Eyes on @Arsenal_london. 👀

UPDATE: Cole Palmer is available to start against Arsenal. Dario Essugo trained this morning for Chelsea for the first time.

(Reported by MrDomSmith)

A former Chelsea employee has pleaded guilty to fraud worth over £200,000 against the club which is alleged to have taken place by dishonestly abusing her position as treasury assistant.

Claire Walsh, who lives less than a mile from Stamford Bridge, worked for Chelsea for over 20 years and, according to her LinkedIn profile, was made the club’s full-time treasury assistant in July 2020.

Ms Walsh appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday accused of committing fraud worth £208,521.65 with an intent to make a gain between June 2019 and October 2023. She pleaded guilty and will be sentenced at Isleworth Crown Court.

It is understood that Chelsea became aware of the alleged offence in spring 2022 and reported the matter to police.

During the short hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, the prosecution said that the amount of money involved took the case into the “A” capability, carrying the starting point of five years imprisonment with a range of three to six years.

The charge against Ms Walsh was listed as “fraud by abuse of position” between June 8 2019 and October 23 2023 and said “while occupying a position, namely assistant treasury manager, in which you were expected to safeguard, or not to act against, the financial interests of Chelsea Football Club, you dishonestly abused that position intending thereby to make a gain, namely obtaining the sum of £208,521.65, for yourself contrary to sections 1 and 4 of the Fraud Act 2006.”

[Matt Law - The Telegraph]

#CFC #Chelsea #ChelseaFC

Congratulations, Malo! 👏

🗣️ Enzo Maresca ahead of @Arsenal_london [H] in the Premier League:

💪 𝐎𝐧 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐧𝐞𝐰𝐬:

“Yes, Cole [Palmer] is available for both [to play and to start].

“We are looking okay [after Barcelona]. Dario Essugo also took part of the session this morning, which is good news too.”

👀 𝐎𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐏𝐚𝐥𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐄𝐬𝐭𝐞‌𝐯𝐚‌𝐨:

“Having Cole back is good news and everyone is happy.

“The fans are happy, his team-mates are happy and the most important thing is that Cole is happy [to be back]. Players want to play games, so him being back is a big moment.

“He can help us a lot. He is arguably our best player and we are happy he is back. Now we have to give him time to be 100 per cent fit. He has done fantastic in the past and no doubt he is going to do very good things for this club in the future.

“With Estevao? Yes, they can play together. It depends against which team and the game plan, but for sure the fans are excited to watch both together. We are also excited, thinking at the end we always need balance between the two phases [on the ball and off the ball].”

😤 𝐎𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝:

“I said after [Barcelona] it’s another big game on Sunday.

“We finish one against Barcelona, as you say we won and it was a good feeling. Now we have another one.

“For me, they are all important games. For sure, beating Barcelona is good and if we are able to beat Arsenal, it’s a nice feeling. But in the end it’s three points and then on Wednesday we have Leeds which is another three points. We will try our best to beat Arsenal and then we will see.“

🔴⚪️ 𝐎𝐧 𝐀𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐥:

“They defend fantastically.

“Any teams against them, they struggle to score goals, not only to score goals, but even to create chances. So it’s a team that they defend very well. Then they have weapons when they attack.”

(Via ChelseaFC & BobbyVincent - Football London)

#CFC #Chelsea #ChelseaFC

🚨 𝗕𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚 Mykhailo Mudryk has PASSED a voluntary lie detector test to prove he never took a banned substance knowingly. 🇺🇦🗂️

(Source: MailSport)

There is next-to-no chance of Nicolas Jackson fulfilling the obligations necessary to make his move permanent [40 starts in all competitions], or @Bayern_Munich choosing to sign him without a major renegotiation of the pre-agreed fee [€65m/£57m].

Chelsea have no interest in changing the conditions and see Jackson as having a high value. Regardless of Bayern’s intentions, Chelsea are still likely to sell the forward.

