A topic that has been brought up in the Football Transfer Tavern of late surrounds just why it is that English clubs have seemed to have slackened off in the Champions League over the last couple of seasons.
Following Chelsea’s victory in the Munich Final of 2011/12, it has been a sorry story for supporters of English clubs in the competition with the three powerhouses of European football, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and Barcelona having won the trophy with the big ears more recently.
While these three clubs are of course a match for anybody on the planet, it does seem strange that English clubs haven’t been able to make more of an impact given the sheer brilliance we see in the Premier League week in, week out.
We all know that the Premier League is the most entertaining division in world football but perhaps that has been at the expense of top notch defending with the likes of Juventus having proved against Manchester City in midweek that the Italian school of blocking shots is still right up there as the best, no matter the Citizens bossing much of the play.
While this is a fantastic debate that always surrounds the tavern whenever English clubs suffer in Europe, we’re shelving it for now, simply due to the fact that we wouldn’t trade our seemingly weekly Premier League drama for anything!
One particular contributor to some of the top flight’s best goals in the past decade have been Chelsea.
With a couple of European strikes sneaking their way in too, we’ve today devised a list of five of the most outrageous Chelsea goals from the past 10 years.
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Click on the image below to reveal the 5 most outrageous Chelsea goals from the past 10 years.
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Michael Essien vs Arsenal (H) – 2006
Now playing his football over in Greek football with Panathinaikos to see off the twilight of his glittering career, Michael Essien was a superb professional in his time with Chelsea, chalking up 168 Premier League appearances for the Blues.
Perhaps his greatest ever strike in a Chelsea shirt was his last gasp goal at Stamford Bridge against London rivals Arsenal back in the 2006/07 season when his rasping 84th minute drive from range careered past Jens Lehmann at seemingly 100 miles per hour.
It seemed like a victory for the Blues at the time who were rarely one nil down to the Gunners who went ahead on the 55th minute when Mathieu Flamini put their into a second-half lead.
This quite outrageous Essien equaliser was a contributor towards the fantastic unbeaten record Jose Mourinho managed to hold against Arsene Wenger prior to the FA Community Shield loss at Wembley Stadium at the start of the season.
Didier Drogba vs Everton (A) – 2006
Given his incredibly long association with Chelsea over two spells since the days where he first joined from Marseille in 2004, it’s much harder to remember Didier Drogba as a soft touch nowadays in his first few seasons where he had a terrible reputation for going to ground far too easily.
Stamping that out of his game as time went on, a young looking Drogba once scored one of his finest ever Chelsea goals away at Goodison Park on December 17th 2006 where his incredible 35-yard strike looped up over Tim Howard and into the back of Everton’s net.
An incredibly speculative effort, Drogba saw the picture before anybody else after receiving a flicked on ball from Andriy Shevchenko before leathering it up and over the despairing Toffees goalkeeper.
The Ivorian then proceeded in performing one of his epic knee slides that we came more than accustomed to during his Chelsea career.
Fernando Torres vs Barcelona (A) – 2012
While we all know that this goal was essentially a tap in that was finished in association with Gary Neville’s now infamous scoregasm on Sky Sports commentary, it was still outrageous in every sense.
Not only because Fernando Torres simply couldn’t hit a barn door for large periods during his Chelsea career but also because they’d just knocked out a rampant Barcelona side at the peak of their powers, in their own stadium, with only 10 men!
After John Terry was dismissed on 37 minutes, many were expecting this red card to cost the Blues but it galvanised them if anything and after Ramires had cancelled out Sergio Busquets’ opener just before half-time, it was written in the stars for the Blues to eventually go on and win the Champions League that year after Lionel Messi missed a 49th minute penalty before Torres scored the sealer late on in the 92nd minute.
Chelsea prevailed over their Catalan hosts by three goals to two on aggregate; a remarkable achievement for the club and Roberto Di Matteo!
Didier Drogba vs Liverpool (H) – 2006
Didier Drogba scored some ridiculous goals in his Chelsea career but one of his best ever Premier League strikes came against one of the Blues’ favourite enemies Liverpool at home in the 2006/07 season.
Receiving the ball out of a sunny Stamford Bridge sky on the edge of the box and with his back to goal, the Ivorian legend managed to pull off the most ridiculous of swivels to absolutely rifle the ball off the end of his boot while ripping it past the hapless Pepe Reina who could do nothing about it.
Before Jamie Carragher knew it, Drogba had span round him and smashed the ball into the back of the net, sending the West London crowd into raptures.
The goal was even more significant in the overall reckoning too with Michael Ballack getting sent off in the 51st minute but the Blues were able to hold on to achieve a noteworthy 1-0 victory.
Michael Essien vs Barcelona (H) – 2009
We all knew about the prowess Michael Essien had from range given the sumptuous strike and the first entry on our countdown that he registered against Arsenal in 2006/07 but two seasons later, he was at it again, firing a superb volley against none other than Barcelona.
Both the Blues and the Catalan side have enjoyed some fine battles against one another down the years but despite this memorable ninth minute strike, this was ultimately a game that still haunts Chelsea supporters.
With now infamous Norwegian referee Tom Henning Øvrebø having waved away four decent Blues penalty shouts, Andres Iniesta struck and cancelled out Essien’s strike with what was ultimately a knockout blow in injury time to take Barcelona through.
When taking Essien’s strike in isolation and without the eventual context however, what a goal from the Ghanaian it was!
