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Being a Chelsea fan is not an easy task. One season you win the Premier League, next season you finish 10th. The season after that you again win the Premier League, that is followed by finishing 5th and not qualifying for the Champions League.
One season you have Jose Mourinho as manager, next season he is the manager of Manchester United. At one time you have Drogba and Costa as the main strikers, a few years later you have Morata and Giroud. You see players like Mata and De Bruyne depart, but the club meanwhile holds on to players like Moses and Pedro.
While there may be constant changes at Chelsea, the one thing that does not change are the opinions of rival football fans. Since i started following Chelsea till date, rival football fans have the same things to say about Chelsea.
In this article i mention 4 things only a true Chelsea fan understands.
#1 Hearing rival fans talk about how Chelsea plays boring football
Every Chelsea fan has been accused of his team playing boring football. Boring is a highly relative term, and 'boring' for someone might be 'exciting' for others. Being a Chelsea fan, i find this ludicrous.
In the 2014-15 season when Chelsea won the title under Jose Mourinho, Chelsea was ruthless and were very entertaining - with Fabregas, Hazard and Costa at the hub of it. That season Chelsea scored 73 goals, this was the 2nd highest tally, only bettered by Manchester City.
In the 2016-17 season under Antonio Conte, Chelsea beat Manchester United 4-0. They beat Everton 6-3. Chelsea scored 85 goals in the Premier League that season, which was 5 more than Manchester City scored.
Finally, Chelsea has arguably the most exciting player in the league - Eden Hazard. Hazard is statistically the best dribbler in the world at the moment.
Watching him go past people with his pace and trickery is anything but 'boring'. Finally, with Maurizio Sarri at the helm now, Chelsea fans will be hoping they stop hearing the 'boring boring Chelsea' chants.
#2 People conclude you started watching football recently because Chelsea became successful recently
Don't you hate it when other fans decide how much you know about football? That's what Chelsea fans have to go through constantly. "Chelsea is relevant only due to money and Roman Abramovich" is something every Chelsea fan is accustomed to hearing.
Every Chelsea fan faces this scenario when some rival fan states that "you began watching football in 2003". I personally was born in 1998, and hence can't do much about the fact that Chelsea became successful while I was growing up.
Having said that, every Chelsea fan does not forget to tell Arsenal and Tottenham fans how successful Chelsea has been in the last 10 years.
#3 Tired of coaches being sacked
Since 2004 Chelsea has had a plethora of managers. Maurizio Sarri, Antonio Conte, Guus Hiddink, Rafa Benítez, Roberto Di Matteo, André Villas-Boas, Carlo Ancelotti, Ray Wilkins, Luiz Felipe Scolari, Avram Grant, and José Mourinho are examples of managers who have been in the Chelsea dugout in that time.
Although Chelsea has been very successful despite all these changes, most Chelsea fans are tired of seeing the constant changes in management. Chelsea fans would like to see a manager stay at the club for more than 2 years.
#4 Chelsea fans love their current players, but miss their former Blues like Drogba and Lampard
With the success Chelsea has had, it could be easy to forget some former Chelsea stars. That is not the case for most Chelsea fans. While we love Eden Hazard, we have not forgotten Zola. Lampard's long shots and Drogba's power is something etched in every Chelsea fan's mind
Players like John Terry, Ballack, Essien, Ashely Cole, Ramires, Ivanovic, etc are all players every Chelsea fan misses. Even an infamous player like Torres is adored by Chelsea fans.
It is fair to say that as Chelsea fans we are true to the phrase; "Once a Blue, always a Blue".