Clubs from the Premier League and across Europe expressed an interest in Jackson before the switch to Bayern was agreed, and there should be a good market for him once again.

(via TheAthleticFC)

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta: “Chelsea is one of the teams that I enjoy the most watching and they have a lot of fluidity, they have a lot of threat, they have a lot of individual talent, they are very clear what they want to do and that's why they are very tough.”

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta on whether Chelsea are title challengers: “Chelsea are there because they fully deserve what they have done in the last few years. I think the squad that they assembled, the numbers that they have, the quality that they have, the number of coaches they have it makes sense that what is happening there is very, very positive and they deserve to be there.” (ESPN)

Estevao: “My father always said that you have to treat the ball with affection if you want it to go where you want it to go. It’s really important that you do everything you do with love.”

Estevao: “It makes me really happy to have the trust of my team-mates here at Chelsea, so [when Enzo Fernandez handed him the penalty duties] it was definitely a big moment for me.”

Estevao on the winner against @Liverpool_Always and the reaction of Stamford Bridge: “There was so much emotion, and it was just incredible to experience that explosion of joy from the crowd – to see the fans celebrating right there, so close to the pitch. You realise that the goal was so important to give them something to celebrate at the end of the game. So it was a spectacular moment, and very exciting for me.” (via ChelseaFC)

🗣 Ronaldinho: "After Messi and Neymar, the best dribbler for me has always been Eden Hazard. The way he moves with the ball reminds me of street football, the joy, the flair, the freedom.

He doesn’t just dribble to entertain; he dribbles to create, to break the defence apart, to make football beautiful again.

Players like him make fans fall in love with the game all over again. Football has had many magicians, but Hazard’s magic came naturally, no tricks, no showboating, just rhythm and brilliance. He played with happiness, and that’s something I’ve always respected."

~ EA Sports on TikTok via ESPNUK

 Moises Caicedo: ‘’@Arsenal_london are doing really well but they haven’t played Chelsea yet.’’

Caicedo believes it was fate he signed for Chelsea instead of Arsenal:

‘’Everything happens for a reason. I almost did it but now I’m here and I’m so happy. The timing was good. I waited until Chelsea came for me. People laughed. They said I chose the wrong place, but sometimes you need time to adapt to a big team. I needed that. want to give everything to this club because they didn’t doubt me. I chose Chelsea because they have ambitions. I want to win trophies, more trophies with this club. I would like to be here for a long time. I want to keep playing like this but get even better.’’

Caicedo doesn’t think he’s the best player in his position and needs to add more goals and assists:

‘’No. So many (are better). I don’t want to say to the world that I’m the best because there’s no truth to that. In my mind, I’m the best version of myself, if you know what I mean? It’s different when you say you are the best in the world to the world. There are so many good players in my position. I’m doing my best. But I need to show more because I feel like I can do more. With goals, with assists, I can feel it. I know I play in a position where I help the centre backs, but I can do more.’’

Caicedo on Rice:

‘’Declan, everybody knows how good he is. It will be a great battle, me and him. It’s very nice, very special and like he said, we play in different positions. People compare him and myself but I’m so happy he’s doing really well. I enjoy watching him play because he’s so good. I want to play against the best defensive and attacking midfielders in the world and he’s one of them.’’

On his critics when he was struggling: ‘’If I told you it wasn’t hard then I would be lying. It was hard because I wanted to tell them that it’s about time but I preferred to do it rather than talk.’’

Caicedo says he has a knee issue which has been bugging him of late but not enough to ever say die:

‘’I feel pain sometimes. I’ve been playing with pain but I’m not going to stop until I break. I never give up. I get used to playing like this.’’ #CFC

(kierangill91)

THE BIG LONDON DERBY! IT'S MATCHDAY! 🦁

🆚 @Arsenal_london
🏟 Stamford Bridge
🤝 Premier League
⌚️ 4.30pm - UK
📺 Sky Sports - UK

COME ON CHELSEA! 🔵

👇🏽 What do you think guys 🤣😅