Blues on alert as Ballack sounds Bremen warning

WHILE the dust settles on perhaps the most controversial transfer English football has ever witnessed, Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho is turning his attention to the start of another Champions League campaign which could make or break his future at Stamford Bridge.

The signing of Ashley Cole from Arsenal not only served to re-affirm Mourinho’s message to the rest of the Premiership that armed with Roman Abramovich’s millions, the Blues nearly always get their man. It also demonstrated that, along with the arrival of Michael Ballack and Andriy Shevchenko, Chelsea are not messing around this season in their quest to land the big trophy to elude them in the past three years.

The players who have arrived this summer have not been signed to win the Premiership, but to achieve success in a competition in which they were made to look so ordinary last season by Barcelona.

Barcelona are on Chelsea’s agenda for the third season running, but in the meantime German midfielder Michael Ballack, who reached the 2002 Champions League final with unfancied Bayer Leverkusen, sounded a note of caution by insisting that tomorrow’s Group A opponents Werder Bremen are more than capable of pulling off a shock.

“Some days, they can play very, very, well. They are a team that thinks very offensively. They want to score in every game,” he said.

“But sometimes they make mistakes in defence and give chances to the other team. At Munich, we lost 3-0 to them at home.

“They won the national title, too, and this was not good. But I remember games when they lost badly because they were playing so offensively. In the Champions League two years ago they lost 7-2 at Lyon and were not very stable. This was an example of the lesser side to their game.

“As a team, seven or eight players have stayed together now for two or three years, so they’ve grown together and are very strong.

“Miroslav Klose is scoring regularly and can change a game on his own. At the moment, these are some of the best performances he has ever produced.”

In more mundane matters, Chelsea saw off Charlton at Stamford Bridge thanks to a winner from Ricardo Carvalho, scored within 45 seconds of Ashley Cole’s introduction as a 62nd minute substitute.

Mourinho sprung a surprise on everyone by naming Cole on the bench and preferring his long-time England understudy Wayne Bridge at left-back.

The Portuguese coach revealed he did not use Cole in his starting line-up because of the stress he had suffered in recent weeks as the effects of the drawn-out transfer negotiations took their toll.

As it was, Chelsea were ahead in the fifth minute when Frank Lampard’s corner was headed goalwards by Ballack, only for the ball to be blocked on the line by Bryan Hughes and rebound out for Didier Drogba to prod in the opener.

Chelsea went in looking comfortable at the break, but they were caught out in the 51st minute by one of their old boys. Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink, who netted 88 times for Chelsea during his four-year spell, seized on a Carvalho error to turn and stroke a left-footed effort past Petr Cech.

In a generous display of sportsmanship, Hasselbaink looked up at the Matthew Harding stand and apologised for scoring against the fans who worshipped him for the duration of Claudio Ranieri’s reign. His act was greeted with the kind of warm applause seldom witnessed at British football grounds.

Mourinho’s side restored their lead 11 minutes later when the outstanding Carvalho rose to head in the winner via a generous deflection off Amady Faye.

“Ashley Cole is here, welcome to him, and now we can say we have the best two English left-backs,” said Mourinho.

“Indeed, we have the best of English — Frank Lampard, John Terry, Ashley Cole, Wayne Bridge, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Joe Cole.

“That is six players in Steve McClaren’s squad. It really looks like Chelsea football club is doing something for English football.”

Opta Fact: Chelsea have failed to keep a clean sheet in their last seven Premiership London derbies, conceding one goal in each of their last six metropolitan match-ups.

Opta Fact: Chelsea are unbeaten in their last 46 home league games — a Premiership record.