This month’s Chelsea magazine is out in both digital and print formats, with Oscar the cover star.
In another action-packed edition, the Brazilian is the star attraction, with plenty more to keep you occupied, including Jose Mourinho and Fernando Torres, as well as a celebration of Lord Attenborough’s 90th birthday and a look back 50 years to a memorable, young, winning team.
The main attraction this month, Oscar has been one of our leading lights on the field so far this season, and believes his recent goalscoring form is a direct result of feeling right at home in west London following a year of adaptation and acclimatisation.
‘I feel a lot more confident this year and I am sure that I am going to score a lot more goals,’ he tells Chelsea.
‘I am ambitious for this season and I am happy with the way things are going for me at the moment. We have started well and I want to make sure that this is a big year; a year in which Chelsea win titles.’
In his debut campaign, he made an astonishing 64 appearances, growing into a creative role off the main striker, regularly switching positions with Juan Mata and Eden Hazard.
‘It really did help,’ he says, referring to the number of games he played for Chelsea in 2012/13. ‘This was clear when you look at how I finished last season, when it was clear that I was settled and that I had learned more and felt stronger in my game.
‘I started my first season well and the other players welcomed me and helped me to develop, all of which helps me and contributes to this season. Now, I am feeling even stronger and I would like to play as many games for the team this year as I did last year.’
He is far from a one-trick pony too, and is as appreciated for his tracking back as he is for his range of stunning goals, and the physical side of the game has never daunted the slightly built midfielder.
‘I always watched Premier League matches from Brazil and considered this to be the best league in Europe, if not the world,’ he says in the interview.
‘So, it was always a dream for me to come and play here. In Brazil, we know that there is more contact in the English game and that it is a more dynamic style of play. Last year, from playing here, I realised that is the case. However, I have adapted my game to this and, despite it being strong and dynamic in style, it is also very technical.
‘The best evidence of that is to look around you here at Chelsea and see the great technical players we have in our team. Increasingly – game by game and training session by training session – we are improving and it looks like things are very well set for this season.’
Ask the boss
Oscar is a subject raised again when Jose Mourinho sat down to go through the magazine’s favourite posers sent in by fans via social media.
The manager discusses his feelings when the player netted the first goal of his second spell in charge of the Blues, plus his inspirations and his grasp of several languages, as well as his thoughts on how Frank Lampard of today compares with 10 years ago.
The boys in blue in Division Two
Mourinho celebrated his 50th birthday earlier this year, and there is another such anniversary marked in this month’s Chelsea, as the edition takes look back at our 1963 promotion-winning side, under the management of Tommy Docherty.
And there’s much more…
Fernando Torres was a goalscorer in May’s UEFA Europa League final, and he marks that as one of the favourite matches of his career in the Games That Made Me feature, which takes the Spaniard back to his youth as he recalls playing at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light as a teenager and watching Atletico Madrid with his grandfather.
This month’s One of Us is Formula 1 TV presenter Natalie Pinkham, who once did a few stints herself on our own Chelsea TV, while we also celebrate the 90th birthday of Lord Attenborough, our life president and quite possible our most famous fan!
All this, and more, is available in the October edition of Chelsea, priced at £3.25 and in stores now, including the Megastore at Stamford Bridge and the Kingston Store.
Individual digital issues of Chelsea are available for just £2.99, and you can click on the relevant link below to buy yours now.
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