Paulo Ferreira

CHELSEA CHASE BENTEKE

The newly appointed Chelsea boss, Jose Mourinho, is set to make a bid for Christian Benteke who has recently handed a transfer request to his club Aston Villa.

Benteke had joined Villa at the start of the last season. He made his mark in his debut season at Villa Park by scoring 23 goals in 39 appearances and was likely to continue, but, he shocked everyone by requesting for transfer.

The manager of Aston Villa, Paul Lambert, has also admitted that he had not expected a transfer request from Benteke.

When asked about Benteke’s transfer request, Lambert said, “Well, we hadn’t expected that. Christian was a big part of our plans and we wanted him to stay. We are all disappointed that he has requested for transfer. But, it’s part and parcel of professional football. If a player doesn’t want to stay, you can’t do anything about it.”

After taking over as Chelsea manager, Mourinho is keen to bring a quality striker at Stamford Bridge. He had made a bid of 40 million Pounds for Edinson Cavani, but, the Uruguayan international seems to be interested in joining Paris Saint-Germain.

Mourinho was interested in Borussia Dortmund’s Robert Lewandowski as well, but, the Polish striker has made it clear now that he doesn’t want to leave Dortmund this summer.

The Blues also had Wayne Rooney on their radar and they were reported to have made an enquiry for him as well. But, after David Moyes’ statement that Rooney hasn’t been put on sale, the Blues don’t seem to have any chance there either.

So, after missing out on all these big names, Mourinho is looking for Benteke now. However, he is not alone in this race. The Spurs are also said to be interested in signing the 22 years old Belgian international.

DESERVED WIN

Chelsea interim manager Rafa Benitez has said that his team got the deserved result in the form of a late winner from defender David Luiz in the Europa league semi-final match against FC Basel. Chelsea have moved into a commanding position as a result of the 2-1 victory over the Swiss club, but it could have been easily a draw had it not been for the injury time goal from Luiz. Chelsea dominated the proceedings in the match by creating several chances, while also close to scoring with many of them.

However, lacklustre finishing from the likes of Eden Hazard and Fernando Torres proved like a major catastrophe after Basel equalised with a penalty with just a few minutes remaining in the match. Chelsea were awarded a freekick just inside the box in the dying minutes of the match. David Luiz converted this freekick to hand Chelsea are huge advantage in the tie. As a result of the two away goals coupled with the victory, Chelsea are now the favourites to qualify for the Europa league final where they could face Fenerbahce. The Turkish club managed a victory from the encounter against Portuguese club Benfica.

Victor Moses had given Chelsea the lead early in the match. Benitez said that this victory was fully deserved.

“I think it’s true that we had this feeling that we didn’t deserve to concede this goal, which was an extra motivation. Sometimes you know David Luiz is really good taking free-kicks, even if the keeper could have saved it, but he scored the goal in the end and everyone would say it was fair. All around me nobody felt that it was a penalty because the ball was in the air, it was a very strange decision,” said Benitez after the match. Chelsea will face Swansea during the weekend.