just how bloody good he was in those two seasons. It wasn't just the moments, you know, man of the match in the FA cup final, the two most important crosses in Chelsea's history up to that point, probably for Didier Drogba and Ivanovic in those two European finals. He was so regularly the best player on the pitch, player of the season in both of his full seasons. And because Chelsea were in transition because they weren't a title contender, tends to be a little bit forgotten. But he was only really ostracized because Mourinho came in, decided that he wanted a number 10 that would be destructive and foul people and lead the press as Oscar would.
But Oscar could never hold the torch to matter in terms of pure footballing ability and creativity. And I think he made such a huge impression in those two years that it outweighs, really Willian's six years and outweighs Pedro's. What is it?
Four?
Yeah, four. So there weren't actually that many alternatives when you think about it. The biggest issue you could raise maybe is that I've shoehorned him in on the right wing, which I'm not the first person to do that.
I remember the profound sense of shock when he got sold to United and that was a reflection of. Of how well he'd done for two years, two and a bit years at the club. It just didn't at the time. It didn't make any sense at all, particularly given that Chelsea were in that sort of transitional season under Mourinho whilst he was sort of working out where he wanted the team to go. But you're right, I mean, when you first announced that team, I did raise an eyebrow when you. You've argued it so well and you remember how good he was.
Yeah.
And the sense of what have they done by selling him to United? They proved right in the end ultimately.
I mean, the only reason it wasn't regarded as a disastrous transfer is because Manchester United was such a mess. They bought him without any sense of a plan of how to use him and they never built the team around him. And unfortunately he also then declined as a player, maybe a little bit quicker than you would expect. But really that should have come back to haunt Chelsea in a way that it actually didn't.
And as sort of Liam sort of pointed out as well, it's the alternative sort of who would you put in instead? And you know, if we're talking about Willian, well, it's almost like there's still a divide over whether he's a good thing or a bad thing among Chelsea fans. I think you spoke to me speak to most Chelsea fans about one matter. It's going to be pretty universal that they, they love him and they still sort of. I don't, I don't know, there's this sort of weird vibe that matters. Sort of still more a Chelsea player than a United player. I don't know whether it's just me, but because he sort of had this bit part role at United, he seems to play a few games and is out again. He's never really sort of, as Liam pointed out, never really made an impact at Old Trafford, whereas at Chelsea's impact was. Was massive.
And I, I think you can also argue that many of the players that were in that 2012 Champions League winning team, perhaps not likes of Salomon, Clue and Ryan Bertrand, etc. But a lot of those almost deserve to be in the team of the decade simply because of what that trophy means to the club.
Yeah, I think Fernando Torres would definitely have him in his team of the decade because he provided a lot of his goals. And I think as writers, you guys all liked him, if only for his blogs where he talked about everything that he'd done in London and signed it off with hugs every week, which is just the sweetest thing ever. The last player I want to talk about is Didier Drogba, given he only played for Chelsea for three and a half seasons, in the tens, if you want to call them that. Were you tempted to give Costa the nod? Obviously you would have thought about Alex Pato and Iguain as well.
And Radamel Falcao. Yes, yeah, I did think about it for quite a long time. And if you look at the baseline Premier League stats, there isn't really a comparison. Costa's much better. He hits 20 goals in two of his three seasons and I think he's Chelsea's top scorer in each of those seasons. But he never put together an entire campaign, even the two, two years that Chelsea won the league. He almost had to be carried to the finish line once because his hamstrings had given out and the other because he was angling to get out the door, having fallen out with Conte Drogba's Premier League stats. Yeah, obviously week to week, he didn't quite have it after 2009, 10, which was his career season under Carlo Ancelotti, but he still had that ability to summon greatness when it really mattered most.
