{"id":443681,"date":"2017-12-05T01:00:26","date_gmt":"2017-12-05T01:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ghana-mma.com\/2017\/12\/05\/chelsea-still-in-the-title-race-essien\/"},"modified":"2017-12-05T01:00:26","modified_gmt":"2017-12-05T01:00:26","slug":"chelsea-still-in-the-title-race-essien","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/12\/05\/chelsea-still-in-the-title-race-essien\/","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea still in the title race &#8211; Essien"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"medsection1\">\n<!-- End of html generated by this->header() --><\/p>\n<p class=\"floatLeft\">Players Abroad of Tuesday,  5 December 2017<\/p>\n<p class=\"floatRight\"><strong>Source: <\/strong>Goal.com <\/p>\n<p>2017-12-05<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-left\">\n<p class=\"article-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/34677288.295.jpg\" alt=\"Essien Chelsea1\" title=\"Essien Chelsea1\" width=\"295\" height=\"166\" \/><span class=\"image_caption\"><span>Essien played for Chelsea between 2005 and 2014.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"noPrint\">\n<div id=\"537626303\" style=\"width:300;height:250;margin:0;padding:0\">\n<p>\t\t  <noscript><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"b2ad7fa7fd\" name=\"b2ad7fa7fd\" src=\"http:\/\/ghanaweb-d.openx.net\/w\/1.0\/afr?auid=537626303&amp;cb=151125813921649\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\"><a href=\"\/\/ghanaweb-d.openx.net\/w\/1.0\/rc?cs=b2ad7fa7fd&amp;cb=151125813921649\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/1512435626_489_ai\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/iframe><\/noscript><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"clear:right\">The Ghanaian tips the Blues to go toe to toe with Manchester City for the Premier League title<\/p>\n<p>Former Chelsea star Michael Essien believes the side&#8217;s Premier League title ambition is far from over, despite currently trailing leaders Manchester City by 11 points.<\/p>\n<p>The Blues sit third on the table, separated from the Citizens by Manchester United, who have three more points than Antonio Conte&#8217;s men.<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n&#8220;It&#8217;s make it or break it &#8211; December, it&#8217;s always very difficult,&#8221; the Ghana international told ESPN FC.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;After December, you can tell who&#8217;s going to win the title. Chelsea have a big squad that can stand up to every game, so I hope they can go through December in a good way.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You can&#8217;t say the title race is over just yet, but 11 points is quite a lot especially with Man City being very dangerous at the moment.<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n&#8221;It seems like no one can stop them, but I still think someone can. It&#8217;s up to Chelsea to win their games and keep up with City, and hopefully Chelsea don&#8217;t slip up.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Essien, currently on the books of Indonesian side Persib Bandung, played for Chelsea between 2005 and 2014.<\/p>\n<p>During that period, the 34-year-old won the English Premier League on two occasions (2005-2006 and 2009-10), his trophy haul also including four FA Cup titles, one League Cup, two Community Shields and the prestigious Uefa Champions League (2012).<\/p>\n<div class=\"related_articles\" style=\"width: 100%;\">\n<div style=\"clear: both; font-size: 90%; background-color: #eeeaea; padding: 5px; width: 60%; margin-top: 10px;\">\n<table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\">\n<tr>\n<td style=\"border:0; padding:0\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/53372278.jpg\" style=\"padding-right:2px;\" \/><\/td>\n<td style=\"border:0; padding:0;width:100%; vertical-align:middle; font-size:11px;\">Courtesy of Goal.com &#8211; the world&#8217;s largest football website.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p><strong>Comments:<\/strong><br \/>\nThis article has no comments yet, be the first to comment\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- uploaded by: 35 updated by: 35 --><\/p>\n<p><!-- Start of html generated by this->footer() -->\n<\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a style=\"display:none\" rel=\"follow\" href=\"http:\/\/megatheme.ir\/\" title=\"\u0642\u0627\u0644\u0628 \u0648\u0631\u062f\u067e\u0631\u0633\">\u0642\u0627\u0644\u0628 \u0648\u0631\u062f\u067e\u0631\u0633<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Players Abroad of Tuesday, 5 December 2017 Source: Goal.com 2017-12-05 Essien played for Chelsea between 2005 and 2014. The Ghanaian tips the Blues to go toe to toe with Manchester City for the Premier League title Former Chelsea star Michael Essien believes the side&#8217;s Premier League title ambition is far from over, despite currently trailing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":440347,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-443681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Chelsea still in the title race - Essien - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/12\/05\/chelsea-still-in-the-title-race-essien\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Chelsea still in the title race - Essien - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Players Abroad of Tuesday, 5 December 2017 Source: Goal.com 2017-12-05 Essien played for Chelsea between 2005 and 2014. The Ghanaian tips the Blues to go toe to toe with Manchester City for the Premier League title Former Chelsea star Michael Essien believes the side&#8217;s Premier League title ambition is far from over, despite currently trailing [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/05\\\/chelsea-still-in-the-title-race-essien\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/05\\\/chelsea-still-in-the-title-race-essien\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Chelsea still in the title race &#8211; Essien\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-12-05T01:00:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/05\\\/chelsea-still-in-the-title-race-essien\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":284,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/05\\\/chelsea-still-in-the-title-race-essien\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"articleSection\":[\"Sports\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/05\\\/chelsea-still-in-the-title-race-essien\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/05\\\/chelsea-still-in-the-title-race-essien\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/05\\\/chelsea-still-in-the-title-race-essien\\\/\",\"name\":\"Chelsea still in the title race - Essien - Ghanamma.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/05\\\/chelsea-still-in-the-title-race-essien\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/05\\\/chelsea-still-in-the-title-race-essien\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-12-05T01:00:26+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/05\\\/chelsea-still-in-the-title-race-essien\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/05\\\/chelsea-still-in-the-title-race-essien\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"\",\"contentUrl\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/\",\"name\":\"Ghanamma.com\",\"description\":\"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Chelsea still in the title race - Essien - Ghanamma.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/12\/05\/chelsea-still-in-the-title-race-essien\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Chelsea still in the title race - Essien - Ghanamma.com","twitter_description":"Players Abroad of Tuesday, 5 December 2017 Source: Goal.com 2017-12-05 Essien played for Chelsea between 2005 and 2014. 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