Before I started university I remember saying to a friend in the pub one night that it would most probably fly by. That’s exactly what has happened.

Last week I finished my second year studying journalism at the University of Kent.

This time next year I’ll be entering the big wide media world, looking for a job and aiming to ascend to the top of the greasy pole.

It’s a scary, but at the same time enticing, prospect.

For now I can enjoy a little bit of down time (and of course the World Cup), after what was a typically hectic end of term.

The highlight was my two weeks at the Independent.

Admittedly it was a little intimidating walking into a national newsroom for the first time. However, I settled in well and really enjoyed it. On my first day I was sent out to Watford to do some election vox popping and managed to get my name in the paper. Before the week was out I managed to get a few sidebars published.

At the end of the week, after being sent out to do another vox pop for the Independent on Sunday, I was invited to spend my final week there.

While a few of my ideas and articles fell by the wayside, the main story I was given to work on came off. I was tasked with finding Julie Andrews fans and their ‘favourite things’ related to the singer, ahead of her concert at the O2 Arena.

After an initially fruitless search I managed to find, with the help of Andrew Johnson – another reporter on the paper – a dozen or so and got quotes and pictures. The article appeared on pages 12 and 13 and I was absolutely ecstatic.

I was also lucky enough to be picked to work as a stringer on election night for Sky News. I was based down in Medway on the night, covering Gillingham and Rainham, where the incumbent MP Paul Clark had a majority of just 15.

Thanks to a few cans of Relentless, a keen ear and some nimble fingers, I was able to get the result back to Sky News HQ before any of the other media organisations reported it.

Away from the newsroom the football season came to its conclusion, and what a season it was for Chelsea.

Carlo Ancelotti and his players recovered from yet more Champions League heartbreak – this time against Inter Milan – to win the club’s first ever league and cup double – the most successful season in the club’s history.

Along the way I witnessed – and wrote about – some quite sensational games of football – the 2-1 win over Manchester United at Old Trafford, the 7-0 victory at home to Stoke, and of course the game that wrapped up the title – Chelsea 8-0 Wigan.

You can read my thoughts on what was an historic season here.

Now it’s time for some rest and relaxation – with some work experience sandwiched in between – before I return to Kent for my last year at uni.

One of the prevailing features of modern football is the decline in atmosphere. Many causes have been identified. The move to all-seater stadiums, ticket prices and television are all cited as reasons.

At Chelsea fans are doing something about it. In 2007 Jerry Kendix, a Chelsea season ticket holder who was fed up with the lack of atmosphere at Stamford Bridge, set up The Return to the Shed campaign. Three years on I caught up with him to learn more about the campaign and how it is going.

Jerry Kendix fondly remembers the old days, before all-seater stadiums, when the atmosphere at games used to be “electric”. Since the abolition of terracing in the aftermath of the Hillsborough disaster he has noticed the atmosphere at Stamford Bridge getting steadily worse.

The inspiration for the campaign came on a cold December’s day back in 2006. The Blues played Newcastle at Stamford Bridge and won a tepid encounter 1-0 thanks to a late strike from Didier Drogba. The game was pretty forgettable, but Kendix has one memory of the game – the complete lack of atmosphere.

‘The abiding memory I have of that evening was that the whole game was almost witnessed in silence. I sat there and thought: “This is just too much”’.

‘The game was so poor because of a lack of atmosphere and the staleness of everything that I thought “I’m going to have a crack at doing something about this”. So that’s what gave me the idea’.

The Shed End then...

After that initial idea he set to work on laying the foundations of the campaign. He set up a forum and began to contact prominent fan websites.

‘We got together with reps of the Chelsea Supporters Group and Dave Johnson of CFCNet and the guys on Vital Football and The Shed End and we basically promoted the campaign that way and through various other channels’.

‘We got the campaign off and running and we had a forum which I called Club Shed. We invited people to participate either by reading what was going on or just having their name as volunteers or members if you like’.

And with that the campaign was born.

