After Chelsea defeat against West Brom in March 2012, Chelsea announced the departure of Andre Villas-Boas, who is now Tottenham Hotspur manager, Boas' then manager took the position. Roberto Di Matteo improved Chelsea in several ways. He picked Chelsea up from hell, making Chelsea won against Napoli to allow the club to survive in the Champions League. Chelsea performed well in the league, most of the time winning. Another highlight was how he dig Torres to score consistently in the league. Well, maybe.
Chelsea performed so well that they actually made their way to the FA Cup final. They beat Liverpool 2-1 in the Wembley Stadium. A club that had no future about two months ago, came back to twist and won the national cup.
However, winning the FA Cup wasn't the highlight of his career. It was the performance in the Champions League. Out of four teams, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, and Chelsea, the Londoners considered as the underdog. Chelsea received a probably the hardest mission of the season, they had to face Barcelona the semi-final. With Di Matteo's "BUS" strategy, Chelsea was able to pick up a 1-0 win in Stamford Bridge. In Camp Nou, Di Matteo's men also made big surprise and twists in the game with Torres scoring the last-minute goal, knocking the Blaugrana out of the Champions League. Chelsea became one of the two team to play in the Final in Munich in May 2012.
After the finished with 6th in the league, Chelsea must win the Champions League Final in order to participate in UEFA glorious competition the following year. Playing in Allianz Area, Bayern Munich's home, the chance was like impossible for Chelsea to win against the host, and also the home team. Surprisingly, Drogba scored a header in the 88th minute to bring Chelsea levelled against the host. Chelsea won against Bayern in the penalty kick out and also won their FIRST UEFA Champions League title. History has been made, the Londoners will be participating in the 2012/13 Champions League.
Chelsea spent huge heck of money on 8 different superstars, hoping to have another amazing season. Overall, Chelsea spent 89 million pounds on Eden Hazard (35mil), Thorgan Hazard (0.8mil), Marko Marin (7mil), Oscar (28mil), Cesar Azpilicueta (7mil), and Victor Moses (10mil). With that amount, Di Matteo knew that he cannot screw up his damn great team.
Chelsea started the new season campaign brilliantly. Throughout 2 months, Chelsea captured all wins and only one drew. Hazard and Oscar performed fantastically. However, here comes the dip...
On October 29th, Chelsea faced their first "controversial" defeat agains their arch-rival, Manchester United in Stamford Bridge. The undefeated streak ended by Sir Alex Ferguson's men. Chelsea also performed poorly in the Champions League despite the 5-0 win at FC Nordjylland. After their first defeat in the league, Di Matteo's men was not able to pick themselves up resulting in 2 draws and the latest defeat at West Brom.
With news surrounding Di Matteo's position, the Italian led his men to Juventus on November 20th 2012. Chelsea came out with an epic 3-0 defeat against the Italian Champions. A day later, the club announced his departure from the club. That escalated quickly... From a Champions League winner, now a jobless manager.
So who will be the next manager of the Blues? Guardiola? Benitez? All I can say is bye bye Di Matteo, I don't like you that much, but good luck with your future. For this coming week, we cannot get our eyes of Chelsea news.
Good luck and have fun.
Photo Credit: Mirror Football, The Offside, NYTimes, Dailymail, Eurosport, Chelsea FC
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