Time for Jose to hit another Home Run since Home is where the Title is

Chelsea kick off their season at Home vs Hull City on Sunday with the new man in charge. Jose is back in the Chelsea dugout since his departure in 2007. Stamford Bridge will be buzzing with euphoria and singing the name of the special one FOR SURE. Good Days are back! Good thing to have the first game at home, you can ease into the game with the home support cheering you on and take that one addition step.

Recently however Chelsea fans (allegedly) have not been the usual self and were often accused by opposition fans of being quiet and even ‘disinterested’. Many will play it down to the fact that Rafa was in charge who was clearly not the crowd favorite considering his history with the Chelsea fans during his time with Liverpool.  Our performances on the pitch didn’t help either. Last season Chelsea dropped quite a large number of points at home. Chelsea have uncharacteristically dropped points to teams they should have won against resulting in lower league positions.

In 2011-12 Chelsea out of the 19 games played at home won 12, drew 3 and lost 4 of them; dropping a total of 18 points out of the total 57. Chelsea finished 25 points behind the eventual Champions Manchester City who amazingly went the entire season undefeated at home and amassed a total of 55 points of the total 57. Astonishing.

During the 2012-13 season Chelsea again fell short at the home front and dropped points to the likes of QPR at home, games that we really should have won.

The eventual Champions United were 7 points away from us who dropped 9 points last season. There is a general belief that United were brilliant last season, well no doubt they were but it’s also down to the fact that other title rivals were quite average which played in favor of United. Taking nothing away from United they thoroughly deserved their 20^th.

Moving on let’s compare Chelsea’s home record under Jose. Mind you Jose never lost a league game at the Bridge during his time Incharge. The run which started at Porto; continued at Chelsea, Inter and eventually after a total of 150 home games came to an end at Madrid. The run stretched to over nine years and 4 different countries. WOW!

During the 2 title winning seasons at Chelsea, Jose barely dropped points at home. Chelsea were at their imperious best and just 5 draws closely followed by the then title defending invincibles who went the entire season unbeaten the season before.

Next season under Jose Chelsea were even better at home. Jose’s second season in charge he really stamped his authority on the English game. Chelsea scored a massive 55 points at home and drawing just one game in process. Chelsea was on a dream run at this point, a run of 40 unbeaten games which eventually came to an end at Old Trafford.

The following year onwards Chelsea started dropping points at home. 2006-07 season Chelsea’s defensive worries got the better of us. Injuries to Cech and Cudicini along with Captain John Terry led Chelsea to field in 3^rd choice GK for best part of the season. Cost us dear as we conceded the title to United. After Jose left Chelsea have struggled to keep up with these numbers and in the next few seasons Chelsea only managed points in the early 40s. Worst came during the 2008/09 season when Chelsea only secured 39 points at home out of the total 57 but thanks to our brilliant away from that season we secured a close 3^rd, 3 points behind Liverpool and 7 behind Manchester United. What difference the home form would have made that season one can only imagine.

Chelsea clearly have dropped a lot of points at home in the recent seasons the only exception being the 2009-10 double winning season. Apart from that we have struggled for home form and suffered at the hands of the lesser teams.

With Jose now back, one can only hope that we will once again be strong title contenders and since all good things begin from home, No better way to kick it off at the Bridge vs Hull. We’ll get this I am sure. The belief is back.

My Prediction: Chelsea 3-0 Hull City