It initially started out as The Return to Shed campaign and aimed to get fans who wanted to sing and chant to sit together at matches in the Shed End. ‘I thought there were, enough people dotted around the ground who could make a difference, who would make a difference, if they were sat in the same place,’ explains Kendix.

But improving the atmosphere is not the only aim of the campaign. Kendix also wants to bring back some of the sense of community that was present back in the “old days” he refers to with so much affection. Back then, going to a match was an entire day out, you knew everyone and you all drank in the same pubs. Now he says people can just turn up five minutes before kick off and there is none of the camaraderie that characterised going to football back then.

And the Shed End now

The first game that was targeted by the campaign was the clash with Middlesbrough in February 2007 and while it was a good start, at the next game against Sheffield United there was a marked difference in atmosphere. ‘By the end of the season we’d had the makings of a success’, says Kendix.

The club began to take the campaign seriously and started to listen to their views. Season ticket holders can now sit in the Shed End. With that goal achieved, Kendix changed the name of the group to Club Shed. It now works much more closely with the club. ‘I’m part of an atmosphere committee – there are three or four reps from the supporter’s clubs who meet up with the ticket manager and Ron Gourlay.’

‘We basically push ideas through, anything atmosphere related. So the club have been willing to help on many issues, they’ve realised that it helps them if we have a better atmosphere in the ground’.

The dialogue hasn’t always been harmonious though. To Kendix’s frustration the club have rejected many of the ideas that they have put forward. Club Shed presented the club with a 10-point plan to improve the atmosphere at Stamford Bridge.

‘What we did was we put up a 10 point plan and presented it to the club and said if you really want to make a difference these are the 10 things that you need to do. We didn’t say bring back terracing but we said the importance thing is to get like-minded people who are going to get behind the team to be in the same area and that either means terracing or more realistically, unreserved seating’.

To his surprise, the club didn’t completely dismiss the idea. In fact, they said they would consider trying it at a Carling Cup game this season. However, after speaking to other Premier League clubs Chelsea decided not to go ahead with it, which was a real blow, according to Kendix.

He remains convinced that unreserved seating or standing in some form would help arrest the decline in atmosphere he has witnessed down the years. But with seemingly little chance of that happening in the near future he has set his focus on other ways of reversing the trend.

‘The main problem for me is that people are still too far dispersed around the ground. What you need is hubs of people that would lead the other along. I’ve seen it in so many other grounds, especially if you go away in Europe – the grounds are really rocking. Primarily because there are 2 or 300 people in one particular section usually behind the goal who…are really sort of cheerleading if you like and leading the rest along’.

Kendix also wants to make it cheaper for younger fans to go to matches. Once you hit 16 you are classed as an adult and have to pay adult prices for season tickets, which can be as much as £800.

Of course the danger with such attempts to make a bit of noise is that it can all feel forced, contrived and stage-managed. Steve 52, who started going to Chelsea games in the 1960s, said: ‘A lot of the people who are involved don’t understand what needs to be done. Also, the younger fans aren’t really capable of recreating the atmosphere of old – different generation, different times’. Mark , 34, agrees, but thinks that it’s better than doing nothing.

Kendix understands such criticism and insists that while there has to be some element of stage-management to the whole process, the campaign doesn’t put forward ideas that are explicitly contrived. People have asked for claxons and drums at games, but they haven’t got off the ground because of this very reason. ‘You’ve got to generate it [atmosphere] somehow so there’s going to be an element of stage management of course but we all agreed that anything that was clearly forced wouldn’t progress’.

There has been a definite improvement at Stamford Bridge, but there’s still a lot to be done.

Kendix says; ‘It’s been a very interesting road that we’ve gone down. We could do so much more if we were allowed to and once we put a few things in place we would let it naturally run its course. Once you put the framework in place, i.e. get the people in the right place, coordinate things with the club, then you just let people sing and shout and do what they like’.

He concludes: ‘But until such time as we get either unreserved seating or an area behind the goals where we can put the 16-21s, people we can actually harness and get them to continue the good work then our work isn’t done. We’ll still crack on in the hope that we can get there one day. We keep banging away at the club, it’s just a case of watching this space really’.

