Stoke City manager Mark Hughes believes that Chelsea will not be in a poor form throughout the campaign. He also says that changing the manager may not be the right choice for the West London outfit.

Hughes played for the club and was even close to being appointed as a manager a few years ago. He is no longer a contender for the Chelsea job. Jose Mourinho may be sacked if results do not improve. Even though the club only recently issued a statement offering full support to the manager, it would be hard not to get anxious after the latest 2-1 defeat against West Ham.

Ahead of one of the fiercest derbies in English football, former Manchester United and Liverpool striker Michael Owen has praised Luke Shaw.

The defender moved to United last summer for an astronomical transfer fee coupled with huge questions about the wages. Chelsea manager José Mourinho was believed to be interested in signing Shaw. However, he stated that once the West London outfit, who are backed by one of the richest men in England, learnt about the wage demands of the player, they did not think twice about backing out. Their decision seemed to correct at least last season when Shaw spent most of the season on the sidelines.

Former Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien has ended his career in the top leagues after securing a move to Panathinaikos in the Greek league.

The 32-year-old has been plagued by injury problems for the last couple of years. It has robbed him of the quality, which many have come to see during his time at Chelsea. His initial few years at the West London club gave the world a taste of his best football. He remains as one of the few Ghanaian footballers to have won the Premier League, the FA Cup and the Champions League.

Chelsea won this season of the Premier League in a very dominating fashion as Jose Mourinho and his team was crowned as the champions of England with 3 matches still remaining. The Blues lost just 3 league matches in the entire season and it’s widely agreed that they truly deserve to be called as the best team in England after such a strong campaign.

Despite having gone through such an impressive season, Jose Mourinho believes that the upcoming season will be much more difficult and it’s not going to be easy for them to defend the Premier League title.

Michael Essien completed his move from Chelsea to Ac.Milan on January of 2014 but the Ghanian footballer has not really made an impact at the Italian club as he isn’t a regular starter and even when he does get into the main team, his influence is not substantial.

You can see him on the pitch but not really finding his ground in most of the matches where he performs in.

The contract of Essien expires at the end of the season in the summer and the 32 year old midfielder is being linked with a move to India as well as the United States.

The Indian Super League is growing and it has attracted a number of high profile footballers including: Alessandro Del Piero, David Trezeguet and Nicolas Anelka. A move to India isn’t so far-fetched to believe.

AC Milan midfielder Michael Essien says that the club are definitely going through one of most difficult times in their history, but he is confident that they’ll be able to come away from this in successful manner.

The former Chelsea midfielder signed for the club on a permanent basis in 2014 after a few loan spells. He has never been able to recapture the form that he showed during the period from 2005 to 2008. This is due to a succession of knee injuries, which have robbed him of the high fitness levels that were a major feature of his game.

Olympiakos suffered a close defeat in the European Cup game against Juventus.

They were ahead by 2-1 in that game, but, then some misfortune and also some defensive blunders caused them to concede a couple of goals within 60 seconds and the recovery did not happen from there.

It was Olympiakos second defeat in 4 games. However, they are still holding the no. 2 spot in the Group ‘A’ table.

Ahead of Olympiakos is the previous season’s runner up Atletico Madrid. They are three points clear at the top.

Former Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien believes that Manchester United are not able to perform well defensively due to the absence of Nemanja Vidic.

The Serbian defender joined Inter Milan on a free transfer this summer. This brought an end to his long spell at United. After joining the club in 2006, Vidic formed an impeccable partnership with Rio Ferdinand. This formed the basis for United winning numerous titles including the Champions League in 2008. Even though the 33-year-old’s form has dipped severely since joining Inter Milan, Essien says that United could have done with the experience of the Serbian.

Former Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien has been given a major disappointment after being dropped from the Ghana squad for the upcoming African cup of nations qualifiers. After a disappointing World Cup 2014 in which they failed to qualify past the group stages, there is a lot of pressure manager Kwesi Appiah. One of the enigmas of Ghana has been Michael Essien. The former Chelsea midfielder has struggled for first-team action at club level in the last five years. He has suffered numerous injuries during this period and it even forced him to take a self-imposed exile from the national team.

Former Chelsea star Michael Essien could be on his way to Russia after it has emerged that AC Milan are open to the possibility of using the Ghanaian international as a makeweight in the deal to bring in Domenico Criscito from Zenit St Petersburg. Essien was once regarded as one of the best midfielders, but a succession of knee injuries have made the 31-year-old as a fringe player. This led to his move to Milan on a permanent basis last January. Italian football was expected to suit Essien given that it was slow compared to the rest of the leagues.