And I forgot, actually, until I look back on it, that he scored the winning goal in the 2012 FA Cup Final as well, because I don't really remember that game, but obviously the Champions League final, he scored six goals in eight games on that run. And you look back at them, they all came at crucial moments when Chelsea really needed something. And that was the most important thing Chelsea did in that decade and he made it possible. So I think that really was the clincher. And then of course, he came back and had that season as Costa's backup and he actually made quite a few appearances that year and was quite solid. So that didn't make a huge difference. But, you know, Munich is his legacy, I think.
I think he played a big part in that last season in reference to just sort of being around.
He knew what his role was then.
Yeah, yeah. Just being around the place, I think, was massive. And that's why Mourinho brought him back, for that huge sort of figure in the dressing room that has been there and done it. And definitely, whilst he may not scored as many goals as he did in his pomp. I just think around the place he was massive and played a part in that title win, even if it wasn't so much on the pitch.
And what he did that Costa didn't was kind of stitch himself into the fabric of the club. He was a Chelsea player, Costa was a footballer. He played for Chelsea for a couple of seasons.
Yeah, I know what you mean. The club that has had its big personalities over the years, not least the years that I've. I've been happy enough to cover them. And you'd think of your Terry's and your Lampards and your colds, etc. Nobody, I don't think, really has provided quite as much drama and histrionics as Diego Costa.
My favorite player to cover.
Oh, just without a doubt, staggering, wouldn't he? I mean, he. You had no idea. Well, actually, you probably did. He was probably going to throw his toys out the pram at some point in every season. But he was. He was such a maverick. You're absolutely right. I mean, Didier Drogba, his legacy from that. Well, from the first spell. He sort of forged his reputation then and he had a very, very beneficial effect on the club when he came back for that year. I just looked at Costa, though, and thought, he's box office and when he's good, he's brilliant, and when he's not, he's entertaining. And I don't think we'll see his lights again, to be honest, because he was. Yeah, he was a bit of a lunatic, but somebody that. That you just couldn't take your eyes off.
Bizarrely, didn't get sent off very much, though.
No, he was a crime couture, wasn't he?
I remember one at Goodison park in the FA cup in the Mourinho season, but that was underhidding.
I'm trying to remember ever watching a game, though, when he played where you thought he's a. When you didn't think he's about to get sent off.
Yeah, that's what I mean.
Fish hooking and just generally just being aggressive, elbows flying everywhere, but never got sent off, really.
Do you remember when. I think it was maybe his final season at Chelsea when they brought in new. They kind of brought in the new directive, clamping down on dissent. And he got booked in every single game. We just thought, is this going to carry on? Is he just going to get booked in every single Premier League game he plays this season? But, yeah, prime, Costa was the best striker Chelsea had in this decade. But he also took quite a bit away from the team when he wasn't working for them.
Even his departure was dramatic. Remember, he just had to sit out half a season before actually getting the chance to go and play for Atletico Madrid. I mean, it's just proper box office. Complete lunatic.
The video, the social media video of him on the Jet Ski, for example. He's supposed to be at training. He's just swung him out on the Jet Ski in Brazil. Great stuff.
Throwing his bib at Mourinho as well. Yes, I remember I might have told this story before, apologies if I have, but in the sort of tunnel area at Stamford Bridge, after games that were, the players come through, and there's always a couple of kids who the Chelsea foundation have allowed to stand there and get autographs and meet the players and what have you. And it's always, you know, quite, quite sweet to watch it happen. And there was one little lad who was waiting to get his photo taken with Diego Costa and his dad couldn't get the camera to work that he brought. And it went on for a couple of minutes and the dad was really flustered and feeling really awkward about it. And Costa, who didn't speak a word of English, took the camera off the dad, fiddled about with it for a couple of minutes, took a picture of himself and then said, works now, and got the dad to take a picture of it. And from being totally broken, it worked perfectly.
He took the picture, went bye bye and walked off. And we all said, he actually fixed.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah, he's fixed the camera. It works perfectly now. And off he went. And that was the only English that I ever heard him speak.