As ever at the CfJ, it has been a very busy few weeks.

On 24th February, us second year undergraduates had our online newsday. We had a website – called the Centre for Journalism Newswire -  which was designed and maintained by Nick Poskitt, who did a fantastic job. From eight in the morning until five in the evening we were tasked with keeping it updated with news, video and audio under Beckah Floyd, who was editor.

I was on Sport and Comment, and it turned out to be an enjoyable day. Each desk produced at least one piece of multimedia content and the traffic we received wasn’t too shabby given it was our first day.

Last Wednesday (3rd March), the Director General of the BBC, Mark Thompson, delivered the second Bob Friend Memorial Lecture at the university. This years winner of the Bob Friend Memorial Scholarship is Daniel May, who seemed really pleased at winning. I’m sure he’ll enjoy his time at Sky News as much as I did.

I covered the lecture for the Centre for Journalism website (which also has video clips) and also got a bylined piece in the local paper – the Medway Messenger. At the end of the lecture Thompson took questions from the audience and I asked him about the closure of 6 Music and the BBC Asian Network, which gave me the top line for my piece.

Allan Little also visited the centre today and talked to first and second years about the industry and passed on some tips to us. My colleague Rebecca Hughes has posted on her site about his visit – incidentally she launched her site today.

In addition I’ve begun writing for Bleacher Report as a Chelsea Featured Columnist. The Blues are hardly a boring club to support or write about but these past few weeks have provided me with plenty of source material. The fan in me hopes I’ll be writing about a trophy win or two come May. You can view my columns by clicking here.

Next week of course it is the return of The Special One, Jose Mourinho, to Stamford Bridge, which should prove to be a very nervous evening. I’ll be in my usual seat in the West Stand, paying homage to the man who won us so many trophies during that glorious three-year spell.

That’s it for the moment. I doubt I’ll have much time to post on here before the end of term (9th April) as I have the usual deluge of essays and assignments to do before then. Bye for now.

This month I began work as a Chelsea Featured Columnist on Bleacher Report.

It entails me producing weekly columns about the team which will be syndicated with websites such as USA Today, Fox Sports, Sports Illustrated and the Telegraph.

You can read my first column here.

John Terry could lose the England captaincy following the revelations about an affair with Wayne Bridge's ex-girlfriend

On the pitch, John Terry is the embodiment of the power, passion and dedication that marks out any great leader. Throughout his career at Chelsea and for England, the 29-year-old has put his body on the line. Managers across the world would kill to have some like Terry in their team.

There is no doubt that he is a fantastic player, but as a man he leaves a lot to be desired.

Normally I am ready to overlook a player’s indiscretions off the field if he performs on it.

Ashley Cole is a case in point. His acrimonious falling out with Arsenal is well-documented. He cheated on his wife Cheryl (absolute madness if you ask me) and on Friday he was fined £1,000 and banned from driving for four months after being caught doing 104mph in a 50 zone.

On the field though, he is a brilliant left back, one of the best in the world.

But Terry is different. He is the leader of his country. He should be held up to a much higher standard. He should be an example for others to follow.

If the papers are to be believed, he didn’t just have an affair with anybody - he slept with his ex-team mate’s girlfriend, got her pregnant and then arranged for an abortion.

When Wayne Bridge left Chelsea last January for Manchester City – a club Terry nearly joined in the summer - the Chelsea skipper said: “He’ll be missed and I’m still in shock a little bit, because it’s a shame to see one of the lads go who you have grown up with and been with a long time. I’m disappointed but for him it was the right decision. He was great to have around the place.”

The pair were clearly good friends.

Bridge is said to be ‘in bits’ after finding out about the affair, and who can blame him? How would you feel if someone you thought was one of your best friends was sleeping with your girlfriend?

Of course everyone makes mistakes, no one is perfect. The problem is, this is not an isolated incident. Terry has done this before. Most people learn from their mistakes. Terry hasn’t. In 2005 he said: “I’ve mis-behaved and slept with girls behind her [wife Toni Terry’s] back. I’m not going to cheat on her ever again and I want to marry her more than anything.”

