A blog of two halves

It’s early days, and there are much sterner tests ahead, but Chelsea’s start to the season has put a spring back into everyone’s step at the Bridge.

At the start of June 2016 the distinguished football historian Peter Lupson informed me that a young player of his acquaintance had just signed for Fulham's academy. He suggested my interviewing the youngster for this blog.

A muggy night in London can’t explain away Chelsea’s laboured performance in the EFL Cup, scraping past Bristol Rovers at Stamford Bridge.

Who needs Special Ones when you’ve got Animated Ones? With touchline sprints, pirouettes and long jumps that wouldn’t have disgraced Rio, Antonio Conte instantly endeared himself to Blues fans as he managed a winning start to the new season.

Many Fulham fans will have seen the photograph of the 1897/98 first team wearing the red and white shirts adorned with the now familiar club badge.

If Chelsea found last year’s Premier League tough going, this campaign adds different challenges.

Filling in my new diary back in January I highlighted the date of the Championship playoff final.

The club’s official report of Fulham’s exhilarating contest with Newcastle on a warm Friday evening spoke of ‘a quiet first –half’.

Leaving aside the disrespectful way cup-winning manager Louis van Gaal has been treated by Manchester United, with his sacking common knowledge days before he was officially told, news that Jose Mourinho is returning to Premier League management is bittersweet for Chelsea fans.

Junior Hoilett may have worn the QPR shirt for the last time.