Ten games into the season and I’ve caught two complete games. And one of those I wish I’d never watched.

Last time out I wrote about how I keep missing our televised matches. The whole universe and aliens in galaxies far, far away are all ganging up and conspiring against me to stop me watching my beloved Blues.

Without boring you with all the details why, I’ve only managed to follow two of the seven fixtures we’ve played since then in their entirety. I did get to see some of the Bolton league game, and most of the second half of the Valencia tie, but before that I missed the Champions League encounter with Bayer Leverkusen, Fulham in the Carling Cup, and the match against the Welsh club Swansea in the English Premier League (hold on a minute…).

I did however finally make it to the pub to see the Sunderland and Manchester United games. With what you might euphemistically call, er, mixed results.

I actually really enjoyed (almost all) of the away game in the North-East. I thought we were great for the majority of the match and was impressed with the new signings. Then of course we conceded a late goal, and what should have been a comfortable stroll became a tense, nail-biting finale. I recall something similar happening a few times last season!

But it was a deserved three points, and whether it was the relief of a win, just the joy of at last getting to go to Finn McCool’s to watch a game, or whether I was just deliriously happy at avoiding taking my daughter to a princess pony ride party, it was a Saturday morning well spent.

The Old Trafford experience, well, what a strange game, eh? At halftime we were dead and buried. Although we played well in patches, the difference was they took their chances and we didn’t – again, echoing the European Cup ties last season. At least we gave it a go in the second half, and if THAT miss had gone in then we were a goal behind with 10 minutes (including injury time) to go. Maybe weeks later we would still be talking about a fantastic comeback. But woulda, shoulda, coulda.

But it’s early days yet. There’s still a long way to go in this campaign. Remember this time last season when we had the league title won already? So far there may be plenty of similarities with last year, but let’s hope there are many more differences in the next eight months as well.

Stephen Rea is the author of the book Finn McCool’s Football Club, a tale of supporting Chelsea from the United States, the formation of a pub football team in New Orleans and the devastating effect of Hurricane Katrina on that city. Visit his site here: www.stephen-rea.com or friend him at www.facebook.com/stevorea