The affair could affect dressing room unity just four months before the start of the World Cup.

Noises coming out of the Football Association’s headquarters is that the decision will ultimately rest with manager Fabio Capello. He will have to decide how damaging this affair is. Should what a player gets up to in his private life affect his profession? Such a judgement is not black and white. This fling blurs the distinctions between the two.

Losing the captaincy would be a crushing blow to Terry. He clearly wears it with pride. Sympathy would not be forthcoming, because, in the end, he would have no one to blame but himself.

After years of waiting we had finally made it: The Champions League Final

This is something I have been working on for a few months now, when I had the idea of writing an e-book on my experiences following Chelsea from the arrival of Jose Mourinho in 2004 to the present day. Let me know what you think.

I will never forget the night of April 30th 2008. Chelsea 3-2 Liverpool, 4-3 on aggregate. It meant we were going to Moscow and the first Champions League final in our history. The atmosphere at the Bridge that night was unlike anything I have ever heard, then or since. It was incredible and made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. The Matthew Harding Stand was literally shaking and my vocal chords took one almighty pounding.

After the pain of the semi final defeat in 2007 and the five-hour coach journey back from Anfield this was sweet revenge. If you had said to my Dad 20 years ago that he would have the chance to see his team in a Champions League final he would have thrown his head back and laughed. But in 2008 it became sweet reality.

There was no doubt in my mind that we would go, could we really miss the biggest game in the club’s history? My Dad required a bit of persuading I’ll admit. Initially he decided we wouldn’t be going. It would cost us near enough £1,000 each and I had A Level exams – my future – to worry about. I needed two As and a B to get into university and a Politics resit was on the Friday after the final.

I began to resign myself to defeat and tried my best to keep my head buried in books instead of up in the clouds dreaming of a Chelsea triumph in Moscow.

The Luzhniki Stadium

Then my Dad realised – he might never see this day again. I have my whole life ahead of me. He had just hit 50 and who knows what the future holds? We took the plunge: we got tickets and return flights for just under £1,000 each. All that was left was to wait for the day to roll around. I vividly remember working in the pub in the run up to the final and dreaming dreams of triumph during quiet moments, with Dad the other side of the bar nursing a pint and no doubt doing the same thing.

I could think of nothing else. This was the biggest game in Chelsea’s history and of my life. Winning the Premier League, Carling Cup and FA Cup was special but nothing would compare to the Champions League. The Holy Grail.

The game dominated my every waking moment. These are the moments that every football fan lives for.

Since this was no ordinary game, our preparations were that extra bit special. We bought home shirts with the match details on it and my Dad got a banner made. It read: ‘Chelsea is our name, keep the faith…With special thanks to Rafa and Riise’. Our gratitude to the Norwegian was self-explanatory. His own goal at the end of the semi final first leg proved crucial. Benitez also helped us get to Moscow – by taking off Fernando Torres when the Reds still had a chance to win the tie.

The banner we had made for the game

Gatwick airport. 7:00am, 21st May 2008. This it. We are sitting in the airport’s departure lounge, nursing a Magners over ice. I have been up since 4am. A four-hour flight lies ahead of us. Our pre-flight chat was on one subject and one subject only. The papers were full of news and comment on what for many was the biggest game of football since 1966. I was an absolute nervous wreck.

The hours before kick off flew by. We got lost for a while amidst the hustle and bustle of Moscow, eventually managed to find the stadium and then milled around in the fan zone before heading through the turnstiles to our seats. We were right above the tunnel, Row 16. For a long period of time I just stood there and took it all in, I do not think what I was witnessing had quite dawned on me. This was beyond my wildest dreams.

40 years on from Munich, Manchester United fans believed this would be their night

The big screens were playing classic finals moments on a loop – United’s incredible comeback in Barcelona, Zidane’s volley in 2001, and ‘that night in Istanbul’.