There was also, of course, the scenes after West Brom where Chelsea won the title and Conte pretended he found it.
Funny for a little while.
Yeah, well, was actually outside in the corridors as Diego was threatening a bunch of Sunday journalists who were having like, their Sunday briefing in this tiny little room outside the press room, and he was threatening them with a fire extinguisher. And you could kind of see the journalists of, like, with sort of one arm with their Dictaphone in front of Antonio, but their heads actually turned back to this.
Hold on, this is the story over here. Sorry, Antonio.
Well, I think they were kind of fearful that the extinguisher was being pointed at them. But no, he was a great character and actually, whilst he was a real beast on the pitch and could do some things that were perhaps not exactly sporting, he was actually talk to people at Chelsea, he was great with, like you were saying Matt, about dealing with kids and stuff whenever they were brought down to Cobham stuff. He was great with all that real personality. And yes, Chelsea, Chelsea sort of miss him a little bit, I think.
Yeah. Well, you can catch up with Liam's team of the decade and how he justified all his picks on the Athletic. Now, elsewhere in Chelsea news, the women's game against Everton at Southport called off at very short notice because of a frozen pitch that after the players and the supporters had already made the long journey up North. The under 18s twice came from behind to draw to all against Fulham at Cobham. That means that Ed Brand's team are a point behind the table, topping whites with a game in hand. Bad news for the under nine teams though. Crashed out the UEFA Youth League at the group stage after losing in Valencia last week. They've won that competition twice and reached the final in each of the last two seasons. So big shock that they're out this early this time around. The development squad having come through the group stage of the EFL Trophy play League one side Warsaw in the second round this week.
That match takes place on Tuesday, so you might well know the result by now. Listener the final of that competition played at Wembley. So quite the character dangle in front of the young blues who reached the semi finals two seasons ago. We're almost out of time, but before we go, gents, what will you be writing about this week? Who's going to Villa on Wednesday? I am. Right, okay. So you'll be doing a Q and A after that and then writing about either a glorious victory or something else.
Indeed, yeah. It's quite difficult to know which way anything's going to go at this point. But yeah, we're also working on the joint read for later in the week, which is looking like it will be about Ross Barkley, who's at an interesting crossroads in his Chelsea career as they head back to Goodison park to face Everton.
What's your initial thoughts on that, Simon? I mean, are we saying that he is only going to get back in the squad in extremis now if there's a massive injury crisis? Is it that bad for him? Obviously he's got an England place to try and nail down as well.
Yeah, well, that's the strange thing. I mean, I wrote about Ross a few weeks ago, a few months ago even, that he's yet to replicate his England form in a Chelsea shirt. He looks very comfortable in England shirt. He's had a great 2019 for England but Chelsea after a really good pre season he just hasn't kicked on. And look the thing going in his favor is just coming back from from this ankle injury. The thing going in his favour is of course December is packed full of games so you, you would expect to see him at some point but at the moment he's just a fringe player in this squad. He's not a first team starter regularly so he's got a lot lot of work to do. And of course once Chelsea are able to buy players too and Ruben Loftus Sheikh coming back, you do wonder about him. But anyway me and Liam will explore that. As for a piece I'm I'm sort of working on and you'll be able to read ahead of the Villa game.
I have written all about John Terry so that's sort of my main hit for this week.
How about you Dom? It's a full midweek of action in the Premier League, of course. Where are you going?
I am going to Sellhurst park to watch Palace Bournemouth but with a little brief to try and talk politics with people off the pitch ahead of the general election, which is a different kind of brief. Yeah, I'll be watching on Wednesday night to see how JT's return guys.
Cool.
Well that's it for this episode of Straight Outta Cobham. My thanks to Liam, Dom and Simon. Remember, you can get this podcast and many more, including David Ornstein and Mark Chapman's brand new show, which will delve deep into football's biggest stories by subscribing now@theathletic.com.
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