Poor, poor Chelsea

Thursday evening in Monaco was UEFA's Champions League group draw, which saw title holders Barcelona put in the same group as their perennial nemesis (and mine) Chelsea. What amazes me here is that two time defending EPL champs Chelsea aren't even included in the top pool of clubs UEFA uses to seed the group phase. So despite their $200 million roster and back-to-back EPL trophies, the Blues still aren't considered a top seed in Europe's eyes. Now they have two fixtures with the unstoppable force that is Barcelona just to make it through to the round of 16. And we all know how Chelsea has fared against the Catalians the last two years: o-fer

The way it works is UEFA uses a formula to evaluate and seed the 32 teams that make the Champions League draw, based on domestic record, strength of domestic league, and international record over the last five years. Now I know Chelsea haven't had near the success in Europe as their counterparts Liverpool and Arsenal (both of which were included in this year's top pool), but give them credit where it's due, because they've been wiping the floor with both of those clubs when it comes to the Prem. I hate to praise them, but let's face it, Chelsea have dominated English football recently.

The U.S. knows all about getting a bum rap when the lottery balls are bouncing (see World Cup draw, with the U.S. a 9th seed and the top 8 seeds getting placed in seperate groups--how'd that end up working out for us?), however the point is that Chelsea have been assembled for the sole purpose of winning Europe, and they have yet to make even the semis. That's not to say they stopped caring about domestic ties--although anyone watching them against Middlesborough would argue otherwise, what a pathetic final fifteen minutes!--but at this point, owner Roman Abamovich desperately wants to own the only trophy that has yet to grace his cupboard, the Champions League. And guess what? The world's 49th richest man is going to have to wait another year, 'cause either Barca repeats or Inter Milan is going to bring home the hardware, you heard it here first.

To see the official Champions League group draw, as well as the four pools of clubs UEFA used in the lottery, see the following page: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=340368&cc=5901