When kick off actually came my stomach felt like a mass of jelly. We started sloppily and should have been a couple of goals down within the first half an hour. We were being run ragged. Ronaldo put the United ahead just before the half hour mark and my heart sank. My legs were aching – I was far too nervous to sit down. I belted out the usual Chelsea chants and tried to keep my hopes up. After all, there was after all a long way to go.

Just before half time we leveled things up. Michael Essien hit a shot and the ball deflected through to Frank Lampard, who stroked the ball past a stranded Edwin Van der Sar. The pandemonium in the Chelsea end was simply unforgettable, I’ve never experienced a feeling quite like it. Gone was my usual reserved nature. I exploded into life, fueled by a cocktail of heady jubilation.

Like most of the night, the half time break was a blur. As the second half progressed I became more and more convinced that this would be our night. The Chelsea side I witnessed in the second half bore no relation to the lethargic imposters I had watched with such despair in the first period.

We had been through so much to reach this moment – Monaco, Barcelona, Liverpool (twice) – I began to develop an iron conviction that we would do it. Every year I had got my hopes up only to have them dashed. Surely tonight would be the night?

We came agonsingly close. Didier Drogba could have won it in normal time but his shot cannoned off the post. Extra-time came and with every passing minute the horrible spectre of penalties loomed ever larger.

This was the scene just before kick off

The pivotal moment in extra time came in the 116th minute. Didier Drogba once again displayed the unsavoury side to his character by slapping Nemanja Vidic. This occurred over the other side of the pitch to where I was standing and confusion reigned in the immediate aftermath of the incident. Someone behind me shouted out that it was Terry that had been given his marching orders.

Then as Drogba trudged towards the tunnel it all became clear. He received some hefty abuse from the fans around me and while I did not join them, I could understand their reaction. Drogba had done his team no good and put them at a disadvantage with a bout of immature petulance. That short walk must have felt like miles for him.

As the whistle blew for the end of extra time I let out a groan. I did not want it to end like this. Chelsea’s record at this point in penalty shootouts was quite frankly shocking: you would had to have gone back to a cup game against Ipswich in 1998 to find the last time we triumphed from the spot. But still, ever the optimist I tried to believe.

The banner making its first appearance

To be perfectly honest, given how things panned out I have repressed nearly all of the penalty shoot out. The misses by Ronaldo, Terry and Anelka I remember. When the Portugal international stuttered in his run up and then saw his kick parried by Cech the reaction in the Chelsea section of the ground was sheer mayhem. Supporters around me were celebrating like we had won the thing as John Terry stepped forward in the driving rain and readied himself for the kick that could win us the Champions League.

What happened next was an iconic moment, a passage of time that will never leave the conscience of any fan watching the match. Terry slipped as he took his kick and the ball brushed the post. Van Der Sar had gone the other way and was beaten. A wall of noise from the United end hit me like a slap in the face. Terry lay on the wet turf, crestfallen. A sickening feeling of despair swept over me. I knew then that we had lost it.

Anelka’s soft spot kick was academic. I could tell just by observing his run up and general demeanor that he was going to miss.

The United fans and players were mad with joy and celebrated as such. There are some moments in life that just leave you speechless. What could we say after witnessing what we had just seen?

We stayed to see the United players lift the trophy just to the left of where we were sitting. As the seats around me emptied I sat back down and looked around. The United players were parading the trophy in front of their fans and rogue streams of ticker tape were blowing around the pitch. The dejected Chelsea players and staff were long gone.

Frank Lampard salutes the fans as he leaves the pitch

I tilted my head back despairingly and looked up to the sky and contemplated the now undoubtedly nightmarish journey home that awaited me. I had no idea how right I would be.

The biting Moscow night cut through me as I walked with my Dad to our pick up point. Hordes of fans from both sides were everywhere, under the watchful guard of the Russian army and police. We didn’t have to wait long to catch a bus. As I sat back in my seat the piercing silence said it all. By this point I’d been awake for nearly 24 hours and I drifted off to sleep, occasionally being jerked awake as our bus meandered its way through the streets of the Russian capital towards Vnukovo airport.

