There is nothing like an away day with Chelsea. For supporters of a certain age a chance to go on a road trip with your mates, get on the beers and then cheer Chelsea on win, lose or draw is what it is all about. These days Chelsea are lucky enough to be in European competition every season which affords the opportunity to visit new and sometimes exotic cities and check out new bars and the local entertainment. We are less likely to get to visit a lower league ground, but if the League or FA Cup throws up such a fixture it is not to be missed.
This season was no exception, and there were three stand out nominations.
The first, and somewhat surprisingly was a visit to London rivals Arsenal. What’s special about that I hear you ask? Well it is if you play them in the Capital One Cup and we get a massive 9,000 allocation at £10 per ticket.
This was the hottest ticket for Chelsea supporters at the time, well aware that an allocation of 9,000 at that price would provide us with an opportunity to absolutely monster Arsenal and their Latte drinking supporters before, during and after the game. And so it proved. Chelsea took liberties on and off the pitch. Many of us met up in the Shakespeare pub in Holburn before noisily travelling up to the Emirates Stadium. Clearly the Arsenal supporters had been dreading this visit – Chelsea had not been to Arsenal in this number since before the Premier League. Their twitter meltdown was hilarious before and after provoking a mass outbreak of naming and shaming Chelsea supporters as “Chelsea Scum”; “Chavski” and “No Class”, proving if nothing else, that Arsenal supporters really are the Scousers of London. With the whole of one end all for us, we made a deafening noise all night. The loudest cheer being for a superb Juan Mata goal to seal a 2-0 win, and what proved to be his last goal for the club.
The next nomination was for the trip to Galatasaray in the Champions League. Istanbul has a pretty dodgy reputation for visiting supporters from England. In fact Chelsea’s last visit 
in the 1998/99 season was intimidatingly labelled “Welcome to Hell” with many a cut-throat gesture being made. We rose above it all then and battered them 5-0 on the pitch and proclaimed that “we’re not bothered” off it.
This time we proved that “We’re still not bothered”. The reality being that far from hell, Istanbul was a fantastic place to visit and a good and very drunken time was had by most. The match wasn’t particularly up to much, although you do get a decent atmosphere in the ground with flares and flags aplenty. It was also the first chance for Chelsea supporters to applaud Didier Drogba since his legendary Champions League final winning penalty kick.
And finally, the trip to Paris – last done in 2003/04 was a welcome return. Only a short hop through the Eurotunnel, and a fantastic City to explore and drink in. Rumours of trouble at the Frog & Rosbifs turned out to be a storm in a tea cup and the over-imaginative scribbling’s of a low rent freelance journalist. Tremendous atmosphere inside the ground in spite of the French police intimidating the Chelsea supporters with tear gas and storm trooper tactics, and a protective net that obscured the view for many. The result was horrible – a 3-1 defeat but it could not dampen the spirits of the Chelsea supporters who in an attempt to fend off the spring chill took to burning a few PSG flags having re-decorated the capital city of the art world with the legendary Chelsea stickers for most of the trip out there.
If you want to vote for the Away Day of the Season then all you have to do is vote below. We will be revealing the results and discussing what we voted for on the Chelsea FanCast on Monday 19th May. Watch the show live at 19.00-21.00 GMT (Voting closes at 19.30 GMT) by going to sportstonightlive.com or on this website here or of course you can listen and post in the chat room at Mixlr.
Loading ...
