Branislav Ivanovic

Branislav Ivanovic | Serbia & Chelsea Superstar

Alan Irvine’s appointment as the new coach of West Bromwich Albion came as a surprise to many fans of the Premier League club taking into consideration all the options of managers that were available but instead the officials of the club opted to go with someone who has never before coached a club in the Premier League.
Irvine was delegated with the role of coaching West Bromwich Albion on June 14 of the ongoing year and during the first few months it took some time for positive results to be seen as the club sustained successive draws with Sunderland and Southampton before losing with Swansea City and Everton.

Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic has claimed that he expects the club to play an attractive style of football in the coming campaign. The club wasted no time in strengthen their squad after the opening of the transfer window. They have brought in Diego Costa, Cesc Fabregas, and Filipe Luis, while Thibaut Courtois has also been recalled from his loan spell at Atletico Madrid. These three acquisitions are expected to bring a different style of football to the club. Cesc Fabregas, in particular, is known as a player who can find the precise passes to unlock defences.

Branislav Ivanovic is believed to be on the radar of Arsenal, but, it doesn’t seem that the Gunners would succeed in securing the services of the defender.

The transfer fee that Arsenal has planned to offer Chelsea is somewhere close to 8 million Pounds. In all likelihood, this bid would be rejected by the Blues as they rate the Serbian international fairly highly and would not let him go at a penny less than 15 million Pounds.

Also, Ivanovic would demand very high salary, probably about 150 thousand Pounds on a weekly basis, which Arsenal is unlikely to agree on.

The Gunners are expected to lose Thomas Vermaelen who has been one of their key centre-backs in the last few years. The Belgian is rumoured to be all set to make his way to Old Trafford.

Paris Saint Germain is weighing up another move for a Chelsea player as they plan to make a move for unsettled Serbian defender Branislav Ivanovic.

Having already completed the signing of one Blues defender in David Luiz this summer, the cash rich French club is looking to bolster its defense further with the addition of Luiz’s former team mate for a fee of around £ 15 million.

Having already allowed Brazilian defender Alex to leave for AC Milan and with Barcelona interested in signing young full back Marquinhos, Laurent Blanc is looking at alternative defenders to strengthen the team’s back line as he looks to find a winning formula for Europe.

Ahead of the match with Chelsea, Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has stated that the striker Luis Suarez has come a long way since the famous biting incident involving Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic. In this fixture 12 months ago, Suarez was found guilty of biting Ivanovic. The English FA then banned him for a record 10 matches, a suspension that was carried into this campaign as well. However, Suarez has become a player transformed since then. He has managed to get the club close to the Premier league title, while on a personal level he has won several titles like the PFA Player of the Year award.

Jose Mourinho has praised with a special spirit at Chelsea by saying that they have made it into the semifinals of the Champions League with a severely under strength squad.

Two of the signings made by Mourinho in the January transfer window – Nemanja Matic and Mohamed Salah – would not be available till the rest of the campaign in this competition. This coupled with several injuries to the likes of Samuel Eto’o and Eden Hazard means that Chelsea will be tested to the limit. However, they have managed to survive one of the tests after managing to beat PSG 2-0 in the second leg of the quarter-finals.

Serbian defender Branislav Ivanovic has been a constant fixture at the right back for Chelsea this campaign. His performances have been far superior to that of any player in the backline and it has cost Jose Mourinho to field Azpilicueta as the left back.

The Spaniard has even been able to dislodge the default left back at the club – Ashley Cole. Ivanovic has been playing in every match he was fit. The Serbian has also repaid the faith shown by Mourinho by scoring some important goals with the most recent one coming against Manchester city in the league.

Branislav Ivanovic has been in top form for Chelsea this season and in the last two away matches he has been just sublime. His important goal in the match against Manchester City which took them to the top of the table was hailed by Mourinho and the fans and the late equalizer by West Bromwich Albion stole the chances of Chelsea getting a 4 point gap between them and Arsenal who were also held back by the defending champions Manchester United in a goalless draw.

Branislav Ivanovic and Frank Lampard both sustained injuries during Chelsea’s match against Liverpool as they played in December of last year and according to injury updates from Jose Mourinho, the English midfielder might just be able to make his recovery in time for their upcoming match against Manchester United but Ivanovic is not likely to make it.

“Lampard is training all week with the team so normally yes. Ivanovic has not had one training session. He will today but I don’t think he can play’’. Mourinho stated.

Lampard suffered from a muscular problem while Ivanovic picked up a knee injury and both are regular starters for Mourinho but even with their absence, Chelsea has managed to deal well without their 2 key performers.

Branislav Ivanovic is confident that this is the best time for Chelsea to close the gap between themselves and the leaders of the Premier League, Arsenal who are only 4 points ahead of them.

Chelsea took an early scare when playing against Southampton in their hometown Stamford Bridge as the visiting team scored within the opening 14 seconds of the match but the team of Jose Mourinho responded in the 2nd half with Gary Cahill, John Terry and Demba all scoring as they earned all 3 vital points.