My sense of time was hazy by this point. It was the early hours of the morning Russian time when we walked through the airport towards our gate. What awaited us was akin to a scene from a disaster movie. Hordes of people were massed in front of the departure gates. Amidst all of the confusion I managed to spot a handful of Chelsea’s youth team, which diverted attention away from our predicament for a minute or two.

The procedure Thomas Cook chose for getting us back home was a curious one. We were not given a specific flight back. Instead we went to whichever gate had a flight going back to the airport from where we came from. We would be in the air by 3am at the latest they said.

Avram Grant, in what turned out to be his last game as Chelsea manager

Suffice to say this did not work too well in practice. Nothing seemed to happen and the hours passed. Frustrations boiled over and our Thomas Cook reps were in the firing line. When we finally got to the front of the gate we were told our plane had a cracked windscreen. A replacement would have to be flown in. ETA?

12pm.

A rueful smile passed over my face, I was too tired to get worked up about it. People were angry, and the fact that we had lost did not help matters. If we had won I would have been on such a high that I would have probably had a go at fixing the cracked windscreen and then offered to fly the bloody plane as well.

I found a few spare seats and tried to get some sleep. A bar close by had a Russian news channel on, which showed highlights of the game every 20 minutes or so. I did not need much extra incentive to doze off by this point – but here was some more.

The replacement plane came and that afternoon – nine hours later than planned – we were finally on our way home. My phone picked up a flurry of texts when we landed. Most expressed sympathy and said how unlucky we were. I stepped through my front door at 6pm on Thursday, 42 hours after me and my Dad had set off.

When I say to people that I was in Moscow they often say how disappointing it must have been. While it was, my memories of the day are bittersweet. My Dad saw something he never thought he would see in his wildest dreams, as did many of the 21,000 Chelsea fans in the Luzhniki on that night. We witnessed history. Chelsea’s first Champions League final and the first all English one to boot.

We will do it one day, and the pain of Moscow will make that eventual triumph all the sweeter.

It is something that will always stay with me.

Kakuta finally got the chance to showcase his skills against Wolves this afternoon

Over the last few months Gael Kakuta has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

The precocious 18-year-old was banned for four months by Fifa in September as a result of his move to West London in 2007 from French side Lens.

It was the first time many people had heard of him. But for keen followers of Chelsea the buzz surrounding the Frenchman has been apparent and burgeoning long before Fifa’s Dispute Resolution Chamber sanctioned him. And it seemed as if that ban would delay his inevitable breakthrough into the Chelsea first team.

That was until the Court of Arbitration for Sport suspended the ban, pending a final decision on the case.

This turn of events, combined with the Blues’ injury problems – the likes of Michael Ballack, Deco, Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard are all currently out of action – to present Kakuta with his big chance against Wolves at Stamford Bridge this afternoon.

And he grabbed it with both hands.

Those massed inside the stadium gave the youngster a thunderous reception as he took to the pitch, and he soon showed them what he could do.

His first action was to leave his defender for dead with a lightning quick turn and shot that had fans up off their seats.

Kakuta proceeded to display all of the attributes you would want in a winger – an eye for goal as well as a pass, the ability to deliver a telling cross and pace in abundance.

It was reminiscent of Arjen Robben’s debut for Chelsea against Blackburn in 2004, and some will be tempted to compare the two.

The cameo in Chelsea’s 4-0 win will undoubtedly leave Carlo Ancelotti beaming with delight. The Italian was gushing with his praise for him in the build up to today’s game.

“At that age I have never seen a player with his talent,” said Ancelotti.

“Technically he is fantastic. He is a No10, like Joe Cole or Deco. Physically he is not yet strong enough to be a first-team regular but technically he is certainly ready to come on [as a substitute].

Carlo Ancelotti wil have to manage the precocious youngster carefully

“He can be a big player for Chelsea with his quality, and his character is very good too.”

That is heady praise indeed, and it will increase the pressure on the youngster’s shoulders.

After today’s performance people will sit up and take note. The question is, will he kick on from here and make this the start of something special?

Ancelotti will have to ensure he manages Kakuta carefully. Plenty of youngsters have shown early promise before fading away into obscurity. For a case in point Ancelotti doesn’t have to look very far.

Scott Sinclair had many Blues fans purring with his displays for their youth and reserve sides not so long ago but he failed to make the step up and is currently out on loan yet again.

If Ancelotti gets it right with Kakuta, however, he could have quite a player on his hands.

Ashley Cole celebrates his goal, which set Chelsea on their way to a 3-0 win. Photo from the Daily Telegraph

Recent clashes between these two London rivals have been the stage for many Chelsea defenders to make themselves unlikely heroes: Juliano Belletti scored has scored twice against Spurs and both William Gallas and Ricardo Carvalho have hit memorable winning goals.

Yesterday Ashley Cole added his name to that list. The left back stooped low to head beyond Carlo Cudicini just past the half hour mark to set Carlo Ancelotti’s side on their way to a win that keeps them top of the Premier League and maintains their 100% start to the season.

But to pretend this was all plain sailing for the home side would be wrong. Harry Redknapp’s team looked the most likely to take the lead before Cole scored, and Robbie Keane was adamant he had won a penalty minutes into the second half which could have changed the complexion of the game.

Jose Bosingwa came the closest of any Chelsea player to opening the scoring with seven minutes on the clock, hitting the angle between post and bar, but apart from that it was Spurs who could lay claim to creating the best chances.

Wilson Palacios put Jermain Defoe through for the away side’s first opportunity, but the England striker’s shot was blocked by Cech. Tom Huddlestone and Jermaine Jenas also came close to finding the net – demonstrating why Spurs had a 100% record before last weekend’s meeting with Manchester United.

Then with just over 30 minutes gone Chelsea took the lead. Those inside Stamford Bridge could hardly believe the sight of Cole wheeling away in celebration, having headed in from Didier Drogba’s cross. The former Arsenal man has now scored in consecutive league games.

Drogba had the last chance of the first half, firing a free kick into the Spurs wall.

Two minutes into the second period it should have been 2-0, Drogba pulled the ball back for Lampard in the penalty area and everyone expected the net to bulge. However, the usually clinical midfielder shot wide when many would have put money on him scoring.

Ledley King – who had gone down injured in the course of the move – was forced off, and Alan Hutton replaced him.

The game then turned decisively on 54 minutes. Robbie Keane raced into the box and appeared to be caught by Carvalho but no penalty was given. The striker was incredulous, running to remonstrate with referee Howard Webb. A spot kick could have given Spurs a way back into the game, but minutes later Chelsea doubled their lead.

Didier Drogba powers home Chelsea's third. Photo from the official Chelsea web site.

Lampard turned provider after Cudicini had parried Drogba’s shot, and Michael Ballack was on hand to put the ball into the net.

Five minutes later it was three. Cole played a high ball over the top and Drogba held off Vedran Corluka and bore down on goal. The Croatia defender attempted to nick the ball away from the Ivorian, but in doing so only diverted the ball past his keeper, and Drogba smashed the ball in for good measure.

Chelsea could have had a penalty of their own soon afterwards. The ball struck Benoit Assou-Ekotto’s arm from a Lampard free kick, but it wasn’t spotted by Howard Webb.

Substitute Peter Crouch came close to scoring for Tottenham, sending a shot from 25 yards out not far over the bar.

John Obi Mikel – who replaced Ballack – sent in a volley that squirmed under Cudicini and was then pushed round the post by the Italian stopper.

An injury apiece on either side then broke up the play and gave everyone a chance to catch their breath. First Sebastian Bassong fell awkwardly when challenging with Nicolas Anelka, and then Drogba went down after slicing a shot.

His replacement, Salomon Kalou, struck the post as eight minutes of injury time were signaled. He was joined up top by 18-year-old Fabio Borini, who made his first team debut.

This is the club’s 11th successive league win. Life continues to be good for Carlo Ancelotti’s Chelsea.

On his way: Kenyon is to leave his role as chief executive

Peter Kenyon will leave his role as Chelsea chief executive on 31st October, the club has announced.

Kenyon will however remain a non-executive director at the club and represent Carlo Ancelotti’s side at various UEFA and European meetings.

The news comes just weeks after Chelsea were banned from making transfers by Fifa as punishment for their pursuit of French youngster Gael Kakuta.

In a statement released on the club’s official website he said: “I am extremely proud of my time at Chelsea and of the friendships I have forged with everyone here. I have been in football for 15 years and I can say with great certainty and pleasure the experience at Chelsea is one of the best I have had.

“When I joined Chelsea it was an incredible challenge and together with all the staff, the players, the board and Roman, I think we have really built a club, in a relatively short space of time, that can be in the forefront of European football for many years to come. That is a major achievement.

He added: “I am also delighted that our relationship is not ending and I can continue to make a contribution to keeping Chelsea in that position and to go back to visit friends.”

Chairman Bruce Buck said:

“Peter has done a fantastic job for Chelsea in the last five-and-a-half years and has been absolutely central to the success on and off the field we have had during that time. Without his football knowledge and business acumen Chelsea would not be where we are today.

“Everyone at Chelsea thanks him for that contribution and although he will not be with us on a permanent basis he will have an important role to play as a non-executive director and in the various roles he holds in European football bodies.”

Up and running: Nicolas Anelka celebrates his strike which gave the Blues all three points. Photo courtesy of the Guardian.

As far as first steps on the road to potential Champions League glory go, this was a fairly uninspiring start for Chelsea.

Carlo Ancelotti will pleased with the three points – which were secured with a strike just after half time from Nicolas Anelka – but he will know that his side can play much better than this. The Italian could counter that at this stage it is points, not performances that matter. And these points were gained without the likes of Didier Drogba, Jose Bosingwa, Joe Cole and Yuri Zhirkov.

On a rain sodden night in West London Frank Lampard was the first player to get an effort on target, forcing Porto’s Helton into making a save.

The Portuguese champions then had two efforts at goal in a frantic opening few minutes. First Hulk let rip with a shot that Cech chose to save with his legs. From the resulting corner Rodriguez, under pressure from Michael Essien, headed over.

With eight minutes on the clock there was a coming together between the captains – John Terry and Bruno Alves – and the England defender needed treatment before being able to continue.

Lampard was getting right into the thick of things, setting up Nicolas Anelka for a shot on goal and having two chances himself, both of which he squandered.

Michael Ballack and Salomon Kalou came as close as any Chelsea player to opening the scoring when they both slid in and just failed to make contact with a teasing Branislav Ivanovic cross.

But as the game began to drift towards half time, the Blues began to concede possession cheaply and Porto could so easily have taken the lead. Gaurin found himself in space but could only head over the bar. His team mate Raul Meireles also found himself unmarked but again he couldn’t get his effort on target.

Then just minutes after the restart Ancelotti’s side took the lead. Kalou was the provider, prodding the ball through to Anelka, who finished nimbly at the second time of asking after his initial shot had been saved by Helton.

Florent Malouda nearly made it two five minutes later, however his header only hit the side netting.

The game was played on a wet night in West London. Photo courtesy of the official Chelsea web site.

Ivanovic – deputising for Bosingwa at right back then sent in another excellent cross on 58 minutes and Helton had to be at his best to keep out Kalou’s header.

1-0 is always a precarious winning margin, as Chelsea found to their heartbreaking cost against Barcelona last season, and, aided by some slack play from the home side, Porto sensed they could get something from this game.

This translated into shots from Hulk, Guarin, Falcao and Varela as those inside Stamford Bridge nervously waited for the final whistle to go.

There was still time for Fernando to be shown a second yellow card for a late tackle on Ashley Cole.

When the final whistle blew the sense of relief around the stadium was tangible. An improvement will need to be made on this performance, but there is a long way to Madrid yet.